On Your Mark (Part 2)

If you would, take your Bibles
and turn to the book of Hebrews. We find ourselves still in chapter
12, Hebrews chapter 12. I quit. I quit. There are probably no two easier
or more common words expressed in the English language than
those two words. I quit. The sentiments that lead
to them build slowly. And while every person may have
a different burn rate, Some with a greater tolerance than others.
Still, I quit is the universal flare that humans fire off once
exasperations have reached its limit. Think of it for a moment
in your own life. We quit friendships. We quit
jobs, companies, careers, We quit sports. We quit school. We quit conversations. We quit
organizations. We quit dreams and aspirations. We quit trying. We quit marriages. We quit teams. Sometimes we even
quit life. We quit projects. We quit commitments. We quit churches. We quit serving. We quit people. And sometimes,
most fearfully, most fearfully of all, people even quit Christianity. That’s what our writer’s addressing
throughout the entirety of the book of Hebrews. He’s addressing
those that were pondering through their exasperations with the
trials that they were facing, they were pondering whether to
quit Christianity. But while it’s a common expression
of Humanity, certainly no two words of frustration are uttered
more often than those. There is one who experienced
humanity who never did utter these words. He never quit anything. Jesus Christ did not quit. Jesus
Christ would not quit. Indeed, he could not quit. He
did not quit his mission. He did not quit his relationship
with his Heavenly Father. He did not quit his great commitment
to the redemption of humanity. Jesus Christ did not quit, and
we cannot quit Christianity. The writer likens our life, our
Christian life, to a race that we cannot quit. We find ourselves
in the second portion of this epistle, which is really more
of a practical application. I’ll tell you more in the weeks
to come just how many imperatives, like pushing a snow shovel down
a driveway, they begin to accumulate and begin to overflow in chapter
13. Here in chapter 12, There are
a series of admonitions. That has been our plan as we
worked our way through the book of Hebrews, to go through the
admonitions given to the church. Here in the book of Hebrews,
he addresses our Christianity in verses 1 through 3. He addresses
God’s discipline in verse 4 through 13. He addresses relational godliness
in 14 through 17 and a fearful thankfulness in 18 through 29. These enduring admonitions are
for us. We have called them divine encouragements
for saints imperiled and we are imperiled. I would say that In
this world that we face right now, Christians are the most
imperiled because of what we believe. Because of our belief
system, because of our worldview, we are increasingly imperiled. And in that now lengthy list
that we have gone through, which I cannot recite to you today, we’ve gone
through seven previous encouragements. that if we are to glorify Christ
in great trial, these things must be done. If you wish to review them, go
back. I believe we reviewed them last Lord’s Day. But we come
to the eighth. We come to number eight. If we
are to glorify Christ in a great trial, we must strenuously live
out our Christianity. We find that exhortation in chapter
12, verses 1 through 3. Would you look there? 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,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. who, for the joy set before him,
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him who
has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that
you will not grow weary and lose heart.” A writer is building
here on that great chapter, what we so often refer to as the Hall
of Faith in chapter 11, where he’s laid out example after example
from Old Testament scriptures, Old Testament histories, giving
us examples of the faithful, to encourage us to be faithful,
to encourage us to strive towards godliness, to encourage us not
to recoil in fear, to encourage the righteous to live by faith,
to persevere to the very end. And on the heels of chapter 11,
the writer again turns to his readers here in chapter 12. They,
too, ought to join the great host of faithful saints by persevering
through their own God-given trials. And in chapter 12, he issues
this little admonition. Let us run. Let us run, not just
any race, but let us run the race that is set before us. Each
believer is going to have his own course. Each believer is
going to have his own set of challenges, his own life difficulties,
his own trials. It’s a simple metaphor, but he
points to our Christian duty to run the race. We have a race
to be run. A course stands before us. It
is set before us by God himself. This image of the Christian race
just points to our Christian life. And we cannot, we found,
we cannot please God with a half-hearted effort in this race, much like
a runner kind of limping out of the gates, jogging around
the track, and quitting halfway around. And he gives us four pointers.
This is where we were last Lord’s Day. four pointers for running
this race so as to glorify God. First of all, he tells us about
the spectators of this event. Since we have so great a cloud
of witnesses surrounding us, let us run the race. What he points to is not a window
in the floor of heaven where Abraham and Isaac and all the
faithful peering down at us, observing each one of us, either
individually or collectively, with their fingers crossed, hoping
against hope of our faithfulness, watching as they would a TV show. What he presents is an illustration. It’s as if the great heavenly
host of those who have gone before us, it’s as if they’re in the
stands watching, not literally. And that should be a motivation
for us. It should be a motivation for
us to faithfulness. And so he says, secondly, he
gives us the discipline required for this conduct. There is a
great heavenly host to be joined, and we will not join it if we
do not discipline ourselves for the contest. Look at verse 1. Let us lay aside every encumbrance
and the sin which so easily entangles us. This laying aside encumbrances
was likened to peeling off, a runner peeling off the outer layers
in preparation to run the race ahead of them. And we notice
that there is, as we discovered, a lot of dead weight, a lot of
excess baggage in our lives, a lot of things and hobbies and
other interests that sometimes crowd in and crowd out our Christian
commitments. We committed, we observed that
we need to take a critical look of the things in our lives and
to push aside those things that are superfluous, those things
that are dead weight. And in this initial exhortation,
he isn’t talking about sin. These might even be good things,
but they’re good things taking the place of a better thing.
But then he does address our sin. Let us lay aside every encumbrance
and the sin which so easily entangles us. If we’re gonna strenuously
pursue our Christian life, if we’re gonna run the race that
God has set before us, that God himself has charted And we must
be fully prepared. We must set aside every encumbrance.
We must repent of every known sin. And that brings us to the
third thing that he told us about this race. The stamina required
for this race. He just says, let us run with
endurance. This isn’t a sprint. This isn’t
a 50-yard dash. This is a long haul. This is
a long-distance race. And we need to prepare ourselves
accordingly and prepare by God’s grace for a season of endurance. We come to point four, where
we left off last Lord’s Day. Point four is the goal of this
contest. We have not only the spectators,
the preparation, the discipline, The endurance needed, but now
we want to look at the goal of this contest. Look, if you would,
again at the passage. At the end of verse one, let
us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 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 God. And so his readers
are reminded that they are preparing to run a race. They know their
performance will be witnessed by others in time. If not live,
the results will live on in perpetuity. They have trained and prepared
for the race, ridding themselves of anything unnecessary, especially
if it’s sinful. They are prepared not for a short
burst of energy, but they are prepared to go the long distance.
What remains for the author is to tell them how. What are the
great means of achieving this goal? Not only of entering the
race, or of actually getting out of the blocks and beginning
the race, not even just finishing the race. But how the race is to be run?
How is the runner to pursue his God-given course? How is she
to win the race? And so finally, the writer sets
before them the goal, the lofty, wonderful, magnificent goal of
this contest. The goal that he has in mind
is not merely victory, not merely to finish the race, he has in
mind a far more significant goal, none other than the Lord Jesus,
our Savior. And he urges them to set their
gaze, to join him in fixing their eyes on Jesus Christ. The verb
here that suggest that in order to fix one’s gaze on something
the person must look away from other things and lock on to the
one fixed point of focus. Jesus is at once their great
example and their great goal. It’s a quirky habit that I employ
when I’m taking road trips. But in order to make the hours
pass, I constantly set my sights on some goal on the horizon. Perhaps a town, a city, an interchange,
some topographical feature in the distance, a hill, a mountain. I set my sights on that goal,
and once I reach that goal, I set another. And I just keep clipping
along down the highway. setting goals. That’s similar
to what our writer tells us to do here. In order to strenuously
live out our Christianity we must fix our eyes on Jesus Christ. The verb here fixing indicates
not just glancing at something but someone who again turns away
from all else and focuses in not on a thing but on a person. from all the tempting, distracting,
misleading, empty allures which we could focus our view upon,
we should turn our gaze not to a thing but to the one person,
to Jesus, what one described as a concentration of the wandering
gaze in a single direction. Another caring shepherd urged
it this way. A firm, habitual faith of what
Christ has done for us and of what he will do for us is at
once necessary and sufficient to make Christians in opposition
to every conceivable difficulty and temptation persevere in running
the race set before them. In fact, what he essentially
says there is we can’t run the race without a fixed goal. Can’t
do it. Otherwise, we’re running in circles.
We’re running a road course with no aim, no goal. These readers might have taken
this reminder to look away from the formalism of Judaism to the
reality of what the Jewish system pointed to in the Messiah. But
for us, where do we begin with our lengthy list of distractions? Our plans, our sinful habits,
worldly allures, our travel, our needs, our wants, our aspirations,
our dreams, our troubles, Our trials, persecution, there are
a thousand things that pester us to take our eyes off of Christ. The writer insists that his readers
place Christ ever before them as the great example of perseverance. Jesus Christ is to be singularly
in view. And he tells us several important
things about this object of our adoring focus. He wants to tell
us four things about our Savior. Four things this morning about
our Savior as the goal, as the focal point of our race. First of all, he says that he
is the author and perfecter of our faith. He is an identifiable
savior. He is an identifiable savior. He’s the author and perfecter
of our faith. Jesus was a common name, and
perhaps even some Jew in the audience might even wonder to
which Jesus he was pointing. He says, there’s only one. There’s
only one that I’m suggesting is and should be our focus. It’s
Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, that Jesus. It’s
a unique and a fascinating way to describe our Savior. And the
word author must be a very flexible word in the Greek because it’s
translated very differently elsewhere. In Hebrews chapter 2, fascinating
that we even sang this thought this morning, in Hebrews 2 10,
it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things
bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of our salvation
perfect through sufferings. He is called there the captain
of our salvation. Same word, the author. the captain. In Acts chapter
3, verse 15, he’s called the prince. And so there is an element
of supremacy. There’s an element of leadership.
As one commentator excellently marked it, one who goes before
and conducts others and who thus, by example, shows them how to
proceed. Jesus Christ is our example.
Jesus Christ is our prince. He is our captain. He is the
author. But the word can also be used
to point to the origin of something. And so it’s also true that Jesus
originates or lays the foundation of our faith. In chapter 11,
the author provided us, remember, with that lengthy list of faithful
saints. So he could be pointing out to
us now Jesus as one who is the ultimate example of faithfulness. One shepherd paraphrased it this
way, by his faithfulness he became our captain and standard bearer
in the path of faith. We were eager to follow him.
We saw that he had already walked the way In this sense, Jesus is the one
whose example is to be imitated. It is to be marked and observed
and followed. As one author stated it, in the
career of faith, he led the way. He perfectly realized the idea. He finished the course without
fail. But he is also said to be the
perfecter of our faith. And that just points to the fact
that Jesus Christ not only initiates the believer’s faith in him,
he also perfects it, he completes it, he matures the believer’s
faith. We essentially immersed ourselves
in this point several weeks ago in the final verses of chapter
10. God is not only the one who initiates our salvation, he is
the one who completes it. The perseverance of the saints
depends not on the faithfulness of the saints so much as it depends
on the faithfulness of God who laid hold of the saints. One Puritan put it this way,
Jesus himself, having gained the highest honors of the race
on the former occasion, sits now on an exalted throne Near
the goal is the judge of the competitors, and with garlands
in his hand to crown the victors, he is the rewarder of the faithful. And so, the first thing the author
tells us about our Savior is that he is an identifiable Savior. He is the author and the perfecter
of our faith. We know him. We recognize him. Our eyes cannot be moved from
him. But he tells us something else about this Savior. Again,
look at verse 2. He is a supremely credible Savior. A supremely credible Savior.
Verse 2 says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame. that Jesus. Note what he says
next about this one on whom we’ve fixed our gaze. He’s experienced. He’s been there. He’s done it. He has lived and conquered the
challenges of life. He endured the cross. None of
us have ever done that. This is a challenge far greater
than any believer will ever face. Compare, if you even can begin
to do so, your poor, pitiful lot in life with that which Jesus
faced. Make no mistake, the writer here,
again, is absolutely setting before these readers the ultimate
example of faithfulness, the Lord Jesus. The supreme example
of faithful perseverance. He has just provided them, as
we noted, an entire chapter full of examples. But now he pulls
out all the stops and he brings before them the chief example. One shepherd said it this way,
the record of unparalleled labors and sufferings and glories of
our Lord and Savior is the grand source of instruction, motive,
and encouragement. In other words, he says, there
isn’t anything bigger that the writer could pull out to stir
the hearts of the saints. A firm, habitual faith of what
Christ has done for them is at once necessary and sufficient
to make Christians, in opposition to every conceivable difficulty
and temptation, to make them persevere in the race set before
them. You want to finish? You want to run well? You want
to run to win? Fix your eyes on Christ and don’t
let them be taken off of him. These first century believers,
they had their heartaches. They had their trials and challenges.
Their entire city was about to be overrun by Roman soldiers
and destroyed. We know that. He’s not contending
that. He’s not saying that these aren’t
any big deal, that the trials of our own day are no big deal.
But Jesus Christ, the holy God from all eternity, having taken
on human flesh, which he created, entered into a world, which he
created, to be maligned and abused by those he created. He endured the cross. He saw that God, God’s plan of
redemption demanded that he endure the cross. He knew that at the
end of it, there lay reward, but he patiently endured the
suffering that God mapped out for him for God’s sake, not for
his own. What was it like for Jesus to
choose to do this? We can’t even begin to imagine,
can we? What motivated him? Joy. The joy of carrying out his father’s
will so as to be restored to an eternal
place of fellowship with his father. That’s what motivated
him, joy. He certainly knew that he would be exalted to the highest
place, but he looked forward to completing the Father’s will,
that was foremost, the redemption of sinners. And this, to him,
was joy because it was joy to his father. Even still, this
was not a light or easy trial, even for the Lord Jesus. No human
has ever borne such shame. No human has ever borne such
a trial as Jesus faced. Luke used that word shame to
speak of that presumptuous individual who walked into a dinner party
and took the seat of honor. Remember him? And suddenly, the
very host himself had to approach him and ask him to move down. to move to a lower place at the
table. Shame. Disgrace. Paul also used the word to refer
to those who played loosely with the gospel. Because they were
ashamed of the gospel and its means, what he called craftiness
and adulterating the word of God, Paul renounced such shameful
behavior. And so this is not a pretty word.
In fact, it’s a downright ugly word. Jesus Christ, the co-creator
and redeemer of the world, was utterly disgraced by men who
ultimately put him on a cross. But for Jesus Christ, with the
joy of what he would accomplish set before him, namely the redemption
of sinful humanity, he pressed on. And he endured to the end. The reason that the writer mentions that the believer is to look
to Christ, not only as an eternal goal of the race of the Christian
life, but as the great example. One well-seasoned shepherd put
it this way, the message of the cross to sufferers is that the
highest and greatest victory that has ever been won in human
nature was won by the perseverance of faith, by patience under sufferings
that were neither removed nor mitigated, but endured. And that by the grace of God,
we can meet trouble in a spirit which is essentially the same,
however much weaker in degree. We may win the same kind of victory
in our measure. And so the writer of Hebrews
says to these first century Jews, and he says it to us, look to
Jesus. at Jesus Christ, who for the
joy set before him endured even the cross, even while despising the shame
that it was attended with. There’s a third thing that he
tells us about our Savior, not only that he’s an identifiable
Savior, that he’s a supremely credible Savior, but thirdly,
he’s an exalted Savior. Jesus knew this was coming, but
I’ve already told you he did it for other reasons. Look at
verse two again, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our 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. This is not an unfamiliar illustration. or truth for God’s people. This
is a truth with which we are very familiar, right? Jesus Christ,
having made atonement for sin, was exalted to the highest place
to be seated at his father’s right hand. Paul writing to the
Philippians tells us when and why this honor was bestowed. Did you turn to Philippians chapter
two briefly? Philippians chapter two. He starts with an exhortation
to the Philippian believers to cultivate a unity among them. begin in verse five, you can’t
have unity without this. Have this attitude in yourselves
which is also in Christ Jesus who, although he existed in the
form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being
made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as
a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also God highly
exalted him.” and bestowed on him the name which is above every
name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of
those who are in heaven and those who are under the earth, and
that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of the Father.” He was exalted to the highest place. This exaltation took place through
Christ’s ascension, ultimately, where he went into transcendent
glory to be with the Father for eternity. He sits at the Father’s
right hand where he is Lord reigning in glory. This place to which
Jesus has been exalted by the Father is a place of honor. It’s a place of authority. It’s
a place of power. As Jesus is co-reigning with
his heavenly father, one pastor said, he wields the scepter of
universal sovereignty. Jesus Christ is sovereign over
all. And it is a place of happiness.
It’s a place of joy. Psalm 16, a messianic psalm,
uttered the sentiments of Christ when it records, in your presence
there is fullness of joy. Can’t get any better. It’s a
familiar illustration for readers of the New Testament. You know
this. This idea is used over 20 times in the New Testament,
the idea of Christ being exalted and being seated at his father’s
right hand, following his great work of redemption, which suggests
completeness. A finality to that work of redemption,
it was accepted by the Father. And as such, he was seated at
the Father’s right hand. It is finished. If you’re still in Philippians,
turn one book to the book of Ephesians, chapter 1. Ephesians,
chapter 1. Paul had laid out a strong doctrinal
beginning to Ephesians chapter 1, and he wants to encourage
them. He wants them to know and to
see the great power of God that was involved not only in the
life of Christ, but in his eternal mission. Look
at verse 18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
so that you may know what is the hope of His, that is the
Father’s calling. What are the riches of the glory
of His, that is the Father’s inheritance in the saints. And
what is the surpassing greatness of His, that is the Father’s
power toward us who believe. He wants us to know how mighty
the Almighty is. And so he gives us some examples.
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of
His, that is the Father’s, might, which He, that is the Father,
brought about in Christ. How? When He raised Him from
the dead, seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every
name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the
one to come. Jesus Christ was exalted to the highest place
in all the universe by the almighty power of God. There’s a fourth point that the
writer makes in closing, a fourth thing that he tells us about
this Savior on whom we are to fix our eyes He’s not only an
identifiable Savior, the author and perfecter of our faith, he’s
a supremely credible Savior because he endured the cross, he’s an
exalted Savior because he’s seated at the right hand of God, but
fourthly, he is an exemplary Savior. He’s worthy of being
emulated, he’s worthy of being a model for our own faith. Look at verse three, for consider
him. who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so
that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” When our writer
closes his illustration here by asking his readers to consider,
what he’s asking them to do is compare the life of Christ as
an example, compare it with their own. Think of your own situation
in light of what Jesus faced. He is one, the only one, to whom
we can look for the ultimate example of faithfulness. We may
face bitterness and mistreatment by others. No one deserved it
less than our Savior. He endured such hostility, the
writer says, This word is used four times in all of scripture,
this word hostility, three of them in this letter. This is
the third of these three. In the other two locations, it’s
translated much more mildly as dispute rather than hostility
as here. Jesus Christ, during his time
on earth, faced a steady stream of dispute. He faced a steady
course of hostility from the religious leaders of his day,
an unending series of contradictions, hostility. One pastor painted
a very careful picture of this. Jesus Christ was opposed by words
and actions on the part of sinners. The whole of our Lord’s history
is a commentary on these words. They ridiculed him as a lowborn,
lowbred, fanatical madman. They branded him as a glutton
and a drunkard, a friend of tax gatherers and sinners, an impious
usurper of divine honors. They laid snares for his life,
and after, through the treachery of one of his disciples, he was
put into their hands. They treated him with the most
excessive scorn and barbarous cruelty.” Not one of us have
ever come close to facing those kinds of difficulties. So when we look to an example,
we want somebody with a little experience, don’t we? Who has
more experience at the hands of hostile men than the Lord
Jesus does. We should know well his example.
He is presented to the readers here as the example for their
conduct. we should place him foremost
before us as the one who is born with the hostility of foolish
and sinful men, and is patiently endured to the end. Jesus Christ’s
example, even alone, by itself, will be enough to strengthen
our resolve to persevere to the end. The verb here that is translated
to grow weary, it just means a sudden collapse, a breakdown,
like suddenly running out of gas. You’re on fumes for the
last eight miles. Said one, to faint and grow weary
is just the reverse of persevering in labor and suffering for the
name of Christ. It’s to give up and give in. He says, under the depressing
and discouraging influence of severe and long-continued trials,
which try the reality and strength of our attachment to Christ, to abandon, either partially
or totally, the duties which rise from our Christian profession. If you have placed your faith
in Christ, you have a duty to fulfill. And part of that is
to persevere it to the end. Instead of losing heart and giving
up, giving in, our resolve has to be firmed up. Our confidence
has to be strengthened. Our faith has to be built. Think of the Lord Jesus. Think
of how many, how horrible, how cruel were the things that
He faced. What are ours in comparison? Whatever we could face in this
life, Jesus faced infinitely far, far more and far worse. And this is the astounding principle
to nourish our perseverance. It is this which will make us
eat those bitter words, I quit. We cannot. We must not. By God’s grace, we cannot quit
this race. We must not quit Christianity. Would you humble yourself in
prayer? Lord God, we humble ourself before
your glorious throne where you sit exalted. Having faced all
the difficulties that life can throw, more in measure and worse
in quality than any that we could ever face. And you endured, you faithfully persevered, and
you gave to us not only an example, but you called us to follow in
your footsteps. Lord God, we live in a world
that is literally falling apart by degrees every day. And it would be easy for us to
say, I quit. People say it all the time. People
quit all kinds of things. And these first century believers
were no doubt tempted to quit even their profession of Christ. Grant us grace, Lord, that we
not quit, that we not give up, that we not give in To the temptations and the difficulties
and the heartache that the world throws at us. Help us to fix
our eyes on Jesus Christ our Savior. To glorify him in all
that we do. We cannot do that if we do not
know Christ. And so if there are any in our
midst. Who have not placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
May they be seized and made uncomfortable. May they be led to repentance. May they be drawn by your loving
kindness to place their faith in the only one who has ever done anything for
their sin. Our Lord Jesus paid it all. We
thank you and we praise you in Jesus’ name, amen.