Surrounded By A Cloud Of Witnesses - Brian Osburn 1/1/17

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

Hebrews 12:1

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.

Judges 4 · chapter mention

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

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

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.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

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

Acts 5 · chapter mention

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

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

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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