Discover The Word

Friday, January 30, 2009, Part 1

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-3).

IDEA: Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate that we don’t have to go it alone in the race of faith.

Years ago Charles Sheldon wrote a best-selling novel, In His Steps.

He imagined a group of people in a town asking in every tough situation they faced, “What would Jesus do?”

More recently there was a national fad for teens wearing WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelets.

I. Do you think that it is a workable lead to ask “What would Jesus do” as a way to live the Christian life? Probably not.

There are some situations we face today that Jesus didn’t have to face.

Sometimes following Jesus’ example can seem to mock us.

Is it like the TV programs that assure us that if we purchase a piece of gym equipment for our homes, we will look like the model on TV?

II. Yet in Hebrews 12:2 we are urged to look to Jesus who is the “author and finisher” of our faith. What do you think “author and finisher” means?

Other translations read: “the pioneer and perfector” of faith. Does that help?

The writer gives us to some extent both the incentive and the encouragement to run the race with patient endurance.

Jesus went to the cross with unbroken faith and trust in His Father.

It was sheer faith in God, unsupported by any visible or tangible evidence that carried Him through the taunting, the scourging, and the crucifixion.

How would you be tempted to respond to the taunts?

They scoffed, “He trusts in God” (much good it’s doing Him now).

“Come down from the cross and we will believe.”

What would have happened had He responded as He could have?

He would have sacrificed the eternal for the temporal.

He would have vindicated himself, but we would be lost forever.