Introduction

I feel so privileged week after week to get to know some of you in greater measure. I love hearing your stories, even when those stories are filled with pain and heartache. People in this church have stories that fill a whole spectrum. Some were raised in Christian homes. Others were not. Some have two parents and multiple siblings. Others were raised in a single-parent home. Some of you have warm memories of childhood. Others have memories from childhood that haunt you.

Those who sit in these pews have different experiences of Bethlehem. Some have been here at Bethlehem for a few decades, some for a few years, some for a few weeks. Some have embraced Jesus as Lord and are growing in grace, some of you have not yet received him as Lord, but you are open to learning more about him. Some of you are just plain skeptical, but have not reached the point of rejecting him altogether. I want each one of you to know that you are welcome here—skeptics of Christ, seekers of Christ, and saints in Christ. All are welcome.

The fact that we all come from different backgrounds should not blind us from one big, beautiful reality. The gospel offers us the opportunity to all have the same story at the big picture level. Our street level stories can look different and unique, but zoom out in the Google map of the gospel and you will see the same story. What story would we see if we zoom out far enough?

The Story of Our Text
This text tells our story. It says we have a past, a present, and a future. The story starts with the past work of Christ (the cross and what it accomplished). That truth leads to a conclusion about the way we ought to live today—the present call to live outside the camp. That present call is also based upon a future hope: We have no lasting city here, we seek the heavenly city.

The Outline
We have talked about the story of our text and now we will see that this story has a structure. Picture the Christian life as a platform held up by two pillars.

The Present Platform: Go Out to Him (v. 13)

Pillar #1           
The Past: the Cross of Christ (v. 12)

Pillar #2
The Future: the City to Come (v. 14)

Our life is a platform that puts these two defining realities on display: The cross of Christ and the city to come. How does our life put the cross and the city to come on display? People should see that we live differently—radically differently. They should ask why. In those moments, we get to explain that our life looks radically different because we have radically different reasons for living that way. Therefore, the text is a call to go (the “what”) and it contains two reasons to do so (two “whys”).

The Main Point
Here is the main point of the text. It’s really a two-word rallying call: Let’s go! Where? Let’s go outside the camp to Jesus and bear his reproach together.

1. The Past: The Cross of Christ (v. 12) – Pillar #1

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

a. What? Christ suffered
b. Where? Outside the city gate
c. Why? So that he might make the people holy through his blood

This verse answers three questions about what Jesus did: (1) what, (2) where, and (3) why.

1. What? Notice first what Jesus did. He suffered. He shed his blood. Jesus died on a cross. The Roman cross was a form of torture devised by the Romans to inflict maximum pain and torment. But the next phrase goes further. This suffering was not only painful, it was shameful. You might say, “I don’t see the word ‘shameful.’”

2. Where? The concept is there in the next phrase “outside the gate.” Hebrews emphasizes not just what he did, but where he did it. He suffered outside the city gate. What was the significance of that? Outside the city is where the waste went. You take out the trash. Outside the camp is where the dirty, unholy things were discarded. The bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp (v. 11):
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.

This is a reference to the sacrificial system. The bodies of the animals that are sacrificed are not eaten because they are regarded as defiled. Take the trash out and burn it.

The author of Hebrews makes that same point. Jesus was regarded as trash to be taken out. He was taken out and he willingly went to the place of dishonor. He went outside the gate and opened himself up to be massively despised, rejected, beaten, taunted, mocked, and scorned—and killed.

3. Why? Why did he do it? Jesus opened himself up to all of this because this pain had a purpose. The purpose of the pain was to purchase a people for his everlasting possession. This purchase of a people is sometimes called the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. I love this reality with everything in me.

Hear the truth once again: I never tire of preaching this glorious truth. The Bible says that our sin (our rebellion against God) has caused a separation with God. In our sin, we are unclean and cannot come back into the presence of the God of infinite perfection with eyes too pure to behold sin.

But God. He did not leave us in that hopeless place. He made a way. He sent his eternal Son as a substitute. He provided a sacrifice for us so that we could have the greatest thing in the universe (a restored relationship with God; at-one-ment). The Bible says that Jesus carried our sins as our substitute on the cross, the just for the unjust, in order to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18). What an amazing exchange.

What Jesus accomplished on that cursed cross has forever changed the way we view the cross—that spot outside the city gate that others scorn as a trash heap. But they did not know they were crucifying the Lord of glory. But our eyes have been opened. We can’t scorn the place where we were saved. We don’t hold it in dishonor. We give it the place of honor—the place where the king of glory purchased many sons and daughters to bring them to glory. The place of mocking has become a place of praise. The unclean place is the one place where unclean sinners are washed whiter than snow! Hallelujah!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned he stood;
Sealed my pardon with his blood.
Hallelujah! What a Savior!”

Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was he;
Full atonement can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Savior.

If that part of our story has become our song, our songs will sound different and our lives will look different. That is where the text goes next. We are called to live in a different way.

2.  The Present: The Call of Christ (v. 13) [The Platform]

Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

a. What? Go out to Him!
b. Where? Outside the camp
c. How? Bearing His reproach

1. What? We are called to go out to Jesus. That sounds good. That should be where any lover of Jesus wants to be.

2. Where? But where is he? We go out to him outside the camp. The camp is regarded as clean and safe. Outside the camp is a place where the trash goes. If we are regarded as trash, then it should not surprise us if we are treated like trash and talked about as trash.

3. How? It should not come as a surprise. He left the place of heavenly honor to go to a place of earthly dishonor. He moved forward to meet the reproach; he did not run away from it. Therefore, since he went there to bring us to him, we will go there to be with him. We will meet him in the place where he met us. We are united to Christ so we will share the reproach with Christ.

So in going out to him we will bear the same reproach he endured. It will be hard. Can we endure it? We can endure it to the end because our time here will end soon—and our time in city to come will never end.

3.  The Future: The City to Come (v. 14) – Pillar #2

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

a. Stated Negatively: No lasting city
b. Stated Positively: Seeking the heavenly city to come

Hebrews states the reason negatively and positively. The things of this world (earthly success and approval) are not a lasting source of life and joy. We can’t keep them. They won’t last. We can move toward reproach rather than run away from it because he is no fool who gives us what he can’t keep to gain what he can’t lose. If we can’t lose it forever, we can leave it for the vapor of this life.

The book of Hebrews uses this same language and logic over and over. Both of the words “reproach” and “lasting” appear again in Hebrews 10:33–35 and 11:26.

Example 1: Hebrews 10 – The Hebrews

Platform: “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publically exposed to reproach and affliction and sometimes being partners with those so treated” ( Hebrews 10:32–33).
“For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property” (v. 34).

Pillar: “... since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one” (v. 35).

Notice that the writer says, though they lost their homes, they did not lose their real home. Their heavenly home is better and it cannot be taken away. God does not call us to just get good at saying “no” to stuff. He calls us to not cling to things that are temporary so we can say “yes” to something that is better that lasts forever.

The same thing is true in chapter 11 as it is so many times with the Old Testament saints. Abraham and Moses have lived the same story. Abraham lived in a tent in the Promised Land and did not build a mansion because he looked ahead to not just a home, but a whole city that God himself designs and builds. If God designs and builds something it is going to be better—not a small temporary home— it is a big everlasting city (Hebrews 11:9–10). Moses was the same way. Moses decided to leave the ease of being called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter (an honored title) in exchange for the reproaches of Christ—being mistreated with God’s people who were slaves in Egypt (not honored). He regarded being reproached with Christ to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11:24–25) because he was looking ahead to the reward (v. 26).

The One who brings it all together is Jesus. He is both the model of faith and the object of faith.

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him [future pillar] endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.—Hebrews 12:2

Jesus is the founder of our faith. He is the object of faith. And he is the model of faith. Jesus left the highest place of heavenly honor—the camp of heaven and the courts of glory (where he was worshipped and treasured supremely). And he came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15) … people who had dishonored him—not his friends, his enemies. He saved us by becoming a substitute and taking our wrath, paying the price for our sin.

Christ had a future pillar for his present actions: The joy set before him (to be seated at the right hand of the throne of God) but not empty handed—it was his joy to bring many sons and daughters to glory with him.

How did he do it? He “endured the cross, despising the shame.” He overcame everything that a fallen world could throw at him, including heaps of reproach and shame. But rather than running from reproach, he ran up to it and pointed his finger in shame’s face and said, “I despise you shame. I will not let you scare me off from my purpose to save my people. Come near, come closer.” He squeezed shame until it he shattered it. That is why God is not ashamed of us. Christ is not ashamed to call us his family. God is not ashamed to open heaven’s doors of welcome for us.

Application: This Is OUR Story, This Is Our Song

The Four Aspects of 25 x ’25

We could take many directions in application. Let’s start with 25 x ’25 and the four aspects of our 10-year vision: (1) 25 church plants by 2025, (2) 25 unengaged people groups engaged by 2025, (3) building a South campus in the next 25 months, and (4) strengthening the core.

1. 25 x ’25 reminds us that over the next 10 years going outside the camp may mean going outside of the camp of Bethlehem for the sake a starting a new church plant. You will hear Kenny Stokes preach about that next week.
2. 25 x ’25 also reminds us that going outside the camp may mean going outside the camp of America in order to start a new gospel work among the unengaged and unreached people groups—who have no access to the gospel and are not even being targeted by anyone to bring them the gospel. Ryan C is going to preach about that in two weeks.
3. The next 25 months are also a time of leaving the camp of financial security as we are raising money to build a permanent South Campus facility.
4. 25 x ’25 is also about strengthening the core of Bethlehem by digging down deeper into our priorities (you will hear two campus-specific sermons at the end of February on this point). Today, we are focused upon small groups in this sermon. We say that they are our second highest corporate priority after gathering together for corporate worship. So we better be clear in what we are calling you to do. Here is question to bring focus: Do small groups focus have an inward focus (us in here—community groups) or an outward focus (them out there—missional groups)? The answer is yes!

Small Groups: Inward Focus (Us)
The world may reproach us, but small groups should be a place where we find acceptance within the family of Christ. So we build each other up in the gospel. We remind each other of Christ’s promise to us. Remember? He told us that they would treat us the way they treated him. We challenge each other. Do we expect to be treated better than Jesus?

In the face of what the world says about us, we remind each other of what the cross says about us. Christ’s cross gives both the greatest criticism and the greatest affirmation. The world may criticize us, but the cross’s criticism of us is so much bigger. The world may say you are bad, that you have a moral deficit. The cross says you are morally bankrupt. You had an infinite debt that required an infinite payment. You were so bad it took the death of Christ to save you. Justice spoke against you as condemned. You needed more than a new Band-Aid for your moral wound; you need a new birth.

But then the cross speaks the greatest word of acceptance. It says we could not be more accepted and more loved in Christ than we already are. It says you are more secure than you can even fathom. Instead of falling into the Almighty hands of wrath, no one can snatch you out of the Almighty hands of love. Rather than justice speaking against you, it now speaks for you—Christ is faithful and just to forgive our sins. Justice now says, “The debt has been paid—there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” We support one another. Let the world that rejected Christ reject us. Christ did not reject us and we reinforce that acceptance by not rejecting one another.

Small Groups: Outward Focus (Them)
We are not called to insulate ourselves from the world in a safe Christian bubble. We are called to be disciples who make disciples. We are called not to run toward comfort, but to run toward the need of the lost. Imagine that you are at home sitting in your recliner. You hear a knock at the door. It is Jesus. You motion for him to come inside, but he just takes a step back and motions for you to go out to him. You think about all that you may have to give up, but he says, “What if this is the way you will have more of me?” The call to go out to him means that we do not invite him into our comfort; he invites us out to obey his mission with the power of his presence. “I am with you always.” That is in the context of the Great Commission, to go make disciples.

Now, here’s something about where we will find reproach and how to respond to it. Reproach is a response aimed at getting us to back away from our confession of Christ. It reminds me of those movies where someone shoots at the ground to get someone to back away from a spot. It reminds me of a dog that will growl if you get too close to its food. It reminds me of someone drawing a line in the sand and saying, “Don’t cross this line or else.” But we know that if we run away from reproach we run away from him. We will hold fast to our confession no matter the cost.

There are two ditches here:

Compromising = love without truth (Ditch 1) | Contending = Truth in Love | Contentious = truth without love (Ditch 2)
                            
We could simply let the world define our beliefs for us (the spirit of the age is lord). They say they won’t like us unless we are like them. We will have to answer to their wrath. If we compromise, then what happens is by trying to spare ourselves from some of the world’s wrath, we open ourselves up to God’s wrath.

But what about the other ditch? How can you tell the difference between contending for the faith (speaking the truth in love) vs. being contentious about the faith? We fall into the ditch of being contentious about the faith when we give the impression that we are against the world and they must answer to our wrath. Are you angry at people who hold different convictions? Do you say or give the impression that unless people are like you, then you won’t like them—“You can’t be in my life”? We are against them.

Contending for the gospel means speaking the truth in love. We believe the biggest problem in the universe for non-Christians is God’s wrath. They have not accepted Jesus as Savior—the way, the truth, and the life.  When people say there are many ways to God, we say there is one way. And we don’t backpedal in embarrassment that there are not many ways—we are eternally thankful there is a way.

And we are clear that the world does not have to answer to our wrath. We don’t have any. We are not against them. They have to answer to God’s wrath. There are people who will believe that if you disagree with them then you are against them. Some people are so defined by their beliefs that disagreement with them feels like rejection of them.

When I get into situations like this, I lovingly turn the tables on the question and make it fair and square. Here is what I mean. If someone has radically different beliefs, I will usually say, “Do you think you could continue to care for me, even though you disagree with me. Most say “yes.” Then could you please believe that I am capable of the same thing? Agreement on this issue does not have to be a prerequisite for friendship. I am not going to force you to deny the things that you believe define you, and I would ask that you not try to force me into denying the Jesus who defines me.

They will be able to tell if you really love them. Distance demonizes. When it comes to these issues, do you have friends on the other side of the issue? Does your heart go out to them? Can we really say, “I am not against you … No, no, no … in fact, I want to spend the rest of eternity with you. Jesus said in his Father’s house there are many rooms, and I want to have a room next to you. I want to worship Jesus with you for world without end, Amen.

Then recruit prayer for them in small groups. Pray together. Bring your prayers in alignment that the clouds of God’s grace would gather over them and a cloudburst of healing rain would descend upon them. Have accountability together. Have people ask you next week if you were able to share the gospel with them.

Conclusion: Unbelievers, Believers, Small Groups

Let me speak directly to unbelievers for a moment. Are you tired of trying to attain what you can’t seem to grasp? Or are you shocked that once you finally grabbed it, it doesn’t satisfy like you thought it would?

Today, you can lay hold of eternal life. You don’t have to earn it or attain it or buy it, you just have to receive it. And if you receive it, you can’t lose it. If you think you have to clean yourselves up before you can come to God, you are fighting a fight you can’t win. You are trying to do something that Christ has already done. He already won. You are called not to accomplish the victory, but to receive it and rest in it.

You can receive the greatest possible gift in the universe (Jesus brings us back to God) by rescuing us from the most terrifying reality in the universe for sinners in our position (the just wrath of God). Being in the hands of an Almighty God of wrath is the worst possible position (it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God). But in Christ is the best possible position—not a place of terror but of safety and security. (My Father is greater than all—no one can snatch you out of his hands). This is a life you can’t earn, but once received it is a life you can’t lose.

Believers, let us live a different kind of life than the rat race for acceptance and “getting ahead” that we see in the world. I don’t have to run away from reproach anymore because I have found the only acceptance that I need forever. It is better than the cheap imitation others are working for. We can’t lose it—it lasts forever. And we don’t have to work for it; we can rest in it and live from it. It is a forever acceptance, not a fickle, flash-in-the-pan, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind of acceptance. I am not trying to achieve acceptance; I have received it. I am not living for an identity; I am living from it. I am not running from reproach in order to be accepted (by the world); I can move toward reproach because I have already been accepted (by Christ). And if reproach comes from the world, I remember that this is my Father’s world. He rules over the reproach, and it must work good for me.

Think what Spirit dwells within Thee,
Think what Father’s smiles are thine
Think what Jesus died to win thee.
Child of heaven, canst though repine …

... and sing?

Listen to Hebrews 12:1–2:

Therefore, since 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 that is set before us.

What enters into your mind when you read Hebrews 12:1–2? Too often, we picture a race that we are running by ourselves. You can understand why. No one can run for us. We each must run.

But life together helps us face the sting of reproach, because none of us run alone. We share in something massive called the communion of saints. We look around us at those who have finished their race and are now cheering us on and reminding us that God was faithful. We also look and see the people running with us. There is strength in numbers.

Back when I used to read Sports Illustrated, I read about a cross-country team in California. They were a proverbial powerhouse. They had runners who always finished first, second, and third, and then someone who would finish either fourth or fifth. One year they set records for attendance, but it was not because of their top runners. People actually came to see a kid run who always finished last.

This kid had inner ear problems that affected his balance. He would run and then lose his balance, start to tip and then fall. But he got up. He would fall. And then get up. This kept happening. By the end of the race, he would be bloodied and weary, but he always finished. People would be in tears watching his perseverance from the stands. That is an individual running a race with perseverance, but that is not our text and that is not a small group.

The last race of the season had the runners all set to finish first through fourth again, but they stopped right before the finish line. Then they ran back to where this kid was, they linked arms, and they finished the race together. That is the way that we need to run together as a church. That is our text—that is a small group, a group of people who run the race together because they believe together what Christ has done and they know what awaits them when they cross the finish line together. Our race is more like a tough mudder—obstacles around us (razor wire, mud, electric lines that shock you) and obstacles within (sin and fatigue)—but the race doesn’t last forever and the stakes are much, much higher. Let’s finish together.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline

1. The Past: The Cross of Christ (v. 12)
• What: He suffered
• Where: Outside the city gate  
• Why: So that he might make the people holy through his blood 
2. The Present: The Call of Christ (v. 13)
• What: Go out to him!
• Where: Outside the camp
• How: Bearing his reproach
3. The Future: The City to Come (v. 14)
• Stated Negatively: No lasting city
• Stated Positively: Seeking the heavenly city to come

Main Point: A two word rallying call in verse 13: Let’s go! Where? Let’s go outside the camp to Jesus and bear his reproach together. In the Christian life, the pillars of the past and future support the present call of Christ.

Discussion Questions

• Can you explain the story and the structure of the passage? How would you explain it to someone who is not a Christian?
• How did Christ respond to reproach? How can we respond to reproach today?
• Did you have any questions about the text that were not answered in the sermon?

Application Questions

• What are some specific forms of reproach that you personally have to bear? Share some stories and bear one another’s burdens in your group.
• What truths from this text do you think your small group needs to be reminded of today?
• What truths from this text do you think people outside your small group need to hear today?

Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to go out to Jesus and run toward reproach together instead of running away from it.