38) Run The Race
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Turn with me to the Holy Word of God, to the 12th chapter of Hebrews.
1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.
As we can tell from the very first word, therefore, this passage does not stand on its own. It is tied to previous text and if you remember this group of believers was struggling. Life was not going they way they had envisioned. They have come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior. It is believed that this group did not have first hand experience of the ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. We find this in the first verses of chapter 2.
Much like us today they were told about the hope of salvation that is found in Jesus. The Gospel, The good news, that Jesus died for their sins as well as ours. That he has risen and ascended into heaven. They believed.
But life was not easy. They believed. They were promised salvation but like today many have this idea that eternal salvation from the condemnation we deserve for our sins against God, some how also means that we will be saved from all discomfort or trial in this world.
As much as we wish this to be true it is not what the bible promises. It actually promises that trial and persecution will come to those that believe and many times these trials and persecutions don’t match up with our expectations of what the Christian life should be.
And when believers look to places other than Jesus for their security, happiness, and comfort and do not find it we can grow weary and we can start to loose our confidence in the reward that is promised by God. Just like they were in the early church.
35 So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised. 37 For yet in a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. 38 But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and are saved.
There are many parallels with this verse and our passage today. There is a reward to pursue, a need for endurance. To live by faith and to press on, to go forward and not to draw away.
For the last 7 weeks we looked at different people in the history of the Nation of Isreal, God’s chosen people. They have been shown that they were approved as righteous by God, not because of their great works and accomplishments but because of their faith. Their faith in God and more specifically Christ.
1 Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
Even though it was not as clear to them as it is for us today they were saved by faith the same as every other believer has been.
The author gave 10 specific detailed examples, 5 others by name that were not detailed out, and untold others by their actions of faith. Striving to help the struggling believers from turning away and to press on. And he turns to a common literary tool that is used in the scriptures. Metaphor.
The primary thought in the first three verses of this passage is
Therefore, Let us run with endurance the race the lies before us.
The remainder of this passage is provided to explain and expound on the race that every believer is called to run.
The Race
The Race
What is this race that he speaks of?
Let us run. It starts here. This is not a suggestion. They are to get up and move. This is not a spectator sport. Each and every believer is to run this race without exception. This race will not be easy. How do we know that.
Run
Let us run. The word run here means to progress forward.
Endurance
Let us run in endurance. Sometimes endurance can mean patients but here it means to run with steady determination. The only way to continue in a race for the long haul is to be determined to finish the race that has been started.
Agony
Let us run in endurance the race. The word that the author used that is translated into race is the Greek word agon. This is where we get the word agony in the English language.
The readers of the letter would have understood this to to be communicating a long an arduous race. Remember the primary mode of transportation was your feet. The image here is more of a marathon that does not end.
Reward
Let us run with endurance the race marked out for us. Or set before us. There is a specific race to run. It is one that has been set before each believer it is that race to pursue the reward, to pursue the promises of God. It is likely that the author and the readers were picturing the Isthmus games. The great Greek games of the time. In these games foot races were especially popular. Paul refers to them as well.
24 Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. 25 Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown.
In these games there was only one winner. Only one prize and it was usually a laurel or pine wreath. The readers of Hebrews would be picturing in their minds these games. Each believer was to run this race with determination to win the prize. Even though we do not compete against one another the idea is that the Christian life it do be determined and enduring, focused on the prize that has been set before us.
We have people all around us who diligently pursue athletics and other things in this way. To be single minded and focused. For an Olympian to set their mind on a Gold medal or for a basketball team to take home the tournament trophy. Competition in our day is fierce and the only way to win the crown is to race in the way that they speak of here.
Can we say the we have the determination to win the prize as these others in our world do? Are Christians running the race?
Could Christianity today be better described as running aimlessly or beating the air?
26 So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. 27 Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
Paul says it takes discipline and self control. We are very good today at boxing at the air and running aimlessly.
30% of pastors consider "regular attendance" to mean attending church at least twice a month.
An additional 25% lower the threshold to just once a month attendance (Lifeway Research)
16% of pastors consider once a week attendance to be the required threshold for regular attendance (Lifeway Research)
I find there something very alarming with these statistics. Where do pastors get the idea that church is some place we attend? The church is the universal body of believers. The bride of Christ.
4 As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God—5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Believers are being built into a spiritual house not a physical house. You cannot attend church. You are either of the church or not of the church. We are not called to attend we are called to gather together for all sorts of reasons. We should gather to help and encourage each other to run the race. We gather in our homes, we gather in small groups and we gather together here locally in corporate worship, fellowship, study, and prayer.
A pastor should be less concerned about how a regular attender is define and more with those that are struggling in the race. But he is not alone in reaching out to brothers and sisters and loving and caring for one another.
What is concerning about those statistics is that Christians do not consider gathering together as a necessity to running the race. That they don’t desire to be with other believers.
I was always taught to have your service less than an hour and never preach more than 30 minutes. If that is true, then a person who comes and gathers with believers every Sunday for 1 year they will have been with other believers 52 hours. If the average person sleeps 8 hours a day, that is 52 hours out of 5,840 hours. That is less than 1 % of the year. A person will work over 34% of the year. A person with full time attendance in church for 1 year will spend 34x more time at work and the other 65% on who knows what. 99% of a believers time in the church today is not with other believers.
I have no desire to guilt or shame anyone today. My hearts desire it for every person here to be running the race. That this will be a place that people are running the race diligently.
I need my brothers and sisters in Christ. Every week I come here to be with God’s people. To be encouraged and to grow. I meet twice a week minimum with a small group and 2 or more people each week one on one. And numerous phone calls and emails.
And to be honest many times that doesn’t seem enough. Why? out of some obligation? Is that because I am a Pastor? I don’t think so. No its because we are running the race together.
1 For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person. 2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. 3 In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable.
It is one of the things I love the most about Dishman is that people are gathering, and caring, and praying for each other. They reach out if they hear you are in need. It is a community that is growing in God’s love for each other. And it is growing little by little, I see it growing and only God gets the glory.
So how do we keep from running aimlessly. Well the author gives us some ways.
The Examples of Faith
The Examples of Faith
Hebrews 12:1 (CSB)
1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, ...
This is not a group of people sitting in a stadium watching and cheering us on. It is not a group of people watching us as we try to impress them or gain their approval. No these are all of the ancestors that were approved by God as righteous by their faith that we spoken of in chapter 11 and beyond.
Each and every believer who has lived by faith in Jesus stands as a witness and a testimony to God’s approval of the faithful. Their lives are a testament to men and woman running this race and being determined to receive the prize. To life by faith in the conflict and trial of this world and to receive the reward, the crown that is imperishable.
The author went through old testament examples and we see them in the new testament as well such as Paul, James, Peter, Tabitha, Philip and many others. They are witnesses like Stephen was.
20 And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood there giving approval and guarding the clothes of those who killed him.’
A life lived in faith and the testimony of that life. We can look to the bible but we can also look to our own, witnesses like Rex Phillips, Joanie Kannegard, and Don Swanson are just a few that have recieved the reward and we can be encouraged by their lives.
We see the example those that have come before us but it is not their accomplishments we are to look at but what the laid aside.
Lay Aside
Lay Aside
Hebrews 12:1 (CSB)
1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. ...
This race has nothing to do with running. We run this race by steadfast determination/perseverance to lay aside every hindrance and sin.
Hindrance
Your translation may say weight/encumbrance. The idea here is not something that is inherently bad. But it is a weight that is carried by the runner. In these games weight matters. Every ounce counts. Look at the uniforms of runners especially long distance runners. The less you carry with the better for running the race. Are snow pants bad? Is a motorcycle helmet bad to wear? We have runners here. Simon if you showed up with a helmet for your next race would that improve you ability to run well.
We as people like to hang onto things that are weighing us down. I cannot count how many times I have heard “Well bible doesn’t say I can’t do that”. “The bible doesn’t say how often I have to do that”. That is not the point that the author is making here. Much of what they were attempting to turn back to was not necessarily wrong but it was weighing them down. Drawing them away from the objective. distracting them from the race that was set before them. We have lots of these today. Good things that keep us from running the race.
What do we cling to or desire to chase that weighs us down?
The Sin
The other part of this is the sin that so easily ensnares us. The race set before us is a race to lay aside sin. Jesus’ first word as he began to preach in his ministry was Repent.
17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Repent is to turn from something towards something else. In this case it is to turn away from the sin in our lives, to lay it aside and to turn to something better. To turn towards Jesus.
Paul described this as
12 The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
20 But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
Lust of the eyes, desires of the flesh and the pride of life. To see everything you want to see, partake in as many sweet things as possible and live to boast of your own great works. Many will do just that. They will turn from the hard path which promises the ultimate reward, to the consolation prizes, the participation trophy that means nothing, and has no value. And like most participation trophies they will be discarded as worthless because they were not earned and therefore did not matter.
It is sin that draws us away and can stop us dead in our tracts. This race is one that is agony. It is difficult to be willing to see your own sin and then to lay it aside. Many sins are so entangled in our lives that it takes a full transformation of areas of our lives by the work of the Holy Spirit. They can be very difficult to lay aside but they can be. That is how we run this race.
This is only possible by
Fixing our eyes on Jesus
Fixing our eyes on Jesus
2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The word translated as keeping or fixing here means to turn away from looking to anything else but the object before you. He is saying turn your attention from the witnesses even though they testify, they will not help you run the race, turn from all of the things of this world, they weigh you down, and turn from focusing on your sin and fix you eyes on Jesus. Only Jesus will put all of the others into the appropriate perspective.
Do not look around at anyone else. Look to Jesus. I think this is a struggle for most people in some way or another. We spend more time fixing our eyes on other people than on Jesus.
We can become critics. We can find ourselves in a bad habit of looking at others. We spend so much time talking about other peoples sin. We become speck experts. We look out and study and categorize, quantity and catalog all of the specks in other peoples eyes that we fail to ever remove a single plank from our own.
Others find themselves in the comparison game. We look out and we don’t run our own race we just make sure we are staying up with the person next to us. Or more specifically we find people that are not where we are at and we say to ourselves we are dong better than them so I am good. This is not diligently running.
Others spend there time blaming others of the sins and hindrances that we are responsible for. In the end we stand alone before the Lord with what went on in our life and our heart. You are responsible for your race and your race alone. There are horrible things that happen to people. It happens every day and every moment of every day and that is horrible. But we still stand in a personal race with our eyes fixed on the savior on Jesus.
But we are to fix our eyes on Jesus and he will lead us. How?
Because he is the Pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
Pioneer/Author The word means trailblazer. One who goes first and ahead of others.
10 For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—for whom and through whom all things exist—should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Without The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus there is no way for man into the presence of God. There is no reconciliation. There is no salvation. He is the author of our faith as the one and only perfect example of faith.
Not only is he the pioneer but he is the perfecter. He is the one who will take it to completion and it is completed without blemish or defect it is perfect.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.
We fix our eyes on Jesus because he is the perfect example of faith in many ways.
He was tempted but without sin as a perfect example of faith
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus example of will
30 “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
God’s will is good.
2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Joy
We are to run the race set before us and what was set before Jesus.
Hebrews 12:2 (CSB)
For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus’ example is that he ran for the joy before him and to sit down at the right hand of the father.
He endured the Cross, This is the only reference to the cross in Hebrews. The cross was to be the foundation of the faith that he speaks of. All of what he has accomplished, Who he is, who he is better than, all leads to the single event of the cross. the most important event in human history. The event that is the source of our faith, and Jesus who is the perfect example of faith.
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. 9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth—
Jesus willingly disregarded the shame of a criminal death to accomplish his father’s will. By completing the work he was sent to do.
4 I have glorified you on the earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with that glory I had with you before the world existed.
We run for the same motivation as Jesus ran for. The joy of demonstrating the glory of God by showing him to the world by allowing him to shine through our lives. To walk in the light. To be Holy as he is Holy.
Jesus reward was to sit down at the right hand of the throne of God. This is in the perfect tense. It is accomplished. It is finished. And we run to receive our reward.
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
8 There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.
Jesus’ example of endured hostility
3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.
Consider, Think about carefully what Jesus endured. weariness and the desire to give up can creep up on any believer. But the solution to that is to remember thoughtfully and carefully what Jesus endured. What he endured on his way to the cross? What hostility he endures from unsaved and save sinners everyday. We are to think about that so that we do not get weary. To remember....
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Today we gather as believers from all different backgrounds and experiences. But we are all one in Christ for those that believe in Jesus as their Lord and savior. Those that have been crucified with him. We no longer live but Christ that lives in us. Christ gave is life for us so the we may live.
Because they found to tomb empty, there is hope. There is Joy. There is a race to be ran.
Today is the day the the church comes together and focuses on the resurrection of Jesus. Without his life we would all still be in a hopeless and dark place. But when they arrived at the tomb it was empty. He was not there he has risen. Risen to sit at the right hand of the throne of God.
Easter is one of the two times of year that many churches go to extravagant ways to entice and get people to attend their church. All over the country churches will pull out all of the stops, bring out all of the bells and whistles. I cannot say if this is good or bad in itself but I have seen a tendency to put on a show. And leave much of Jesus out of the message and the events of today.
I have even been part of planning these events myself. But over the years I always felt like what if someone came on Easter and then came back the next week. Would they experience two different churches? Is that what God desires for us?
Is that what church is? Today is about the resurrection of Jesus he has risen, he is alive, and guess what so is tomorrow morning and every day until what ever day Easter is next year. We are in a race as believers and I would like to invite everyone here who does not have a community of believers to run the race with, I hope you would prayerfully consider gathering with us. We are running the race too. It is hard and messy but Christ lives and he lives in each and every one of us.
Today of all days is a day to lay aside anything that could be a hindrance. Today we simply fix our eyes on him and him alone. Run the race and shine in the world.
14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.
I want to leave you with some questions today?
Are you in the race? Only a person who has been saved, who has put their trust and faith in the saving work of Jesus’ death as the substitute for the guilt that they incurred. That Jesus took their place.
9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
If you are in the race. How are you doing in laying aside hindrances and sin? How are you doing at fixing your eyes on Jesus, turning from everything to see him.
Have you lost your way? been turned aside? In danger of turning away to the things of this world?
Are you in need of Christian community? I encourage you to be with each other. As much as possible in this world. Enjoy one another, walk with one another.
We each race our own race, but we always need help, how are you racing?
Let us pray.