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Hebrews 12:1-3 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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Please take your copy of God's Word and join me in Hebrews chapter 12.
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Our text for this morning is Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1-3.
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While you're getting there, let me remind you that this letter was written by an unknown author.
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There's some good guesses, but we're not entirely sure who wrote this letter.
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But we do know that he wrote it to a group of Hellenistic Jews
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that lived on the outskirts of Rome who had suffered much.
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Keep that in mind. This is a beleaguered church.
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They are beaten down.
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And they have seen many who once claimed to follow Christ leave their midst.
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And the author here is making this case that Jesus, the way of Jesus,
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is better than the way of Judaism.
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It's better than the systems of the world.
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It's the more excellent way.
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And he has begun to talk about the need to persevere in faith in the way of Jesus.
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And we've been talking about this at length in the past months.
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So we come to a most beautiful and pivotal text in the letter of Hebrews.
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And we may have been able to meet last week.
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I am at least in part glad that we didn't because it gave me a whole extra week
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to just camp in these first three verses of Hebrews chapter 12.
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It has much to say.
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And I hope that my mind won't quickly leave it even as we depart from each other today.
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Before I read it for you, let me remind you, beloved, that this is God's word to us,
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that it was written for his glory and our good.
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And as such, we would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises
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and to obey its commands.
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Hebrews 12, beginning of verse 1 and following.
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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
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let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely
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and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
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looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
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who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
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despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself
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so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted.
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We have been told by the author of Hebrews in chapter 10 and verse 39
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that we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed,
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but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
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True Christ followers, those who really belong to Jesus,
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will persevere and they will do so by faith.
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He then proceeds in the beginning of chapter 11 to give us a description of faith.
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Verse 1 says,
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Faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
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the conviction of things not seen.
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Faith is a trust that all that God has said would come to pass
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will in fact come to pass.
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It's unwavering belief in God.
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And then in verse 2 of chapter 11 he says,
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For by it the people of old received their commendation or approval.
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It was by their faith that they were approved.
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The remainder of chapter 11 is him, the author,
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recounting the faith of this so great a cloud of witnesses.
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He has spoken of the faith of Abel and Enoch and Noah.
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He has told us of the faith of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob.
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He has expounded on the faith of Moses and the Exodus Israelites.
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And in a sweeping manner he has summarized the faithfulness
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of the rest of the Old Testament's people of old
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who received their approval by faith.
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All of this recounting is not without a point.
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And today's text tells us exactly what that point is.
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The author says at the beginning of chapter 12 and verse 1,
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Therefore, because of all that I've said in chapter 11,
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Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.
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This text sets forth for us a metaphor of the Christian life as a race.
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And it begins with the idea of us being surrounded by witnesses.
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The author of Hebrews is likely drawing on the Roman Olympics.
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This would have been very fresh and present in his original audience's mind.
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Held in very large coliseums, these events would have taken place.
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Thousands and tens of thousands of people in attendance to watch such races.
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He is saying to us,
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Look at those who have gone before you and are looking on, cheering you on.
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However, this throng here called so great a cloud is not merely a passive audience,
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but they are those mentioned in chapter 11 who have run the race before us and have completed it well.
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In the New Testament, a witness is never passive,
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but one who participates in and confirms and attests to the truth.
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Think of them as retired runners.
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They are those who have already spent their careers at the race,
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and they are cheering the race, and they are validating the worth of running it.
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They are saying,
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Yes, our lives were spent well in the running of the race.
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With this opening statement, the author of Hebrews is turning from having us observe the faith of others
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to a faithfulness of our own.
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And he does so with four exhortations that are all exhortations to action.
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So note the four actions, and these will serve as our outline for this morning.
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The first one found in the middle part of verse 1, lay aside.
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The second found at the last part of verse 1, run.
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The third found in verse 2, look.
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And the final found in verse 3.
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Consider.
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So first, lay aside.
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The author writes,
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Let us, so therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
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let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely.
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The author of Hebrews is further drawing on the race metaphor
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in exhorting us to lay aside.
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The laying aside is throwing off everything that would hinder us from running.
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Some of you may be runners, and you may know that being light and nimble is helpful to your running.
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Those of you who have been or are currently in the military know that they love to give you things that hinder your running, right?
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That bear you down, boots and packs.
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He's saying throw those things aside if you're going to run well.
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In the Roman arena, racers would have stripped off their clothing, quite often down to nothing,
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and laid it aside before a race.
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They did not run races in long tunics in the Roman Olympics, right?
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The race is too important to be hindered in the running of it.
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We must complete it.
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We must get to the end.
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If we are to be not of those who shrink back and are destroyed,
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but of those who have faith and preserve their souls,
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again, Hebrews 10 and verse 39,
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then we are going to have to be unfettered, unhindered in the running of this race.
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It is these hindrances he's referring to with the phrase,
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every weight.
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Let us also lay aside, just like all those people I've referred to in chapter 11,
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let us also lay aside every weight.
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What is weighing you down in your pursuit of your Christian faith?
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What is hindering you from running well?
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The author here is not referring to sin,
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as he will go on to exhort the laying aside of sin,
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but rather there are things that tempt us to sin
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or keep us distracted from the race.
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Perhaps you need to lay aside a harmful friendship or relationship,
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a place, a habit, a pleasure, an entertainment.
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Maybe there is something in your life that is not inherently evil,
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but you've been giving it the power to prevent you from running,
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as you should.
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Whatever it may be, lay it aside.
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The race is too important to hang on to it.
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Toss it down that you might run.
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Determine to do so.
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Pray for the grace of God to do so,
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then act.
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Act for the preservation of your soul.
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Show yourself to be a Christian
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by running well the race that is the Christian life.
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The author further exhorts us to lay aside the sin which clings so closely.
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I do not believe that he would exclude any sin
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from necessity of needing to lay it aside.
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But I think he is most likely referring to particular sin,
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which may be different for each one of us.
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He calls it sin which clings so closely.
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And I suggest to you that he is referring to the sin which tends to entangle you.
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So in the race metaphor,
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I think of it as that thing that tends to get around my feet.
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What is that sin that clings so closely in my life?
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These sins were once called by saints of old,
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besetting sins.
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The things that we seem to go back to again and again and again.
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What sin tends to slow you down?
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Maybe pride or envy.
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Perhaps self-sufficiency or self-righteousness.
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Sexual impurity.
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Anger.
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Licentiousness of any kind or legalism.
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Whatever it may be, lay it aside.
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This is the exhortation.
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Cast it off.
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Stop giving it the power to hinder your race.
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Lay it aside.
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Determine to do so.
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Pray for the grace to do so.
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Then act.
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Act for the preservation of your soul.
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Show yourself to be a Christian by running well the race that is the Christian life.
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Secondly, the exhortation to run.
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The end of verse 1.
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And let us.
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After we've become unhindered, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
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The author tells us specifically to run with endurance.
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The race is not a short race.
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If you have lived at all laboring to be faithful to the way of Christ, you have felt the length of the race already.
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Our lives are but a breath.
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But in our experience, the race is long.
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The author has in mind the great effort that it takes to run.
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Be clear.
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It is work to run.
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He does not say stroll with endurance.
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But he does not have in mind a sprint, but rather a marathon.
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The Christian life most often is a work of degrees.
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Being changed from one degree of glory to another.
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It's a slow and a patient work.
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God seems pleased to work amongst his people in this way.
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This has been one of the largest lessons I have learned in a pastor over the past decade.
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Is that the typical work of the pastor and of the church is a slow and patient work.
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Beloved, if you are in Jesus Christ this morning, you've been saved by grace alone through faith alone.
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Which is the guarantee that you will complete the race.
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But it will take effort on your part.
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This effort will be all of grace.
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At the end of our lives, we will never say, look how good I did running the race.
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We will say, praise God for the grace I needed to run the race.
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We have our very being because of the gracious work of God in us.
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But it will feel hard.
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The experience of God will take effort.
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You cannot merely sit back on your laurels and expect to finish the race.
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You cannot wait for God to animate you in the running of the race.
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That's why I'm saying to you, determine to do so.
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Pray for the grace to do so.
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Then act.
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The effort will be all of grace.
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But it will feel hard.
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It will feel like work.
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And the exhortation here is that we would do that work.
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That we would run with endurance.
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The Lord has yet to remove us from our fallen bodies.
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And the work that he has given us to do will take effort.
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Run with endurance.
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Run steadfastly to the end.
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William Barclay, who is a 20th century Scottish pastor and professor, once described this endurance in the following way.
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That determination, he writes, unhasting and unresting.
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Unhurrying and yet undelaying.
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Which goes steadily on and which refuses to be deflected.
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Obstacles will not daunt it.
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Delays will not depress it.
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Discourigence will not take its hope away.
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It will halt neither for discouragement from within.
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Nor for opposition from without.
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The Puritans called what I believe the author here is describing as running with endurance.
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As plotting.
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Which has a bit of a different picture in my mind.
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Heavy footsteps.
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You walk in the mud in boots.
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And your boots get heavier and heavier.
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And you take those hard and difficult heavy steps.
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But you take the steps nonetheless.
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And you take the next step.
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And you take the next step.
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And you take the next step.
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Until the end.
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I pray that at the end of your life.
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You join with Paul who wrote to Timothy.
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In 2 Timothy 4 verse 7 and 8.
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I have fought the good fight.
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I have finished the race.
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I have kept the faith.
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Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.
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Which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.
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And not only to me.
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But also to all who have loved his appearing.
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Run the race with endurance.
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Because there is a great reward at the end of that running.
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The author tells us to run with endurance.
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He tells us to run with endurance the race that is set before us.
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Therefore, whatever challenge you may face.
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Whatever hardship.
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Whatever obstacle you can be sure.
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That it is of God's design.
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And that it is for your good.
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Nothing escapes his grasp.
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It is a race that he has set before us.
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And he provides all of the strength necessary that we would run with endurance.
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Third.
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Look.
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It is the beginning of verse 2.
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Looking to Jesus.
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How are we to run with endurance?
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Practically how?
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By the grace of God.
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But what do we do in order to do this?
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How do we maintain such steadfastness in the face of opposition and exhaustion and trouble?
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The author of Hebrews tells us that it begins with looking to Jesus.
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He tells us that to run with endurance, we must look to our supreme example.
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The example of Jesus.
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He uses the title Jesus instead of Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus Christ.
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To make an emphasis on his humanity.
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He lived the persevering faith that we must also possess.
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He is, after all, both the founder and perfecter of our faith.
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He is literally the pioneer of our faith.
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Right?
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He is the firstborn son among many brothers.
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He has gone ahead of us.
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The founder of our faith.
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He initiates all faith.
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He bestows all faith.
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And he is the supreme example of faithfulness.
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His entire life was characterized by total and complete and unfailing trust in God.
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At every turn, he believed God.
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He completely yielded his life to the command of his father.
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We gave this some careful thought when we studied chapter 2 and verse 10 of Hebrews.
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Which says,
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For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory,
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should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
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Note there in chapter 2 and verse 10.
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Both the idea of him being the founder, the pioneer of our faith,
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and him being made perfect himself so that he could be the perfecter of our faith
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because he was perfectly faithful.
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The author is looping back in the imagery of Jesus,
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the fully human Jesus pioneering and perfecting faith as our example.
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So, we should look to Jesus.
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And we should learn from him as the founder and perfecter of our faith.
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And we should take careful note of his motivation in doing this,
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in being the founder and being the perfecter.
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How was it that Jesus was able to endure the most horrific and the most shameful of deaths?
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F.F. Bruce, also a 20th century Scottish Bible scholar,
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giving a lot of hats, tips to the 20th century Scottish believers this morning.
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He spoke to the shame of the cross.
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This is F.F. Bruce.
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To die by crucifixion was to plumb the lowest depths of disgrace.
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It was a punishment reserved for those who were deemed most unfit to live.
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A punishment for those who were sub-human.
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From so degrading a death, Roman citizens were exempt by ancient statute.
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The dignity of the Roman name would be besmirched by being brought into association with anything as vile as the cross.
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Jesus Christ died the death we deserve,
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bearing the reproach of man and the wrath of God on our behalf.
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How?
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How did he do this?
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If we're looking to him, what's the lesson we should learn?
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The author of Hebrews tells us,
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he endured the cross for the sake of future reward.
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We are told that he despised the shame,
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which means that he disregarded it.
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He didn't put it into account as he considered the suffering that he would endure.
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It was shameful, yes.
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But he thought it a small thing,
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a thing not to be regarded compared to the future reward.
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Didn't even need to be compared because of what awaited him.
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The author of Hebrews tells us it was for the joy that was set before him.
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And then he tells us that he is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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He is seated in the place of honor,
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the place of majesty at the right hand of his father.
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So look to Jesus and learn from his example.
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We have a far greater heavenly reward than should be compared with the suffering we may encounter in this world.
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Jonathan Edwards, 18th century North American, once wrote,
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take notice of Christ's excellent, which is a feast.
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Take notice of Christ's excellence, which is a feast.
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I wonder this morning how many of us are hungry,
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just spiritually malnourished.
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And we are such because we have failed to behold and hang on to and feast upon the excellencies of Christ.
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We have failed to look to him, both the founder and the perfecter of our faith.
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We feel that we can't go on.
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We feel that we cannot persevere because we have failed to look.
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Fourth and lastly, found in verse three.
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Consider.
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Consider.
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Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted.
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The author tells us not only to look, but to also consider.
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He tells us that if we are to run with endurance the race that is set before us,
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not growing weary or faint hearted,
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then we are going to have to think.
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Think.
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Beloved, the Christian religion is a mindful religion.
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Romans 12, 2.
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We're not to be conformed to the world,
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but we transformed by the renewing of our experience, emotions.
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Many would tell you this.
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No.
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Our minds.
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Our minds.
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Right?
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This gateway into our very being.
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We are going to have to think.
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This doesn't mean you have to be smart.
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It means you have to think.
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And we're going to have to think deeply.
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And we're going to have to think repetitively about the example that we have in Jesus.
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We're going to have to mull it over again and again and again.
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This work of going from scripture reading to scripture meditation.
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Right?
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That we both pick up truth.
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Right?
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And then we hang on to truth.
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Right?
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We take it up into ourselves that it might come out of us.
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We'll have to consider Christ.
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Beloved, we must nurture the truths in our minds.
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C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity,
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If you have once accepted Christianity,
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Then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day.
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Let me read that again because I read that horribly.
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If you have once accepted Christianity,
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Then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day.
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That is why daily prayers and religious reading and church going are necessary parts of the Christian life.
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We have to be continually reminded of what we believe.
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Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind.
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It must be fed.
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We are just so feeble in mind.
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Many of you are college graduates or currently in college.
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We are proud of you.
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You are doing a wonderful work.
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You are applying your mind to some field of study.
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This is great.
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Do not think too much of your ability to understand and hold on to truth.
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It will drift out of your mind if you don't continue to feed it.
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If you don't go back to the text again and again and again.
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Right?
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Daily, behold the excellency of Christ.
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Make it a habit to open up the scripture and read it until your affections are turned toward Christ.
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Where you say,
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Oh, what a Savior.
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Do this work.
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Have the truth in your mind.
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Carefully tend to it.
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Let it grow.
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It will bring forth faithfulness.
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So how do you feed the truth in your mind?
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Do you both look to and consider Jesus and his example every day?
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What might you need to do to do so?
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What kind of habits might you need to change in order to consider Christ?
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Determine to do so.
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Pray for the grace to do so.
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Then act.
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Act for the preservation of your soul.
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Show yourself to be a Christian by running well the race that is the Christian life.
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Those who are in Christ will persevere to the end.
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We are not saved by our works.
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We are saved by the work of Christ.
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But the way that we evidence Christ's saving work on our behalf.
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Being now called sons of God as we live as sons of God.
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We do not do this with perfection.
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We still have this baggage of our flesh.
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There is still sinful desire in us.
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But having been set free from sin.
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Having the spirit of God given to us and his truth.
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We will grow in holiness if we belong to him.
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But hear me.
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It takes effort.
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It is a race that needs to be run.
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It needs to be run with endurance.
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So this morning do not have false assurance.
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Do not believe simply because you have made some mental assent to the reality of who Jesus is.
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Because you grew up in a home that told you again and again and again.
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That Jesus is the son of God and he died for your sins.
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That that is enough.
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For us to be found in Christ.
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He must save us.
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He calls to us from a place of rebellion and hatred of the things of God.
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He makes us his own.
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He gives us his spirit and he causes us to walk in his way.
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So take a careful look at your life.
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Take a big step back from it and say.
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Since professing faith in Christ.
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Have I grown in holiness?
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Very degree.
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Not with perfection.
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But is there a general trajectory of my life that is Godward?
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Or do I find that I am sitting in the same place?
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Or I am declining in holiness?
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Do not have false assurance.
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And then on the other hand.
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Because I know that we are a church of people who are particularly hard on ourselves.
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Do not forget the grace of God to you in Christ.
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Much of my counseling is saying to people.
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Brother I think you are a Christian.
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I know you are feeling horrible right now.
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I know that you failed in this matter.
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But Christ also died for this.
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He died for your sins past.
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He died for your sins present.
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He died for your sins future.
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Do not place him back on the cross in your own thinking.
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His sacrifice was sufficient for you.
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This is why the church is of great importance to us.
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We need people when we feel at our lowest.
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To help us.
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To pick us up.
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To welcome us.
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To say oh I see Christ in you.
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I see his work.
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His faithfulness is being perfected in you.
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So join me church.
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In looking to Jesus.
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The founder and perfecter of our faith.
30:08
Let's pray.
30:09
Let's pray.