Our scripture reading this morning is from Hebrews, chapters 11 and 12. We begin our reading at Hebrews 11, verse 32, and we'll read down through chapter 12, verse 3, and then a few verses later in chapter 12. So beginning our reading at Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 32, let us hear. God's own word. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war. put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. since therefore we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race 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 faint-hearted. And then skipping down to verse 22. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So far the reading of God's word. Do you know the hymn, We've Come This Far by Faith? It's a great old hymn. One never knows anymore, as an old man, what hymns anybody knows anymore. But that's a great old hymn. We've come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord. That simple beginning expresses some wonderful gospel truths. We've come this far. We haven't got the whole way there yet. But we've come this far by faith. And it hasn't always been easy. We've been leaning on the Lord. In a sense, that opening line of the hymn captures the spirit of the whole book of Hebrews. The whole book of Hebrews is about living by faith and keeping on. Not giving up. Not getting discouraged. It appears that those to whom this letter came originally had gotten discouraged. some of them. They had heard early preachers and had heard the preachers talk. You know how preachers will talk. They had heard the preachers talk about the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of Jesus Christ and the glory of Jesus Christ and how wonderful the new covenant was. And yet as they had lived, they discovered that they had experienced an awful lot of suffering, an awful lot of struggle, an awful lot of difficulty. Some of them had begun to wonder, if Jesus Christ is really Lord of Lords and King of Kings, why aren't things better for me? Why is there so much persecution? Particularly some of them who had been Jewish before they became Christians began to think to themselves, you know, we have a great capital city in Jerusalem. We have a high priest who appears in glorious apparel. We have a temple that's one of the wonders of the world. We gave those things up to become Christians. And what have we gotten in place? It seems to me we can see more glory in the old religion than in the new. And the book of Hebrews is a book all about how we have to live by faith. Right now, we don't see all things in subjection to Jesus. But they are in subjection to Jesus. We have to live by the promises that God has given us. We can't lose heart. We can't turn back. We have to keep on. And as he develops that thought, he comes back to it. the author of Hebrews again and again talking about how we need to endure in faith. We need to persevere in faith. We have to go on in faith. Chapter 10, verse 36, we read, For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. We need to be looking forward, that verse says. Not just to how things are, but how things will be. To what is promised. And throughout the chapters 11 and 12 in particular, the author is sort of marshalling every argument he can think of why Christians should persevere in their faith and in their trust in Jesus Christ and in his promises. He talks about the value of endurance and the necessity of endurance and the character of endurance. He's coming at this from sort of every angle. And you'll be happy to learn, I'm not going to preach about them all this morning. In fact, I want to look at just one little phrase this morning. One of the arguments tucked away amongst many longer arguments in this section for why we should endure. And it's that phrase in chapter 12, verse 2. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Jesus had to endure as well. Jesus had to live by faith. Jesus, throughout his life, was looking forward to the cross, And it was not easy to look forward to. He had to continually trust that this task God had given him, this purpose God had laid before him, this horrible end to his life, was the good and right thing for him to do. He had to endure in faith. And part of what helped him to endure in faith was that beyond the cross he could see a joy set before him. And the author to the Hebrews is writing that not just so we would be reminded that there was a joy set before Jesus in the work that he was doing, but that's put there also for our sakes. Because as there was a joy set before Jesus that he needed always to remember. So the author to Hebrews is saying, there's a joy set before us that we need always to remember. That will help us endure the struggles of this life. This will help us face the difficulties that surround us. Beyond this life, there is a joy set before us. Now, I can remember a time when Christians talked a lot about heaven and the joy of heaven and the hope of heaven. And then there was a time when Christians got criticized for that. Oh, you were forever talking about pie in the sky, by and by. Have you ever heard that expression, boys and girls? It's kind of an old-fashioned expression, I guess. Kind of nice, easy to remember, pie in the sky, by and by. Oh, you Christians are irrelevant to this world because you're just thinking about the next world. You're so heavenly-minded, you're no earthly good. Have you ever heard that expression? And I think perhaps Christians took that too much to heart because I think the church for a while didn't talk so much about heaven. And I think that's a problem. We need to talk and think and reflect on the joy set before us. The eternal joy, the unchanging joy, the undiminished joy that's set before us in heaven. John Calvin said, one of the disciplines we ought to develop in the Christian life is spending time thinking about the future life. Because the more clear heaven becomes to us, the more empowered we are to live by faith here and now. I think Calvin was right about that. I think that's a genuinely biblical note and theme. We need to think. We need to ponder. We need to reflect on the joy set before us. Psalm 16, verse 11 says, You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Do we believe that? Do we believe that the pleasures of heaven are greater than the pleasures of earth? It's hard to know. We haven't been there. We can only know in terms of what God has told us, what he has promised us. And he has promised us that there is a joy set before us, a glory set before us, a life, a fuller life, an abundant life set before us. Jesus said, didn't he, I've come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. He didn't mean that just for now. He meant that forever. And that joy of eternal blessedness is what motivated Christ to face the sufferings of this earth and it's what needs to motivate us as well. Now, what was the joy set before Christ? Some people have said that the whole book of Hebrews is a sermon. And as a preacher, as you study it, you begin to think that's true because so often, as you study it, you find three points sort of everywhere. And no poems, but three points. And you see this in terms of verse 2 of chapter 12. What was the joy set before Christ? Well, three things. The joy of sitting down. See that? Seated. The joy of being at the right hand and the joy of the throne of God. That's what was promised to Jesus. The joy of resting. The joy of receiving a place. And the joy of reigning. That's the joy that was set before Jesus. The joy of resting, the joy of receiving, and the joy of reigning. And this section of God's Word is saying to you and to me, that joy set before Jesus is just the same joy that's set before us. We, too, are promised the joy of resting, the joy of receiving, and the joy of reigning. Let's think about that a little bit together. Jesus sat down. Jesus sat down. It's a picture of resting. It's a picture of power. It's a position of authority. But it's also a picture of resting. He had finished his work. He had completed the earthly task that God had given to him. He had died. He had been raised. He had ascended. And now he's seated at the right hand of God. Isn't it interesting that that's one of the things that is confessed in the Apostles' Creed? That very short creed doesn't tell us lots of things about Jesus, but it says he sat down at the right hand of God. He was finished. He accomplished his work for us. That's part of the joy set before him. Work completed. And that's true for us too. The end of Psalm 90, you may have noticed, we sang, establish thou the work of our hands. The work of our hands, establish thou it. One day our work will be completed here. And we will rest from our labors. That's a joy that awaits us. Do you ever get tired? If you don't, there's something wrong with you. We'll talk about that in another sermon. But do you ever get tired? There's a rest that's coming. Hebrews speaks sweetly of that. Hebrews 4, verse 9, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Now that verse has implications for the here and now, but it's primarily focused on the future. There is a great day of rest coming for the people of God. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. What a glory, what a joy it will be. A day of rest. A day of rest from sin. Are you ever tired of sinning? Sometimes I get tired of reading the law every Sunday when I have an opportunity to preach. And I think, looking at my own soul, shouldn't I be doing better having heard this law read every Sunday all my life? Shouldn't I be doing better? I'm so tired of sinning. There's a day coming. There's a day coming when we'll rest from that sin that clings so closely to us. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that a joy? Isn't that a blessing? The Bible Catechism says, even the holiest in this life have only a small beginning of obedience. But one day we'll rest from all that disobedience, from all that burden of sin. We'll rest. And we'll rest from just the struggle of life. The miseries of this fallen world. The frailties of the body. Some of you know those better than others. But most of us will know it at some point. And one day we'll be able to rest from that. Rest from those aches and pains. Rest from those weaknesses. Rest from those struggles of mind and body. We'll be able to rest from the struggle to live in a world that hates God, that despises His Word, that mocks His people. Be able to rest from all that. It'll be over. That's part of the joy that is set before us. We'll even be able to rest from serving. Paul knew that sometimes God's people get weary not just of sin and of struggle, but they get weary of the good things that most of the time they like to do. Remember, Paul had to write to the Thessalonians, Be not weary in well-doing. Sometimes it's just tiring. You know, it's good, and most of the time you're glad to do it, but one day there'll be rest. Real retirement. With not a moment of worry and not a moment of boredom. but pleasures forevermore. That's a joy to look forward to, isn't it? That's a motivation to keep on living by faith. That's what the Scripture calls us to. Rest. That's promised. That's a joy. And then a place. Something that we receive. Now, when Jesus sits down at the right hand of God, or a better preacher would be, when Jesus sits down at the right hand of God, it's a sign of who he is, of the place that belongs to him, of the honor that he receives as the God-man, the Savior, the eternal Son. And so it is right that he should be there at the right hand of God. It's interesting, in the Gospels, some of the disciples want to know which one of them is going to sit at the right hand of Jesus. remember how Jesus pauses to say worry less about your exact place in heaven than whether you're going to get to heaven at all or not the question is not who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven the question is who will enter the kingdom of heaven but this text does remind us that Jesus has gone before to prepare a place for us it's not a place at the right hand of God that's Jesus' place but it's a pretty good place you know when people go to the theater they often ask what kind of seat am I going to get how well am I going to be able to see how close am I going to be to the stage how well am I going to be able to hear let me assure you that even if you're in the back row of heaven it's going to be a good place to be so don't worry so much exactly about your place but Hebrews chapter 12 does describe for us that place in general and how good it is how glorious it is how blessed it is what a joy awaits us in terms of the place that is prepared for us verse 22 you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem Now, people were impressed with the earthly Jerusalem when they visited it in ancient times, but the scripture makes clear that the heavenly Jerusalem is so far superior, the two can hardly be compared at all. And the image being given us here is really of pilgrims coming to the city. You remember in the Old Testament, pious Jews were to go three times a year in pilgrimage to the earthly Jerusalem. And here we're having painted for us almost a picture of procession into the heavenly Jerusalem of pilgrims who have completed their life of faith on earth. And they come to this city, this heavenly Zion, this city which is the city of the living God. And what do we find there? Well, we find innumerable angels in festal gathering. I don't know how angels party, but that's what's being described here, an angelic celebration. And we are going to be able to be part of that. And we come to the assembly or the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. We come to the fellowship of God's people. So it's not just the angels who are part of that fellowship in church, but there are the redeemed there as well. Sometimes I worry that we as Christians think too much about being reunited with loved ones in heaven and not enough about seeing God and Christ in His fullness in heaven. But nonetheless, there is a reunion in heaven of the redeemed of the Lord. And that is a blessing and a joy to be anticipated. And we come to God, the judge of all. But you notice the fact that God is judge is not put there to terrify us, but is put there in relation to the souls of the righteous made perfect. He's the judge who has said to his people, Welcome, you belong to me. When I stand in judgment of you, I look at you as a people clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, my Son. And so you are welcome to the city. You are a people now perfected as you are resting from sin. So welcome to be with me. And we come to Jesus. Here's the heart of the city in a sense because he's the one who's brought us there. He's the one who's provided that we might be there. And it's almost as if we are being told we come to that altar of sacrifice in the holy city because we come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. What was the word that the blood of Abel spoke? Blood of Abel cried out from the earth for vengeance, for justice. What does the blood of Jesus cry out for? It cries out for mercy. It cries out for forgiveness. It cries out for deliverance for God's people. And that's the place that we are promised. That's the joy of what we will receive. That we'll have a place there in that heavenly city. We will have a place with Jesus because his blood has cried out to the Father for us that we might have mercy, that we might have forgiveness, that we who are his people would be delivered. That's the joy set before us. The joy of resting. The joy of receiving such a city and the joy of reigning. Jesus took his place at the right hand of the throne of God. It's the place of power. It's the place of authority. And we're not surprised at all to hear that our Savior reigns. He's Lord of lords and King of kings. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth, not just in the future, but right now, the scripture tells us. 1 Corinthians 15 tells us He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. He reigns now. He is Lord. But the amazing thing is the Scriptures promise that the joy that awaits us is that we will reign with Him. 2 Timothy 2, we read the saying, It's trustworthy, for if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. Revelation 22 says, Of the people of God, the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever. Daniel prophesied in chapter 7, And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom. And all dominions shall serve and obey them. Now, I'm not sure exactly what that will mean. But it sounds pretty good. It sounds positive. It doesn't sound bad. We will not be in the courts of heaven as servants, but as sons and daughters of God. People pass us, I assume that means they'll have to say, Your Royal Highness. That would be good, except we'll have to say it to everybody else we pass. I don't know what exactly it will mean to reign in a world in which sin has been banished, in which the enemies of God have been defeated. But I do know this, it will mean blessedness and joy and glory. It will mean that all of the dislocation and misery of this world will be done away. It'll mean that that original dominion that the Lord intended for us when He created us will be fully restored. Maybe it means we'll be able to grow plants and there'll be no weeds. We don't know the fullness of what it means, but it means it's presented to us to say it'll be glorious, it'll be wonderful, it'll be worth it all. The joy set before us is like the joy set before Christ. a joy that should encourage us whatever the struggles of this world and life a joy that should help us to focus our faith on what is promised to come to us not so that we'll become so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good but so that we'll be faithful in living for him whom we do not now see and for whom we must now live by faith. Hebrews 11.33 talks about those who through faith conquered kingdoms and obtained promises. That's what we're called to. We're called now to live by faith in the joy that's set before us. And God promises that one day that joy will be ours in all its fullness, in all its glory, in all its blessing, in all its pleasure. May God, by His Holy Spirit, confirm that promise in every heart here today that we might all live by faith in the joy set before us. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord our God, you have made us such wonderful promises. At times they seem almost too good to be true. And yet we have seen, as we have studied your word, as we have lived our lives, that your promises are true and amen in Jesus Christ. Your promises have proved true over and over again. And so we come trusting your promise that there is a great joy set before us. And our prayer is, O Lord, that we might be found faithful, living by faith in Jesus Christ and his saving work, enduring the struggles of this life, confident, confident that there is a joy, an eternal joy set before us. Fill us with that hope in believing, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.