New Year 2000 - The Way Ahead

We stand at the beginning of a New Year, the year of our Lord 2000. I expect that you noted that Eva Jiricna the architect hired to create the Millennium Dome's Spirit Zone is someone who believes that the Christian Cross is a symbol of human misery and that God is irrelevant to the Millennium celebrations.

As Christians we have a faith which is rooted in history, which is true and real for the present and which looks forward to the future knowing that one day Jesus Christ will return and end history as we know it as He inaugurates the new heaven and the new earth. Our faith proclaims the Cross of Christ as the wisdom of God. We couldn't be further apart from the thinking of the world. The only way to make sense of life and to find in it meaning, significance and purpose is to see it from the perspective of God and eternity. Without this, life has no ultimate meaning and is utterly empty. An understanding of the Cross of Jesus is indeed the key to the meaning and purpose of life.

Let us then turn to the letter to the Hebrews and to the opening verses of the twelfth chapter. Hebrews is a wonderful letter packed with magnificent truth. It presents Christ, as fully God and fully man, who is our risen and ascended Lord and who as our great high priest renders all other priests unnecessary for he constantly intercedes on our behalf to the Father. It speaks of the priesthood of all believers who have direct access to God through Jesus Christ their great high priest. It speaks also of the certainty of the return of Jesus Christ to judge and to reign in the new heaven and the new earth. It was originally written to those Jews who had become Christians and who were being severely tested in their faith through suffering and persecution. It is a letter to strengthen and confirm the faith of Christians and it of course continues to speak to us today.

The Christian Church is growing fast in many parts of the world and in some parts it is undergoing intense persecution and suffering. Thousands are dying for their belief in Jesus Christ in the world today The Church in Britain and in much of the western world is by contrast, weak, flabby and probably in no condition to stand up to persecution if it were to arrive. Related to this the church in the west has ceased to be confident about the gospel and the Word of God entrusted to it.

We are not to seek persecution. Indeed it is a fearful prospect but our Lord warns us that we must expect it if we are being true to Him. If we are standing up for our faith we will already be experiencing in different ways and forms ridicule, opposition, misrepresentation and suffering. Humanly speaking and looking ahead to the coming years we may expect increasing difficulties as Christians and right at the start of this year it may be helpful to look at the first six verses of this twelfth chapter of Hebrews.

The chapter which precedes it is a wonderful picture of the heroes of the faith – well known and unknown. We have listed there such heroes as- Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham. Jacob, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, David and the prophets- a list of names of people who are familiar to us- who triumphed through faith. Then there are the unknown and unnamed men and women of faith and those who were tortured, jeered at, flogged, imprisoned, stoned and put to death. They were men and women who were certain and sure of the God in whom they had put their trust. They are the Old Testament heroes of the faith and for them as for all believers since and for all believers to day and in the times to come- the best is yet to be. For we all look to our ultimate home –the new heaven and the new earth, which is the home of righteousness from which all evil and all that are evil will be excluded forever.

"These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect

Let us then look at the opening verses of the twelfth chapter of the Book of Hebrews. We are to be encouraged by the lives of the Old Testament heroes of the faith. The writer calls them a great cloud of witnesses- part of the real but unseen world that surrounds us. Let us be encouraged by this reality and let us look forward and keep our eyes on the achievement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

When we became Christians we became committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Christian race, as the life of Christian discipleship is frequently described. The Apostle Paul in writing to the Christians in Corinth says this:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever" (1 Corinthians 9: 24, 25).

And Paul writing to the Galatian Christians speaks of his running the race of faith(Galatians 2;2) and a little later speaks of the Galatians running a good race.(Galatians 5:7) Towards the end of his life the Apostle Paul writes to his dear friend and co-worker in the gospel,

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing" (2Timothy 4:6,7 and 8).

When we are born anew into the Christian faith we are but at the beginning of our journey to that home of righteousness and , just as athletes must get into training and healthy living, so must we in the spiritual life. We are to be men and women of discipline. We still have that battle going on inside of us between our old sinful nature and our new nature in Christ and we must by an act of will each day throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entraps us. That particular sin or sins will vary from person to person and we need the help of the Holy Spirit working with our will to overcome. We need to continually walk in step with and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and each day by payer and mediation allow the Word of God in scripture to shape us, teach us, correct us, rebuke us and train us in righteousness.

That is the only way to prevent us from tripping or falling in the race to which we are committed as Christians. We are to run with perseverance (or endurance) the race with our eyes fixed always on the Lord Jesus Christ for He is our life, right, might , path and prize. Christ is our pattern here also. Jesus Christ is the person upon whom faith depends from start to finish. He is the author and completer of our faith . By the help of the Holy Spirit we are to grow more like Him in thought, word and deed and to endure and to persevere until we are called home. As we are told in verse 2 Christ endured the Cross for us and in verse 3 we are told to "consider Him" who endured such opposition from sinful men.

As disciples we must realise that to follow in Christ's steps is inevitably to experience opposition, pain, suffering and rejection. As we mature in our Christian faith we recognise more and more that the Christian life has huge compensations and rewards, but also that it makes rigorous demands. Running with perseverance is possible for many reasons. We have that great cloud of unseen witnesses and heroes of the faith, cheering us on as it were. We have the fellowship of fellow believers to encourage and support us. Supremely we look to Jesus as our Saviour and Risen, Ascended and Living Lord who is constantly praying for us in the race to which he has called us.

The writer to the Hebrews is in fact saying to us using the illustration of the racetrack: "Don't give up. Don't relax before you get to the finishing tape. Don't collapse until the winning post is past. Stay on your feet until you reach the end." None of us could hope to stay the course without God's help. This letter along with the rest of the New Testament assures us that the promised help is Jesus. We must look always to Him and stick close to Him for he is our effective priest who is seated at the Father's side, He is our enthroned Lord on the Throne of God and as we have already said He is the patient sufferer who gave His life for us. Our passage closes with verses 4,5 and 6. Let us look at them again.

"In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding of your blood. And you have forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, And do not lose heart when he rebukes you,Because the Lord disciplines those he lovesAnd he punishes everyone he accepts as a son

Maybe we do not see these as encouraging words at all. The author has just emphasised the strenuous nature of true faith. It is like an adventurous pilgrimage, a hazardous conflict and a demanding race. It seems that some of these Hebrew Christian were in danger of dropping out through exhaustion or even unbelief. They are being encouraged to consider Jesus who Himself encountered bitter and relentless opposition. By looking to Him they will be saved from exhaustion and unbelief.

The writer is reminding his Christian friends that although they have experienced unpleasant hostility, they have not yet been required to pay for their faith by the surrender of their lives. Christ himself had come to the Cross and shed his precious blood, but they had not yet had to resist the enemy to point of shedding their own blood. They might be imprisoned, attacked and made to suffer abuse for the sake of Christ and God may use these experiences as a means of correction, discipline and pruning designed to increase our fruitfulness as Christians.

You have forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses you as sons.

The writer expresses his profound confidence in the teaching of the Old Testament scriptures and he refers to a familiar passage from the book of Proverbs. (Proverbs 3:11,12) to drive home his point. The quotation presents us with three important aspects of the theme. When the Lord disciplines us we must not feel overwhelmed but on the contrary and however strange this may seem, we are to rejoice in it.

Do not make light of the Lord's discipline!

God's sovereign hand is at work in our adversities as well as in our joys and pleasures. He may well be saying something very important to us through our troubles that we could not nor would not easily receive if everything went well for us at all times. He may be calling us to a renewed confidence in His providential care, to a fresh willingness to commit our entire lives to Him whatever the outcome of our present difficulties, to a desire to follow His will rather than our own wishes, and to a readiness to go through any experience if only it will make us more Christlike in the end.

Do not make light of the Lord's discipline!

Some Christians lose courage and confidence when suffering and difficulty comes along. Weighed down by their troubles they become despondent and feel that the Lord has forsaken them. It is a great mistake to react in this way to the discipline of the Lord. As Christians we must always remember that the God who tests us is also the God who helps us and he will certainly not test us beyond our strength and however serious our difficulties his grace will always be sufficient. Scripture also teaches that we should rejoice in our sufferings.

The Lord disciplines those He loves and punishes everyone He accepts as sons.

Adversity must not drive us to despair. Those who are loved by the Lord are sometimes tested. Those who belong to the Lord and to the Lord's company are sure to be wounded by the arrows that are and were constantly directed at Jesus himself. Jesus has told us to expect nothing less.

"All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22).

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is you reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:11,12).

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you" (John 15:18,19).

The sufferings prove that, through faith in Christ, we belong to God's family. The Lord's correction and discipline verifies that we are truly sons and daughters born anew as adopted children into his family.

I hope that as we have looked at these "God breathed "words from Scripture as we stand at this important moment in time we have drawn enormous encouragement from them The future is unknown but as Christians we need not fear it. We have the wonderful examples from the history of the people of God from Bible times to the present of those who have fought the good fight and run the race and are now at rest with Him. We have our precious Saviour Jesus Christ through whom the world was made and in whom the present world of time and place will come to an end at a time only known to the Father. We have the wonderful future prospect that all those who have been born again and live in Christ are by the help of His Holy Spirit growing more like Him in preparation for that home of righteousness which is His promise to all believers. We have the certainty of the Sovereign purposes of God and that whatever comes our way we have the confidence that he will use to so correct and shape us that we are indeed fitted for that life above with Him.

As Christians, of course, we are not to relish or positively seek out opposition or persecution but the more we understand the true significance of opposition and persecution, the more we will learn to rejoice in them. Someone once wrote that "our present sufferings are like an ugly porch which leads to the threshold of an unspeakably glorious mansion" This should be a major motivation for us. What a prospect lies before us (For those outside of Christ the future is extremely bleak). But the Christian presses on to our everlasting home of righteousness where there will be no more mourning, crying or pain, for the old order of things are passing away (Revelation 21:4). In that place we shall never again have to repent over our besetting sins or grieve over our failures. Never again will we feel the blush of shame, the pain of a wounded conscience or the sorrow of disappointment. Every desire of our perfected heart will be met to the full and we will join ion the endless worship of our God and Saviour. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Let us then run the race that is marked out for us fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who is now sat down at the right hand of the Father

Let us not grow weary or lose heart but rather be encouraged and persevere.