I mean, how do we live among them and are surrounded by them?
And yet, try not to be overwhelmed or or try to feel
small while living for our Lord and upholding his Doctrine.
And what I want to focus on is kind of a somewhat of a spin-off
to that idea. And it's taken from what we saw
here in Hebrews 12:1 were it says that we are surrounded by
so great, a cloud of witnesses. And the reason why I want to
talk about this is because even though the we might find
ourselves surrounded by the world.
We are also comforted by the fact that we are surrounded by
something that's even far greater than what this world
has. We really are and I think you'll
see that at the end of our study this morning.
So we're going to talk about this idea from the context here
in chapter 12 and also going back to chapter 11 here for just
a little while this morning. And so when you first of all,
take a look at this first verse and identifying this cloud of
witnesses, it says, therefore we also since we are surrounded by
so great, a cloud of witnesses. There's a key word here, in
order to determine what this cloud of witnesses is referring
to, who are they Rich? Who is this Cloud?
That's being referred to here as so, basic Bible, interpretation
would point you to a keyword and that's this word.
Therefore and usually when you see the word therefore it's
there for a reason, what it does, it makes it connection to
what is about to be said from what?
It was just mention. And so, in that case, that is
just the case, here, in this context of the book of Hebrews,
and in this particular case. So what I want to do I want to
go back to chapter 11, just for a moment.
And so we kind of understand who this cloud of witnesses is that
we are surrounded by and kind of get get an idea of these people.
And so you have chapter 11 of Hebrews.
We That this chapter is, is label the The Heroes of Faith or
the Hall of faith, and we read about great people in this
chapter. I mean, we read about people a
lot of faith like, like Noah where he, displayed his faith by
building the ark. Over such a long amount of time,
it took about 120 years to build the ark.
But he was persistent and his faith, kept him going to build
that Ark. Not only that, but we are also
So it also mentions, the faith of Abraham.
And the Bible says there in the context, that, that Abraham, he
showed his faith by leaving his homeland, to go to a different
place and he had no idea where he was going.
God said, I want you to go to this place and Abraham said, all
right, he left everything behind and did that.
And he showed us faith. And from that, from him and
Sarah Isaac, the child of Promise was born and a great
Jason came about from that you talk about the faith of Moses
that as mentioned here, in chapter 11, to leave the easy
life of an Egyptian and to join his true nation, the Israelites
and endure hardships for the rest of his life in the
wilderness. That's faith.
But what I want to do is begin ready here in verse number 32.
Because you got some kind of a summary now of how people
displayed their faith in various ways because it says it, what
more shall I say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon
Barak and Samson and Jeff. But L also of David and Samuel
and the prophets who through faith, what do they do?
Well, they subdued kingdoms, they work righteousness obtained
promises stopped. The mouths of lions.
Quenched, the violence of fire escaped, the edge of the sword.
You're out of weakness, were made strong, became value to
metal turn to fight the flight. The armies of the aliens women
received their dead raised to life again.
And So within, this is just a whole slew of acts of faith, you
have here Gideon and you might know the story of Gideon to wear
even though Gideon, he started out with a great number in this
RV. Got some, oh, you got too much
and it kept doing the Down to just three hundred, guys.
And among those 300 guys, they were able to take the midianites
and the amalekites by the tens of thousands.
All because of the faith of this man of Gideon, Not only that
Barak, he led 2008 of Israel against the mighty full of
cicerone, his men, and they were victorious in their battle.
According to what we see in judges chapters 4 and 5.
You have Samson, that's mentioned here.
Now, sometimes people question the life of Samson thinking how
in the world is he pitching here in faith but he is, he was a man
of faith. And the writer divinely.
Inspired penned, his name here, but he displayed, his faith in
God toward the end of his life. And God used him to kill many of
the Philistines. Yep.
Jephthah and like Samson. He was far from perfect, but he
showed his faith in the Lord through battles with the amla
ammonites and the ephraimites and then you got David and so
much could be said about the faith of David and his life but
one phrase really puts it into perspective that he was a man
after God's Own Heart. And he displayed his faith in so
many ways and God gave him victories in this life.
You got here, Samuel, Samuel was a great prophet and he was the
last judge of Israel and he helped, he was very influential
when the Kings began to come in to be established at the nation
of Israel. He helped King Saul.
He helped also kick David and he provided spiritual guidance to
them. And then he talked about here
about them. Subduing kingdoms, and these
Which these men mentioned did just that due to their faith,
they these people worked righteousness also says that
they had obtained promises couple and perspective was that
of a the the nation of Israel where they receive the promise
of the land of Canaan. You have also Abraham where he
received the promise of this child Isaac, even though they
were advanced in age, God still prominent, Our God still gave
them a child. And so they live by faith in
anticipation that that would come.
He also makes is that the, the stopped the mouths of lions at,
of course, our mind is taken to Daniel and Daniel was thrown
into the Den of Lions. Their Daniel chapter 6 and how
he was not harmed by those lines.
Quenched, the violence of fire, this happened when Shadrach
Meshach and Abednego? Well, they were thrown into that
fiery furnace but they didn't die.
Not even, not even the evidence of being around fire was up, was
all them, but because of their faith, God, save them from that
fire. And then, he mentions that they
some escaped, the edge of the sword talking about David Elijah
Elijah in their lives and also women received their dead raised
to life. Again, there are two examples of
this in the Old Testament. You got that of a, the son of
Gera Phyllis Widow died. But due to her faith, Elijah
raised her son. From the dead and you got the
shooter might son where they had passed away yet.
Due to her faith, Elijah raised him from the dead.
And so, I quickly went through all that, and I want you to
understand something that there were great victories because
people had faith in God and God bless these people.
So they died in faith. but I want you to understand, stand
something, as we continue reading the tone changes, Yes,
we're still talking about people of Faith, but not every time
that people had faith, not, every time they had victories,
sometimes it was very difficult for people because of their
faith. Look here, as we continue on to
verse number 35, others were tortured, not accepting
Deliverance. They might obtain a better
Resurrection. Still others, had trial of
mockings and scourgings. Yes.
And of change and imprisonment. They were stoned.
They were signing to or tempted were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being
destitute Afflicted, tormented of whom the world was not
worthy. They wandered in deserts and
mountains and did some caves of the Earth And so, what the Bible
mentions that some were tortured, not accepting
Deliverance. This word torture to act, it's
an interesting word. It actually means stretch.
And although we don't find examples in the scriptures, were
the disciples of the Lord were tortured.
In this way, we do know that it happened because the rider
divinely-inspired wrote. These things about how people in
former times have shown their faith in the Lord, and it's
amazing to me with this phrase, not accepting, Deliverance.
That tells me that they had a way out.
They had a way to denounce their faith and to escape that type of
torture. But they chose not to.
It rather be tortured and have their faith to the Lord and to
deny him. That's a person of faith.
Trials and walking scourging, chains imprisonment.
An example of this was Samson who was mocked before the
Philistines after he had been captured after, he had been in
prison, some were stoned is what it says and this was a common
way of punishment among the Jews that there is, there's really no
telling how many of them were stoned due to their faith.
One thing that sticks out to me, they were sawn into here, in
verse number 37, that's horrible and most Scholars agree.
This is what happened to Isaiah do to the evil King Manasseh,
around that time. He was the king of Judah for
some time. In fact, historically speaking
manasa tried all of his might to kill all the prophets of the
Lord, and that man would just play Wicked in what he did to
try to get rid of the profits of the Lord.
So there was much death because of that man.
There were others who were slain By The Sword.
Some profits were killed by the sword.
Of fact, Uriah was one of them Elijah mentioned other prophets.
Who had died by the sort of fact, Elijah was even worry
himself that he was going to be the next one.
In fact, he wanted to just give up and call it quits.
Because the pressure. Others wandered about in
sheepskins and goatskins being destitute Afflicted tormented in
one particular account that this happened was with the Prophet
Elijah. He was driven away from his
home, due to his faith in the Lord.
And basically he was an outcast to everyone that was around him
since since those who were around him that he was
surrounded by rejected the Lord, there was no safe place for the
Prophet Elijah. And then it says of whom, the
world was not worthy. And that the phrase stands out
to me in the midst of of a contrast that is shown through
these individuals of faith of the opposition that surrounded
them. Because even though they lived
on the earth and among these people, that what they did is
that they showed and they live their way showing this world was
not their home. They were looking for a better
place. A Homeland.
After this life is over. And they lived their lives in
faith. Even though these bad things
happen to them, they still had faith that God, that it was
going to be worth it in the end. And so we see a sad and tragic
outcome for some of these people who show their faith.
In the midst of being surrounded by the enemy.
But I want you to know something from what we've seen this
morning. Yes, we're going to have
victories because of our faith. And we're going to have times
where really all is right in the world.
And we're going to have times where we feel great about
walking with the Lord, but really the harsh reality, is
that not everything is just blue skies and sunshine.
And I say that because I want all of us, I want you and I to
be ready for times like that, and to be aware that times will
come times have come in our lives?
Haven't they, or it's been hard? It's been hard and it tests our
faith. I mean it's tough to read about
what we just read about how these Heroes of Faith suffered
at how they were rejected and how they were tormented and they
died because they were surrounded by people who did not
appreciate the Lord. And did not appreciate his
commands. And his way And you're going to
encounter people who will not appreciate the Lord or
appreciate the scriptures at face value.
And you know what, you're going to be, the one who's going to be
ridiculed because of that, you're going to receive.
Pretty much the bad end of the deal because of that, and it
doesn't have anything to do with you.
It's their view of God and it's their view of the scriptures and
we they take it out on us because of that.
We're going to be mocked. We're going to be looked down
upon. We're going to be looked at as
close minded individuals, who are not accepting or tolerant
with things that are happening in the society, and the changes
in the society, and people are going to question why we're so,
so close-minded and don't consider everyone.
Who is accepted Jesus in the heart, to be in the Lord's
Church, and I want you to be aware of this, not because I
want you to be scared and try to avoid these types of people, but
I want you to be ready for it and equip yourself for it and be
grounded in the scriptures for when these times come, because
when we are equipped with God's word, That's what gives us the
strength to combat, those who surround us.
And so our faith from that will build, and will be encouraged.
And we'll be able to be bolded display.
Our faith, no matter who's watching, or who might try to
bring us down, or whatever the opposition might be.
But let me ask you this, what if we are ridiculed?
I mean, what if we are mocked? What if we don't win the
argument? Does that mean that we just give
up? We just stopped trying because
we're thinking, oh man, I don't want to go through that again.
Absolutely not. Because what we do is that we
learn from those encounters, don't we?
And I believe that we actually should have the same attitude
that the apostles had at the end of Acts, chapter 5.
And I love the example that we see with those Apostles at the
end of chapter 5 because those, those apostles were threatened,
don't ever preach. Jesus Christ round here again
and go off on your way and we don't want to hear about you
guys teaching about the about Christ being the site and being
the son of God, they were beaten.
They are marked. And when you read those words at
the end of Acts chapter 5 of their reaction to that, do we
read where they just said, well we don't want to go through
those beatings against. We better just kind of lay low
be quiet about it. No.
But they went off their way rejoicing.
And we find later on, as we read throughout the Book of Acts and
also the following letters, they kept on preaching Christ.
But you know, why they went on their way rejoicing?
Because the scripture says that they were, they were counted
worthy to suffer for his name sake.
They had the correct perspective.
And even though they were threatened, it's did not waver
their faith did not waver because of any of that.
But, you know, that there's another reason why being
ridiculed should not stop us in our faith with the Lord and it's
because of what we see again. Actually at the end of this
chapter here, it says and all these having obtained a good
testimony through faith did not receive the promise God provided
something better for us that they should not that they should
not be made perfect apart from us.
And so when it's talking about them receiving this promise, I
mean, yes, we know that the Israelites they they inherited
the land of Canaan and took a little longer because of their
Disobedience, but they finally received that promise, God was
faithful to that promise, wasn't he?
And so they received it and what do you think about Abraham?
Yes, Abraham received the promise from God by receiving a
son in whom all nations would be blessed.
But the promise that's mention here is not talking about those
things. You know what the problem is
that as Mitchell here is the promise of the Messiah.
The promise of Jesus Christ coming to this world and saving
us from our sins. And so, they didn't receive that
promise because they never saw the Messiah their lifetime.
But we have haven't we have not in our lifetime but we read
about him in the scriptures and we know he came and we read
about the scriptures and we read about the great thing that he
did. How he provided salvation to all
of us, how we could have a new life, how we can have hope how
we can inherit Haven't, those are great things, and so we have
this advantage. And so we, that's reason enough
to keep our faith strong in him. And so, all of us now brings
brings us back to chapter 12 again, where it says that we are
surrounded by this great City by, so great, a cloud of
witnesses. And again, I ask, what are
these? What's this cloud of witnesses
that were surrounded by We're talking about all those in
chapter 11 who lived their lives and faith.
But not just those people. But others who are not mentioned
here, who have lived their lives of Faith as well.
You've got family members who have live lives of say that have
died in faith, will be included in this cloud of witnesses.
We have, we've had passed members of this congregation and
also, the Brundage link congregation that I passed on.
But yet because of their faith of the Lord, they are part of
this cloud of witnesses that we are surrounded by, to encourage
us to keep on going. And to hold Faith a whole dark
heart faith. Strong, And so the writer
lichens, Our Lives of Faith. Now to erase keeping this in
mind with being surrounded, he talks about now, he says lay
every let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so
easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance, the race
that is set before us. And so we're in a race and those
of us who are faithful, are those who are faithful have
gone. Before are surrounded, us and
cheering us on if you will to run and finish this race in this
life. Now I didn't see it this year
but with the Summer Olympics that were here.
We love watching the Olympics at home.
So it's the great stories that come from it.
The great competition that comes from it too, but I didn't see it
this year, but the previous Summer Olympics.
I saw something that really stuck out to me.
And it was, it was the end of the men's Marathon.
And that the man were, they were ran through the streets of the
city. And then the last leg of that
Marathon. What the how it ended is that
there would enter the stadium and they would make one circle
around that track and then finish the race.
And I'll never forget, I don't know who it was, what they said
he was representing, but he answered that stadium.
And that stadium was just, it was full of people and as soon
as he entered that Stadium, there was an eruption cheering
that man on and the look on that man's face was just priceless.
Because he knew he was at the end.
He saw those people and all the cheers and it carried him around
that track and everyone else who came in.
And in this perspective, being surrounded by this cloud of
witnesses, I can see the same thing in the spiritual sense.
And loved ones who have gone before us and seeing them.
And seeing them cheer us on. I can picture Grandma Pat, grab
onto golf, Grandpa husband. Sharon the song.
So, we finish. Finish our race.
You know why? Because it's worth it.
It's worth it. What a great Cloud.
We are surrounded by. These people of faith.
There's something. That we have to do, is we race?
It says here that we have to get rid of the weight.
That way the sin or anything else that might lead us that
might lead to sin. And try to run with that.
It weight is not productive it in time.
It's going to weigh us down and really our rate are the wait,
are the race is going to be burdensome and is going to be
even more difficult? And I like, I like with David
wrote in regards to this. The 119th Soul verse.
Number 37. Turn away my eyes from looking
at worthless things and revive me in your way.
And I like that, I like that perspective, that David writes,
because David knew where his focus should be and weren't
needed to stay away from anything that is not helping us
run, the race is worthless and is not needed in our life.
And instead of looking at those things, we, as David look for we
look towards the Lord and we seek the ways of the Lord and
see what it is, that can help us spiritually to carry on in our
race in this life. And there's something else about
this race that's mention here. And in verse number one is that
we know, he says it's an endurance race and it's not a
full-on Sprint, nor is it one where we just kind of poke along
either? It's a race that we just keep a
steady Pace in. Our faith, can be hot colder
than hot cold, but we keep it a steady in his strongest
possible, but I want you to notice something as we look here
now, verses 2 & 3, About our race as we run in this life.
He says looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. Who for the joy that was 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 endured such hostility from
Sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged
in your souls. And so really here to me, it's
it's a bit ironic if you will because yes, we have the cloud
of witnesses surrounding us, an example of how to run this race
and yes, it provides us encouragement to run.
Well, But you know what? They are.
Not our main focus. The rider here says Jesus should
be our main focus through this race.
Why? Well, he gives reason why here
in this context is because he's the author and the finisher in
or in other words he's the first and last example of our faith, a
faith in God. So, how is he an example?
Well, he talks about that. He despises same that the cross
brought get, he willingly died on it anyway because he knew
what Joe would ultimately come from it.
He knew that we would be saved by his death on the cross.
And he was willing to pay the cost for the ultimate benefit of
me for the ultimate benefit of view.
And For All Mankind, And we have to determine the pay, the cost,
no matter what, the benefit of the Lord, for the benefit of
Lord, and for his glory. And if we have any doubts, or if
we ever become the scourge of needed encouragement of this
life, verse number 3, says to consider Jesus.
I mean would you consider Jesus and consider the life that he
lived? There was lots of opposition
that he ran into. You talked about the Pharisees
and the Sadducees of the scribes.
And those people were trying all their might to try some some
scheme to try to get Jesus out of the picture or maybe try to
diss to discredit him from what he says, or what he did in his
ministry, all kinds of opposition and I love, when I
read of all the opposition that Jesus dealt with every single
time, he shut them down. and there was nothing that they
could that they could say to him, Every time he shut them
down. And I love that and I love to
see that picture of Jesus and that gives us greater faith that
even though there might be opposition.
Our faith could still be strong too.
Don't let it waiver, no matter what this person might say to
you, no matter what, they might try to do, no matter what it is,
do not let it waiver due to the opposition.
Now, When this race is over. We know there's going to be a
price for us. It's not going to be a gold
medal. It's going to be something far
greater than a gold medal. Paul says in First Corinthians
chapter 9, you know what, we're going to receive a crown of
righteousness. A crown of righteousness.
To be, that's something to look forward to.
But there are so many other blessings that I look forward to
as well. With just reaching the end and
finishing my race for the Lord. I mean, consider being with with
Jesus and God, and with the angels and being able to hear
the seeing and just the worship and the fellowship.
And being able to in my opinion, just ask questions that I have.
Maybe sit down talking with Moses.
Whether great Heroes of Faith that we read in the scriptures
so many things to look forward to. so, our Fates do not waver
And I want to tell you it's going to be worth every effort
that we put into our race for the Lord.
Even considering those who have gone before the surrounded by
this great cloud of witnesses, there cheering us on to finish.
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