Run for Your Life.
Hebrews 12:1-3.
Last Sunday we talked about one of the greatest reasons for thanksgiving. The fact of God’s grace. We saw that when we keep the grace of God in perspective, most difficulties can be overcome and burdens are easier to bear. The only way to look at life against the backdrop of God’s great scheme of things, and Christ’s great victory over sin and death. The conditions of this world would consume us with despair were it not for the fact that we can fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the keeper of our faith.
As we come to God in gratitude for His very life that lives through us and enable us in spite of what appears to be very real, we fix our minds on those things that cannot pass away. We focus upon His word which is always with us. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever. We focus upon His presence. Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. We focus upon His power. Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 2 Cor. 12:9 But he said to me, \”My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.\” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ\’s power may rest on me.
This is the blessing of grace.
Today we see how that same principal of keeping our eyes on Jesus enables us to press on in our pursuit of godly character and Christ like consecration.
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
The writer is speaking to those who have already entered the event. They have been to the scratch meet, and their names are on the starters sheet. And every Christians name must be on this list. Christianity is not a spectator sport where there are grandstands full of people cheering on a small group of participants. Each one is called to run in the event. To run with endurance.
But there are many professing Christians who are in the grandstands. There are many who are on the track, but not running the race There are some who are simply jogging along without any real dedication.
A little girl woke her parents up in the middle of the night because she had fallen out of bed.
Her mom asked her what happened. She replied, \”I guess I stayed to close to the place where I got in. Many people who profess faith in Christ never move on from the place they got in. They never really enter the race, and consequently, they fall out of bed, so to speak.
The text says, \”Run the race.\” In fact it would be accurate to say, \”Run for your life\” The word for race is the word agwna which is the same word from which we get the word agony. Church, I believe in these days that Jesus is looking for disciples that would dare to be different. He calls for forceful, dedicated commitment. He only occupies that which is vacant. He picks up that which is laid down. He fills that which is empty. He wants complete abandonment to Himself and His cause.
To run this race is painful and costly, but the rewards are out of this world.
If you speak to my son, Sean, he will tell you that running track is hard work. You don\’t hear of anyone saying they play track. You play football, you play baseball, you play tennis, you play soccer, but you run track. In other words you really have to work hard at track.
The walk of faith is not really a walk at all. It is a run. It is agwna. Something at which you have to persevere in order to make it to the finish line. There are several observations that we must take into account in order to run the race well. First of all, notice that although it is difficult, we are not alone.
- I. The Encouragement we Can Expect
Hebrews 12.1 \”Therefore, since we are surrounded by a greater crowd of witnesses.
Here the writer is obviously referring to what he has written in the previous chapter. That chapter deals with all of the heroes of the faith that have gone before us. It is the story of these heroes that spurr us on in our faith.
One of the greatest, most effective motivators in a foot race, is the encouragement of someone that\’s already been there. These witnesses are not passive spectators sitting in the grandstand, rather they are believers who have been there before. And they are not cheering from afar off. They are all along the way through the memory of their example set before us. We remember them well.
There\’s Moses. He opposed Pharaoh. He forsook all the prerogatives and pleasures of his court for the sake of the race. He sure knows how to run.
And there\’s that group that shouted down the walls of Jericho. What a lot we can learn from them. And isn\’t that the fellow who shut the mouths of Lions? Yes. Daniel was his name. And look at all of those people with those scars on their bodies. They must be the martyrs who are here to remind us that no matter what happens, no one can destroy the soul of a believer and take away the glorious prize that waits before us. \”Come on now, keep on running. You can make it. We did, so can you.\”
Today those grandstands are full of those witnesses who have gone before us as they spur us on to victory.
Are you weary of running? Be encouraged.
Be reminded of the great witnesses that are before us. The encouragement that we can expect.
Secondly, in running the race well, we notice that there are:
II. The Encumbrances we Must Discard
Hebrews 12:1b \”Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles…
As Christians when we enter the race, it is easy for us to become weighed down by the excess baggage we bring along with us into the race.
The writer of Hebrews speaks of two types of encumbrances.
- 1. The things which hinder.
Here the onkos is used. It means literally excess baggage.
These may not necessarily be bad for us.
They could be things of a physical nature.
They could be behavioral hindrances.
Could be arguments, philosophies, ideas that we hold dear.
Commentators offer a host of ideas. In this particular context, I believe it was the Jewish religious tradition that they were hanging on to. They were slipping away from the liberating truth that they knew, and looking back towards the old tradition. The old way. This was a similar problem to the Galations.
Galatians 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?
Disobedience to truth can be a hindrance to our race.
I think for example of Sean during the many times we have accompanied him to track meets over the years. When we arrive at the track he usually is dressed in two suites of clothing and carrying a massive kit bag. These things are not necessarily bad for him, in fact, under the right circumstances they may even be good for him. But not to run a race with. By the time the starter\’s gun fires, Sean is stripped of all that would encumber him and runs the race with only the bare essentials.
And so we come to our Christian race in the same way.
Ambition is not a bad thing within reason and in the right circumstances. But when ambition replaces your worship of God and your time spent in the word, it will hinder your run.
Interest in Sport and hobbies. Not bad, in fact good. But when it interferes with your worship of God, it will hinder your run.
Traditions which you may hold dear. In themselves not wrong, but when they become traditionalism, and they distract you from the presence Father they will hang you up in your race. Religion although intrinsically good, and the basis of many moral and good decisions when placed before obedience will become a desperately heavy load for you to carry in you race and will hinder you.
The writer says \”get rid of the hindrances.”
Then he says:
2. Get rid of the entanglements.
\”…the sin that so easily entangles.\”
Disobedience, tradition, legalism and so on are a hindrance to our race, but even more so is living in sin.
There are many sins that we can think of, but I believe that the writer is continuing to build a common thread through this passage, and so in the light of disobedience being the encumbrance, I believe that it is unbelief that is the entanglement.
The fact that we often do not truly believe that God can deliver what He promises.
We may not truly believe that He can deliver healing when Psalm 103 says, Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits– 3who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
We may not truly believe that we can have victory over sin in our lives, when His Word says in Mat. 28:18
1 John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
We may not truly believe that He can adequately take care of us, yet Philippians 4:19 says, And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
When we fully trust Him in every area of our lives we throw off those entanglements and run the race with victory.
So we see that as we run this race, there is encouragement from those who have gone before. There are encumbrances that we must discard, and thirdly, notice:
III. The Endurance we Must Exercise.
\”and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Nothing makes less sense than to be in a race without any desire to win. Yet this is the basic problem with many Christians. They give up before they even start. They are quite happy to just jog along, simply to be saved and going to heaven, without any desire for a victory.
Paul says that that is unacceptable. He pursued endurance in the race he was running. Look at 1 Cor. 9:26-27
Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
You often see bumper sticker. \”I\’m not perfect, just forgiven.\”
It’s like we\’re making an excuse for the sin of the freeway before we even commit it.
Running the race with perseverance means seeking holiness.
Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Holiness is not an option.
1 Peter 1:13-16 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: \”Be holy, because I am holy.\”
This ought to be our goal. As long as we are living in a sinful, fallen world, we may fall short of the goal, but the key is the heart of the matter. Out of the heart come the issues of life. If you desire holiness with all of your heart, Psalm 37 says it will come to pass.
The encouragement we can expect, The encumbrances we must discard and the endurance we must exercise.
The most encouraging thing about this passage is the concluding observation, and that is that we are not left to prepare for this race without a coach. In fact we have the best coach the world has ever known. One who has been everywhere we’ve ever been or will ever go. He knows exactly what it takes and has everything we need. So we see lastly,
IV. The Example we Must Follow
Hebrews 12:2 \”Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.\”
Family, Jesus is our ultimate example. He is the one that we must look to. Yes, we have the encouragement of that greater cloud of witnesses that have gone before, but there is not one like Jesus. The word used here for author is the word archegon which means the primary one. The chief example. There is no other example we should look to. There is no other example that knows all that we have been through. The Bible says that he has in every way been tested as we have and in many ways way beyond anything you or I could ever imagine.
And yet how easily is it for us to say when things get a littler rough, \”I think I\’II just quit. I think I\’II just get out of this race. I\’m not prepared to put up with this or that any more.
O, my brothers and sisters who are in this race, look again to Jesus. The writer says that \”for the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning it\’s shame. In vs. 4 he says that in our struggle against sin we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding of blood,\” so what is this talk about quitting. Those who remain are a rare breed. And here we are not talking about winning. We are talking about remaining. About finishing.
Very few of us do that. Our human tendency is to quit too soon. A partly mowed lawn A half read book Letters begun and never finished An abandoned diet. A car up on blocks. All around us – unfinished business.
Stephen knew what it was like to look to Jesus and finish the race. You remember when he was being stoned to death? All he saw when he looked around him in those moments before his death was a mob of angry, savage men hurling rocks at his prostrate body. Had he seen nothing else he may well have failed in those moments, but he looked up and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And courage and faith filled his soul as he went out in a blaze of glory.
2 Timothy 4:7-9 1 have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord. the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day–and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.