The title of my sermon today is, "The Joy Set Before Him." Perhaps you will recognize the phrase as coming from Hebrews 12, verse 2, where it mentions that Jesus was willing to endure the cross because of the joy set before him.

It is this passage that I want to look at today, particularly to ask the question, What was the joy set before him? What was it that motivated Jesus in his time of greatest trial, and what significance does that have for our lives today? I found this very encouraging, and perhaps you, will, too.

Of course, if we start in Hebrews 12, we are breaking into the flow of discussion, and it will be helpful for us to sketch what has gone on before so we get the flavor of what is being said in Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12 comes right after Hebrews 11, and as most of us know, Hebrews 11 is commonly called the faith chapter. It defines faith, and it names example after example of faith in action. There was the faith of Abel, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham and Sarah. There was the example of faith set by Moses, and Joshua, Gideon, David and others. Through their faith they conquered kingdoms, escaped dangers, and saw miracles.

But others, who apparently had equal faith, were tortured and killed, thrown in prison, lived in poverty, suffering greatly because of their faith. The important thing was not whether they escaped, but whether they had faith.

And then we come to Hebrews 11, verse 39: "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised…" Abraham received part of the promise. He received a son, but he did not receive all the promises. He died before he received the descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. He died before he inherited the entire earth. He died before receiving all the promises, and so did everyone else in the Old Testament. David conquered all the land that had been promised to Israel, but yet he died before he received all the promises.

For one thing, he died. He did not yet have the inheritance that God had promised. So there’s an element of suspense in the story. Everything is hanging in the balance. The drumroll is still rolling. Everything is waiting - waiting - waiting. What’s it waiting for? It’s waiting for us.

Verse 40 tells us the reason that they all died before receiving all the promises: because "God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect." So their picture is not complete without us - their promises are not complete without us being in the picture. God has something better for all of us, something better than even the greatest of blessings these people received in the Old Testament times.

The point is that these heroes of faith cannot be brought to perfection - or "completion" is probably the better word here - they can’t be brought to completion without us. Their salvation and promises are not complete unless we are included, too.

We can see this clearly in the case of Abraham, because he was promised a great multitude of descendants, and through Christ, we are part of that great multitude. We are part of the fulfillment of his promises, and because of that, his promise cannot be complete fulfilled until we are brought into that multitude and made ready to live with him in eternity.

But the same is true for any of the Old Testament heroes of faith - their promises are not complete without us. So everything is waiting - waiting on us. If the Old Testament heroes are looking for their promises to be fulfilled, they are looking at us.

And that brings us to chapter 12.

Verse 1 begins, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…" Who are the great cloud of witnesses? It is the heroes of faith, and here they are described as watching us, cheering us onward, like the audience in an Olympic stadium would cheer on the runners in a race. We are surrounded by these witnesses. Not only do we watch them for the example they set of faith, they are here said to be watching us. We are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, this great multitude of faithful people who have gone before us.

And because their salvation is not complete without us, and because they are waiting on us and watching us, then for that reason we are encouraged in verse 1 to "let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out before us."

So, we don’t want to let them down. They are cheering for us, waiting for us, hoping for us, because we are part of the blessings that they look forward to.

I think this is simply another illustration of the fact that we are not saved as isolated people - we are saved as a community of believers, a group of people who have relationships with one another - relationships characterized as love for one another. We are together one body through faith in Christ. And we are one not just with God’s people who lived after Jesus came - we are one with the heroes of Old Testament faith, too. We will be with them forever, and part of our reward is to be with them, and part of their reward is to be with us, and they cannot be complete without us, so they are waiting on us and cheering for us, and we do not want to let them down.

So, when God tells us to go and we do not know where to go, then we are in good company - we are in the company of Abraham, who did precisely that. He can see our anxiety, and he can cheer for us.

And when the riches of this world seem so attractive to us, we are in good company - we are in the company of Moses, who was willing to give up the pleasure of Egypt and accept reproach in service to Christ.

No matter what our trial, people have gone before us in faith. Their trials have been not so different from our own. Their humanity was not any different than our own. They were people just like we are, and if they did it, so can we. God can make us able, just as he made them able to do it.

Some have been rescued and others have died, but as long as they did it in faith, that is what counts for eternity. And this is the kind of audience that we have, the kind of cheering section that we have - a cloud of witnesses who blazed the trail before us, set an example for us who eagerly want us to succeed in the race that is set before us.

So what do we do? We throw off everything that hinders us. We throw off every weight that slows us down. We get rid of things that get in our way. That is precisely what spiritual disciplines are all about. They clear our lives of other stuff. They set aside weights and burdens and distractions. They help us clarify our thoughts and clarify our goals and clarify God’s plan for our lives.

In some ways, spiritual disciplines are like regular maintenance for your car. It’s changing the oil, checking the tire pressure, refilling the fuel tank. Now, we can get away with skipping some of these things for a while - with some cars longer than others - but eventually problems will arise if we don’t prevent them. Eventually a crisis comes that exposes our weakness.

I read a book this week that was about doubt - people who had doubts about Christianity, doubts about God, doubts about themselves. And the author said, your doubts are a result of spiritual neglect, and rather than focusing on your doubts you need to focus on prayer and study and other disciplines. Well, I am not sure how practical that advice is, since the person who has doubts is likely to doubt that prayer and study are going to do any good, so the person isn’t likely to do it.

But the author did make a good point, that the regular habit of prayer and study and worship and church attendance, is good preventive maintenance. It helps keep the doubts at bay. It helps make them more manageable. It prepares us for the unexpected.

Well, let’s ask: what burdens are slowing your Christian journey down? What weights are making the race more difficult? What entangles you?

For some, it’s a problem with lust. For others, it’s money, that they do not really have a clean conscience when it comes to the way they use their money. For some, it’s pride -- or perhaps a fear of what people think of us. And for many of us, it is time. There are just so many other things to do, so many things that are urgent, so many good TV shows to watch, that we never get enough time for the things that are most important.

So, whatever it is, the book of Hebrews is telling us, set it aside, so that we can run the race with perseverance. Why? Because we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses whose salvation is not complete until we cross the finish line, too. They are counting on us, and we don’t want to let them down.

We need endurance - we need perseverance - we need to run with patience. And why is that? It is for the simple reason that the Christian life is sometimes hard. We are tempted to quit. There is no other reason for telling us to run with perseverance.

And as we read the book of Hebrews, we see that the people it was written to had problems. They were facing persecution. They were drifting away because of inattention. They were in danger of giving up. So they were exhorted, and we are too, to acknowledge that it’s sometimes hard. Trials should not catch us totally off guard. We know that we have difficulties to face and difficulties to overcome and difficulties to endure. It’s a hard race, and we are to run with patience because we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

Now, all the great people of the Old Testament are heroes of faith. They are great examples of faith in times of trial, faith in times of victory, faith in times of death. So what are we supposed to do with all these examples of faith? Are we supposed to look at them and copy them?

No, that’s not what it says. They are good role models, yes, but they are not the best. Hebrews doesn’t say that we are to look to them - rather, it says that they are watching us. They are witnesses of what we do. So, who are we to look at? Who are we to model?

Verse 2 tells us, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus." Don’t look anywhere else. Fix your eyes on Jesus. How do we do that? Spiritual disciplines. We need to take the time to focus our thoughts on Jesus. He is "the author and perfecter of our faith." He isn’t just an example - he is the supreme example. He is the one who started the whole race, and he is the one who is finishing it.

Now, that’s an important thought - he is the one who is finishing or completing our faith. He isn’t just a spectator, and he isn’t just somebody for us to look at - he is also an active agent who helps us in our faith. He helps us run with patience. He helps us set the weights aside. He is working in us to complete the work he has begun.

So, we are to fix our eyes on him, because he is the one who, "for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and he sat down at the right had of the throne of God." We are to consider him, verse 3 tells us, since he "endured such opposition from sinful men" and if we do this, it says, then we "will not grow weary and lose heart."

So the key to success in the Christian life, the key to persevering and not quitting, is to look to Jesus, to consider Jesus, to fix our thoughts on Jesus.

Jesus endured hardship. He endured pain, and he endured shame. It seems that the original recipients of this letter were facing pain and shame, and they needed to look to Jesus as the one who could see them through. He had begun the work of faith in their lives, and he is the one who could finish the work, so that these people would inherit the promises along with Abraham and Moses and Gideon.

But there’s that interesting phrase in there, "the joy set before him." What was the joy set before him? What motivated Jesus to endure the cross, to endure the shame, to endure the pain? What was the joy that he looked so eagerly forward to?

Was it sitting at the right hand of God? Was it being restored to glory?

Well, that may have been a small part of it - but he had all those things before he became a human. Revelation tells us that Jesus was crucified even before the world began. The decision was made even before the world began. Jesus was willing to suffer and die on the cross even before the world began. He knew in advance how difficult the journey would be. He knew how much pain and shame there would be, and I do not think he started on this difficult journey just for the joy of coming back home to something he had always had. He did not suffer humiliation and pain just for the joy of being able to stop.

No, the reason that he went on the journey, the reason that he became a human, the reason that he went to the cross, is that he would end up with something more than what he had before - and that something is us.

Jesus was willing to endure the cross not for himself, but for us. We are the joy that was set before him. We are the prize that he so eagerly wanted. He went to the cross and endured the cross because he knew that was the only way that we could join him at the right hand of the Father. We are the treasure that he sought. We are the prize for which he fought. He is bringing many children to glory. This is the grand finale of the plan - the plan that is not complete without us.

The main reason that Jesus became a human is so that he could die for our sins. The main reason that he allowed himself to be crucified is so that he could die for our sins. He went through it for us - for us - not for his own glory.

The Bible is not just about Jesus - it is what he did for us. The message is about salvation through him, not just about him alone. Salvation is what he is all about. It is what defines him as a being. He is a being who loves so much that he is willing to die for us. We cannot know him without focusing on the work that he himself focuses on, and that is our salvation.

The joy set before him is us, and our salvation. That is the prize that made it all worthwhile. That is why he was willing to suffer the shame - so that we could make it into his kingdom. He endured the cross so that we can be given eternal life. This is the joy set before Jesus, the reason he became a human, the reason he endured the opposition of sinful men, the reason that he despised the shame that they gave him.

The Old Testament describes God’s people as his jewels, as highly treasured gemstones. It’s making an analogy, to describe us as something very valuable to God. Now, we value gemstones not only for their beauty but also their rarity. Bit if they are very common, they are not worth much. If they are rare, they are worth a lot. God can make all the gemstones that he wants. He can pave the streets with them if he wants to, but he values us because we are not so easily manufactured.

We require time, and trials, and discipline, and exhortations. We require sacrifice - the sacrifice of God’s own Son. We are something special. We are the apple of God’s eye. We are the pinnacle of his creative plan. We are the high point of all God’s work. We are his pride and joy.

Jesus told his disciples, "Fear not, little flock, for it it the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." This is the sort of thing that gives God pleasure. It is what he eagerly wants to do. This is his joy, and it is the joy of Jesus, as well.

Now, as we fix our thoughts on Jesus, let’s think what this means for us. It means that if Jesus is for us, who can be against us? He is not only our example, he is our best fan. He is cheering us onward more than anybody else is. He wants us to succeed. He not only began our faith, he is also finishing our faith. He is working for us inside of us, and in heaven as our High Priest, constantly interceding for us.

For he is a High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. He was a human just as we are; he knows our passions, he knows our temptations. The book of Hebrews makes these points for us.

Jesus is not just someone for us to look at, or someone who looks at us - he is working in us to make sure that we can finish the race. He wants us to win so badly that he is willing to die for us. We are the focus of his work, the focus of his energies. Just as we are to fix our eyes on him, he has already fixed his eyes on us. He wants us to succeed. We are the joy set before him, and his joy is not complete until we finish the race.

So, whenever we feel weary, whenever we are tempted to quit, whenever we are distracted by sin, we need to focus our eyes on Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. He endured the cross for our salvation, and our salvation is the joy set before him. He started this project, and he will see it through to the end. He will make sure that you have whatever resources you need to make it.

Jesus wants to help you. He wants to lift off whatever burdens you. If you are struggling with a burden of guilt, he will take it off. If you are anxious, if you are fearful, if you have doubts, if you have sorrow, he wants to comfort you, to give you strength, to give you hope, to give you joy.

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me...and you will find rest for your souls."

Come to me, Jesus says, and I will give you the help that you need. I will put my life on the line to help you - I have no other reason for living. I came here to help. You are the treasure that I seek ... if I can be the treasure that you seek. You are my joy - I want you - I want you to come to me. I want to help you make it - I want to help you succeed.