Running the Race

Introduction

Hebrews 12: What do you consider to be the most valuable thing in your life? Your most valuable personal quality. If you had to finish this sentence, “The is the most important thing that I possess is,” what would it be? According to the writer of Hebrews, the most valuable thing in your life is faith.

Faith is the belief that what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible is true, and that following Him is worth it. Without it, the writer says, you’ll never please God, because you’ll never go all the

way with Jesus; you’ll never fully commit yourself to the mission; you won’t obey him in the hard areas; you’ll never make it through dark chapters in your life.

Remember that the people to whom the author of Hebrews is writing are struggling because the Christian life has gotten hard for them—they are being persecuted; they have difficult questions; unanswered prayers. Some of them are barely hanging on.

So in chapter 12 he offers them 4 helps to faith in difficult times. Look at how he sets it up. Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”

Hebrews 12:1 NASB95

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Now, this is an illustration we can all identify with right now, right?

How many of you are pretty avid viewers of the Olympics?

I’ve gotten into it a lot more this year than I have in the past, to my detriment. I’ve had a particularly busy week but I’ve still been up every night until midnight yelling at the TV for a bunch of sports I’d never, ever watch under normal circumstances.

Like women’s water polo. Or that game with the little disc they push and scrub as it goes... who said, “That’s a sport!”?

He says that the Christian life is like a marathon. The word for race = agon (where we get the word “agony.”)

That was a word they used to refer to the pentathlon, and that might have been what Paul was thinking about here.

The pentathlon was a 5-event sporting match that ended with a Greco-Roman boxing match. After you ran and swam you’d square off in the ring. The fighters wore these leather gloves that would protect their hands but disfigure the other’s face. It was an agonizing event.

Imagine that at the end of the Men’s Freestyle Relay. Kind of would have liked to have seen that. See Michael Phelps go over and just brawl with that French guy, Yannick Agnel.

Point is: the Christian life is hard, and for many of you, this is right where you are. You are in a difficult chapter. You thought the Christian life was supposed to be all warm-fuzzies and abundant life and that’s just not what you feel like right now!

So 4 encouragements as we run the race!

I. We Are Surrounded by Witnesses

The first word in vs. 1 is “therefore.” It points you backwards.

In this case, backwards to what? To the list of Hebrews 11. He points to all these people who risked it all on God and His promises.

He summarizes the list this way (11:32)... through faith some of them “quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight….and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword;” (Hebrews 11:32-40)

by the time Hebrews 11 was written, at least two apostles had been martyred. James, described as "the first of the 12 apostles to be martyred," was killed by King Herod as recorded in Acts 12:1-2[1]. Additionally, the apostle Paul is believed to have been beheaded by Emperor Nero[1]. While Peter is also mentioned as having been martyred by Nero[1], the exact timing of his death in relation to the writing of Hebrews is not explicitly stated in the provided articles. It's worth noting that one article suggests Paul and Peter may have been martyred on the same day, possibly in 67 AD[2], but this is not definitively linked to the writing of Hebrews. The articles do not provide specific information about the martyrdom of other apostles in relation to the writing of Hebrews 11.

[1] Willmington, H. L. (1987). Willmington’s book of Bible lists (p. 194). Tyndale. [2] Getz, G. A. (2003). Elders and leaders: God’s plan for Leading the Church (p. 173). Moody Publishers.

martyrs 1. Isaiah, traditionally said to have been sawn asunder by Manasseh Heb. 11:37 2. Zechariah, stoned by his own countrymen for boldly rebuking their sin 2 Chron. 24:20–21 3. Uriah, murdered by wicked King Jehoiakim Jer. 26:20–23 4. Stephen, the church’s first martyr, stoned by the Jews Acts 7:59 5. James, the first of the 12 apostles to be martyred Acts 12:1–2 6. Paul, believed to have been beheaded by Emperor Nero 2 Tim. 4:6 7. Peter, believed to have been crucified upside down by Nero John 21:18–19; 2 Pet. 1:14 8. Antipas, martyred in the city of Pergamos Rev. 2:13 9. Two tribulational witnesses martyred by the Beast Rev. 11:7

Which means that some of them, through faith, saw God do these incredibly powerful things; but other times, they died without receiving any earthly validation for their faith. THEY PRAYED THE SAME PRAYERS... but God didn’t show up (or at least it seemed so)

And I told you, “If you require earthly validation of your faith you won’t make it.” And I really need you to think about that.

These were people just like you. We tend to read these stories and think these were incredible men and women of faith that had everything all figured out. They had no doubts; had all their questions answered.

Have you ever read the Bible? Job is called in the Old Testament was one of the 3 greatest men of faith that ever lived, yet, he ends the book of Job basically saying “God, this makes no sense. I don’t understand... why?”

And God’s answer to him is basically, “Uhhh... excuse me, Job... until you create your own universe, from scratch, you’re probably not in a place to question me. If you are still stumped by quantum physics don’t suspect that you can master the internal workings of my infinite mind.”

Job died without ever really understanding what God had been up to on earth.

What God did give him was a glimpse of His steadfast love and infinite power.

He got revelation, not explanation. That’s what we get! o Our experience, said the church father Anselm, is faith seeking understanding. We want to understand, and God gives us flashes of understanding sometimes, but even the best and smartest of us have unanswered questions.

These OT saints are like people in a marathon who started before us, and now stand along the sides as we run, telling us, “Keep going. It’s worth it! You’ll make it!”

They stand there saying, I know it doesn’t make sense now. It didn’t to us either! But you can see now that in all our trials God was working even when we didn’t understand, bringing something out of us far beyond what we could see—He was bringing Christ to earth through us! (We couldn’t see it, but you can see it now) We stand as witnesses to you that God is working in your pain, now, just like He was in ours, bringing to pass a greater plan than you realize!

II. Jesus Completes Our Faith

The Greek word “look” has an interesting usage here. It implies “lookin away” or looking off into the distance. In other words, these are not things we are watching him do right now but rather looking out of our pain and out of our darkness and seeing two incontrovertibe truths about Him.

His Promise

Hebrews 12:2 NASB95

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus is the one who started the process and He will be the One who completes it. How do we know? The cross. The cross shows you just how much He has invested in you. Earnest money is given in real estate deals to make sure you wont walk away. You invest s much up front that it is not worth walking away from. Jesus invested His blood in you. Actually He has more invested in your life than you do. He will finish the process. Even though you may give up on yourself, God will not.

It takes the pressure off of you. “How am I ever going to change my life?” You don’t have to! He is the founder and perfecter. In a sense, you are being asked to run a race that has already been won! So of course you can get up. He has already provided the assurance of victory and all the power to get there!

WHEN YOU FIRST START WALKING WITH GOD, IT SEEMS LIKE YOU WERE MAKING THE DECISIONS… IT WASN’T YOUR IDEA!

Spurgeon: “Listen to the voice of the Lord speak, I will help you. It is a small thing for me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have already done. What? Not help you! I bought you with My blood. What? not help you! I died for you. Since I have done the greater, will I not do the less?” God, who is infinite in power, who brought Jesus’ dead, lifeless back from the grave, is at work in you and he can bring your life back from the ashes.”

Hebrews 12:3 NASB95

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

His Experience

Just sit back and listen to His critics and ours. They think we are crazy for believing that God created te world and sustains it.

Christopher Hitchens says he thinks “religion should be treated with ridicule, hatred, and contempt.” Christopher Hitchens

Sam Harris says that “the problem with Christianity is that it allows people to believe en masse what only idiots or lunatics could believe in isolation.” Sam Harris

Richard Dawkins says that we are guilty of child abuse; that what we teach our children is worse than sexual abuse and we ought to have our children taken away from us. Or I read some editorial in the NYT that says we are “hateful people” because we believe what God says about right and wrong.

But I often remember the words of Jesus in John 16, “They hated me; they’ll hate you, too. In fact, you should be wary when all men speak well of you.”

Jesus’ crucifixion was a joint project between the government officials (Pilate), the religious authorities (Pharisees), the educated elite (those were the Sadducees); and the mainstream media (a combo of the above). By the political right and left. We can expect the same kind of treatment.

In fact, it is when you are not getting the reaction Jesus got that you are doing something wrong!

Vs. 4 the author basically says, “At least you haven’t died yet, so be encouraged.”

The author says, “Look away to Jesus. The cross shows you that He’s committed to seeing this thing through. The resurrection shows you that He is able to see it through. The cross shows you that the pain you are experiencing now is to be expected. But don’t lose heart, God only brings the power of the resurrection through the pain of the cross.”

Some people listening today may be ready to give up. Don’t. He’s already won the race. Just get up and let Him finish His run through you.

Hebrews 12:5–7 NASB95

and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Hebrews 12:11–12 NASB95

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,

Rest in the Sovereignty of God

In these verses, the author uses two metaphors which, as an English minor, drives me crazy but when the Holy Spirit inspires it we can let it go.

A Coach

The word trained is gymnazo. obviously it is where we get our word gymnasium. There is a sense that God is working in your life as a coach. One thing you learn lifting weights is that the way you grow muscle is by breaking it down first. After your body breaks it down, your body rebuilds it stronger. The curious thing is as your working out you don’t feel stronger. In fact, it’s the opposite, you feel like you are dying but in reality you are getting stronger.

The same is true with God. The muscle of your faith will never grow if it’s not tested and broken down. And it doesnt always make sense to you.

I’m a planner and one thing I’ve had to learn whether it is within my family, the church or with God is that just because it is not my plan doesn’t mean it’s not a good plan. You have the best coach is is working things out for you. You are being carefully and meticulously being molded into the image of Christ.

The pain in your life right now is God’s good plan for your life to mold you into His image and to increase your faith and your delight in Him.

A Father

The word used for “discipline” in vs. 5 is a different one than the one than the one in vs. 11. It’s the word “paidia” from which we get our word “pediatry.” Has to do with how a good father disciplines a child.

A good parent disciplines his child for wrongdoing not to pay them back for their wrongdoing, but to form their character.

When you discipline a child, you are not trying to AVENGE the wrong that they did.

You are going to PAY for having spilled that milk! (At least (ahemm), it is not supposed to be like that! Sometimes, in my house, it is like that... but as a parent you are supposed to discipline a child only in order to mold their character.)

What you are doing for them you are doing in love. You might punish them in a way that wounds them (in some way), but your goal is not retribution, it is the building of character.

Now, the author goes on to say that in vv. 8, 9, and 10 that no parent disciplines perfectly. (Sometimes we are more angered about how the child has inconvenienced us than we are concerned with their character.) But God is a perfect father and so his anger toward His children is never the anger of justice, it is the discipline of love.

Because, listen the gospel is that God paid Jesus back 100% for our sin. If you are a Christian, every ounce of punishment for sin was put upon Jesus, and for God to give one drop of that punishment for sin would be unjust, because God would be demanding two punishments for the same sin.

So, if you are a believer, God is never ‘paying you back for your sin’ in the hardships of life. I hear believers say that all the time. “I think God is paying me back for this decision.” I know people that feel like they live under the curse of something they did years ago!

Jesus absorbed all of the curse for you! He took all the judgment; all of the punishment. Nothing is left for you but mercy.

So in your pain He’s not “paying you back;” he might be trying to bring you back,” but that is different.

Let me try to distinguish three things people often get confused (punishment; discipline and consequences) 

Punishment/Judgment: you are being paid back for the wrong you’ve done. The code of justice has been broken; you must pay.

Discipline: this is a loving attempt to mold character. It might involve pain, but the goal is not retribution, it is formation.

Consequences—these are just natural results from bad decisions.

You have sex outside marriage and the girl gets pregnant. That’s not punishment, per se; it’s biology. 

You cheat on your spouse and the trust in your marriage is destroyed; you’re a self-absorbed father and your kids end up estranged; you cheat and get kicked out of school; you do sloppy work and lose your job. These are all just natural consequences.

God can use consequences as discipline in your life, but technically, you should think of them differently.

Punishment; discipline and consequences: Believers suffer consequences for their sin, and sometimes God uses those consequences to discipline them, but they never suffer punishment, because Jesus was punished fully in our place so all that is left for us is mercy. God is molding your character in love, not punishing you in judgment.

To the believer (you have to understand this) God is committed to growing you up in Him and a lot of times He uses pain and disappointment to do it! Some of you think God only as a “precious moments” God who coddles you or gives us warm fuzzies or He’s a celestial piñata that you can whack with the faith stick and get goodies out of. And so you get angry at Him when things aren’t going your way or think He’s forgotten you or you quit believing in Him.

God’s love a fatherly love; a tough love; a love that forges our character and grows us up into maturity.

III. We Can and Should Choose to Focus on Joy

Let’s go back to verse 2. Hebrews 12:2

Hebrews 12:2 NASB95

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

What was it that held Christ to the cross? The nails? No, he raised the dead, calmed storms and walked through walls; he could have gotten out of those! What held him to the cross, according to vs. 2, was the joy that awaited him on the other side.

The joy of what? Well, think about it: What would He obtain after the cross that He wouldn’t have before? The approval of God? Already had that. The kingship of the universe? Already his. The adoration of angels? His from eternity past. What is the one thing he would have after the cross that He didn’t have before? You. He was doing this to save you. We were His inheritance: for the joy of reconciling you and me to Himself He endured the cross.

If Christ felt that way about you, doesn’t that make you long to see Him?

So the author says, “Look to Jesus’ joy!” If this is the God who gave it all up to save you, doesn’t that empower you to give up what you have for Him? Doesn’t that make you willing to suffer for His sake?

People of faith are joy driven! That’s the biggest difference in the religious and those transformed by the gospel. Religious are duty driven; you dread what I’ll say each week: what else is he going to make me feel guilty about?

People who have been transformed by the gospel are driven by the joy of knowing and pleasing the one who gave up everything to save them and the joy of rescuing others just like they were rescued.

Why is it you should give up your possessions, your time, your lives, to see people reached?

It’s not because you have taken a vow of poverty or you don’t enjoy nice things; it is that the joy of what you’ll obtain by giving those things away is greater than the joy you derive from those things?

Our definition of sacrifice: giving up something you love for something you love even more.

That’s one of the reasons the first verse is so powerful. Hebrews 12:1

Hebrews 12:1 NASB95

…, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Sins AND weights. The Christian experience is not simply, “What do I have to give up because it is sin,” but what keeps me from knowing and pleasing Jesus? What keeps me from rescuing the lost? What dilutes my life from the mission? The Greek word is ogkos, meaning a mass, burden or weight.

Think of it like a runner or a swimmer who lays aside everything that slows him down. They get rid of all body fat; hair; even decent clothing.

It’s not illegal to swim in the Olympics with a full beard and a pair of jeans, but it’s just not helpful for the objective.

It becomes less about “what do I have to give up because it is sin?” and “what best enables me to please Jesus and complete the mission?”

Many of you have hobbies or possessions that are fine in themselves, but I would say that they probably distract from the mission. They may not be “sins,” per se, but they are weights.

People of faith are those who are so consumed by the vision of eternity that they gladly give up their lives here for joy of what they obtain there. Faith is living in a way now that 100 years from now you’ll be glad that you did!

Conclusion

As we come to the end of this message, I want to draw your heart back to the core challenge from Hebrews 12:1–13: run the race. Not stroll. Not spectate. Run. With endurance. With your eyes fixed on Jesus. And friend, that means there’s a decision to be made today.

Some of you walked into this service weary. You’re tired. You’ve been knocked down by life—by sin, by hardship, by unanswered questions, maybe even by people who said they were Christians but didn’t act like Jesus. And Hebrews speaks directly to you: Don’t quit. Don’t give up. Why? Because Jesus didn’t quit on you.

He ran the race first. He endured the agony of the cross for the joy set before Him. And you were that joy. You are why He bled and died. You are why He rose. He didn’t run halfway. He ran to the finish so that you and I could run in His victory.

Let me ask you: are you running your race… or have you stopped? Have you become entangled in sin? Have you let weights—things not even sinful, but distracting—slow you down? The writer says to lay it aside. That habit. That bitterness. That compromise. That misplaced priority. Let it go. Jesus is worth more.

Some of you are going through painful discipline. God is working like a coach, like a Father—because you are His child. He’s not punishing you; He’s preparing you. Don’t despise His discipline. Receive it as proof of His love. He only disciplines sons and daughters.

And perhaps there’s someone here who hasn’t even started the race. You’ve been around the church, maybe you know about Jesus, but you’ve never surrendered to Him as Savior and Lord. Friend, you can’t run the race until you know the One who finished it first. The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). If today, you will confess your sin and trust in Jesus Christ—who died for your sins and rose again—you can be saved and set on the path of eternal life.

So here’s the invitation:

If you’re weary—come to Jesus and find strength.

If you’re entangled—lay down your sin and run free.

If you’re hurting—trust the Father who is shaping your soul.

If you’re lost—call on the name of Jesus and be saved.

Don’t delay. Don’t wait for a better time. The finish line is closer than you think. One hundred years from now, you’ll be glad you chose to run today.

Let’s bow our heads. And as we pray, I invite you to take your next step. Run to Jesus. He's already waiting for you at the finish.