Surrounded by a Cloud of Witnesses

 

Passing the Baton…

While Surrounded by a Cloud of Witnesses


By Pastor Dan Kennedy

©2009

www.pastorkennedy.com


Today is a wonderful and interesting day.  We are gathered here to witness a gracious and blessed transition within the Body of Christ.


Today is a transition, not unlike the passing of the baton in a track and field relay race.   I think the relay race, in any track and field day, is always one of the most exciting and much anticipated races of the day!  A baton is passed through the hands of four athletes straining for a prize for their team.  Sometimes there is the mishandling of the baton causing a well-favored team, which may have been ideally suited to win the race, to loose the race because one of the team members accidentally dropped the baton in the exhaustion or confusion of the race.  I pray that will never be the case here!


Passing the Baton while Surrounded by a Cloud of Witnesses


Hebrews 12

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, 2 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.


The phrase, “So Great a Cloud of Witnesses” is a very unique statement. 


This “cloud” is not a raincloud, dust storm, snowstorm, or fogbank, inhibiting the race in any way.  It is uniquely, a cloud of people and spiritual beings who know exactly who we are and where we live.   These are quiet observers whose presence may be acknowledged or even disavowed in our ignorance, but this “cloud of witnesses” is unmistakably a cloud of knowledgeable, perceptive, experienced and astute beings.  They are ones who understand our race.  They are ones who have run in or who have seen many similar races, and who know the outcome of a well-run race.  They are ones who will one day give their unbiased and faithful opinion to the Judge of the Universe, and their judgment will be honest, fair, truthful and just.


Today, we are surrounded by a Great Cloud of Witnesses!


Two Unique Aspects from this Study

In studying this passage, I found two unique aspects that I had not previously thought about, in association with this passage:


A.It is interesting to me that God does not seem to focus on His All-Knowing Omnipresence alone to reveal the reality of our lives in the Eternal Court of Heaven!  God seems to be intent on the verification of a person’s life (good or bad) through His Presence and those who are found in this vast Cloud of Witnesses!


God uses a profound body of evidence from every available source surrounding each person, to verify the authenticity of the facts about our lives.  Those who are honorably seeking God have no reason to fear eternity, but this should become the cause of great fear for those who are not!  (Heb. 10:26,27)


B.God’s Witnesses Reveal who of those running, are running a True Race!


There is a Problem in our thinking that we will somehow make an impression on God by “running any kind of race” as long as we are somewhere near God’s racetrack!


God is more concerned with the condition of our heart as we run, than our trying to impress Him by being seeing by Him or by others, on His “racetrack”! 


God is not the least impressed by anyone running on His “racetrack”, if that person continues to allow him or herself to be carnally encumbered or distracted by spiritually debilitating weights or destructive sins, even if they seem to be performing at the highest levels of their natural talent or in the greatest excellence of human technical efficiency!


Let’s see if you will agree with me about these observations, as we study this passage!


There are at Least Four Witnesses in this “Cloud”

I believe there are at least four types of “witnesses” that could be found in this “cloud”.


1.Legal Witnesses

2.Historical Witnesses

3.Spectator Witnesses

4.and, Our own Personal Witness


1.“A Cloud of Witnesses”, in a Legal Sense. A legal witness is a qualified individual who will verify the truth of an event or life.  Our District Representative is here today.  He is a “legal witness” to Village Missions.  Each of us here today is also a “witness” of this event. 


Types of Witnesses:  In every courtroom there are practical and factual witnesses.


Witnesses that authenticate the detail of the event in question.

oExample:  Witnesses observing an accident caused by one who ran a red light…


Witnesses that are characters references for the people involved.

oExample:  This man or woman was honorable or dishonorable; trustworthy and believable, or otherwise…


They may even be Expert Witnesses who bring to light specific unknown facts of an event, life, or circumstance, which might never be seen otherwise.

oExample:  James Bain, who was imprisoned in Bartow, Fla., was recently exonerated by newly uncovered DNA evidence offered by expert witnesses, and was freed December 17th, after being imprisoned 35 years for a crime he did not commit.


The goal of every court should give justice, reward, punishment, or fair judgment, to those seeking justice and accountability.  There is necessity for good witnesses.  Heaven’s Court will have the most factual witnesses of all time! 


Ecclesiastes 12

13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

See also:  Ecc. 11:9; Job 19:29; Matt. 12:36; Acts 17:31; Rom. 2:16; 14:10, 12; 1 Cor. 4:5


Four Legal Witnesses in God’s Court


Honorable representatives in courts seek to find reliable witnesses.

The legal “cloud of witnesses” spoken of in Hebrews 12 will be authenticating what has happened to us on this earth.  There seem to be at least four legal witnesses in heaven, regarding our life, which will be represented before the throne of God.


The Spirit of the Living God within us (those who believe in Jesus Christ and have been Born Again by the Holy Spirit), witnesses to the truth of who we are in our relationship to God and others.  He is with us at all times and He knows the intent of our very thoughts. 


Psalm 139:1-12

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.


Proverbs 15

3The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch

on the evil and the good.  See also Ps. 33:18; 34:15; 1 Pet. 3:12


The Holy Spirit is the Most Verifiable Witness of what is true or not so true about our lives, because He knows the very intent of our hearts, but the Holy Spirit is not the only spiritual beings observing our lives.


A Host of Angelic Beings, who are sent to minister to us and to observe us, could also be heavenly witnesses.


oNebuchadnezzar called these angelic beings “watchers” in Daniel 4:13-18, in his dream of the great tree which provided protection and sustenance before it was cut down and banded with iron and bronze.


oZechariah observed them in a vision as those who “patrol” the earth.  Zechariah 1:7-11


oAngelic beings are sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.


Hebrews 1

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?


Psalm 34

7The angel of the Lord encamps around those

who fear him, and delivers them.


The Body of Christ

The saints will judge the world, and even judge the angels.


1 Corinthians 6

2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?....

3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels?


Faithful Leaders in the church will be required to give a heavenly accounting, in regard to those for whom they are honorable stewards.


Hebrews 13

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.


The Prophet Daniel gives us a glimpse of God’s courtroom in heaven.


Daniel 7

9 “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. 10A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened!”


  1. BulletGod wants us to comprehend that there is a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

  2. BulletGod wants us to Lay Aside any Obstructing weights, including the sin that so easily causes us to veer off our true course and lose the full benefit of the reward He wants to give us!

  3. BulletGod encourages us to run our race with Endurance, Looking at and Drawing on the Strength of Jesus who set the example for us, who for the joy for what was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now eternally exalted in heaven on the right hand of the Throne of God!


In this great “cloud of witnesses” there are those who will be witnesses in a legal sense, but there will also be a host of historical witnesses in that great “cloud”!



  1. 2.“A Cloud of Witnesses”, in a historical sense.  Lives that have been lived in the past are historical witnesses.  This “cloud” may have been a direct reference to those men and women of faith written of in Hebrews 11.  Note the word “witnesses” in Greek is the word from which we can find our most reliable, trustworthy “witness”, for it is from this word that we have derived our English word for “martyrs”! 

            So great a cloud of “witnesses” = gr: martyros


These witnesses can say… “We have gone through the same things that you have gone through.  We are witnesses of the Grace of God in a depraved world.”


1 Corinthians 10:13  “No temptation has taken you but that which is common to man”…


Hebrews 11 gives us a broad account of these historical witnesses:

Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab,


32And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 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. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 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— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.


These who died in faith experienced incredible difficulties and yet they were victorious through faith in the Living God. 


Jesus used historical references to remind us that those who lived in righteousness or in repentance in the past will rise up in condemnation, at the judgment, against those who are sinning against the Lord…no matter in what generation they lived!

As mentioned before, God does not just use the undeniable Omnipresence of Himself as the only verification of how lives have been lived, or events that have taken place…God uses a host of verifiable sources.  These are cross-generational, historical witnesses.


Matthew 12

38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 42 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.


  1. BulletGod wants us to comprehend that there is a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

  2. BulletGod wants us to Lay Aside any Obstructing weights, including the sin that so easily causes us to veer off our true course and lose the full benefit of the reward He wants to give us!

  3. BulletGod encourages us to run our race with Endurance, Looking at and Drawing on the Strength of Jesus who set the example for us, who for the joy for what was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now eternally exalted in heaven on the right hand of the Throne of God!


In this great cloud of witnesses, there are Legal Witnesses and Historical Witnesses, but there are also witnesses who are merely spectators, who become witnesses by simply their own observation of what is happening, because they are around us.


3.“A Cloud of Witnesses” in the sense of spectatorship.  Those who observe the present life, who may never be “legal or spiritual witnesses”, but instead, these are intent observers of our lives – wanting to know how a Child of God should respond in this sin-cursed world!


a. Spectatorship of those around us


  1.   Those who do not know Christ in our family, friends, associates and casual observers – known and unknown.


b. Spectatorship of those who cannot be seen:


  1.   Spiritual personalities: angelic beings; “principalities and powers”


Colossians 2

God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.


Job

Satan and his demonic host were spectators of the life of Job.


1 Peter 1

12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.


1.Legal Witnesses

2.Historical Witnesses

3.Spectator Witnesses


  1. BulletGod wants us to comprehend that there is a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

  2. BulletGod wants us to Lay Aside any Obstructing weights, including the sin that so easily causes us to veer off our true course and lose the full benefit of the reward He wants to give us!

  3. BulletGod encourages us to run our race with Endurance, Looking at and Drawing on the Strength of Jesus who set the example for us, who for the joy for what was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now eternally exalted in heaven on the right hand of the Throne of God!


Finally, there is our own personal witness.


4.“A Witness within the Cloud” in a personal sense. The witness of “remembrance” and the witness of a clear conscience.


Our own memory of events and the clearness of our conscience are prime witnesses to the authenticity of our life.  Our personal memory could easily be God’s vivid continuous “record” of each of our public and private life experience.

God has our life constantly recorded visually, perceptively, mentally, emotionally and actually, through our eyes, nose, mouth, ears, touch, emotions, mind and spirit.  All of those unique links of life are connected to our memory and conscience.


A Conscience Void of Offense


The Apostle Paul, like all steward of Christ’s Church sought to live a life void of offense during his ministry years here. 


1 Thessalonians 2

9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers. 11 For you know how, like a father with his children, 12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.


Paul kept a Clear Conscience in his ministry


Paul defended his ministry before Governor Felix when accused by the high priest and Jews from Jerusalem.


Acts 24

16 So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.


Philippians 1

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.


We all have a memory and a conscience.  I believe that these are primary and first-hand witnesses in the events of our lives.

1.Legal Witnesses

2.Historical Witnesses

3.Spectator Witnesses

4.The Witness of our own Personal Conscience and Memory


Conclusion


Today we are witnesses, surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in the running of a race, in the life of a church.  A baton is being handed off.  A faithful pastor is retiring from his position, and another pastor is faithfully being installed for the next phase of ministry.  In another sense, all of us here are receiving the baton in a new way today to keep pressing on running the race to receive the prize of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus…and this race is not completely over for any of us until we see Christ. 


There is the passing of baton,

The loosing of the hand of one,

And the grasping and holding tightly of that same baton, by another.


The passing of this baton is not done in frivolous naivety,

Because the souls of men and women, boys and girls could be profoundly affected!

The baton is passed solemnly, in serious contemplation and realization

That the race needs to continue to be run well,

Until the baton is once again faithfully passed to another faithful steward,

or until Christ Returns! When it can be finally said…


“I have fought the good fight;

I have finished the course;

I have kept the faith.


Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness (to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you – 1 Peter 1:4), which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also

to all who have loved his appearing.”  2 Timothy 4:7,8


***

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, 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.  Hebrews 12


  1. BulletGod wants us to comprehend that there is a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.

  2. BulletGod wants us to Lay Aside any Obstructing weights, including the sin that so easily causes us to veer off our true course and lose the full benefit of the reward He wants to give us!

  3. BulletGod encourages us to run our race with Endurance, Looking at and Drawing on the Strength of Jesus who set the example for us, who for the joy for what was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now eternally exalted in heaven on the right hand of the Throne of God!