Jonathan’s sermon Sunday was jam-packed with Scripture truth about life as exiles and strangers as we are traveling toward our eternal Homeland—the New Earth where Righteousness will dwell. I would like to drill down into the aspect of “laying aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely”. For context, please read Hebrews 12:1-15.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [men and women throughout all of redemptive history, who have walked by faith in God’s unfolding promises and revelation of Himself, despite having not yet received God’s promise of the Genesis 3:15 Deliverer], let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as [daughters]?
“‘My [daughter], do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every [daughter] whom he receives.’
“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as [daughters]. For what [daughter] is there whom her father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all [sons and daughters] have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not [daughters]. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he [our heavenly Father] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
“Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled."
The flow of this passage is:
Right now, we walk by faith in God’s promises toward an eternal homeland where He will live with us as our beloved Bridegroom Husband; and we are His beloved Bride whom He has taken to Himself in all our filth. He can do this because He has given us His white Robes of Righteousness (that Jesus Christ earned in our place with His perfect life, substitutionary death, and powerful resurrection), so when we place faith in Him, we can enter His presence without shame or guilt or any such thing (Eph. 5:27).
He has done everything necessary to secure our covenantal love and devotion [betrothal] and has gone back into heaven where He is preparing a place for us (John 14:1-3) and has sent the better Holy Spirit to be in and with us to keep us secure until His return, to take us to His eternal home, where He will love and cherish us forever while we enjoy Sabbath Rest. He has told us He is returning imminently (at any time) so He tells us to be ready! (Luke 12:35-40).
While He is preparing that place for us, He has left us in an alien land that is hostile to Him and us; and He has chosen that it is in this environment that we will “make ourselves ready” (Rev. 19:7) for His return.
Therefore, He says we are not to set down our roots here (makes perfect sense, right?! This land is so far inferior to what we are headed to that it makes the glittery things of this life seem dull and cheap by comparison), nor collect and hoard things. Why? Because they weigh us down as we journey toward our future homeland, and they side-track the purpose for our exile: to love our Beloved, worship Him, enjoy Him, and make Him known until He returns.
But what are some reasons we might begin to collect weights that cling to us like glue? It could be that:
- We believe our Betrothed is delaying His coming and has forgotten about our daily needs here (Luke 12:45). Or
- We think He is not able to keep His promises to us, so we need a Plan B to keep us safe (we might get killed in many arenas - our happines or health or wealth or comfort or children or spouse or job; so we must provide for ourselves, just in case He really doesn’t or can’t or has forgotten. (Matt. 10:26-33) Or
- We believe that our future homeland doesn’t have all the amenities we have here that we think we must have in order to be truly happy, successful, or fulfilled and satisfied (Psalm 16:11)
- We forget we are in a war! (Matthew 10:34-39) and must travel lightly and with the right armor (Ephesians 6:10-20)
So what do those weights that we refuse to cast off do to us? They’re like a heavy backpack strapped to us, making us tired, weary, discouraged, anxious, fearful, depressed, dull, lazy, petulant, angry, discontent, selfish, lethargic, etc., hindering us from traveling peaceably alongside our fellow pilgrims and strangers, causing us to be bitter toward our Husband whom we think has delayed His coming and toward those who travel alongside us who get in the way of the things we refuse to cast off because we love them more than our Groom.
Jonathan mentioned one weight: our cell phones! He said these are not sinful in and of themselves, but they can easily become idolatrous as we continuously "bow" to them daily rather than using them for loving and serving others. Now, those are “fighting words”in our culture, aren’t they?! But the degree to which:
- We truly believe our Husband is actually doing what He says He’s doing to prepare this beautiful eternal home for us His beloved Bride (John 14:1-3)
- the degree to which we love Him and look forward to His return (Titus 2:13);
- the degree to which we are willing to wait for full satisfaction, fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11) and happiness
- That is the degree to which we will be motivated to travel increasinlgy lighter, which will produce a putting off and radical amputation of things that hinder our progress toward the Beautiful City, Immanuel’s Land, Zion City of Our God, to which we travel (Isaiah 33:20).
So what are some ways we put off these weights and run the race with endurance that is set before us?
- 1 Cor. 7:31 - we are to use but not misuse this world, meaning we must think through what it means in our particular culture and time in history to use and not misuse what is at our disposal.
- 1 Tim. 6:17 tells us to not worship things, but to worship God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. We know we have become worshipers of our riches when we get anxious when we think about losing what we have, or angry when our riches are threatened.
- Gal. 5:13 - As Americans, we love our freedom and privileges, don’t we? But this passage tells us to not use our freedom to serve our flesh, but to lovingly serve others.
We are to use all stuff God providentially provides for each of us - which, incidentally, is always different than what He provides for our fellow travelers! So we are not to compare ourselves with one another - 2 Cor. 10:12 - including:
- our physical bodies and minds which we are to be offering as a sacrifice to God daily (Rom. 12:1-2)
- our capacities and competence and compassion levels upon which God has set limits
- our opportunities and time and health (Col. 1:29; Eph. 5:16),
- our trials and weakness and “chains” (Col. 4:18)
All for the good of other pilgrims that we know and even those we don’t—so that what flows from us to others is an over-the-top generosity and kindness and graciousness and love and mercy, because that is what our beloved Bridegroom has provided us for our journey (1 John 4:7).
And these weights are not weightless! They exact a toll on us as pilgrims! They keep us from doing the work our Groom has assigned to us: to Go and make disciples of every nations; they also weigh down our hands and feet, causing discouragement and lack of peacemaking and holy living, which is living against the powerful flow of God’s grace in our lives and produces bitterness that defiles many. Our good Father promises to discipline us when we live this way so that we may share in His holiness when we are trained by that discipline.
My sisters at Citizens church, are we trainable today? Are we living inside the promises and grace of God, fully persuaded that He is able to do what He has promised? (Rom. 4:21). Are we truly living for Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem - for the Kingdom that we cannot see yet? And are we coming alongside one another to help each other fight our sin and weakness and find comfort in our suffering and trials and daily war with indwelling sin? Are we daily reminding another sister or brother in Christ of our coming Kingdom as we faithfully and daily point one another to our Union with Christ, our Beloved Savior, Lord, Husband, Master, and Father, who has loved us with an everlasting love and therefore will faithfully keep his covenant love toward us His bride? (Jer. 31:3).
That is the true community of the Body of Christ that we are called to!
For further study on this topic, I highly recommend Jerry Bridges’ book, True Community
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