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.
And if you’re a Christ-follower, the Spirit of Christ is in you! If you need faith to endure, look to Jesus! If you need faith to love more, look to Jesus. If you need faith to give more, look to Jesus! If you need faith to believe God is at work in your life for you good and His glory, look to Jesus! If you do, you’ll keep running.
Jesus is our inspiration
Because of what He endured, we are inspired to endure ourselves. What did He endure?
Well, the text says that He endured two great challenges:
He endured pain: we can only take a passing glance at the pain Jesus experienced on the cross: the iron nails that resemble more like a railroad spike than they do a nail you use around the house; driven through his hands and feet. His body hung in such a way that in order to breathe he would have to push up on the nails in his feet and pull up with his arms inflicting excruciating pain in both hands and feet. The lungs would slowly fill with fluid and he would be very aware of the fact that he was drowning. Ultimately, the man part of this God-man came to its death. So painful and awful was this form of death that it was reserved for the worst of the worst of the rabble. The apostle Paul gets at it when he says in Phil. 2 that Jesus was obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
His pain was not only physical, but it was also emotional and relational. He was dying because He was rejected by the very people He came to love and save. They cast insults at Him and taunted Him. How traumatic that must have been. Oh the pain that must have been.
But nothing compared to the spiritual pain of having the sin, the wickedness, every murder, every rape, every act of racism and injustice, every lynching, every sexual assault, every torture for all of history for all of humanity laid on Him. THAT, is beyond imagination.
He suffered shame. The Scripture says he despised it. Most likely that means “In spite of the shame.” ‘Like, that’s all you got?” And there was plenty of shame. When we see paintings of Jesus on the cross, the painters put clothing on Him. But in all likelihood He was absolutely naked. The romans crucified at major intersections so that the criminal would be despised and held up for ridicule by all who passed by. So Jesus died in a scandalous way: surrounded by and considered as a most awful human being. Such a scandalous way to die.
So when I go through my trials, my challenges, my pain, my hurt—if I can get my eyes on Jesus, and even scratch the surface of His pain and His shame, I’m inspired to keep running.
Jesus is our hope
Notice that at the end of the test, Jesus what? He sat down. There was an end to the test. There was an end to the pain. There was an end to the race.
One of the most important phrases in the Bible is: “And it came to pass” It occurs 396 times in the Bible. I remember hearing about an older woman who was asked what her favorite Bible verse was. Her response was, “And it came to pass.” The questioner said, “Why in the world is that your favorite Bible verse?” She said, “When a trial comes, when adversity comes, when grief comes, I know it doesn’t come to stay—it comes to pass.” She might have missed the point a tad—but she states the larger truth: no betrayal, no pain, no grief is going to last forever. Nothing but Jesus and all connected to Him lasts forever.
When the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:13that “Our grief is not without hope”, he’s getting at the transient, even temporary nature of pain and grief. When he writes in
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” --that gives us hope.
There will be a termination to our trials. There will be a conclusion to our calamity. There will be a death to our disease. After just a few more hills, after just a few more hurts, after just a few more struggles, we’ll be at the finish line where there will be no more suffering, no more tears, no more pain, no more grief, no more suffering, no more death. That is our hope! And that hope keeps us running.
Jesus is our reminder
How is Jesus a reminder? He reminds us that there is a greater reward that awaits us than anything we could achieve or acquire on this earth.
When He finished His race, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. No doubt that was a glorious reunion and an unimaginable reward.
One day Jesus was telling a parable about 3 different kinds of people who were running the race. One of the 3 didn’t finish well. But of the other two Jesus said that when they met their master, He said, “Well cone, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy and the pleasure of your master.”
I don’t know about you, but I want to feel the pleasure of my master. I want to feel it when I finish the race, yes, but I want to feel and sense it and know it NOW!
Eric Liddell was a Scottish track star in the early 1900s. He and his family ran a mission in China ministering to destitute Chinese and sharing the good news of Jesus with them. He came home to Scottland to train for the 1924 Olympics in Paris. He had an unusual style: when he got to the top end of his speed, he’d throw his head back. When his sister questioned why he was spending so much focus on racing instead of the mission, his answer was, (PIC), when I run, I feel his pleasure. When he found out that the preliminary heat in his specialty the 100 meter dash was on a Sunday, he decided not to run, though many tried to talk him into going against his convictions. So a teammate gave him his spot in the 400 which he rarely ran.
After the Olympics, Liddell returned to China and his family mission. As WW2 broke out and the Japanese advanced thru China, he was interned in a Japanese work camp. Due to the conditions of the camp. He became very sick and eventually developed a brain tumor. His biographer, Tejvan Pettinger said this of him:
“Eric Liddell died on 21 February 1945, five months before liberation. He died from his inoperable brain tumour – though overwork and malnutrition undoubtedly hastened his death. It was revealed after the war that Liddell had turned down an opportunity to leave the camp (as part of a prisoner exchange program), preferring instead to give his place to a pregnant woman. His death left a profound vacuum within the camp.”
There’s a man who knew what the real race was. And he ran it well because he ran for the pleasure of His master. I want to run that way as well. I pray you do too.
