“LOOKING STEDFASTLY ON JESUS”
H. Falconer
I thought, dear brethren, that looking on Jesus, “looking stedfastly on Jesus”, would help us in our present circumstances. We had this before us on Lord’s day, following Him, contemplating Him, and being occupied with Himself. There is no greater occupation afforded us. We have the great faith chapter before this one (chapter 11), but the One we have before us is the Leader and Completer of faith. Think of the Lord Jesus as the One who is the Leader of that order. Hebrews 11 starts with Abel, but the writer now goes beyond that and brings before our notice the Lord Jesus Himself. It says that Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, but it speaks here of the Lord Jesus as the One who, in view of the joy lying before Him, endured the cross, having despised the shame. You see, dear brethren, if there was to be something for God there had to be sacrifice. There has to be that knowledge with us as to what was due to God and this is set out in all its beauty in the Lord Jesus Himself.
So the writer brings in this great idea of looking steadfastly on Jesus, that we might be occupied with Him, that we might look away from everything else, everything else which is of different value. We can be assured of this, that the things of this world, even the very latest, are marked by what is valueless. So the writer begins the chapter by saying, “let us also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses”. The ‘us’ is emphatic. I think that would be something we
can think over. The persons to whom he was writing, in view of looking steadfastly on Jesus, were persons who had a definite experience with Him, persons moving on this faith line, persons occupied with Himself.
How easy it is to be occupied with what is around, but then we think of this great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. These are persons marked by faith who have been brought in before in chapter 11. They are a great cloud of witnesses. A remarkable word this, ‘cloud’. It would speak of what is heavenly. These persons were heavenly in character. Think of what characterized them. They would be heavenly. It says they are a cloud of witnesses. They would be together in that way. How different their experiences were, but they are all included in this great line of faith.
When we come to Moses we think of the cloud of witness which went before the children of Israel and how they had to keep their eye on it. The cloud would speak to us of something that we can look up to, that we might keep our eye away from the earthly scene, not just the worldly scene but the earthly scene. We can be occupied with what is earthly, we might say legitimate things, the things we meet from day to day. We can become unduly occupied with them. The writer wants to get us beyond all that to what is heavenly, a scene that is marked by refreshment, as the rain comes down from the clouds, the faithfulness of God in bringing in the rain. We need this in view of growth, not only the sunshine but we need the rain too.
We would rather have the sunshine all the time, but we need the pressure, it is watering from heaven. We are reminded of the Lord Jesus, “He shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground”, Isaiah 53: 2. That brings out that we cannot draw upon the world because it is dry. The
dry ground was all around Him, the dryness of man’s ambitions, trying to improve his position. The same thing day in and day out; no variety in it. Think of the variety that God brings in as a result of the rain. We are to get the gain of it, this line of faith, this path of faith.
It says, “laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us”. How easily we can be taken up with things here—things which may seem all right, but the enemy would use them to direct our gaze away from Jesus. That would be his intent.
Then it says, “run with endurance the race that lies before us”. It calls for energy. We have to look towards the goal. When you are running you look towards the goal, you keep your eye fixed on it. “Looking stedfastly on Jesus”; what a Person He is! How great He is; so worthy that we should keep our eye on Him. It means that we have our eyesight clear. Things tend to blind us, things that so easily entangle us, things that bring in a lack of sharpness of vision.
We need to keep our eyes clear. Do not let us get anything between our eyes and the Lord, because of the race that lies before us. It is the same ‘us’ you see; the ‘us’ that we started with in verse 1. So we would seek to be such persons at the present time, in these days in which we are. There are persons who are slipping away, persons who are deteriorating as to the faith. How solemn that is! Think of this line of faith, this great cloud of witnesses, those who walked in the line of faith. They are spoken of individually, they were of different parents, different temperaments, yet there was one object before them. We can see the benefit of having one objective. The Lord Jesus in His love for us, and in His grace, brings us through various exercises, maybe tests us individually. He brings us through exercises locally. How we feel them! We can be tender as to them, dependent on the love of Jesus
as to them.
We can trust Him—“Looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith—who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. The Lord Jesus was ready to go through all this, in view of the joy that lay before Him. Think of the great end in view in all that suffering.
How much He endured in His life down here. He went through with it in spite of the vicious attacks of the enemy. And the enemy attacks us; he seeks to divert our gaze from Jesus. He seeks to occupy us with one thing or another. But then the Lord Jesus knows all about that kind of thing. It says of Him in Luke 4 that “the devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time”. The Lord Jesus knew these temptations to the full; we know them partially. How we feel them and desire often that we might be free of them. But then there is this great end that the Lord is bringing us to. He is “set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. As we think of Luke’s gospel we can see similarities with this book as to the Lord Jesus and His greatness. That is how Luke begins his gospel, the Lord Jesus and His greatness. As that gospel goes on it speaks as to Jesus in the wilderness, then His dependence on God day by day, every day fulfilling God’s will, and yet, being who He was, we can see the greatness of the Highest shining through. The writer speaks of that in chapter 1—“The Son of the Highest”. How great His titles were! The writer of this epistle says God has spoken to us in the Person of the Son. How great that is! But he also speaks of Him as
‘Jesus’. That is beautiful! It speaks of that lonely Man who was here to fulfil the Father’s will, the One who in Gethsemane says, “Not my will, but thine be done”. Think of Him recognizing the greatness of the Father’s will.
What a work He accomplished so that you and I can come into the gain of what God has in mind for us in Him.
The Lord has joy. He is reaping the joy at this time as He sees persons in this line of faith, persons who are not diverted, persons who are looking steadfastly on Jesus. We can take Him as our example, not just looking to Him but looking on Him. We love to contemplate His pathway here, especially in the gospels—how lowly He was, how humble, how completely obedient to His Father’s will. He “endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider well him who endured so great contradiction from sinners against himself, that ye be not weary, fainting in your minds”.
How easily we become weary; how we flag. Come to Jesus; we can have our spirits uplifted as we come to Him. So it says, “be not weary, fainting in your minds”. Not only are our minds fixed on Him, but our eyes are fixed on Him, looking steadfastly on Jesus. Well, may each one of us continue to do so, dear brethren, that we may know assuredly that He is there in that established position, no longer to endure the cross and despise the shame but a Man of joy at the present time. So we are encouraged to look for Him and to Him. We can be joyful in His presence and as we come together we can be encouraged thus. May it be so for His name’s sake. Amen.
Word in meeting for ministry, Airdrie
22 September 1981
(The Lord took our brother within a week of his giving this word)