When Napoleon began his Egyptian campaign, he pointed to the pyramids and shouted to his men, “Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you!” In a sense this is the message the author of Hebrews is trying to deliver to the struggling Hebrew Christians. Your contest of faith is not going unnoticed. It is being witnessed by former contestants, whose careers of faith ended without ever receiving what was promised, but who faithfully finished their course of faith. The message is that now it is our turn to do the same. The problem is though we have a real hard time seeing anything through to completion. The word commitment seems strangely absent from our society. When faced with serious temptation, we give in. If Christian leaders disappoint us, we drop out of church. If so called intellectuals ridicule the Bible, we doubt our faith. If money gets tight we quit giving. If we get rejected when we talk to someone about our faith we clam up. The people who please God are those who have enough faith to tough it out when the road gets hard. When we give up on the Christian life we give the enemies of Christ reasons to ridicule Christ and His church. It discourages other believers and destroys your sense of significance in God’s kingdom. But a faithful Christian life is an inspirational witness and it gives confidence to those who see it. In our text the writer of Hebrews compares the Christian life to a marathon, with those heroes we saw listed in chapter 11 in the stands cheering us on. Today I would like us to see the three incentives that the writer of Hebrews gives us for developing a faith that persevere when the road gets hard.
I. We can be inspired by the great heroes of the faith.
A. As we have seen Hebrews chapter 11 is jam packed with inspiring examples of faith.
1. The appeal to run with perseverance the race marked out for us suggests that the Christian life is more a marathon than a short sprint.
2. The writer is picturing athletes in a footrace, running for the winning post and urged on by the crowd.
3. Perhaps the best way to understand this is to picture something like a relay race where those who have finished their course and handed in their baton are watching and encouraging their successors.
4. With the stands full of the great examples of faith it is important for each of us to run well.
B. The reason we should find the examples of faith from chapter 11 so inspiring.
1. When we see their shortcomings we realize that they really are not too different from us.
2. We can be encouraged how they kept going despite the many times they fell along the way.
3. We can be encouraged when we see how they faithfully stood in the face of adversity.
4. These examples should encourage each of us to continue to press on.
5. They demonstrate the nature and possibilities of faith for believers in every generation. As contestants in the race, we are to look to their example for encouragement.
C. When you are discouraged and tempted to quit consider some modern day heroes of the faith.
1. Consider Ben Merold who at eighty-one years old is still faithfully preaching and leading a congregation that averages more than 4,000 each week.
2. You probably would not have to think very hard to compile your own list of heroes whose example of faith has impacted your life.
3. When tempted to quit consider the list of people that might be negatively impacted by your decision to do so.
4. Being surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses how can we not continue to press on.
II. Be prepared for the struggles that will definitely come.
A. Get rid of the stuff that spiritually weighs you down.
1. The Greek word onkos is translated "Everything that hinders" (only here in the NT), this word usually means any kind of weight. It was sometimes used of unnecessary bodily weight that the athlete sheds during training.
2. The writer is not talking about sin, because he addresses that in the next clause.
3. Ancient athletes carried nothing with them in a race (they even ran naked), and the writer is suggesting that the Christian should "travel light."
4. There will be things that we carry in our lives that are not necessarily sins but yet they weigh us down and keep us from being the person God has called us to be.
5. These could be possessions, habits or even some relationships.
6. The Hebrew writer is trying to help us see that we need to lighten our load so that we will be able to run the best race possible.
B. Be prepared, do not let sin deceive or entangle you.
1. Christians need to be watchful and not fall into sin.
2. The adjective translated "that so easily entangles" (euperistatos), is only found here in the Bible. The word is made up of three parts that mean respectively "well," "around," and "standing." The majority of scholars accept some such meaning as "easily surrounding" or "easily entangling."
3. Sin forms a crippling hindrance to good running. Christians then, are to lay aside all that could hinder them in their race and are to "run with perseverance."
4. The writer is describing the effect that sin as well as the feelings of guilt which accompany it, has on the Christian’s ability to persevere or endure until the end of the “race.”
5. If we are to persevere in the Christian life we need to maintain our guard and not let sin deceive or entangle us.
C. Pace yourself, you are running a marathon.
1. The author is not thinking of a short, sharp sprint but of a distance race that requires endurance and persistence.
2. Everyone has from time to time a mild inclination to do good. The author is not talking about this but about the kind of sustained effort required of the long-distance runner who keeps on with great determination over the long course.
3. That is what the heroes of faith did in their day, and it is that to which we are called.
4. If we do not pace ourselves for a long demanding race we may miss out on the prize, which is God’s gracious gift of eternal life to all who complete the race.
III. Keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ.
A. We are to run this race "with no eyes for anyone or anything except Jesus". It is He toward whom we run. There must be no divided attention.
1. Jesus is our example, He perfectly finished His race. He now stands at the finish line so our eyes must be fixed on Him.
2. The Greek text describes Jesus as the archegon (which means pioneer, pathfinder or beginner) and the teleioten (which means finisher or completer) of our faith.
3. When Jesus was here on earth, He lived by faith. The mystery of His divine and human natures is too profound for us to understand fully, but we do know that He had to trust His Father in heaven as He lived day by day.
4. The fact that Jesus prayed daily clues us into the fact that He lived by faith.
5. After we examine these facts we can see that there is no reason to fix our eyes on anyone or anything but Jesus.
B. Jesus endured far more than did any of the heroes of faith named in Hebrews 11, and therefore He is a perfect example for us to follow.
1. He endured the cross! This involved shame, suffering, the “opposition” of sinners, and even temporary rejection by the Father. On the cross He suffered for all the sins of all the world!
2. As the one who has realized faith to the full from start to finish, He has fulfilled God’s promises for all who believe, giving faith a perfect basis by His high-priestly work.
3. Jesus endured because he looked beyond the shame and suffering of the cross to the joy set before Him.
4. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. (John 17:4—NIV)
5. Throughout the book of Hebrews, the writer emphasized the importance of the future hope. His readers were prone to look back and want to go back, but he encouraged them to follow Christ’s example and look ahead by faith.
6. The heroes of faith named in the previous chapter lived for the future, and this enabled them to endure
7. When we are tempted to quit, waiver or look back we need to fix our eyes on Jesus.
a. Do not look at people they will disappoint you.
b. Do not look at the church or its leaders; they are imperfect.
c. Do not focus on yourself or you will really be disappointed.
8. Focus on Jesus. He never disappoints, He is faithful and He promises to reward you in the end.
9. As we see Jesus in the Word and yield to His Spirit, He increases our faith and enables us to run the race.
BIG WINNER, BIG GIVER. That was the title of an article in TODAY’S CHRISTIAN, Jan/Feb 2001. Here’s the story. Starting a church isn’t easy. It takes prayer, time, effort, and money. Sometimes it’s the money that’s a killer. Just ask 41-year-old Kim Hunt. He helped with a church plant in Seattle after graduating from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Forth Worth, Texas, in 1989. The church ended up closing because it lost the support and funding of its sponsoring church. Now, after winning a million dollars on the hit TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" he’s trying to make sure that doesn’t happen to some other churches.
After Hunt won the million dollars, the idea came quickly to him. Why not supply a few young, needy churches with some expense money? And apparently that’s what he did.
Big winner, big giver. But an even bigger winner and a bigger giver is Jesus. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Jesus was and is the winner of all winners. HE CONQUERED DEATH AND SATAN ON THE CROSS! On the cross, Jesus said to Satan, “I win and you lose.” Jesus is the ultimate winner in life who encourages us to keep going. He is the one who can save us, motivate us and encourage us to make it in the journey of life!
