Go for the Gold
Last Sunday Matt Emmons was focusing on staying calm when he should have been focusing on the right target. Can you imagine? Here is the moment when everything counts and this young man fires at the wrong target with his final shot.
He was leading by three points and only needed to get near the bull’s-eye to win – which he did – on the wrong target. Matt Emmons dropped from 1st to 8th position.
Can you imagine how hard it was to fall asleep that night! He will pick up his gun, aim, and fire at that target for the rest of his life.
Former pitcher Emmons once pitched a perfect game for his high school baseball team in Pemberton, N.J., and says pitching and shooting require similar skills. "With pitching, you picture where you want the ball to end up, and then you let it happen, you throw the ball," he says. "Hopefully it goes where you were picturing it to go. Shooting is a similar thing. You picture how you want that bullet to go, where you want to see it go in the target and what it’s gonna look like. And then you allow your body to do it. It’s really similar that way."
If you want to win Gold you have to narrow your vision and focus on the right goal
This must be your all-consuming fire and passion. That goal – the right goal – and nothing more. It is exactly the same in the spiritual realm. Spiritual champions are Jesus focused. They think of him first in the morning, he is on their minds during the day as they work. He is part of their life while they play and he is the last thought of the day. Spiritual
Champions are focused on following Jesus.
Here is how Paul tells us to do it in Hebrews 12:2-3
Go for the Gold
Hebrews 12:2
2 Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.
Hebrews 12:3
3 Think about Jesus’ example. He held on while wicked people were doing evil things to him. So do not get tired and stop trying.
Jesus is the Author of Your Faith
Hebrews 12:2
2 Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect…
Jesus is the Author of your Faith
The term archçgos, is translated as “author” in many versions. It’s also translated as “captain”. The word literally means “pioneer”, leader” or “champion.”
There is something special about those who go first. When you were 10 the first one to jump from the high diving board was something about you.
In the movie “Alien” there is something special about the person who went first into that dark and scary hallway – they were nuts!
In the days of Lewis and Clark there was something special about those who went on an expedition to find the Pacific Ocean.
Pioneers are heroes. They go first and blaze a trail for others to follow. Their way is hard so that others who come after them have an easier path.
Jesus is out Divine hero of faith
The term was used for both human and divine heroes, founders of schools or those who cut a path forward for their followers. It was a term that was used to describe those who did great things to benefit others.
Jesus is the Perfecter of Your Faith
Hebrews 12:2
2 Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect…
“For whom … and through whom are all things” was a phrase Stoics used to describe the supreme God, but the idea fit Jewish thought about God and divine Wisdom and was widely used by Diaspora Jewish writers, including Paul (1 Cor 8:6).
The Septuagint uses the author’s term for “perfect” for the consecration of a priest; some contemporary Jewish texts also speak of a righteous person’s life crowned with martyrdom as being “perfected” thereby.
The idea is completion. Something started and then finished.
I would like it to a house that has been built and roughed in but isn’t finished yet. The floors have to be laid, the trim has to be nailed up. The electrical outlets have to be installed. In short – the house has to be finished or completed.
Jesus is the finisher of our faith. He authored it and he finishes it. He is the alpha and omega. Beginning and end. First and last. Author and perfector. Architect and finish carpenter.
Focusing on Jesus is the Essential Step to Your Faith
First, Jesus shows us that death is not the end of life
Hebrews 12:2
2 Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross...
Look at the cross. Think about all those sufferings that he met with in the world. He endured all of it. The mocking, the beatings, the skepticism, the hatred, the indignity, and the unfairness of it all Jesus endured even to the point of death.
Jesus went through several trials and hearings before three offices of the law. There was first the hearing before part of the Sanhedrin early in the wee hours of the morning with its trumped up charges of blasphemy and sedition.
He was paraded through the streets to Pilate who found nothing wrong and so dismissed him to the puppet King Herod. Herod after a disappointing hearing in which Jesus spoke not one word sent him back to Pilate who in a bid for political peace bound Jesus over to be crucifed.
He was scourged. He was forced to carry his cross. He was nailed to it, and endured a painful, ignominious, and accursed death, in which he was numbered with the worst of the criminals of the time, the most evil of terrorists; yet all this he endured with invincible patience and resolute forgiveness.
Then he died and on the third day the rock sealing his burial chamber was rolled away by angels at the word of God and Jesus by the power of the spirit of God rose bodily from the tomb – Jesus defeated death. He was the first to conquer sin, death, and in doing so – he defeated our enemy, Satan.
Second, Jesus shows us that pain and shame can be and must be endured to gain victory
Hebrews 12:2
…But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.
The cross is not a quiet, easy, simple, or dignified death. It was a death reserved for the worst of the worst of men.
It was not the peaceful exit from life that poisons like hemlock of injections of drugs through an IV bring.
It was not the instant cessation of life that a guillotine or an executioners ax brings.
It was not the quick broken neck of an hanging or the brief minutes of struggle for air that suffocation brings.
A crucifixion was a long, slow, and agonizing death in which the victim often lingered for days before dying.
Jesus died in three hours – not because he was weak but because he had been scourged with 39 blows – on less then a death penalty.
But a crucifixion was a public display of a broken man – tortured in full view of any who would look. He was an object of disgust. He was spat upon and despised by all but his mother and one lone disciple who did not run away like the rest.
The night before this all took place Jesus knew the pain that would come and he said to the father in a hour of preparatory prayer, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
Bob Richards, the Olympic gold medalist, interviewed younger Olympic winners of the gold a couple of years ago and He asked them, “What did you do when you began to hurt?” Not one of these Olympians was surprised by the question; all had a specific way of handling the pain—some even prayed.
After the interviews, when Bob was questioned about why he had asked these Olympians about handling pain, and he said matter-of-factly, “You never win the gold without hurting.”
Jesus was opposed. Jesus was persecuted. People made fun of Him. And yet He stayed the course. He ran the race. He paid the price. So the writer says that when we get weary & tired we are to "fix our eyes on Jesus."
Finally, Jesus shows us that to defeat evil men you have to keep on doing what is right
Hebrews 12:3
3 Think about Jesus’ example. He held on while wicked people were doing evil things to him. So do not get tired and stop trying.
Evil men thought opposition that they made to him, both in their words and behavior. They were continually contradicting him, and crossing in upon his great designs; and though he could easily have both confuted and confounded them, and sometimes gave them a specimen of his power, yet he endured their evil manners with great patience. Their contradictions were leveled against Christ himself, against his person as God—man, against his authority, against his preaching, and yet he endured all.
Remember Matt Emmons who missed the 50 meter 3 position Gold medal? Well, he tried also for the 50 meter prone position this last Monday.
Interestingly enough last year someone took a screwdriver and sabotaged his gun making it impossible to use in the competition.. He borrowed a gun from a friend and while he shot at the wrong target last Sunday he shot at the right target on Monday and won the gold.
It is so easy to quit when times are difficult… but we are called to follow Jesus
I watched a favorite in a marathon slow down and with tears finally give up and sit in the grass alongside the track – head down on her knees – weary, broken, defeated.
Why not quit? It’s so easy to quit when things go wrong… but there is a higher calling.
It is so easy to quit when your spouse is not a believer and they fight you in your faith… but we are called to follow Jesus.
It is so easy to quit when your teens complain about coming to church harder than a big game fist fights the line on a charter boat’s fishing rod… but we are called to follow Jesus.
It is so easy to quit when your job disappears, your loved ones get sick, and your baby is developmentally disabled… but we are called to follow Jesus
It is so easy to quit when your boss accuses you of wrong doing and your friends stop calling you… but we are called to follow Jesus
It is so easy to quit when your soul is weary and your heart is broken… but we are called to follow Jesus.
Jesus set the example. He was the pioneer and the f inisher of your faith. Jesus made it to the end of his race and you can make it to the end of your race. Just focus on him.
We are called to follow
Every Christian, every church needs to hear this because it’s so easy to quit. It’s so easy to say, "I don’t have to do this anymore."
But the writer says, "Focus on Jesus. He’s the author & the finisher & the perfecter of our faith," & one day we’re going to stand before Him as our judge.
He is our example. Jesus is my hero and my inspiration. Jesus doesn’t just tell us to shape up – Jesus showed us how to live and then sent us his Holy Spirit to help us follow his path day by day.
The Cross is my Reminder Swear to tell the truth
If you take the tour in Williamsburg, VA they will explain to you why, even to this day, we hold up our hand & swear that we "will tell the truth, the whole truth, & nothing but the truth, so help me God" whenever we give testimony in court.
The story goes all the way back to medieval times. When someone was being tried for a crime & the evidence seemed overwhelmingly against him, there was a way out. He could stand up & say, "I plead the benefit of clergy."
Now when he pleaded "the benefit of clergy" everyone was aghast because that was the same as an admission of guilt. But it was his last hope, his last chance. So a clergyman would come in with a selected passage of Scripture, usually from Psalms 51, the confession of David for all the sins that he had committed. He would hand it to the accused & say, "Here, read this." It was kind of a forerunner of the lie-detector test.
The law said that if he could read it without stammering or stuttering he would be set free even though the evidence against him was overwhelming. But if he stumbled or stammered just one time he was judged guilty. Usually a guilty person could not read that passage without stammering or stuttering. So they were found guilty. But when someone read it perfectly & was set free, they branded the palm of his hand with the brand of the cross.
You see, you could only claim the benefit of clergy one time. So whenever anyone testified in court he would have to hold up his hand so that all could see if the brand of the cross was there.
I am a follower of Jesus. My palm is marked with a cross. You can’t see it but I am branded by his mark as clearly as those who stood in a plain and simple court room in Williamsburg, Virginia over 300 years ago. Like them, I have claimed the benefit of his name.
I stand condemned and forgiven at the same time. Guilty in my sin and forgiven in Jesus love. He calls me to be his.
Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ." So the writer of Hebrews says, "Focus on Jesus because the only hope we have is our hope in Him."
What about you. Are you branded yet? Have you set your eyes on Jesus?
If not – why not? And if not – why not today?
If yes – then run the race with patience. Don’t lose heart. Don’t become discouraged. Don’t quit. Keep on running the race that has been set before us.
