Time To Run: Hearing God’s Heart Through Hebrews 12
Heb 12:1-4 Resurrection Sunday, Apr 8, 2006
Intro:
Many years ago, when I was in Junior High, I did a run. I joined the track team.
Now, here is a picture of me in junior high…
that is one chunky grade 9 kid… if it isn’t clear enough from the picture, here are some of the comments in the “autograph” section, scanned for your amusement:
so you can see that getting some exercise was probably a good idea… lose some weight, get some exercise, develop some healthy lifestyle habits… all excellent motivations for me to join the track team. But that is not why I did it. You see, everyone on the track team got to miss an entire day of school, to go to the track meet. That sounded pretty good to me, so I signed up.
Now, I was a bit of an athlete – I played soccer, and street hockey, and there my size actually was an advantage. I was always the goalie… even a pretty good one, especially when I already blocked more than half the net… So Track and Field: next problem: which event? Long jump? Nah, all that icky sand gets you dirty. High jump? Are you kidding – I weighed like 150 pounds! Shot put? Don’t be fooled by the picture, the bulk was all flab, not muscle. 100 meter dash? Nope, that is for the people who can actually run fast... 1500 meter run? Ha! I’d never make it. Then I spotted the perfect event – the 400 meter. Once around the track. Didn’t have to be fast – those people ran the 100. Didn’t have to have endurance – those people ran the 1500. Sounded like the perfect event, so I signed up.
And then I started training. But since my motivation was to miss a day of school, and since I had already concluded that “real” athletes entered other events, I didn’t train very hard. In fact, I think I ran twice. Over two weeks.
And then the day came… The “meet”… I got to miss a day of school. I got to sit on metal bleachers, on a freezing Calgary spring day, bored to death by events I didn’t care about. And then it was my turn. The 400 meter. And I ran. It seemed like an eternity, but I ran, and ran… and ran… and – wait for it… – I finished second. Second last, that is. I beat my friend, Anthony, who happens to be totally blind and who ran holding the arm of a 40something year old school aid in worse shape than I was.
There Is Another Race… Heb 12:1-4
Thankfully, there is another race – a more important race, a more worthy race, a more exciting race. The author of Hebrews puts it this way: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.”
Jesus’ “race”: (vs 2b):
Let’s start with the second half of verse 2: “Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.”
This was Jesus’ race: to be born into the human experience, leaving behind all of the privileges of heaven, to live and breathe and walk among us, to introduce the Kingdom of God with His words and with His miracles of healing and His demonstrations of the power of God, and then to be betrayed and tortured and, at the end, nailed to a cross where he hung in agony until He died. But that was Friday. The race wasn’t over then, the cross was not the finish line, it was the final hurdle, the worst moment, but it wasn’t the end! Not by any means the end! Jesus’ “race” went through the cross and then to the empty tomb – Jesus’ race went right straight through death, defeating it, and then being risen to new life as the great victor over death and over sin. Jesus “endured” the cross – I love the next line – He “scorned” it’s shame: “scorn” means to “reject or dismiss as contemptible or unworthy… to show disdain or derision” (Mirriam Webster On-line). It is a great word – how does Jesus feel now about the shame of the cross? With disdain, dismissing it, treating it with derision.
Because the cross is not the point. The empty tomb is the point. The resurrection is the point. The new life is the point. Sin has been dealt with, the punishment has been paid, death’s power is broken, all because Jesus is alive! THAT is the point!
Jesus’ race ends with Him “seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne”.
What Does This Mean For Us?
What about our “race”? A couple of weeks ago, I talked about running around aimlessly without knowing our purpose, but here in the first part of Hebrews 12 this comes into much clearer focus. Here is what it says:
Run The Race Without Baggage (vs 1b):
“let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.”
I was not a good Jr Hg athlete, but at least I didn’t run in a bulky coat, with pockets full of rocks and a backpack full of books. And before the race, I made sure my shoes were tied – individually, not to each other.
Along the road of life, we often pick up things and carry them with us. Like hurts. We put them in our pocket, hide them inside our jacket, and plod on. Or like grudges. Things didn’t go our way, and so we open up our backpack and throw a pile of resentment in and trudge on. Or maybe like unrealistic expectations. We believe that God is just going to come and pick us up and carry us and so we sit down and wait for Him to do all the work.
Here is the message: strip all that stuff off. Throw it away. Ditch the backpack, shed the coat, get rid of anything and everything – absolutely anything and everything – that slows you down in your race to follow Jesus. Especially, and here the verse is particularly poignant – especially the “sin that so easily trips you up.” You know, for you, what sin this is. Here is truth: the power of that sin is broken on the cross. Leave it there, and come ahead into the empty tomb! Look in and see that Jesus has left sin and death behind, and has stepped gloriously and powerfully ahead into life! That sin that “easily trips us up” need not have any control over you. By God’s grace, forgiveness, and power, you can “strip it away”, and be free to run. Without tripping and falling on your face and bruising and bloodying yourself. Strip it off, and run free.
Run The Race With Endurance (vs 1b):
Next it says, “run with endurance”.
The Christian life is not a sprint. It isn’t the 100 meter dash, it is the 80 or 90 or 100 year long marathon. It is great to get excited and run, as long as we don’t give up when we start to feel tired or no longer excited. We are in this for the long haul, and so we run “with endurance”.
In the Boston Marathon from Hopkinton to Boston, there is an obstacle called Heartbreak Hill. Starting at mile 13 of the Boston race course, there are a number of hills, climaxing at mile 19 with Heartbreak Hill. It’s the longest, steepest hill in the race. What makes this hill even worse is that world-class runners “hit the wall” around mile 18 or 19 even if it is a level grade. “Hitting the wall” is when your body has depleted the glycogen stored in your muscles. That glycogen is replaced with lactic acid, which is like a poison. Your muscles scream for oxygen. And when you “hit the wall,” you just feel like you’re going to die. For these runners, it occurs around mile 18. Heartbreak Hill tests runners to the very core of their determination and their strength. (story told by Lee Hermes in a sermon dated August 15, 2004, from http://www.firstparishchurchdover.org/sermons.php?sermon=20040815.html)
Sometimes our lives feel like that, but the encouragement – the command – of Scripture is to keep going. To press on. To run with endurance. How can we do it? When we feel overwhelmed, what can we do? That is the very next verse…
Run The Race With Perspective (vs 2a):
“We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”
There it is. The perspective we need. The “one thing.” The purpose, the reason, the motivation, the “only thing”. It is Jesus. In our race of life, never take your eyes off of Jesus. Never let them droop, never let them wander, never let them turn your head to the side. The verse begins with a unique verb in the NT, one which means “to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something” (Thayers Lexicon, from http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/words.pl?book=Hbr&chapter=12&verse=2&strongs=872&page=).
How do the runners make it past “heartbreak hill”? They fix their minds on the finish line. Our race needs this perspective: we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Not on others and what they think of us, not on ourselves and our own aches, but on Jesus. The perspective comes in verses 3-4: “3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.”
The Power To Run:
I think that the main message of the cross is the love of God. I think the main message of the empty tomb is the power of God.
Power to defeat death. Power to bring Jesus back from the dead. Power over all of life. And, here perhaps is the most significant thing for you and I here today, that very same power of God at the resurrection is for me and for you. Do you believe me? Really? It is for you, for your life, right now. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is for you. Don’t believe me, believe Scripture:
“19 I also pray that you will know the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 1:19-20).
It makes a difference. It makes THE difference. Where do we get the power to run the race? From God. What power is this? The exact same power that we celebrate at the empty tomb.
It is the power we need to “run the race without baggage.” It is the power we need to “run the race with endurance”. It is the power we need to “run the race with perspective”. And it comes from God, and it comes through prayer. I have one final story to tell, and then we are going to have a time of prayer and of ministry to one another for anyone who wants to stay. I’m going to ask our elders and prayer counselors to come to the front, and you can come and we will pray with Paul in Ephesians that “you will know the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him.”
Conclusion:
I told you a painful story about a 400m race at the beginning, now let me tell you a better story. This one is a picture of God, how He sees our race, and what He does about it.
It was Monday night, August 3, at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. At the track and field stadium, the gun sounded for the 400-meter semifinals. About 100 meters into the race, Britain’s Derek Redmond crumpled to the track with a torn right hamstring, which is a crippling injury for any athlete. Medical attendants rushed out to assist him, but as they approached Redmond, he waved them all aside, struggled to his feet and crawled and hopped in a desperate effort to finish the race. Four years earlier he had also qualified for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Ninety seconds before his meet, he had to pull out of the Olympics because of Achilles tendon problems. Following that injury he had five surgeries - 2 on each Achilles tendon. That usually means the end of an athletic career. Yet somehow he had qualified again for the 1992 Olympics. While he’s in the ’92 Olympics race, he rips a hamstring. But he said to himself, “I’m not quitting. I’m going to finish this race.” He worked his way hopping, crawling at times, down the lane. Up in the stand, a big guy wearing a T-shirt and tennis shoes and a Nike cap that said, “Just Do It” across the front, barreled out of the stands, hurled aside a security guard, ran to Derek Redmond’s side and embraced him. That man was Jim Redmond, Derek’s father. With his arm around his son’s waist, Derek’s arm around his dad’s thick shoulders and neck, they continued down the track – together with Derek’s dad whispering in his ear. Mom and sister were watching the race on TV back home. His sister, who was pregnant, went into false labor. Mom fell on her knees crying. At the stadium in Barcelona, the crowd is standing, cheering, not for the one who came in first, but for Derek and his Dad. The two of them work their way around the track, all the time Derek’s dad talking in his ear, saying, “Come on, son. You and I will do this together,” until finally, arm in arm, they cross the finish line. (story told by Lee Hermes in a sermon dated August 15, 2004, from http://www.firstparishchurchdover.org/sermons.php?sermon=20040815.html)
We think: "It’s impossible" God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)
We think: "I’m too tired" God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)
We think: "Nobody really loves me" God says: I love you (John 33:16& John 13:34)
We think: "I can not go on" God says: My grace is sufficient for you (II Corinthians. 12:9& Psalm 91:15)
We think: "I can’t figure things out" God says I will direct you steps (Proverbs 3:5, 6)
We think: "I can’t do it" God says: You can do all things through me (Phil.4:13)
We think: "I’m not able" God says: I am able (II Corinthians. 9:8)
We think: "It’s not worth it" God says: It will be worth it (Romans 8:28)
We think: "I can’t forgive myself" God says: I forgive you (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
We think: "I can’t manage" God says: I will supply all your needs (Phi. 4:19)
We think: "I’m afraid" God says: I have not given you the spirit of fear (II Tim. 1:7)
We think: "I’m always worried and frustrated" God says: Cast all your cares on me (I Peter 5:7)
We think: "I don’t have enough faith" God says: I’ve given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)
We think: "I’m not smart enough" God says I give you wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30)
We think: "I feel alone" God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:4, 5)
(from sermon by Michael McCartney “The Rock-The Roll- The Resurrection”, accessed at http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=57491).
