MARVEL & MYSTERIES- Fix Your Eyes On Jesus

Matrix of Justice

In this video: So many scriptures have been used in very religious way to “help” people (sometimes inadvertently, by ignoramus, or as a cliche). When this happens to me, I typically say to myself, “They meant well.”  People who love the Lord WANT to help, and encourage others using scripture, and of course since we are not perfect, sometimes their assistance falls flat or is even darn-near offensive.  Today, we are looking at the real weight and meaning behind “Fix your eyes on Jesus” in context, rather than a license to stick one’s head in the sand and ignore things going on around us. The real weight of what Jesus has done is the most powerful truth and encouragement to us on Earth to endure!  All glory to Jesus alone, as the song says.  Scriptures in this episode: Book of Hebrews, with emphasis on chapters 6, 11, 12  For more equipping content, subscribe to matrixofjustice.org  For additional support: The danger you pose to hell by knowing who you are: https://matrixofjustice.org/the-threat-of-known-identity/ Forerunning with serious purpose: https://matrixofjustice.org/renaissance-forerunner/ Keeping spiritually fit: https://matrixofjustice.org/spiritual-disciplines/  Listen to the MOJ podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/29Nwee6qdn4w76kmzWaaxt?si=zrBslSxzTWqdgOcNI5vKqQ Listen to the MOJ podcast on Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/012c3b57-b6d3-4735-bee1-47e938f76523/marvel-and-mysteries  Come say hi: Twitter- https://x.com/matrixofjustice TikTok- https://www.tiktok.com/@matrixofjustice Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/matrixofjustice/?hl=en Gab- https://gab.com/MatrixofJustice Gettr- https://gettr.com/user/matrixofjustice Truth Social- https://truthsocial.com/@MatrixofJustice Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/MatrixofJustice/  Other platforms: Bitchute- https://www.bitchute.com/profile/YTUlhLxg6MWb Rumble- https://rumble.com/c/c-436225 Daily Motion- https://www.dailymotion.com/matrixofjustice GodTube- https://www.godtube.com/matrixofjustice/  Matrix of Justice (matrixofjustice.org) is a resource center that provides individual Christian equipping with a prophetic edge. My desire is to see spiritual truths birth tangible results in people’s lives. Helping others grow into the fullness of their identity as a Son of God and becoming who He created them to be is the fuel that drives me and the heart of Matrix of Justice.  Please consider supporting Matrix of Justice via the donate button (https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=T9M4EFHWQBDV4) on www.matrixofjustice.org

Transcript

00:08Welcome to Marvel and Mysteries. My name is Tracy, and if you have ever been whacked upside

00:14the head by a Bible verse taken out of context, then this video is for you. I might as well

00:19just

00:19do a series and call it, They Meant Well, A Thousand Ways in Which Scriptures Are Used

00:27to Bash People Upside the Head. So, today we're looking at a beautiful one that has lost its oomph

00:34because it's become the subject matter of shorts and memes and all of that, and it is from Hebrews

00:41chapter 12. So, it's part of verses 1 and 2, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out

00:49for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. So, it's a beautiful verse,

00:58but it has lost its oomph because instead of being what it really means, it has become,

01:06don't look over here, beloved, at all that stuff going on. Don't look over here at all that stuff

01:11going on either. Fix your eyes on Jesus. It's become almost a license for Christians to stick

01:17their head in the sand somewhere and just forget that anything is going on. So, we need to look at

01:23this from the actual weight and value that comes behind this verse. So, if you haven't had this

01:31happen to you before, though, I'm going to give you an example of when it happened to me. I had

01:37an

01:37entire evening of demonic visitations, horrible nightmares, and all kinds of crazy things going

01:42on. And when I came to church, and I found a man on the prayer team, and I told him

01:46what happened,

01:47instead of being like, oh, wow, okay, that was pretty terrible. All right, let's pray about that.

01:53Instead of that, he took out his finger and started going, he, and he was poking me in the forehead,

01:59and he was like, he who lives in you is greater than he who lives in the world. And he

02:06said it just

02:06like that. And I'm just like, like, I haven't like no sleep. It was really a scary evening. And this

02:13is

02:13what I'm getting. And I'm like, oh, my goodness me. So, anyway, this is why I purpose to kind of

02:18look

02:18at some of these verses that have either been made into t-shirts, or have lost their oomph, or have

02:24been like cheapened over time. And it's not that it's actually lost its oomph, but it's lost its oomph

02:30to us because of the way it's been produced and ingested and all of that. So, let's take a look

02:36at

02:36this for really real. And we're going to start actually in Hebrews 6, because I want to go to

02:45kind of the backdrop of this, of what it really means to fix your eyes on Jesus and the spiritual

02:52pow that is really behind that. So, this gives us our backdrop for everything to really roll out.

02:58So, starting in Hebrews 6.13, when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater

03:05for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.

03:11And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. People swear by someone greater

03:18than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all arguments. So,

03:25you see what that does. And in the context of that time, that's what was done. You would swear

03:31something, you'd swear an oath, and it's by someone that's greater than yourself. So,

03:37God has no one greater to swear by, so he swore by himself. And the oath that was stated is

03:42what

03:42confirms it, and as the verse says, it puts to end our argument. Done deal. He said it. Boom. Done.

03:50Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was

03:57promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which

04:04it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us

04:11may be

04:11greatly encouraged. Okay, this is about encouragement. It's about keeping the saints strong to move

04:18forward. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner

04:25sanctuary behind the curtain where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become

04:34a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. This is important. The whole book of Hebrews

04:42is essentially about Jesus being better, the new covenant being better. It's basically just a better

04:49covenant all the way around. So, that's what you're going to see when you read through Hebrews. But this

04:54is establishing Jesus as our forerunner, as the high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

05:03So, let's go back now to Hebrews 5.

05:09Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people

05:15in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is to deal gently with

05:21those who are ignorant and are going astray since he himself is subject to weakness. I mean, think

05:27about it. These high priests, they were subject to the same things. They're humans living a life here

05:33on earth. They would have been subject to the same temptations as everybody else. So, this is why he has

05:39to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as for the sins of the people. And no one takes

05:45this honor

05:46on himself. But he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was. And in the same way, Christ

05:52did

05:53not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. So, he didn't even take on the glory of

06:00becoming a high priest by himself. And then when he came here, he disrobed himself of all deity.

06:06Talk about doing things the hard way, but the right way, right? But God said to him,

06:11you are my son. Today, I have become your father. And he says in another place, you are a priest

06:17forever

06:17in the order of Melchizedek. During the days of Jesus's life on earth, he offered up prayers and

06:24petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death. And he was heard

06:30because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience through suffering.

06:37And once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was

06:45designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. Again, here he has this crazy honor

06:54and responsibility that is put on him. He disrobes himself of all deity and walks this out. And

07:03through his prayers, his petitions, I mean, he suffered through this to the point of having to

07:10shed his own blood. And he did that once for all, for all of us, for the joy set before

07:16him,

07:16he endured the cross. Okay. So then from this point, so you're seeing the backdrop of what God had

07:23intended to come through Abraham and then Jesus being our great high priest and why he is,

07:31but then also looking at what the priests of the old covenant had to do in terms of

07:36the offerings and sacrifices for sins that were given because they too were subject to the same

07:42temptations as others. So from here, we're going to Hebrews 7. Now I'm going to grab from verse 17 and

07:55then hop down because it's, it's continuing on this theme for it is declared you are a priest forever

08:02in the order of Melchizedek and jumping to verse 20. I'm jumping a few to keep the thought. And it

08:10was

08:10not without an oath. Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath. When God

08:20said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. Because of

08:28this

08:28oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. Now there have been many of those priests

08:35since death, prevented them from continuing in office, you know, they die. But because Jesus lives

08:42forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God

08:51through him because he always lives to intercede for them or to mediate, basically to mediate the

08:58covenant. Such a high priest truly meets our need. One who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from

09:07sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices

09:15day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their

09:20sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints us high priests men in all their

09:27weaknesses, but the oath which came after the law appointed the son who has been made perfect forever.

09:37God has said it. God has given the oath. Therefore, it is without argument. Jesus Christ is our high

09:45priest in the order of Melchizedek. It is an incredibly weighty thing to put all of that together.

09:55Now, this is leading us up to the point where we can really see why fix your eyes on Jesus

10:04is kind of such a big deal and it's not a license to stick your head in the sand somewhere

10:09or to be

10:10distracted. Like, the idea is, yes, you focus on Jesus, but here's the meat as to why. Hebrews 11

10:17is known as the Hall of Faith, that chapter. And this is the chapter that starts with,

10:23now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And it goes down

10:30through a list of the greats, you know, by faith Moses did this and by faith Noah did that and

10:37by

10:37faith Sarah did this and it goes through all of them. Please read through it. Please read through it

10:44because you see what these folks endured. You see what God told them and essentially told them,

10:52this is what your life, this is why you're doing what you're doing. This is for a future generation.

10:57So, they weren't even going to get to really see the fullness of what God was even having them do.

11:05And their peace in the entire scripture, their peace in what God's doing here on earth and

11:14throughout the heavens. It is beautiful. It is wild. It is weighty. And the thing is, remember as you're

11:21reading, because it's easy sometimes to be reading through any story like this, any history even,

11:28and to not put yourself in it, to not actually see what's going on, or to simply kind of brush

11:34it off

11:34like it's some kind of fiction. Really read through that and see what these folks went through and

11:41endured to get to that point that we could have what we have right now. We have a faith. We

11:48have

11:49a Bible. We have the Word of God that has been preserved and it has been bought for by Jesus.

11:59Jesus' blood. He bought all of us and all of these folks came along and they died for this. They

12:07were

12:07martyred. They died so that we could have this. It is not a small thing. And it's easy if we

12:15just blow

12:16it off as some kind of work of fiction to really look at it like that. But it's real. It

12:22happened.

12:23And we have to really look at it that way and look at this in the context and what if

12:28we put

12:30ourselves in their shoes as best as we can, not having grown up in the ancient Near East,

12:36not having, you know, we don't understand all of the culture and the traditions and the other

12:43things that were going on. So, we really have to look at it through the lens of someone who would

12:49have been alive at the time. So, let's go to Hebrews 11, 37. Okay, for this group of folks in

12:59the

12:59Hall of Faith, they were put to death by stoning. They were sawed into. They were killed by the sword.

13:05They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. The

13:12world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in

13:19holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had

13:27been promised, since God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would

13:34they be made perfect. How many people would just go ahead and be like, well, okay, I'll, you know,

13:42for future generations, yeah, okay, I'll do this. Think about the guts and the determination,

13:52the faith, the selflessness that these folks had to agree to live out their life, to do what God had

14:03called them to do in obedience to Him, even when they weren't understanding exactly what was going

14:08on like Sarah. Think about that. Would you do that? I mean, think about what these people endured.

14:14And it's for us. It was for the disciples at that time and in everybody that comes after. It was

14:20for

14:20us that they did this. It's incredibly obedient and an incredibly selfless thing. And so, this is

14:28what we're getting up to here. You have Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, the pioneer,

14:36the one who came here to redeem us from the mess that we made. And He gave His own life

14:45for us.

14:45He's the one that walked in and put His blood on the mercy seat for all of us. He is

14:50the one whose

14:51blood the new covenant is cut in. And whenever there's a change of the law, there's a change in the

14:57priest. And He is forever our high priest because He did this once and done for everybody.

15:05So, when you get to Hebrews 12 and you've gone through the hall of faith and all of those

15:12that have endured so much, it says,

15:17Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything

15:26that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the

15:34race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

15:41For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right

15:49hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not

15:57grow weary and lose heart. Jesus was dealing with that the entire time. So were the others in that

16:05great hall of faith. They were dealing with being mocked and laughed at and scorned and people talking

16:12on all of them. And you want to talk about salt water and fresh water coming out of people's mouths,

16:20you know, like one second they love them, the next second they don't. You know, like these things,

16:25these things happen. But think about everything that was endured by these people. Think about

16:31everything that was endured by Jesus and the encouragement that is actually loaded into

16:38Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews. This is, it's amazing and it's so valuable and it is

16:45a sobering thing to think of, especially when I'm saying, consider it, consider Him who endured such

16:52opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You know, remember when it,

16:58when it goes back to saying that He is, that Jesus is the perfect High Priest for us? There's,

17:04there's nothing, there's nothing that we've gone through that He hasn't.

17:10He's been there, done that. He's suffered all of this. So this should be an encouragement to us.

17:21He came here, disrobed Himself of all the deity of even being God,

17:25and then walked everything out obediently as a son

17:31with Holy Spirit right there with Him. I mean, that's the position we're in now.

17:39That was given to us by Him. He conveyed the kingdom to us as Jesus Christ is, so are we

17:46in this world.

17:49And the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, it's no joke. It's our history. It's our faith. It's our family.

18:00And this entire world is populated by the family of God. And we might be different. We all look different.

18:11You know, I think it's really something that when Jesus came out of the tomb, when Mary got there

18:21and thought He was the gardener, you know, it's pretty appropriate because it's like there's a whole

18:29different kinds of flowers all over, all over this world, really meaning us, because Jesus really is

18:36like a constant gardener. Like, it makes sense to me that she was like, instead of being like,

18:40Rabboni, she's like, oh, it's just the gardener. Because it's the gardener that's tending to everyone.

18:47And He is there, and He's making intercession. He is continually mediating the covenant,

18:55constantly looking after us, constantly.

18:59So, it is such an extraordinary thing and such a beautiful thing that we would be able to walk like

19:08Him and to share in what He has done on a way, you know, we are partakers. We are partakers

19:18of all of

19:19this. And so, when we simply say, fix your eyes upon Jesus, and like, that's all we do in the

19:27middle of

19:28your world blowing up. If the best we can do is just be like, fix your eyes on Jesus, like

19:35that

19:35fixes everything in that way, just that one little nugget, we really need to back up and realize what's

19:42really behind that and encourage someone with that. Like, the Savior knows what you're going through

19:50because He's been there. So, all these other folks, they've been there. They're experiencing these

19:56things. They've overcome it. And even though they didn't get part of the promise, because the part

20:02of the promise had to be fulfilled with all of us when we all came in, like, you're not alone.

20:07He gets

20:08it on a level other people never will, you know? So, that's a beautiful thing. And for those of you

20:16who

20:16love hymns and things like that, what I love, and if you haven't ever heard it before, because some of

20:23you may not have, is the hymn, Turn Your Eyes. I'm just going to read through this. And some of

20:31you

20:32are going to be singing along with it, I'm sure. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful

20:39face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. So, you

20:47see,

20:48like, this is why we fix our eyes on Jesus, too, and we don't stick our heads in the sand.

20:54Turn your eyes to the hillside, where justice and mercy embraced. There the Son of God gave His life

21:03for us, and our measureless debt was erased. Jesus, to you we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our

21:13prize, we adore you, behold you, our Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. Turn your

21:22eyes to the morning and see Christ the lion awake. When a glorious dawn, fear of death is gone, for

21:31we

21:32carry His life in our veins. Oh my gosh, I want to run around my room. Turn your eyes to

21:38the heavens,

21:39our King will return for His own. Every knee will bow, every tongue will shout, all glory to Jesus

21:48alone. So, with that in mind, fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,

22:00and make sure that you're praying for those that are in leadership. Be praying for your enemies,

22:05blessing your enemies, not sticking your head in the sand somewhere. So, when the bombs are going off,

22:12when you see on the news, when these horrible things are going on over here and over there,

22:17yes, you're fixing your eyes on Jesus, but you're doing with the full weight and impact

22:22of what He did for us, and what the saints that have come before have done to line this all

22:28up for us,

22:28so that you can be victorious in it, so that you can be praying for justice, and not simply just

22:35shoving your head in a box, and just trying to get through it. No, we're here to change the world.

22:45Thank you so much for listening. Another video, kind of out of the same line of,

22:51they meant well, would be the video Truth in Love. So, I would recommend that you check that one

22:59out next. Thanks so much for watching. Have a blessed week. Catch you next time.

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