The Cross Gives Us Endurance Series

WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

SURVIVAL STORIES – HAVE A NICE FALL

In November 2019, Ryan Cairnes did a few things right and a few things wrong when he went rock climbing in Washington’s Cannon Mountains. His first mistake—even though he’s an experienced climber with sturdy gear—was going to the remote and rugged area by himself. So there was no one there to grab Ryan’s line when “something just let loose” and he started sliding down the steep, rocky mountainside. “There was no part of me inside that said I was going to live,” the 36-yeara-old Microsoft manager from Seattle later told reporters. “I just said, I’m falling off a cliff. And people die when they fall off cliffs.” Ryan didn’t die, but after the minute-long fall of 300-400 feet that ended with him landing on a boulder, he’d fractured his neck, sternum, kneecap, and left ankle, as well as injuring some ribs. Fortunately, his head was okay (though his helmet took quite a beating).

Ryan’s second big mistake: He didn’t have an emergency beacon. Unable to walk and in excruciating pain, he spread out his orange tent on the ground, hoping a helicopter would fly over and see it. No one came. One of the things he did right was to bring a zero-degree-rated sleeping bag, which kept him from freezing to death at night. The next day, a helicopter did fly near Ryan, but it kept going. That’s when he realized he’d have to get out of there on his own. Using a walking stick to pull himself along the ground, he traveled about 200 feet per hour, at around a 6,000-foot elevation, until he finally made it to a trail.

The other thing he did right: He’d texted his mom in Pennsylvania before he left, telling her the general area he was going to be in, and when he’d return. When he didn’t text her on that return date, she called the authorities, who sent out a search-and-rescue team. They found Ryan weak but alert on the trail. Remarkably, he only had to spend a few days in the hospital, but he’s still perplexed by his survival: “I hit the boulder with so much force,” he said, “I don’t know why I’m here.”

How much would you endure when times are bleak? When the world around us is falling in, what does it take to keep going? What or who gives you endurance to keep going?

Today’s message on the Cross of Christ is more specifically that The Cross of Christ Gives Us Endurance. Let’s read our text this morning.

HEBREWS 12:1-2 [ESV]

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

I’m not a runner. I have never enjoyed running just to run. Now, if given a ball to bounce or run with in purpose to score points with said ball—that is something I have enjoyed. When it comes to this passage, this is a familiar metaphor. We find running and racing metaphors in several places in Scripture.

The Hebrew writer wants us to see that this race we run isn’t meant to be something we despise, but a joy. I want to take us through this passage exegetically and not necessarily with a particular number of points. The point this morning is this passage and that the Cross is meant to give us endurance to run this race. And I want us to see how the Cross gives us endurance through this passage and example of Jesus.

WE ARE SURROUNDED

First, the writer begins with the phrase, “We are surrounded…” As I mentioned these people knew these names. The writer of Hebrews has spent an entire chapter (Chapter 11) giving the reader a background in the faithfulness of the Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs of their lineage. The Jews knew these names. They knew these people. These were the people they quoted daily, the ones they taught their children about, the people they talk about sitting in their houses, walking along the way, lying down and when they rose. These people were the ones they remembered daily as the historical ancestors who brought them closer to the presence of the Lord God Almighty.

And it is in this context, that the Hebrew writer brings our passage today. This passage is for us too. It is a reminder of who Jesus is. How he has transcended all of those ancestors of the Hebrew people. This passage gives us insight into how we can find endurance to continue running this life-race we have been given to run. Maybe a reader finds hope in something Noah, Enoch, Rahab, Abraham, or Moses did. He also reminds them to be encouraged.