Hebrews 12:1-4 - handouts

Hebrews 12:1-4

Hebrews 12:1–2 - 1Therefore, 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, 2looking 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.

What are they witnesses of? Running the race is worth the risk and the reward. Pursuing God’s glory in all things is the right pursuit. God’s promises do not fail when our spiritual eyes do not fail. Spiritual victories are experienced under much worse circumstances and with less resources.

How do we worship, walk, work and witness down a victorious path in 2026?

Hebrews 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,”

Grow your endurance

Keep engaging the course map and progress with consistent forward momentum and realize your pace is YOUR PACE. You walking the victorious path is about you walking the victorious path, not keeping up with everybody else. Engaging the course with faithful endurance over time produces results.

How does one grow spiritual endurance?Be willing to do something you have never done. Be willing to do something you don’t want to do. Be willing to help somebody take their next step with Jesus when you are in this building. Sign up for a course map that is new to you. Step into action. Do those things until you hear the voice of God louder than the voice of personal desire.

What is one next step you need to take to grow spiritual endurance in 2026?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shed layers that hinder your walk with Jesus

The right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing. One commentator said, ‘Every weight’ is “often something perfectly innocent and harmless. But it weighs us down, diverts our attention, saps our energy, dampens our enthusiasm for the things of God. We cannot win when we are carrying excess weight.”

What is one innocent and harmless thing in your life that could become excess spiritual weight in 2026? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Don’t walk in your doubts alone

Every sin is excess weight and hinders our walk with Jesus. ‘Sin’ is more pointedly THE SIN. We’re talking doubting ‘by faith alone in Christ alone’. Whether a person is an authentic believer, a pretend believer, or an unbeliever, unbelief and doubt in the Lord strangles any small amount of faith a person might have.

Who is the fellow Trinity member you will commit to walking with in 2026?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fix your eyes on Jesus

Hebrews 12:2 -2looking 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 (Psalm 110).

What distracts me from fixing my eyes on Jesus, even for a few minutes?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Many scholars believe Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians that were working through significant struggles. There was internal tension between ‘life after Christ’ and ‘life before Christ.’ The Jewish temple traditions weighed heavily upon them. These significant struggles were spiritual struggles because gaps in their holiness were revealed.

Could they live in their old life simultaneously with their new life? Was the persecution of orthodox Judaism greater than the persecution from Gentiles? How was it possible to run the race that was set before them while they endured spiritual hardship from every direction?

Verse 2 told them look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. We have faith because the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gift that we did not deserve and could never earn. We walk in small amounts of holiness because of Jesus. He considered enduring the cross a joyful privilege because that was the race set before him. He endured the shame of being arrested and tortured as a joyful privilege.

Moses gave us an example. Flip back to Hebrews 11:23–26,  “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.”

Back on October 5, we saw that Moses could have fixed his eyes on enjoyment, pleasure, affluence and status but decided that leaning into Jesus and fixing his eyes on God’s promises was greater wealth than all of it. The Psalmist agreed (Psalm 119:72). 

Hebrews 12:3–4 - 3Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

What encourages me to run the race through spiritually hard days? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Verse 3 reminds us to consider Jesus and his time on earth. Jesus endured sinners who came at him with such hostility, such hatred, and such preservation of their own agenda and religious system that they could never see Jesus as the founder and perfecter of their faith. Those sinners were being encouraged to run a race driven by their own selfishness and pride. The writer of Hebrews reminds his readers that none of us have faced the spiritual hardship and suffering that Jesus endured.

Apart from the days preceding Jesus’ death, what are other times when Jesus endured hostility? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are the warning signs that lead to spiritual fatigue in your own life?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________