... The Founder and Perfecter of our Faith

David Poland

Advent 2023: Jesus Is • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

Hebrews 12:1–2

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Sermon 4 in our Advent 2023 series

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Psalm of the Day: Psalm 38

Psalm 38 ESV

A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off. Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long. But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth. I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes. But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!” For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin. But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good. Do not forsake me, O Lord! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!

Advent Reading: Reading 4

LEADER: Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And Jesus said:

CONGREGATION: A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you must love one another.”

LEADER: He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by the Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.

WOMEN: This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

CONGREGATION: Greater love has no one that this,than to lay down one’s life for his friends

LEADER: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

CONGREGATION: Neither height nor depth, nor any created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

LEADER: For the love of Christ compels us.

MEN: May you be rooted and established in the love of Christ.

WOMEN: May you be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height of the love of Christ.

MEN: May you know the love of Christ which passes knowledge

LEADER: May you be filled with the fullness of God.

CONGREGATION: This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Sermon:

Good morning church. I was glad when they said to me, let us go and worship in the house of the lord.

Well, today, marks the final sermon in our advent series this year because today is the final Sunday in advent. The candles are lit. Our hearts have been longing for the arrival of our king. And we've been preparing by walking through the book of Hebrews and seeing how the one that we anticipate, the one whose arrival was heralded by the angels, praised by the shepherds brought gifts and worshiped by the wise men, the one who was born of the virgin Mary, the one that the stars themselves heralded his birth… that one. Our Lord and savior and King and God, we have longed for his coming, his advent. and We have been doing so by seeing how Jesus is BETTER. As we went through Hebrews, we saw that the one we long for is better.... He's better than the angels we said. For the angels are ministering spirits. Jesus is the one who commands those spirits. For too which of the angels did god ever say you are my son? That’s only Jesus. Because jesus is not just a ministering spirit. Rather he is the exact imprint of the nature of god. The radiance of the glory of god and the writer of Hebrews, In hebrews 1 said, that he upholds the very universe by the word of his power.

Jesus is better. The one we long to see his coming, the one, we celebrate this advent. He's far better than moses.

Moses who was a servant --- one of the greatest servants of god ever -- moses, who freed god's people. Moses a vessel used by god perform great miracles. Moses who Brought down to the people, the very law of god. Who was able to say: “This is what god has said”. Moses who got to see the passing glory of god in such a way that his physical appearance was changed. Jesus is better.

Because jesus is the one who gives the law. Moses was a servant. Jesus is the son, jesus is better than Moses. The one we long for… The one who's advent we celebrate. We said last week is our great high priest. Greater than all other priests. For earthly priests must go in and offer sacrifice of something outside of themselves over and over again. Jesus entered into the heavenly places and once for all time offered a perfect sacrifice which was himself. And now forever, he lives to intercede on our behalf. Jesus is a better high priest.

But today, i'd like to just spend some time asking: “So, what? What does this mean for you? For how we live our lives? How does all this tie together to show us What is required? what we are called to do? And how does this show us what god has already done for Us? And so instead of diving into another long sort of theological discussion, of who jesus is rather, i'd like to just look at two verses. Two, very important. Two very powerful verses. That really get to the heart of everything We've been building up to.

The king is coming. We celebrate his advent and now we anticipate, and we look forward to his return.

So, what? How then shall we live? What does this mean? How do we apply this To our heart.

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let's open with the word of prayer.

Our father in heaven. Holy. Righteous. Perfect, beautiful is your name. We praise you and thank you for another day that you have made that we may rejoice and be glad in it. Another day where we may gather together as your people, to sing your praises. To celebrate your gifts, to praise your son, his goodness, his mercy and grace, thank you for the precious gift of jesus christ. Our lord. We thank you that some 2000 years ago. You sent him into the world. And he though he may despise the shame was willing to endure the cost to redeem a people. thank you for the precious gift of salvation of available to us, through our king, our savior, our priest, jesus christ. We thank you for the spirit at work within us-- the comforter sent to us — that we might know you and be drawn to you. We pray that you would show us and teach us all that your word has today. We pray that your spirit would come to work, enlivening our hearts, giving us eyes to see and ears to hear all that you have said. We pray that you would speak to our hearts, that your word would take roots, that They would grow and blossom and flourish that you would use this time to conform us into the image of your son. For its, in his name that we pray. Amen. And amen.

As we walk through this passage, there's just a few thoughts that i'd like to give us this morning. My goal is To give you something just inherently tangible and applicable. To help us live our lives In the way that we are called. And so the first thing i want to do is ask with a question.

Someone comes to you. Imagine tomorrow, you're sitting around the Christmas tree opening presents. And someone some friend, some family, you've you've invited them to come. Joins you for Christmas.And they say to you something like, see you celebrate Christmas a little differently. Maybe you respnd, Yeah, it's because i'm a christian and they say, okay, well, what is that mean? What does it mean To be a christian?

How would you answer that question?

There's a lot of good answers and i don't pretend that today. I'm going to give you THE one… You you could say, well, to be a christian is one who scripture says, confesses with their mouth, that jesus is lord, and believes in your heart that god raised him from the dead and you will be saved. So that's a Christian. Or It's one who calls upon the name of jesus. It's one who will Repent And be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Good answer. Those are technical. we could go the other extreme. It's one who will just simply follow him. Those are all fantastic ways to answer. I would have no problem with any of those.

But maybe you could say. You know, what does it mean to be a christian? A Christian is one who runs the race that's set before them.

This is what we just read. This is Where the writer of Hebrews goes. He actually starts this idea, this passage With what we do.

What WE Do...

We are called, because of the work of christ, because of what it means to follow him, to be seated in him, to be hidden him, because of what it means to do All of these things, this all together means that we are then called to do something.

And ultimately, all of these pictures here, the writer of Hebrews wants us to see we run A race.

What is this race? Well, it's the one that is set before us. It is the race of life. Ultimately, i would say it's the race of faith. This passage starts with one of the most loaded “therefore”s in all of Scripture. And what he wants is to see is that the people of god have lived by faith since for ever. Really it is just what they do. They live by faith.

Abraham lived by faith. Noah lived by faith. Moses lived by faith. David lived by faith. They all Lived their lives By faith. Living your life by faith is running the race.

But its more.

It's striving. It's pushing We're called to in verse 1 of Hebrews, chapter 12, run with endurance. It's a long race that we're called to run. It's a lifetime long race that we're called to run. I was meeting with a young man, just this week. And we were discussing sort of the things that god has taught him and how how god's been teaching him to to grow in certain areas. And at one point I said: guess what? Congratulations. You've taken the first step Of an infinite number of steps that you need to take down this road. Because we run this race every day of our lives.

the race that set before it says, well, we need to forgive Better. In each day, we learn god's forgiveness and his grace and we forgive better each and every day. Till the day we die, we will continue to grow in this grace It's proclaiming god's mercy even more Every day. In each day, i'll do better in each day. I'll grow and flourish. The christian life isn't one where we ever “arrive”.

The christian life is one that has lived completely running this race. And so it calls for endurance. It calls to keep on keeping on. But we can do so because we are empowered by the one better than the angels, he upholds the universe, can he not Uphold you. So run with endurance.

We can run this race because we've been given this command Through the divine law giver the one better than moses. He's promised to be with us and teach us. So we run with endurance.

We have a great high priest who lives forever to intercede on our behalf. He will hold us. He will be with us his presence... We talked about this last week... we are promised his presence, his closeness, his power, his help. His new covenant promises... We're given these things. So we run with, Endurance.

How do we run with endurance? We shed the weights that burden us. It's interesting. The writer of Hebrews actually says that there's sort of two things which encumber us We lay aside every weight and we lay aside every sin. “Let us lay aside every weight and sin”

And so we look to our lives and we could count and catalog a great many weights. Sorrows. In trials. In troubles. Different things we carry from our past different things. We carry from our lives... who we are... that sort of seem to weigh us down. We cast those aside and we run into christ. And we lay aside our sin, this sin is so easily entangles and trips us up sin. We've discussed this before in other passages. In Matthew we saw that sin begets, more sin, And the more you sin, the more sin flourishes and the writer of Hebrew says lay that aside. Cast that away.

Do not be encumbered by your sin by these weights instead, run the race, it's what we do. What is the christian life? What do christians do? We run the lifelong race set before us. And this mindset is helpful. Because we're doing it, our whole lives. You know what? If you're running a long race, sometimes you might trip. Sometimes you might fall. Get up. And run the race. Look to the one who is better than the angels better than moses, Your great high priest. Look to him, call out to him fall on his mercy and grace and keep running. What is the christian life? What does it mean? We run? Small bit of trivia about David, I've only ever failed. Two classes. My whole life. You can ask My parents of the trials of David’s Junior Year of High School, but long story short I failed the easiest class in the history of classes. a little class called track. Why did David fail? two reasons. I realized I didn’t like going to school, that's a problem, but I also discovered that I just don't like to run. Really I don't like to exercise, i don't like to do those kind of things.

But this is different. Because this isn't just exercising. This isn't just running for running sake. This is running AFTER The great high calling that we've been given. Paul writes in Ephesians: “live lives, worthy of the calling that you have received”. Because of the great glory that is set before us. We keep on running. This is not running endless circles on a track, no this is running because you see, its just right there all our hope and joy and goodness, and we see, it is just right there, the face of our savior.

the goal in mind Is heaven. So, in the christian life, We run. Because Of what jesus Does.

… Because of what Jesus DOES …

Before you start thinking, David is saying, Christianity is all about what i do my strength. My striving my working before you even Begin to think That's what i'm saying, i will say this: I'm not saying that at all. Yes, we run. We are those who with endurance, run, after christ, but we can only do this because of what jesus is already doing!

We could start in verse 1, where we've been looking. He's the one who actually sets the race before us. So we don't go run around making up our own race thinking. Well i'll do better here. I'll do better there. I'll be better. Here, i'll do something here. I'll do what i want to do to be better. Jesus himself has set the race before us that we are called. Again paul in ephesians says that god has prepared good works in advance that we may walk in them. He is guiding us and directing us, he's the one setting the path before us

but note. And here's the title of today's sermon, what does jesus do? He is the founder. And the perfecter. Of our faith.

He's the one... who first and foremost, instills the faith in our hearts. In one sense, this is a deep theological point that a lot of people spend a lot of time writing a lot of stuff on I don't want to get into maybe a lot of those type of details... but note this: Faith doesn't even start with you.

Your faith is founded By jesus. He's the one who instills it in your heart, he's the one who gives you that faith. And then when your faith is not strong enough, when your faith begins to break to continue, the example from the last point, as you are running the race, and when you trip in fall in your faith, it is not up to you to make your faith better. It is not up to you to make your faith stronger. Jesus, started your faith. He's the founder of it, and he will grow, and perfect, and fix your faith. That's what he does. And so, ultimately the christian life is one of running and that's what we do. But we do so motivated moved and pushed and cared for and carried. Often by jesus.

This is what he does.

We're going to get into a little bit of grammar here, I don;t always but out the Greek, but I want us to see the work of Jesus here. He is the founder. The word here (ARCH- E- GON) means that he is both the source and the trailblazer. the originator. We have faith in Jesus that starts with Jesus. And he is the one that is doing the work of blazing the trail before us. That is what the word here that says “founder” means.

And he is the Perfecter. the one growing it and shaping it and improving it and strengthening it and making it all that he wants it to be.

So yes you run, but not in your own ability, and yes, we work, But you don't work in your own strength, you don't work in your own mind. You don't work in your own thoughts, you don't work in your own things. Rather jesus works this in you. Because he's your priest. Your king. Your lawgiver. The one who will change you. shape you, mold you. The one who is better than the angels, the one who upholds the universe by the word of his power. The one who making sacrifice once for all time, now lives forever to intercede on our behalf. The one who will return for his people, HE does it. We are able to run the race, we are able to serve and follow and know and love jesus because of what jesus does. He does this. For us. So what is the christian life? Let's try to answer this question. Well, it's a life of running. Because jesus Moves us To run.

And all of this. Is based. On what jesus DID.

What JESUS did

We spent... Before we got to this advent series... we spent the last months, looking at the passion narrative.

And so, We saw in great detail. What jesus did. This is largely review but it is worth it. We saw the shame, the humiliation, the the heartache, the the treason, the tragedy, the mocking, the beating the pain, the cross, the weight, we saw all of that. But the writer of Hebrews wants us to continue thinking on that. We don't get past the cross.... It defines our whole lives. We look to jesus, the founder and perfecter are faith. Who For the joy that WAS set before him, endured the cross. Despising the shame and is seated at the right hand Of the throne Of god.

How can we run? Well, because jesus is the founder and perfecter or faith. How does he get that title? Because he paid the cost That, that title demand. Because he paid the weight That our sin demanded. This is why we sing to him... Okay, we sing a lot of Christmas songs this morning, we'll sing another one here at the end but… we sing: Jesus, paid it all. All to him. Him I owe.

Our debt has been paid. We can run. Jesus works in our heart because he's offered the perfect sacrifice in himself. And though, that sin and shame he may have despised... that that was the price to be paid. But now, having paid that price, thats what Jesus did. But then he rose in glorious victory thats what Jesus did. and is now seated. At the right hand of the throne of god, he has purchased a people, he's purchased us. And so we run. He's purchased us, he's founded our faith. Perfecting our faith. and He's working in us even now. So we run Because of what jesus does based on what he did. He was the perfect sacrifice, now, he's our perfect savior. He's now our perfect high priest. He's greater, he's better. That's what we celebrate. This advent Season.

So, i want to go back to my sort of Hypothetical story: you're sitting around your your tree. You celebrating christmas differently. It's because we're a Christian. Okay. Well, what does it mean? What does it mean to be a Christian? It means that we Run, and endeavor, In all our strength, but more importantly in the Strength of Jesus to lay aside The weight and the sin... those things that tangle and trip. Because what it means to be a Christian means we run after jesus, the one who is working within us, the one who offered sacrifice that we might be made Clean. the one who offered his body and blood that we might be made whole. We run after the one who is better, the one is is the founder and perfector of our faith. Lets Pray