Run With Endurance - Hebrews 12: 1-4

1:08Different religious organizations that are called churches and different leaders that seek unity and that want us to all get along and tolerate and accept and celebrate many things. And if you don't do it, you're the bad guy. You're the one who's intolerant. And this was also the case with the Hebrews. And we're going to be reading here this letter to the Hebrews. And they were going through some similar circumstances. They were feeling the constant pressure from society, not only from government and leadership, but also religious leadership. And the pressure was to conform and to go back to Judaism. It was a constant pressure from their own families, saying, hey, what happened to you? Go come back.

2:11So the pressure got so bad from the unbelieving Jews to get the believing Jews to go back to their roots. It was even violent. And it got so bad that under Emperor Claudius, he got fed up of it. And he said, well, all the Jews out of Rome. I don't want any of this. And even the believing Jews were suffering from this. In Hebrews 10, 34, which is not our passage today, but you can look at it. In Hebrews 10, 34, we see that these believing Jews had joyfully accepted the plundering of their property. You know, the situation had gotten pretty bad, and you put yourself in that position, right? One day, having to leave your home.

3:00Your savings, everything that you worked for. But they did it joyfully. They joyfully accepted the the plundering of their property since they knew that they had a better possession and abiding one. So go Hebrews, right? They they they faced temptation, they faced these trials and they were, you know, they they faced it well. But in time, in time, the pressure did not cease and it was continuing and it was chipping on it, you know um you know, it continued on. And with time, they lost confidence. They started to lose patience. Uh the temptation to stop persevering in the faith grew more and more and more with time. Even though they they faced such great uh trial and they went victoriously about it, uh the constant pressure uh got them exhausted and disheartened. And maybe you felt that way, disheartened, exhausted, tired by the constant pressure, the slander, the injustice of the world, even family members, uh that that tempt you to react poorly, that they're trying you it for you to go back to your old ways, your old life, uh to stop being so uptight, you know. Uh why why are you being so moralistic now with us? Uh Maybe you're going through that right now. All of us will inevitably encounter that situation. So, the question becomes: what can we do then? How can we resist? How can we continue this life of faith, persevering in the faith, but with joy, with endurance?

4:51And we find the answer here in Hebrews 12, where the author is trying to encourage these Hebrews to continue on, to press on, to not let go of the faith. And in this passage, we are going to see four essential principles. Well, the author is going to illustrate this life of faith as a race. So, we're going to find these four essential principles that every runner in this run of faith needs to apply in order to run successfully. So, let's read Hebrews 12:1-4. It says, Therefore, since we're 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. Looking 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. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted in your struggle against sin. You have not. Yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. So, the principle number one that I think we find here is that is the firm determination to run with endurance. To run with endurance, it says in verse 1, let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. And I think it's important to realize, as we see here, that this is a long-distance race. It requires determination. It's not a stroll in the park. And I mean, even if you've had to chase your toddler around here, you know that running takes a toll on you.

6:40You get out of breath and whatnot. So imagine a long race. It requires determination, and perseverance. It's hard, it's demanding. And the point here is not speed, but stamina. That's why the emphasis is given here to run with endurance. That's the key here: the endurance. It's not a competition against other Christians. So it's that determination to continue on through difficulties. When the race gets hard and you don't see the end of it because it's so long and you're already getting tired and the pressures keep mounting on, when things seem that are never ending. That's the point, endurance. We keep pressing on. As we saw just a minute ago, the Hebrews had started so well. They resisted that incredibly hard temptation and trial to give up their faith, and they endured even that huge financial loss.

7:50But with time, time can be a factor, right, with the faith. When things are not letting up and the pressure is not letting up, that temptation grows to give up. And that's where we are encouraged. This is a long distance race, so know it. Determine that you'll continue. And this is a race of faith. Not only a long distance race, it's a race of faith. And it's key to understand that this is not a race of works. It's not talking about, you know, you keep working your salvation and maybe you'll get to heaven. It's not talking about, well, if you sin, you're out of the race. That's not the point. The point is, don't let go of the faith. Keep trusting the promises of the Lord. Keep going. That's what the Hebrews were tempted, you know, to stop believing in what the gospel says and go back to Judaism and don't believe that Jesus is Messiah. Just come back to the temple. So it's a race of faith. We entered by faith. We continue by faith. And that's the only way we're going to keep raising, which is by faith. And it's a race set by God. It says that here we're still in verse 1 that we run with endurance that the race that is set before us. The question is: who said that race before us? It's God Himself, Christ Himself. He has set this race before us. It's not the enemy. And I think that should encourage us. You know, in this long life race of faith, it's not the enemy who has said it. It's not the, you know, it's not meant there to trick us. It's not there meant to, you know, oh, you're there. No, you should have gone there. No, the Lord wants us to run this race. And it should encourage us that God is the one who said this race before us. And it's a race that many have finished. And that's also meant for our encouragement, for us to keep pressing on.

10:02Because it says in the beginning of verse 12, chapter 12, verse 1, therefore, since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run with endurance. And that's coming at the heels of chapter 11, which is a very famous chapter in the Bible by faith. Abel by faith. Abraham by faith. You know, we have all these witnesses all All these examples of faith in chapter 11 who are meant to be an encouragement. You know, they finished the race, and there are men and women who had a lot of challenges in life, and they have a lot of shortcomings as well. But they persevere in the race, and they kept going on.

10:51And it's interesting, this phrase, the cloud of witnesses, I think the most common thought or interpretation when you come to this passage, and what I thought for a long time, is, you know, this cloud of witnesses are people that are witnessing your race, right? Maybe that's what comes to mind. You know, they're all there standing looking at you, hopefully cheering you on. And there's another option which I think is a little better in this context, and is that they are witnesses in the sense that they testify, right? They are witnesses and that they testify of a life of faith. So it's not so much that they're looking at us, but that we are looking at them for encouragement.

11:40It's not that we're running well to impress them or not to disappoint them. It's just we look at them and we're encouraged by seeing how that they weren't perfect, they had hard challenges, but they finish. They finish the race. So Those men and women are proof that by faith, as one author says, it is possible to do whatever God commands, however difficult. It is possible to endure whatever God appoints, however severe. And it is possible to obtain what God promises, however seemingly unattainable. So, whatever your view is of this cloud of witnesses, if they are there looking at you, cheering you on, or if they're just there giving witness and we look at them for encouragement, that's the point. Motivation, encouragement. We look at them and we find in them an encourage, yeah, encouragement to keep going, to press on through this long race that is challenging, but that God set up for us, and other people have done it. So we can look at them and say, I can do it too.

12:59Now, the question becomes, are you determined to run the race? Because I think that maybe the reason why we falter or we get discouraged, or we can get easily discouraged in this Christian life, is because we forget that it is a long race, that is a challenging, demanding race. And when the first trials come and the first challenges to our faith come, when the first What's the word I'm looking for? So, when people start saying mean things, what's the word I'm looking for? So, the shaming and the intolerance comes, well, that's when we can get discouraged. Because our mindset is not, well, this is a long, challenging race. We're just strolling through the park. So, I like how Dr. Bookman, one of our seminary professors, says it. Jesus never said, pick up your air mattress and follow me.

14:02This is supposed to be demanding. And God placed us in this race, and He wants us to finish. He presents the runners who already completed the race, and then He tells us, Now it's your turn. Now it's your turn. Run. Run with endurance. So that's the principle number one. If we want to run this race with joy, with endurance, we need to have this firm determination to run with endurance. Principle number two, we find it also in verse one, and it's that constant discipline to lay aside all hindrances. And it's that little phrase that says, Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.

14:54The race is already difficult. So it's very important to, you know, know. Add to the difficulty. You know, it's to get rid of anything that will add more challenges to the run. And we're told to get rid of two things: to lay aside every weight and sin. Some people might say they're the same thing, maybe. I like to keep them separate. And the first thing is to lay aside every weight. In the context of the race, we can pretty much tell, you know, excessive clothing every, you know, it seems like all the time where the brands are bringing up new shoes that are lighter and aerodynamic.

15:46The clothes are getting tighter and not as weighty even when you sweat. You know, that sweat doesn't stay there and make it heavy. You know, so also bodily weight could be, you know, it's something that will surely slow you down. If you're overweight, you're not going to be able to run a marathon at your optimum performance. And in the context of the Hebrews, it may well be that this could be referring to the Jewish laws. Things that are not sin, customs and ceremonies, things that are related to Judaism, and they weren't bad, they weren't sinful, but they were distracting. They were hindrances because they were trying. To find a way to merge both and fit in society and stop the slander, maybe?

16:37Well, in the context of us, you know, every believer, it's clear that every weight means everything that can distract us from the race, from our walk with the Lord, everything that can be hindering a good walk with the Lord, with Christ. Whatever takes our energy away, whatever hinders your walk with the Lord. So they are not necessarily sin, but they can be hindering whatever you run. So the question becomes: what is hindering you? It's a very personal question because we're not talking about deliberate sins, but things that can be distracting us. And I think every one of us needs to constantly be looking at ourselves and and thinking, thinking through what how am I spending my time or my resources? Are those helping the walk of faith or are they distracting me? And taking time away from focusing on the Lord and prayer, on rooting myself in the Bible, maybe conversations, arguments, philosophies that can be distracting.

18:02What activities or people are distracting you from or even discouraging you from to remain steadfast, running with endurance this life of faith? Well, not only we have to lay aside weight, which is, I will argue, not things that are not sinful but are hindering the race, but also we got to lay aside sin. We got to stop clinging to it. And just like the runner cannot afford to be clinging to anything that would be hindering him from running his best, the believer cannot afford clinging to sin either. And it's a daily discipline. We know that. It's a constant decision to say no to sin, to surrender all areas of life to the Lord. To be quick to repent when we sin, that is to not cling. We let it go. We ask the Lord for forgiveness. And it is to not let a long time pass before we apologize. We let that pride go. We don't cling to it. That's what we need to do. Be quick to forgive and not let that bitterness keep growing.

19:30Let that bickering and arguing go with other fellow Christians, with family members, with co-workers. That's telling, I'm still hurt with you, so I'm going to let you know with my arguing and bickering. We let that go. Lust, gossip. We let it go. We go quick. We go quick to the Lord, and we don't cling to Him. We do that, of course, because the Lord tells us so, but it's also a way of not being discouraged. Because the longer we cling to these things, the slower we go. We, you know, stop coming to church, you know, stop reading the Bible, stop praying. You think to yourself, well, who am I kidding here? You know, do I even believe what I say I believe?

20:30And that can slow you down. That can discourage you from really holding on to the faith. The run is already hard, so we lay aside the sin so that way we can run with joy. When I first visited here, the States, I came to study on a very small Bible college in Tennessee. Now, I did not grow in poverty by any stretch of the imagination. Although I grew up, In South America. So maybe I don't know what your ideas of South America are. I did not live in the jungle.

21:10And I never liked for anything either. But I never experienced the all-you-can-eat kind of things that are here in the States. It was absolutely new to me to be able to go to McDonald's and get a cup this big, you know, and go to the soda machine dispenser and go one, two, three times. And it costs the same thing. Over there, you got to pay for each glass. So that was very new to me. And when I was in the cafeteria over there at college, it was a similar circumstance. They had a very nice ice cream booth there. And they had, it was a small college, so they could afford, you know, for they weren't assuming that I was coming, so that's why they had the best ice cream. So it was creamy, amazing, and I always, and I was thin. I was very, very skinny, 18 years old. And I never thought that having one cup of ice cream, and I'm talking, you know, the glass that you go get your soda with, you know, one glass of water, you know, fill it up with three, four scoops of that ice cream. And they had a bar with peanuts and peanut butter and chocolate sauce and chocolate. Chips and all sorts of amazing things. It was great.

22:35And I will just load it up. I will help myself at three, four scoops after lunch and then after dinner. And that continued on for the whole semester. And at the end of that semester, well, I realized that I was wrong, that it would really affect me. So it affected me so much that my clothes didn't fit. I couldn't sit down well without, you know, it was bad. It was bad. And I was ashamed. And I was ashamed, especially to go back, come back from the States. And all my friends tell me, you know, you went to the States for one year. Look how you ended up.

23:22So I did, really wanted to avoid that situation. So I signed up for soccer for next semester. I went to the tryouts and they had a two-week, two-a-days, you know, training. And at the end of that week, those two weeks they were going to tell me, you know, you're in, you're out. I didn't care if I stayed in or out. I just wanted some help to lose my weight. So I went over there and man, those two weeks were one of the most miserable weeks in my life. Cause I had to run so much. Constantly, and you know, I got sick many times. You know, I really lost weight many times. So suddenly. So it was hard. It was hard. But at the end of those two weeks, I could run. I mean, I wasn't the fastest one. I wasn't. But I could run. I got in. I don't know how, but I got in the team. I guess they really needed players.

24:32But at the end of the season, the season, well, I was determined to lose that weight. So I was running, I was going at it. And at the end of that season, I was fit. Fittest as I ever been. Not now. And I could run. I could really run. And I run more than everyone else. Because I had really put in the effort. And I could play the game, I could run, and I could run with joy. It wasn't as much as, oh man, I gotta run. I don't know if I'm gonna lose my air.

25:06I could run with joy. I could do things and go about the game. Well, we get rid of every weight and sin that clings and hinders, that distracts us, and that doesn't let us run the race of faith well. Because that's the only way that we're gonna be able to run with joy. Let go. Of sin and the weight. So, principle number one is that firm determination to run with endurance. Principle number two, we just saw in verse one as well, that constant discipline to lay aside all hindrances. That's how we're going to be able to run well with joy. Principle number three, we'll find it in verse two, and it's that correct determination, that correct direction to gaze upon. It says in verse two that we run looking 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.

26:15Because nothing will throw you off or slow you down more than looking where you shouldn't when you're running. You know, there are enough YouTube videos to show, you know, people that were running professionally and they were like, oh, how's my opponent doing? And then they lose a race because they got distracted. Right? And the runner can be tempted to look to their opponents, to the sides, to the stands. There's so much going on around that they gotta look forward. They gotta look to the goal. And the believer is also tempted to look everywhere. They're tempted to look to the sides and compare ourselves to other believers, how they're doing in the faith. Oh, man, he has it so. Easy right now, or you know, they're doing so well.

27:06We can look at the stance and look at the people that are not running the race, right? The unbelievers, that they will discourage you if you want to look over there. We can look at our situations, circumstances, we can look at ourselves, but we must fix our eyes on Jesus. That's what we're commanded to do here. That has to be our focus and never take our eyes off him. And we do that because Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. Founder can be also translated leader, pioneer, forerunner, champion, initiator. And I do agree that with the fact that Jesus is the author of faith in every single person, you know.

27:53But I think the nuance here in the context could be more of him being the leader. He is the one who we follow. He's the one who guides us through the race, the one who makes it possible for us to run. He is the champion. He's the pioneer that opened the way of faith. So that's why we look at him, because he's the leader. He's the one who's going to guide us through all this. He's the maximum expression of faith. That's the perfecter.

28:27In him, faith was expressed in his fullness. Completed. It was lived out perfectly, a life of faith. And I think one example of this is what it comes after. An example of living out faith to the fullest was perfectly shown and demonstrated in him, where it says there that he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So he suffered, he endured all the difficulties. Remember the Hebrews, remember our own situation. We endure through this run, this difficult, long-term run of faith. He endured. He endured far worse. We're going to see that later on. But he even endured the cross, which was humiliating. He was the greatest disgrace that you could go through. Worse than some shaming, you know.

29:25And even so, he was obedient and he trusted the Lord. Through that, through suffering, he put his eyes on the Lord, and he finally saw all the promises of God coming to fruition. He ended up sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. He endured to the end. He crossed the goal. And there he was, seated at the right hand of the throne of God. He accomplished his task. God exalted him, and he saw everything that the Lord had promised come to fruition. And what an example he is to us.

30:01But to the point here, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. The question obviously is, where are your eyes fixed upon? Because we can get distracted and discouraged because we can focus on the wrong things. We can focus even on family. We can focus on friends. And all those situations can be discouraging. We can focus on our own skills, accomplishments that can take us to the prideful side, or we can focus on our weaknesses and our shortcomings. And that will discourage you. You can look at your work and focus on work situation and your investments. Don't focus on the market, of course.

30:56You can focus on your savings and get discouraged, politics, so many things that are battling for our attention, and those can be distracting. And they can discourage us from running the faith. And that's why we fix our eyes on Jesus. He's our focus. We look to him. When life gets difficult and we see no end to it, we fix our eyes on him and his example and how he endured through all and he attained that which God promised. And so will we.

31:30So, we don't take our eyes from him. We focus them on our leader, our champion, our goal, Jesus Christ. So, that's our third principle. And I'm running through the clock as well, not only the run of faith. So, principle number one: we saw that firm determination to run with endurance. Second principle, the constant discipline to lay aside all hindrances. In verse two, we saw the correct direction to gaze upon. And final, final principle number four. We'll see this principle in verses three and four, and that's the motivating duty of imitating Christ. Let's read verses three and four. It says, Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted in your struggle against sin. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

32:39And it's encouraging to see that Christ lived by faith. He run the run of faith. And I think if we don't have a correct understanding of the Lord, you know, this, instead of being a very encouraging duty of imitating him, it can become This simple, impossible idea, ideal, you know, that of course he did it, and you know, who am I to run even similarly to him? Remember, this is not a race of works. So it doesn't mean that if, you know, you've got to be sinless to run this race and get to the end. It means holding on to the faith. And Christ, he ran the race of faith and he endured.

33:30He was dependent on the Father. He had the same spiritual resources that you and I have because he had to depend on the Father, he had to depend on the Spirit. That's why he got up early in the morning and prayed. I'll bring up Dr. Bookman again. If you've never had his life of Christ, his class on life of Christ, you should take it. And I love it how he expresses this: that Jesus was not Clark Kent. You know who Clark Kent is?

34:02It was Superman pretending. He just put on the glasses and, oops, I'm Clark Kent. But there was never a Clark Kent. It was fake. It was just Superman pretending. And sometimes we can think that Jesus was God pretending to be man. He was just pretending that he was weak. He was pretending that he really struggled and suffered like we do. Taking genuine humanity. But he did. He took on flesh. What a mystery. Don't ask me how that happens.

34:34But that is encouraging to know that Jesus Christ genuinely meant genuinely God, of course, but as a genuinely man, he depended on the Father. He had to suffer. And he was obedient. He held on to the end. And we can live like him. We can depend not on our strength, but on the Lord. And we can live in obedience and surrender to the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's the way that we're going to endure. That's the way that we can run this race. And it's also encouraging to know that Christ suffered more than we did, and yet he finished. We, like it says in verse 4, we have not, in our struggle against sin, we have not yet struggled, resisted to the point of shedding our blood. We have not been martyred. We have not been killed. We have not been faced to death.

35:40Jesus did. And he went on. He was faithful. So what an encouragement to imitate Christ and to hold on to the faith to the end, like Christ did, even if it means. Death. So obviously, the question is: Are you willing to follow that example? Are you willing to even give up your life for the sake of the faith? Well, the way that you answer the question will tell you much about if you'll reach the goal or not, if you're even in the race or not. But I think since our reality sometimes can be a little far removed from someone actually coming and saying, I'm going to kill you if you don't renounce your faith, I think sometimes a better measure of that could be that of the Hebrews, even. Are you willing to lose property, to lose money, to lose a business for staying firm in the faith and not yield to sin and do things under the table, you know, do things wrongly? Are you willing to lose your job for the sake of Christ and not compromise to the pressures of the world? And we, sadly, we see that more and more. If you do not celebrate the way of the world, well, you might get your license revoked. You might end up out of a job. Are you willing? Are you willing? Are you willing to give up comfort?

37:23See your reputation ruined, suffer injustice or slander, slander. In order to run with endurance, well, as the verses says here, verse 3: Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. So, we live in a world where we're constantly pressured to abandon the faith, or at least to compromise the core tenets of the faith, which is pretty much the same thing. And that pressure can slowly chip away your joy, your confidence in this race of faith. So, that's why we saw how can we resist? How can we continue? How can we persevere in the faith with joy and patience in the midst of all these pressures and difficulties of life? That's why we consider these four essential principles in chapter 12 of Hebrews.

38:30Four essential principles that every believer needs to apply to successfully run the race of faith. We need a determination, a firm determination to run with endurance. We need a constant discipline to lay aside all hindrances. We need the correct direction to gaze upon, that's Jesus Christ, and we need the motivating duty of imitating Christ. So, run the race patiently. Endure. You can endure life with joy. It's a long race, it's a challenging race, but it's worth running.

39:12Hebrews 10, 35 through 39 is closely tied to our passage today, and I'll conclude with this. I think it really ties it all together. It says, Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. For yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we, true Christians, we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. So run with endurance. Every true Christian will get to the end. So run it with joy. You can, and it will be worth it. Yet a little while, and we reach the goal. What a glory it will be when we cross the finish line and can see Jesus face to face and enjoy his comfort and his fellowship for all eternity. Let's pray.

40:31Father, give us this endurance. Give us this the power that we need. We need everything from you in order to hold on and to continue through life with its external pressures and difficulties and even our own weights that sometimes we cling to. Help us to lay those aside so we can endure life with joy. We want to live lives that really honor you. And if we live Christian lives with a sad face, that's not a good testimony. Help us to run with joy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.