Looking to Jesus

November 18th, 2025
by John Thweatt

Hebrews 11 is a fascinating chapter…the writer gives us what some have called The Hall of Fame of Faith, but there is a common theme that runs throughout the chapter. In 11:10 he says of Abraham, “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God.” We find it again in 11:16, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” At the end of the chapter, he speaks of the countless martyrs whose names we don’t know, but as he turns to chapter 12 he speaks of Jesus “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.”

Chapter 12 continues that theme by showing us that we don’t come to Moses’ mountain…blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages to be spoken to them, but we come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. We come to the Holy place boldly by the blood of Jesus…we come to Jesus!

So, as we live this life we must press on. We must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and on the Heavenly City that is to come. We cannot lose hope because our eyes are set there and we cannot continue in our sin because we’ve seen the glorious One in the face of Christ and He is simply better than all the world has to offer.

There is a scene in Pilgrim’s Progress that pictures this. Christian and Hopeful reached the Delightful Mountains and met Shepherds feeding their flock. Bunyan said,

“Then the Shepherds said to one another, ‘If they have the skill to look through our perspective lens, let’s now show the Pilgrims the gates of Celestial City.

The Pilgrims then lovingly accepted the idea. So the Shepherds took them to the top of a high hill called Clear, and gave them the lens to look through…they thought they saw something like the gates and also some of the glory of that place. Then they went away and sang this song…”

It is interesting to me that the Delightful Mountains appear earlier the Pilgrim’s Progress. In Palace Beautiful they saw Immanuel’s Land from the top of the house, and it encouraged them to move toward the Delightful Mountains.

As we study the Word of God we catch glimpses of Heaven. It is often just a keyhole view. In my great-grandfather’s house each room had skeleton keys and during Christmas I would often peak through the hole to see what was going on…I couldn’t see the whole room, but I saw enough to be excited for Christmas morning.

The Bible gives us glimpses of Heaven, of the Heavenly City, and we must fix our eyes on Jesus who is there and fight the good fight.