Staying In the Race (Hebrews 12:1-3)

1. Staying In the Race (Hebrews 12:1-3)

2. Hebrews 12:1-3 Command: Let us run with endurance!  Having a great cloud of witnesses (Listen!)  Having put off every weight and the sin that entangles (Lay aside!)  Looking to Jesus (Look!) Who is the author and perfecter of faith  Who endured the shame of the cross  Who is seated at the Father’s right hand Command: Think of Him who endured such hostility, so that we won’t grow weary and quit

3. “Let us run with endurancethe race that is set before us”  “The race” is a metaphor for the life of faith.  The race is set before us. We don’t define it ourselves. God’s call defines it. That makes everyone’s race somewhat unique.  The race is difficult (αγωνα = “agona”).  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Ti. 4:7; cf, 1 Co. 9:24-25)

4. Let us run with endurance … Why do people quit the race? • Apathy because of personal sin (11:24-25) • Disillusioned over sin/suffering (11:35-40) • Love of the world (Demas; 2 Tim. 4:12) (11:8-10)

5. Keys to Running with Endurance • Listen! • Lay aside! • Look!

6. Listen! “so great a cloud of witnesses”  Those that witness to us by their lives; “though dead, he still speaks” (11:4) “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors. (Ps. 119:24)  Joseph (faith that forgives)  Daniel (faith that is contra Babylon)  Paul (faith that values souls and God’s reward)  Jesus (faith for provision; Matthew 6:25-33)

7. Listen! “so great a cloud of witnesses”  Corrie & Betsy Ten Boom (faith that sees God’s love even in great trials)  William Tyndale (faith that sees the worth of God, His Word, and His people)  Athanasius (faith to be bold; “contra mundum”)  Wednesday PM Prayer Group (power of prayer)

8. Lay aside … ! • every encumbrance (weight) This is anything that might hold you down in your spiritual life.  Associations (even friendships)  Places fraught with temptation  Activities that are too consuming

9. Lay aside … ! • every encumbrance (weight) • the sin that so easily entangles  Not one unique personally besetting sin  Put away sin, which entangles and trips us up.  This is a call to repentance. “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiamagite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.” (Luther’s 1st Thesis)

10. Look! • Person of Christ • Passion of Christ • Perspective of Christ

11. Look at the Person of Christ “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same imagefrom one degree of glory to another.” (2 Cor. 3:18)

12. “A constant view of the glory of Christ will revive our souls and cause our spiritual lives to flourish and thrive…. the more we behold the glory of Christ by faith now, the more spiritual and the more heavenly will be the state of our souls. The reason why the spiritual life in our souls decays and withers is because we fill our minds full of other things, and these things weaken the power of grace. But when the mind is filled with thoughts of Christ and his glory, these things will be expelled. When we behold the glory of Christ by faith every grace in us will be stirred up. This is how our spiritual life is revived.” … John Owen

13. Look at the Person of Christ “Herein would I live; herein would I die; hereon would I dwell in my thoughts and affections, to the withering and consumption of all the painted beauties of this world, unto the crucifying all things here below, until they become unto me a dead and deformed thing, no way meet for affectionate embraces.” … John Owen

14. Look at the Person of Christ And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. … For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. (John 1:14-18)

15. “No man ever spoke like this man.” (John 7:46) “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”(Matthew 12:41-42)

16. Look at the Passion of Christ “Consider” (v. 3) = analogizomai = consider intently Jesus endured: 1. the cross  physical  spiritual / theological 2. its shame 3. hostility from sinners

17. “The cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us.” John Stott “The Spirit does not take His pupils beyond the cross, but ever more deeply into it.” J. Knox Chamblin

18. Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget Thine agony; Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary. … Jennie Evelyn Hussey

19. Look at the Passion of Christ Jesus endured the cross, its shame, and hostility from sinners. We can endure today’s trials. When I Survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count but loss And pour contempt on all my pride!

20. Look at the Perspective of Christ “Who for the joy set before Him”  Joy of finishing the work of the Father  Present sacrifice for future glory  Put away sin  Usher in a kingdom of perfect righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  “bringing many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10)

21. O soul are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There's light for a look at the Saviour, And life more abundant and free     Turn you eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face; And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.