For The Joy Set Before Him

So this morning, we're going to be considering how Jesus approached his death. I realize that we had a Good Friday service just two days ago, and you may think we've already focused on his death, and now it's time to focus on his resurrection. All I want to do is put his resurrection in context for us. I think it's good for us to be reminded of that. And so we will also be considering his resurrection in the context of his death, how he approached it, how he faced it. The title of today's sermon is, For the Joy Set Before Him. And that's what we're going to dig into, that joy that Jesus had that carried him through his death, a death that he faced without shame, and a joy that seated him at the right hand of his Father in glory. My hope is that as we work our way through this text, God moves in our hearts to give us the joy that was set before Jesus, that that joy would take root in our hearts.

And that we would become a shining witness to both his work on the cross and his victory over the grave. Would you please stand now as we read the word of the Lord from Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

One of the things that I find most beautiful is joyful Christians. And they're an extraordinary thing. But just to say, they're not common. It's a thing that we all aspire to, but it's a fruit of the Spirit, and it's something that we lack. So what do we have instead of joy? Well, this passage points out what our... Our disposition is instead of joy. Often at the very end it says we're weary and we lose heart. I know a lot of Christians like that who are feeling weary. Many times. Most of the time. A lot of the time. With more reasons to be weary and lose heart behind the current ones. That's not how it should be. And so our passage is structured in a way to reason with our hearts, our minds and our hearts, to reason us away, to call our hearts away from weariness to joy. It's an encouragement to persevere, to not give up as Christians, because there's joy set in front of us. And this is the practical effect of Christ's resurrection from the dead, is that he went through death because he had joy set before him. Therefore, we can go through life in a fallen world because we have that same joy set in front of us.

He paid for our sins on the cross and freed us from their grip so that we are now able to serve God in every area of our life. And so our passage has a couple of sections that we're going to work our way through. The first is an encouragement. Then there's an exhortation. Then Jesus is given to us as an example with some explanation as to what kind of example he is. And then it ends with another exhortation. And so we'll work our way through those. I think being alone is a common temptation. Satan often whispers in the ears of God's people that no one else understands, no one else is going through this, that you deserve what you're getting and no one can sympathize or help you. And it's not true on a couple of accounts. First, it's not true as we saw on Good Friday in that sermon.

that Jesus has been tempted in all ways, like as we are, yet without sin, and that he sympathizes with our weaknesses. And so in that sense, we're not alone. We have witnesses. We have those around us. And Hebrews is arguing this great cloud of witnesses are the ones that he's just mentioned in the previous chapter, the hall of faith. It's Hebrews 11, where there's all of these people, biblical characters, heroes of the faith, who've gone through many, many hard and difficult things. Terrible, unjust death. And they're given to us as witnesses so that we're not alone. And I want you to understand that as a Christian, you're always choosing every day what you think is true and what you're going to trust. We know what we're supposed to trust. But Scripture's always pleading with our hearts to get us to trust him, to trust his word. Because there's other things that are pulling at us. And so when he tells us we have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us,

That's meant to be our shield against this temptation that we are alone. We're given examples in Scripture of those who've gone before us. We're told that Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses, that he doesn't despise us, that he doesn't look down on us and isn't disgusted with us. And he's given us a church who's able to bear our burdens and to carry us in them. So we're not alone. There are many who have traveled the road that we're on. And we might think, well, no, no one's had my exact set of circumstances, but that's not the road I'm talking about. I'm not talking about your exact set of circumstances. I'm saying there are many, many, many people who have traveled the road toward glory. Many, many people, all Christians, have traveled the road to their heavenly kingdom. And that road's been fraught with the effect of sin, theirs and the world's. They've suffered. They've been abused. They've been had. They've died.

And they entered their rest. And so we have witnesses all around us. If their scenery was different, then that's as it is. But there are many who have traveled this path. These witnesses are more of examples to us as opposed to spectators. You think if you were running a race, you think, oh, everyone's just standing watching to see how it's going to go. That doesn't really capture what these witnesses are. These are witnesses who all have ran the race and are now come alongside of you to encourage you along the race. So they're not sitting there waiting for you to crash, but to stir you up and to provoke you to persevere. They're encouraging you, strengthening you, they're cheering you on. They've been there, they've done that, and they want to see you finish your race. Their victory is meant to be our encouragement. Have you ever had to do something scary in life and you were looking for someone, some story, some person who's done the thing you're doing, who can tell you you're gonna get through it. God is faithful. He's going to bring you through it because that's the thing you can't see at the time. That's what these witnesses are for. They're meant to be an encouragement to you, to reassure you that wherever God leads you, he personally and through them and through the witness of scripture will bring you through it.

That's the encouragement at the beginning of our passage. And then he gives an exhortation. Let us also lay aside every encumbrance in the sin which so easily entangles us. This passage, along with a few others in scripture that we'll look at, describes the Christian life as a life of proactivity, a life of doing things, of changing, of movement. If you were, excuse me, If your job as a Christian were to sit still and do nothing, then any encumbrance wouldn't be a problem because you weren't trying to move, right? But the Christian life is an active life, a proactive life, and the activity is to pursue holiness. Just a few verses later in Hebrews chapter 12, it says this, pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. What does it mean to pursue? To think about? That's not pursuing.

Pursuit is active, right? It's like playing a game of tag, right? You run up to somebody, tag, you're it. And then you take off and they pursue you. They're running after you with the purpose of catching you, right? That's pursuit. And so we're to pursue peace with all men and sanctification. We're to pursue those things. And so we're exhorted to lay aside every encumbrance. Everything that encumbers our pursuit of sanctification or holiness, we're supposed to lay it aside. We're supposed to take it off. That doesn't mean you're supposed to get rid of everything. We were talking at this passage before I knew I'd read our men's group study from yesterday morning. Our men's group was over these three verses. But I picked this as our sermon text before I knew that that's what our men's group was about. So to those of you who were there, there will be some overlap.

One of the things that we have to note here is that this does not mean to empty yourself of absolutely everything, okay? Abram and our men's group brought up the idea of backpacking, and the idea is you don't want to take anything you don't need, but you don't want to forget to take things you do need. If he were to take off with no water or no means to purify water, he'd be in a lot of trouble, right? And so this idea of laying aside every encumbrance requires us to identify what is necessary, what will help me in my pursuit, what will hinder me in my pursuit. I need to take the things that are necessary for my trip. I need to make sure those are in my bag. And I need to make space for them by taking every unnecessary thing out and leave it. When we went on our canoe trip this past summer, me and some of my older boys, we went up and we spent a day packing the bags.

and we got out a scale, and we were weighing the bags, and the light ones were probably 60 pounds, and the heavier ones were closer to 80 pounds. That was mostly a canoe trip, so we didn't have to carry those bags, you know, miles and miles and miles and miles up over hills or anything like, you know, mountains or anything. But that's a heavy pack. Putting 80 pounds on your back and sometimes having to carry a canoe as well is, you know, through these little tiny winding paths through the woods is a chore. And so... We packed our bags and we went and then you get to the car and you're like, you're getting ready to get out and you go, okay, are we actually gonna take it? Do I actually have to have it? Because it's weight. And there's always stuff that gets left behind. At the car, you thought you needed it and then you just take it out and you're like, no, I don't think I need that extra pair of.

The shoes or whatever, I'm not gonna bring that other thing. We're just gonna figure it out. We're to take things off of us. That's what this passage is telling us. We're to lay aside every encumbrance. The things aren't bad in and of themselves, but they're extra weight and they become a burden as we carry them along, okay? This passage, you could describe it as being said, you ought not to be a hoarder. You ought not to have a big collection of things you don't need because it actually does encumber your ability to pursue God. And so you're always having to make judgments about what is necessary. Even if it's a good thing, is it necessary now? And if it's not, I need to lay it aside. I need to take it off. I need to put it away. Lay aside every encumbrance. Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. So is that entertainment? Is that wealth? Is it hobbies? Is it the pursuit of politics or sports? Is it your health?

Is it your appearance? Is it being accepted? Is it living a life of pleasure? What are the things that just kind of stick to you and hang on you as you try to like get through life, you know? You're carrying all this stuff with you. None of those things I've mentioned are objective sin, but they are things that consume our time and our energy and our interest. They do keep us from running the race ahead of us. They're extra weight. They're encumbrances. We're also to lay aside sin. All sin, all sin keeps you from running well. It's like if we all got up and decided we're going to go for a jog, just as a church. We're just going to have a whole church run. I imagine that many of us would not make it very far before something would start hurting. An ankle, a knee.

Our heart, our lungs might start burning, right? That bad hip, that sore back. Something is going to, Gabe's back there laughing like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it wouldn't take, and some of us would just, you know, we'd just despise them because they'd just take off running and they'd just, you know, no troubles for them. Those things that would immediately capture our bodies and cause us harm, those are our sins. They're never helpful. Pain when you're running, you know, injuries when you're running. They always make it harder. They always slow you down. Your sins will always slow you down. They weigh you down. They cause you to limp. They take your breath away. And so we're to lay them aside. They entangle us. Distractions, encumbrances, sins, they all keep us from being able to run the race, the Christian life that this passage calls us to run. He says, lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

And so we are not to walk or to wander. We're not to stay in one place. We're not to run wherever we want. We're to run with endurance the race or the course of life that is set before us, or we could understand it to be that we have been set on. And so we're to run, not a sprint, but with endurance. Steady, constant, purposeful effort in the right direction. I'll ask you a question. You, my boys who run track, what's a good mile time in high school? Below five minutes. You'd be killing it if you were below four minutes. Okay? Now, I grant that that is a fast mile. Abram, what's a goal when you're running a mile? What's a good mile time when you're running? Nine-minute miles. Almost twice as long. Yes, yes. Genevieve is clarifying. He doesn't run one mile. He runs 11 of them back-to-back. So then there's the difference.

There's the difference. In track, we would consider a one mile or a two mile race a long race. But by comparison, it's so short. And you realize the effect of conditioning when you're talking about running one mile versus running 11 or running a marathon. All of a sudden, endurance has a whole different meaning. And it affects the way they run. If someone showed up to a track meet and ran a nine minute mile, we would probably think that's not their event. I'm not sure what is, but the mile is not their event. Maybe they're a sprinter. Maybe they're a discus thrower. Maybe they're a stat guy, but they're not a mile runner because they lack endurance. We're to run our race with endurance. It's not a short race. And so short bursts of big effort are not what's called for. Steadiness.

Over the course of our entire life is what it's called for. And when you go to run a long race, you realize that the terrain changes. It's not all flat. It's certainly not all downhill. And somebody who designed the race, I was just reading about the Boston Marathon. Someone was talking about running it. And I don't remember the name of it. You probably know. There's this hill at the end of it. It's called Heartbreak Hill. Because you've run and you've run and you've run. And I believe once you crest it, you can then see the end. But it's the most miserable thing. And somebody designed the race that way. So that there would be this miserable hill to climb right before you could see the finish. And it's a test. It is the race that was set before you. And it's to be run with endurance. The path that you and I are on.

is, I want to dispel this idea that you choose your path. You don't often choose your path. You might choose to sign up for a race, but you don't get to choose the course of it. Some things are completely left out of your choice, like whether you're a man or you're a woman. That's an element of the race you're running. You had no say over. If you were to ask the women of the church, do you always love being a woman and everything that it entails? They would probably say, no, there are some drawbacks to it. There are some hardships along with it. And if you ask the men that, do you just love being in charge of everything? Just all the responsibility and all the weight and all of the leadership? Does it just get you out of bed in the morning? You just can't wait? Give me more? No, not always. And yet, that's a path you've been set on by God, and you're to run it with endurance. If you're single, you've been set on a path. If you're married, you've been set on a different path. If you have children, you've been set on a path.

If you're without children, you've been set on a path. If you're healthy, if you're sick, you see you've been set on a path that you didn't choose. And that path that God has placed you on is to be run with endurance. And your path will be different than other people's paths. And you may want to look around and say, well, it's not fair because these people don't have a big hill right. They don't have a heartbreak hill to run right now. But I do. And so if you do, then you're to run that path. that race with endurance. Whatever path God set us on, we need his endurance. We're not just supposed to wander down the path. We're supposed to run to win. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, he says, do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Have you ever competed in something and not cared if you won? I bet many of us have. We're just like, oh, stupid gym class. I guess I gotta...

whatever it was, this thing, you didn't, you're just like, I don't want to do it. So I'm just going to kind of bide my time until it's over. Do you know, how do you like having people on your team like that? Group project for class. I don't want to do the work. Like they don't want to win. They don't want to get an A. They don't care. They're miserable. You're miserable when you act like that. You personally are miserable and you make the people around you miserable because you're not running in a way that you might win. And so in Hebrews, it tells us that we're to run the race that is with endurance that's set before us. And Paul says us that we're to run in such a way that we might receive the prize, that we might win. Paul says, therefore, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. So this running that Hebrews calls us to is a running with endurance along the path that God has set for us.

with witnesses around us to encourage us not to condemn us, not to trip us, and we're to apply ourselves to that race like we intend to win the race. That whole thing, depending on how you're wired, is either really encouraging because you're like, yeah, I'm going to kick butt, or you're like, oh, and it's just heavy on you. You don't want to run the race because you don't feel like you can run the race well. You feel like it's an undue or overburdensome requirement. And so we're told to fix our eyes on Jesus as we run. What else do you look at when you run a race? The other competitors, right? Why don't they have to have this? I don't know. Do you look at other people? Are you ever encouraged when you look at other people and compare yourself to their situation? Do you ever come away going, you're right, their life, their hill is way bigger than mine. I mean, occasionally you will.

But most of the time, I think what we do is we look and we say, no, mine's harder. Mine's heavier. Mine's longer. So does looking at other people help? No. Does staring at the ground help? Nope. You're supposed to stare at the ground when you run, Amos? No. Head up, shoulders back, in through your nose, out through your mouth, right? Move your arms. I'm not a runner, so maybe that's what I was told. It helps. There's a way to run, and there's a way not to run. I remember Abram talking one time about running and the mind game. It's like there's the physical side and then there's the mental side. There's like, what do you do with your mind if you're running 11 miles and each one of them is nine minutes long? How long is that? 99. Thank you, Levi. It's over an hour and a half. Running for an hour and a half. How many, like, what are you supposed to do? And your body's not loving it all the time. Like, what do you focus on?

Do you just veg out and you're like, oh, well, whatever, I'm just running. I suspect, I've never ran that far, but I suspect that's not actually a winning strategy. Just ignore the pain. Just ignore the difficulty. Just kind of like, because I think you probably end up walking then. You have to focus on something. You have to keep something in front of you that motivates you to get you to keep running. So we're going to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. He should be the focus of our lives. And that requires that we know him. Not just generally, but specifically. This is where the resurrection comes into play. This is where the resurrection comes into play. If you don't know well the power of his resurrection and what it has set you free from and what it's given to you, what it's given you access to, you won't be able to run. You won't be able to run. You'll run and you'll get tired. You'll run and you'll stumble. You'll run and you'll be encumbered. You'll run and you'll sin.

The power of his resurrection is that you're freed from your sins. And so I realized that we may talk about sin. It may seem like we talk about sin a lot here at our church, but the whole point of talking about sin so often is to get each of us to say, what must I do to be saved? That's the point. And whether you exclaim it like they did at Pentecost or whether you ask the Lord yourself privately or whether you come to your small group leader or one of the pastors or elders or their wives and you ask them that question, that is actually the point. It's to get you to be repeatedly asking yourself those questions because when you ask that question, there is an answer.

And the answer is that Jesus Christ has died and is raised again and is seated at the right hand. And that thing that has gripped you and convicted you and scared you and discouraged you and taken your legs out from underneath from you, that by his blood and through faith in him is wiped away. And you're free of it now. You're really free. And you're not free to go back to it. And you're not free to go do what you want. You're not free. to serve the one who's made you and who saved you, to run the race that he set before you. You now have a reason to lay aside your encumbrances, to resist your sins. Much more than simply a sense of duty, you now have a loving, joyful savior set before you. If he's not saved from the dead, then you really shouldn't waste your time at church.

Or being Christians. Paul makes that very argument in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, if there's no resurrection from the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. Your faith is also vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God. Because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. And so you see his death was not sufficient. His resurrection was necessary. He says, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ, they've perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we above all men are most to be pitied. And so the resurrection really is the engine inside of the Christian life, inside of our hearts, stirring us up each day.

to run the race that's set before us today. The hills that we don't want to climb and the valleys that we don't want to go through, the power of Christ's resurrection is what is to bear you through it. There's a lot of responsibility and expectation that we focused on up to this point in the sermon. And now we come to the example of Jesus given to us to renew us and stir us up to this work. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith, who... For the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God. The question is, what joy did Jesus have set before him? And do we have access to it, or is that just his? Anyone want to venture a guess as to what joy he had set before him? Redeeming his people. Yes. Redeeming his people. And I would add that, I would intensify that by saying that it was his father's will to send his son so that we would be saved.

And so Jesus wasn't off by himself. It was unanimous in the Godhead, within the Trinity, that sinful men and women would be saved through his resurrection. And that gave him joy. You know that passage in scripture that says that there's joy in heaven over one sinner who repents? Why? Because that's why Jesus came to earth. That's why he was raised from the dead. That was the purpose. That gave him joy. You give God joy if your faith is in him. You're a delight to him. Sinful as you are, you're a part of the joy. Your salvation is a part of the joy that bore him through the most awful judgment that the world's ever seen. Worse than the flood. Your salvation was a part of that joy. And so his joy wasn't a joy simply in a job well done.

It was a joy, a delight to see his father's will accomplished. There really is no greater joy for Jesus and in turn no greater joy for us than to fulfill the calling that the father has placed on our lives. All the things that encumber us will not give us the joy of serving God with our whole hearts. Jesus knew before his death that his sacrifice would please his father. and satisfy his wrath against us. And so he willingly took on this work with joy because he was glad to see you reconciled to him. And so Jesus is not just a theological pursuit, a thing you can learn facts about. He's not just a good teacher or a good life coach. He's a joyful Savior, your Savior, if you love him. And so he despised the shame.

of the cross, the nakedness, the pain, the bleeding, the mocking, the scourging, the beating, the spitting. He despised it. Why? Because it was incomparable with the joy that was set before him. He knew that going through that, he knew that it would produce the salvation of our souls. And so he counted it all joy to suffer. That's why you get the apostles in Acts saying that, that they considered it all joy to be counted worthy to suffer for his namesake. They're like, he was joyful in his death because of the end. So we can be joyful and ought to be joyful. And it's incredible when we see this gift of the Spirit working in people's lives. We ought to consider it all joy.

when we have a mountain to climb or a valley to tread. And I realize in saying that, it feels to me when I say it, when I hear me speak that, I think, that sounds trite. You don't know what it's like. That's what I hear. That's what my temptation in my ear is when I say that. It's like, well, that doesn't make any sense. Well, then I'm an idiot. And the ways that I think and the ways that I'm wired are deficient. Because it's true. And the joy that I lack, and maybe the joy that you lack, is because we doubt that what God says to us will actually bring us the joy that's promised to us. It's perpetually weighing the costs and the burden and the responsibility of doing what God says. What we've left out of the equation is the joy that you get from serving God.

The peaceful rest at night of saying, God, I've planted, and Lord, I've watered, and will you now cause the growth? To the best of my ability, and I realize it's limited, but to the best of my ability, I have a clear conscience that I've given all that I can for you today, and would you make it bear good fruit? It really is looking at life a different way. It is practically on a day-to-day basis looking for God to act and work and answer prayer and care for you in a real tangible sort of way. And we don't think like that. We don't live like that. Not the way we should. We're smart. Too smart. We need faith. We need joy. So all of these things I've been saying to you, well, before I come to that, I'll say this. If Christ has been raised from the dead, then that is the basis of our joy. And that means that we believe also that we will be raised from the dead, which is a testimony that whatever we're going through, and however it sits on us in the moment, we testify that it's temporary and that God will bring us through it. Even if we don't see how and can't imagine it, that is what having faith in Jesus Christ and loving him looks like.

You may not have the answers. And the fact is, the longer you live, I think you will probably end up with more and more reasons to believe that God's thoughts are not your thoughts and God's ways are not your ways because you're just going to accumulate for yourself things you don't understand. I'm 43. I'm not old, but I'm not young. And I have gathered things I don't understand. And I trust that I'm going to continue to gather things I don't understand. And I have a choice. And you have the same choice. Do you want understanding or do you want Jesus? I'm not saying you can't have any understanding. I'm not saying you shouldn't seek it. Proverbs tells us repeatedly, get understanding and acquire wisdom.

I'm not saying you shouldn't pursue it, but I am saying there is a large chasm between the infinite knowledge of God and the finite ability of sinful man to understand. And so most of a faithful Christian's life will be spent lived by faith, not because they understood everything, not because it made sense, not because it balanced out in their way of reasoning. They will either set God's word and his promises as the chief ordering principle, or we'll spend our lives trying to negotiate our obedience with no joy. And that's the choice we have before us. And my point in saying it is, yes, perhaps to convict you, but really to encourage you to lay aside that encumbrance. It's an encumbrance. That whole overthinking that you do, it's not helpful. It's not helpful. How are you supposed to come into the kingdom?

like a child, right? Kids ask questions. The sweetest part is when the kids just listen and do what you say and they don't even ask why. But eventually they get old enough, they start asking why. And they want to understand and you want to explain to them. And you realize they're probably not going to understand it for a long time. But the sweetest gift they can give you is obedience without understanding. Many times understanding comes through obedience and through time. But a joyful child, One is one that trusts their father and their mother and who does what they say even without understanding it fully. And the same is true of us as adults. And so we testify to his resurrection by believing, even though we can't see how it is resolved or good, that it's temporary. And that there's a greater and more weighty joy set before us because Christ has been raised from the dead.

And so we don't have any excuse to wallow in our sorrows and to lose heart. We have a joyful Savior set before us, having led the way and given us an example of how to live in this world. He actually lived in the fallen world that you live in. And he had joy set before him to endure the cross and all that that entailed. And so do you. And so the passage ends, consider him who has endured such hostility. And in that, before I read the rest of it, in that, there's this unspoken comparison. Consider the hostility by sinners that he endured against himself. Did he deserve any of that? No. Did he deserve the judgments? Because ultimately, that judgment was God's judgment against our sins.

Not just the death, but all of the run-up, the passion, his active obedience leading up to the cross. It's described here as hostility by sinners against himself. That hostility was ours. We were the ones who deserved that hostility. So consider him who's endured such hostilities by sinners against himself instead of against the rightful recipients, you and I. Consider that. so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. This is the culmination of our text. Consider all that Jesus is, all that he's done, all that he endured, and the joy that was set before him, and follow him so that you don't grow weary and lose heart. Hopelessness and despair, it's a denial of the resurrection. When Peter refused Jesus three times, why did he do it?

Because he thought Jesus was going to die and stay dead. That there was a war on and that Jesus' death was a loss. And so he distanced himself from him. In that moment, Peter denied the resurrection. And Peter repented when he saw Jesus, right? And praised God for it. But you should think in the coming week. and in the coming years and the rest of your life, is what I'm doing right now testifying to the resurrection of Jesus Christ or denying it? If someone were to look at me and observe what I'm doing, and if they could dig into my head and into my heart, and they were to weigh out the things that go on in there, would they find a testimony of faith in the resurrection or a denial of it? And I'll tell you that as a Christian, and by the work of the Spirit in you, as you go on, there will be things that will testify to the resurrection.

Because God will work that in you. He who's begun a good work in you will bring it to completion. He will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus, this Philippians 1.6. And so I'm not saying that to you to say that there's no hope, that all that will be found is failure. That's not actually true of Christians. As you carry on day by day, running the race with endurance, fixing your eyes on Jesus, and taking hold of the joy that's set before him, There will be testimony to the resurrection in your life. And so in whatever circumstance God leads you into, whether it's a mountain to climb or a valley to traverse, Jesus has gone before you. He's walked that path. So have many other people. And they've come out the other side and been welcomed into the rest and the joy of their master. So God is at work in our lives to make us more like Jesus.

And the way I want to be more like Jesus is we have the joy that was set before him set before me. God uses every circumstance that we face to cultivate our faith in him and our faith in the power of his resurrection. So my encouragement to you is consider him who's endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you won't lose heart, so you won't grow weary and lose heart. We should be pursuing the joy of the Lord. It is our strength. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us, we pray, to consider Jesus every day, to remember all that he's gone through on our behalf, and I pray that you'd pick our heads up and help us to run our race with endurance. We have many questions, and there is a lot we don't understand in this world, but we rest in the fact that you do understand, and not only do you understand, you prepare the path for us to walk in it.

whatever that path is, and we pray that you would help us to run on that path with endurance. Give us the joy of the Lord, we pray. Help us to anticipate standing before you pure and blameless and receiving your fatherly benediction. Well done. Enter into the joy of your master. We long for that day. Help us to hunger and thirst for it and every day to live. in expectation of it, so that we would not lose heart, so that we would not grow weary, but rather we would be stirred up to faith in good works. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. The officers, please come forward. I'm going to read to you now the words of institution of the Lord's Supper as they're found in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. So, There is a lot, a lot to be said about communion, more than I can say now. I'll tell you this, that when John Calvin was Adam, if he could have had his way, they would have had communion every week. He settled for having communion once a quarter, so once every 12 weeks, because he believed that there was so much instruction and exhortation and examination and reflection necessary to come to the table.

That he was not willing to shorten it down. We've not made that decision. We've not said we're going to have a special extra hour and a half long service. So what he wanted was a normal worship service, which would have had a longer sermon than we just had. And then another hour and a half, probably with a whole nother sermon about communion and exhortations and catechism and all kinds of stuff. We've chosen not to do that. But that doesn't mean that we would rather have it more regularly. And what that means is that we as a congregation have understanding that we are going to get through the instruction that comes more regularly to us than twice a month as opposed to more infrequently. And so what I want to say to you in this, as we come to the meal today, is that this bread and this cup are representative of the death of Christ, his body broken and his blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins.

exhorts us in 1 Corinthians 11 to examine ourselves, to look in the mirror, to look closely and to see who we are and what we've done and what we deserve. The point of that is not simply to discourage us. And this is an important point I want to make to you. God's intention in calling you to look in the mirror is not to overwhelm you, but to bring you to the question, what must I do to be saved? From whence shall my help come? It shall come to you through Jesus Christ and through his death and his resurrection. And so when you examine yourselves, I don't want you to get stuck thinking, well, I'm just a terrible, no good, awful, worthless sinner. There's a sense in which that's true, but that's not the end of the story. That's near the beginning of the story. Whatever you are and whatever you've done, if you're a Christian who's put your faith in Jesus Christ, who's been baptized,

and who's joined yourself to a body of believers, what's also true of you is that your sins have been forgiven through Jesus Christ, and you bear them no more. And so you come to this meal realizing your unworthiness and his graciousness. And so you come with sobriety and with joy. And so as you come to this meal this morning, I exhort you to examine yourself. I further exhort you to know we have communion the first and third Sunday of every month without fail. You should know that that's the calendar, that's the schedule, and you should be thinking ahead of time. That examination is not sufficiently done in 30 seconds. It takes longer.

What I think you should do is you should get to the point where you're regularly examining yourself. Jonathan Edwards used to lay in his bed at night and he would examine the day and the week and the month previous for sins. I think that this examination Paul calls us to is a daily thing that we ought to be doing because if repentance is something we should engage in daily, that repentance is going to be the outcome of our self-examination. There will not always be someone else to tell us when we've sinned. But as you come to this table, it's a closer and more thorough examination of ourselves to see that we are in Christ and that our faith is in him. I know you all sinned. That's not in question. And God knows better than I do. He knows better than you do what shape your sins have taken. And so in this meal, if you come to it, you're proclaiming his death.

as a payment for your sins. It's something you take by faith in his son. It is a demonstration of your hope in the resurrection. And so you come to this meal with sobriety, with humility, but also with joy. This should be a joyous celebration and proclamation of his power and victory over the grave. Because as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, just a few verses after the one we've just read, If he isn't raised from the dead, then our faith is worthless. We're still in our sins. But we celebrate this meal because he's not still in the grave. Our faith isn't worthless and we're not still in our sins. So you come to this meal with joy and gratitude to God for what he's done for us. If you're not a Christian, then I warn you, don't partake of this meal because the sort of things I'm describing with regard to our...

awareness of sin and our unworthiness before God and our need of salvation through Jesus Christ, it's only through him that you can be made right with God. We're not good people. We don't do good things. We don't get to set the bar for what is acceptable to God. He sets those things, and we all fall short of it. And so if we haven't come to the end of your own efforts, then I exhort you, don't come and partake of this meal and incur greater judgment. from God because of your rejection of his son. Make peace with his son. Bow before him. Like we read in Matthew, when they saw that Jesus was raised from the dead, what did those ladies do? They ran to him. They worshiped him. They took hold of his feet and prayed and worshiped him. That's what you need to do. And don't come to this meal unless you've done it. There will be no benefit to you as an unbeliever for taking of this meal.

It will be just another step of rebellion against him. And so I warn you, for your sake and for his glory, don't come to the meal. Be reconciled to him. Confess your sins. Be baptized. Claim him and be claimed by him. Then come to this meal. Let's pray.