It's A Rewarding Race Series

It’s a Rewarding Race Hebrews 12:1-3

race(a???a/agona): root word for agony or agonize.

endurance (upomone/hupomone): mone—to remain; hupo—under; to remain under; not squirt out; not quit.

keeping (?f????te?/aphorontes): to look away from all else

Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus Means:

Jesus is our source

source: (ago???) “to lead,” and arche (???e), “the first.”

perfecter (teleioo /te?e???): “to carry through completely, to finish, to make perfect or complete.”

Jesus is our inspiration

He endured pain

He suffered shame

Jesus is our hope

1 Thessalonians 4:13 Romans 8:18

Jesus is our reminder

Illustration from Joni Earkson Tada ligonear mar 2018

Open your Bibles to Hebrews 12:1-3

We come to our 4th and final in-depth look at this incredible passage. What a great encouragement it has been through the ages to saints who have undergone agonizing struggles, unimaginable suffering, and heartbreaking loss. If ever a Christ-follower needed to memorize, meditate, and apply the teaching of Scripture, this passage is it.

The premise of these these 3 verses is this: As Christ-followers, God has called each of us to run a race. The race is the life of the believer that is lived by the power of God, lived passionately for God, and lived in a way pleasing to God.

And this morning we want to focus on the last part of the passage, primarily v.2

Stand and read: Hebrews 12:1-3 (on screen) Now, let’s read vv 2&3 again (on screen)

So that you won’t what? Grow weary and give up. Be seated. Why would we grow weary and give up? Because if we are REALLY running the race, REALLY engaged in the mission of Jesus, if we’re REALLY denying ourselves some good things so that we can run the race harder and faster and better—well, that’s exhausting at times; it’s discouraging at times; it’s defeating at times. As a matter of fact, the word for race(a???a/agona): root word for agony or agonize. If we’re really in the race, there are times it is agonizing.

But that’s the nature of the race. In v.1 it says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is before us.” Run with what? Endurance. Then in v.2 it says that Jesus “endured the cross”. We talked about endurance last week. Endurance (upomone/hupomone): mone—to remain; hupo—under; to remain under; not squirt out; not quit. When our pain goes up, our willingness to stay in the race can go down. We want to quit trying, quit loving, quit praying, quit trusting, quit giving. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to through the years who have told me they’ve just quit trying to pursue Christ, quit trying to mature, quit trying to run the race because, in their view, God didn’t answer their prayer the way they wanted; God didn’t come through the way they envisioned; so they just quit. The chose to squirt out of the pressure like a wet bar of soap. They chose to get out from under the pressure and pain by quitting the race.

So what is the key to run the race well, to not grow weary and quit? Says it right here in the text: Keeping our eyes on Jesus. keeping (?f????te?/aphorontes): to look away from all else So what this is saying is, Looking away from anything else and all else, and persist on looking at Jesus.

One of the things I found out about running hurdles when I was in High School is that you never look at the hurdle. You look beyond the hurdle. If you look at the hurdle, you’ll end up in the hurdle, under the hurdle, mangled by the hurtle.

We’re admonished in this passage to look away from the distractions, to look above the obstacles and keep and fix our eyes on Jesus. What does it mean to keep our eyes on Jesus?

Keeping Our Eyes on Jesus Means:

Jesus is our source

Notice what it says in v. 2 Keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.” The word source is made up of two Greek words: source: (ago???) “to lead,” and arche (???e), “the first.” The compound word means “the chief leader, one that takes the lead in anything and thus furnishes the example. Jesus serves as the supreme example of faith.” Kenneth Wuest

He is also the finisher or perfecter of our faith. The word is perfecter (teleioo /te?e???): “to carry through completely, to finish, to make perfect or complete.” Our Lord in His life of faith on earth, became the perfect or complete example of the life of faith

You saw this throughout the life of Jesus. He was always pointing to the Father, always pleasing the Father, always trusting the Father. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane and just minutes away from being betrayed and beaten and tortured and finally, excruciatingly executed on a Roman cross, He said, “Not my will, but yours.” In other words, I’m trusting in You, Father, despite all this pain.” When He was hanging on that cross, and the weight of the sin of a fallen humanity was placed on Him to pay the penalty, He said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, I commit myself.” In other words, Father, I believe that this plan, this circumstance, this agony is Your course for me and I’m trusting you to the end.” He is our ultimate example of faith.