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And Sat Down
And Sat Down
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9 March 2008 AM
HEBREWS 12 1-21
Easter is earlier this year than it has been since 1913. The next time
Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from
now). In a few days churches round the land will remember Good Friday –
and some will pause at the cross of Christ to reflect on His death.
I want you to forget the cross. It is past and gone. Its agony is no more, its
shame has been dissipated by history, tradition and sentimentality.
We must never come to a breaking of bread service but that we are ready
to fix our eyes on Jesus – as He is: and, whilst we pause to reflect on His
dying, we are to forget the cross and worship the Christ!
1
ὃς ἀντὶ τῆς προκειμένης αὐτῷ χαρᾶς ὑπέμεινεν σταυρὸν αἰσχύνης καταφρονήσας ἐν δεξιᾷ τε τοῦ θρόνου
τοῦ θεοῦ κεκάθικεν .
PAGE 2
What joy? What possible joy made my Lord go that dreadful way?
What did my Saviour see from His cross that enabled Him to endure so
much?
His disciples?
His enemies?
In a measure yes : but His real gaze is fixed on the Father and His
anticipated joy in a world of sinners . . . and our faith.
Yes – it was LOVE, but when you have said that, you have not said it all
The writer has spent a whole chapter devoted to that amazing catalogue of
faith only to conclude that they would not be perfected except in us.
At the very least The Nazarene who went about doing good
Such rejection
Such humiliation
Such disgrace
O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.
What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
PAGE 4
What Isaiah had seen down through the ages in Chapter 53 – Our Lord
suffered in every detail.
What the Psalmist wrote and Jesus cried out from His cross:
Once again, Hebrews quotes from his favourite Psalm (110 v1)
“It is finished. . .”
Already our writer has used this quotation three times: 1:3 8:1 & 10:12
3
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his
powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in
heaven.
8 The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord,
not by man.
11
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for
sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool,
14
because by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.
PAGE 5
In each case it is associated with His atoning work, and in each case it is
the mark of a COMPLETED WORK.
So I remind you again: Do not look towards the cross any more. Fix your
eyes on Jesus where He IS
This is :-
He who chose to leave the riches of glory – chose to hang upon the
shameful cross – HE LIVES! And His sitting down declares:
I AM SAT DOWN!
See Him – my believing friend – not on His cross but on His throne
As travellers in the dark fix their gaze on some distant but distinct point of
light
HE SAT DOWN
By all means contemplate the cross – but “see the Man of Sorrows now!
HE SAT DOWN
ARE IN JESUS