AUTHOR AND FINISHER
Wednesday – July 4, 2018, Tamuz 21, 5778
Greetings to one and all and welcome back to this wonderful and powerful faith building Bible Study from the Book of Hebrews. You also know that today is Independence Day commemorating America’s freedom from Great Britain. These United States of America are in Covenant with God and we individually, as a Church, and as a nation are to show forth the goodness of God and advance the Christian faith. Multiculturalism is antithetical to the Word of God. Now to our lesson. As we delve into todays study we are going to bring our prime example center stage into sharp focus, that being Jesus. Let’s start by reading our primary text aloud.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (KJV)
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Today let’s focus more on the second verse of Hebrews chapter twelve. Remember, we are talking about faith, heroes of faith, the Faith Hall of Fame, and now we come to Jesus. As I have stressed many times before, Jesus is our example, He is the gold standard. He is the One whom we are to be like. We can learn much from all of the others characters recorded in this Book of Life, Living Water, but Jesus is the One. We are to be like Him, our lives are to look like His. You have heard me remind us all over and over again that He said that we are to do the things He did and even greater things. The long and the short of it is that if we do what He did we will get the same results He got. As a reminder it is not our call or ever the will of God for us to go to a Cross of any kind, that was His mission.
What is meant by the phrase “Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”? The “our” is in italics meaning it was not in the original manuscripts used for the KJV of the Bible. Therefore, it says, Jesus is the author and finisher of faith. Jesus is the perfect example of how to exercise our faith. Verse two starts off with the word “looking” however more accurately it would say “consider” Jesus. Also, instead of the phrase “author and finisher” we could say the first and the last. We have seen this elsewhere.
Revelation 1:8 (KJV)
8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
The phrase “beginning and the ending” in this verse is essentially the same as author and finisher in our verse from Hebrews. Whatever we need to know about developing and using faith we can learn from Jesus. We have all received a measure of faith, just as a baby has all the muscles of a weight lifter they are not developed. If we want our faith to work like the faith of Jesus (all the same faith just different levels) we must do what Jesus did. If there is an unfailing example of faith in Scripture it is Jesus and it is to Him we must look. The writer of this amazing book goes on to point out that Jesus endured the Cross with joy, thought nothing of the shame, and in the end sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God. Guess what? When we were born again we also were seated in Him at the right hand of the Throne of God.
Hebrews 1:3 (KJV)
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Ephesians 2:5-6 (KJV)
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
The joy set before Jesus was the knowledge that by His sacrifice there would be a full redemption, jubilee available to all of mankind. He knew that this was the will of His Father and would bring great joy to the Father. He also had the Word of the Father concerning His full restoration when this was done. By His sacrifice whosoever would could once again be children, sons and daughters, of the Most High God. He also had the knowledge and faith in the Word of God that said He would be raised back to life and fully restored as God. Remember that “the Word” was every bit as much God as Yahweh (the Father) or the Holy Spirit before the womb of Mary. Just think of the sacrifice of stepping out of Heaven, laying aside all that made Him God, enduring the indignities of a natural human life from the curse, and the rejection by the Jewish leaders and in the end the people (His own).
Of course, the faith and love of Jesus resulted in the redemption of all mankind that will receive Him as Savior and Lord. The faith of Jesus destroyed the works or the devil. Our faith will enlarge the Kingdom and enforce the defeat of the devil if exercised in the image of our Lord and Savior. We must believe God, the Word of God with unwavering faith. We must be listening to that voice directing our path and saying and doing only what we are given to do. We can do the works Jesus did and even greater works by faith, in love, led of the Spirit!
Lord willing, I will pick up right here tomorrow. Until our next publication, I speak this Scriptural prayer for your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (KJV)
11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:
12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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