"you Are The Joy Of Christ"

“You are the Joy of Christ”

Hebrews 12:1-3

Have you ever wondered what it was like for God to put on skin and become a living, breathing human being?

It couldn’t have been easy.

Think about it; Jesus experienced the ordinary pains we experience.

He knew what it was like to have a cold, perhaps the flu and even a stomach bug.

He experienced hunger, thirst, and discomfort in its many forms.

He was tempted, in every way that we are tempted, but never gave in.

He even knew what it was like to have bad breath and perhaps a toothache.

And he hung out with us, which as we all know, is not always easy.

We can be cantankerous.

We can be grumpy.

We sometimes say mean and hurtful things to one another.

We are often selfish and unconcerned about the feelings of others.

But Jesus loves us anyway.

He ate with people like us.

He hung out with some real scoundrels as well, such as tax collectors who were robbing their people—stealing from the poor and oppressed.

He had to deal with the religious establishment that was jealous of His popularity and thought of Him as a lawbreaker and a blasphemer.

They were always after Him…

…out to get Him.

And yet, the surprising testimony of the Gospels is that Jesus was a man of unparalleled and unshakeable joy!

The angels announced His birth as “Good news of great joy.”

He compared His Kingdom to a wedding banquet, and compared Himself to a Shepherd Who searches for a lost sheep until He finds it.

And when He finds it He joyfully puts it on His shoulders and goes home.

Then He calls all His friends and neighbors together and says: “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.”

He also compares Himself to a woman who loses a coin and searches and searches for it.

And when she finds it, she calls her friends and says, “Rejoice with me…”

He even compares Himself to the father of a wayward son, who throws a huge party when the son returns home.

In those parables we are the sheep that has been found, we are the coin, we are the son and we are invited into the party.

Jesus rejoices in finding us!

How does that make you feel?

(pause)

It was not easy for the Creator of the Universe to put on flesh and dwell among us.

But He did it for…

…what are we told here in Hebrews Chapter 12?

He did it for “the joy set before him.”

He did it for the joy of being with us.

He did it for the joy of finding us.

He did it for the joy of saving us.

He did it for the joy of bringing us joy.

And that joy springs from His love for us.

(pause)

Hebrews was written to an oppressed group of early Jewish Christians who were living in the midst of the Hellenistic culture of the Roman Empire.

They were being persecuted for their faith, and many of them were thinking about giving up.

In Chapter 12 the author compares the Christian journey to a race, a race which has already been run by a “great cloud of witnesses” who are cheering them on toward the finish line.

And he is encouraging them to let go of anything and everything that might be hindering them from continuing the journey…

…the sin that trips them up and the fear of persecution.

He calls them to “run with perseverance the race marked out” before them—and who marked it out?

Jesus, the pioneer, and perfecter of faith.

They are to keep their eyes fixed on Him.

They are to follow His example.

Jesus came to this earth and became one of us for the joy of being with us, the joy of reconciling us to Himself, the joy of saving us.

But, like I said, it wasn’t easy for Him.

If the Hebrews think they have it hard, just think of what Jesus endured for them.

Think back to the Garden of Gethsemane.

His soul was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”

Think of His agonies of being betrayed by a friend.

Many of us have been betrayed by friends or lovers.

We know how that feels.

What if our friend or lover had told the authorities where to find us in order to arrest and kill us?

That is what happened to Jesus.

After He was arrested, Peter denied even knowing Him, and most of the other disciples fled for their lives.

He was tried by corrupt rulers who made up lies about Him, and then He was mocked, spit upon, whipped, and made fun of by Roman soldiers.

Then He was nailed to a cross—He was crucified, which was the most degrading, disgusting, and agonizingly painful way to die.