The Believer’s Marathon - Hebrews 11:33- 12:1-3

 

The Believer’s Marathon - Hebrews 11:33- 12:1-3

 The student of this epistle must understand its uniqueness. It is like no other New Testament epistle, and it poses problems that are peculiar to itself. In form of construction, in style, in argument, and in relation to other books of the Bible, Hebrews stands apart. - The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.

Yes,  it truly does and at times it may be a difficult book to understand because it is dealing with a very difficult problem, believers were giving up their faith, giving up on the Lord. Some of its passages are hard to grasp but then some, like our passage today, sound as clear as the Athen’s Tornado Siren every first Wednesday of the month. We have one of those towers near our home and when it sounds everyone hears it, especially all the crazy dogs my neighbors own. Our passage today sounds loud and strong and nobody is barking except the big dog in the pulpit. Turn to Hebrews 11.

Paul, who I believe wrote the book of Hebrews, was writing to Jewish Christians, they were struggling, they were hurting, they were being persecuted by the own people, shunned by their own families, made outcasts in their society. They had put their faith in Jesus as their Messiah and more than just Messiah, they had trusted Him as Savior of their soul and most notoriously to their Jewish society they believed Jesus was the Son of God.

For this they were harshly persecuted, and some were turning back to Judaism and turning away from Jesus. Pual then uses the Old Testament scriptures, the Jewish scriptures to show Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises and better than the Judaism they had left. Jesus was a better mediator, a better high priest, a better rest, a better sacrifice, a better salvation.

Paul climbs upward ever higher speaking over and over of Jesus Christ, but in chapter 11 he redirects our eyes for a moment to those who had faithfully followed Him. Before we can see the peak of the book, which is Jesus, we must travel through the valley of heroes in chapter 11.

Hebrews 11:33-38 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. ​

The heroes in chapter 11 suffered and sacrificed in their service to God. And Paul tells the Hebrews and us, “Look at those who have gone before you. They made it. They were faithful. They refused to turn back. If they could run the race God gave them, then you can run the race God has given you.” He is motivating the faith runners by telling them look who has run this same path before you.

So, let’s look at our motivation to run the race.

Our Motivation - Hebrews 12:1

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us…

Surrounded By Witnesses

Chapter 11 surrounds us  with a “cloud of witnesses.” The word here is the word μάρτυς where our word martyrs comes from. It may sound like these heroes of heaven are up there right now looking down on us and I admit that would be motivating. But the word isn’t used that way. These weren’t witnessing us, Paul is saying they are a witness to us. Their lives, their service, and many times their deaths bore testimony to the Hebrew Christians.

These heroes, having left behind stories of faith and of sacrifice. And in those reports, is the Hebrews motivation to not give up. Paul tells the Hebrews, “Faithfully run your own race for the Lord by keeping in mind this great cloud of witnesses. Let their lives and deaths motivate and move you to run the marathon of faith.”

He tells them also that this race requires more than just mental motivation, it also requires specific acts of sanctification, the setting aside of things so that they may stay in the race.

Paul tells them to lay aside two things.

First, every weight. This means to shed themselves of the burdens of this world. Just as an athlete removes any extra weight before they run, so also must the believer get rid of that which would burden and hinder them as they run. This is not really sin but anything which would slow them down or sap their stamina. Anything that would steal their strength and keep them from having enough to run the entire race.

Secondly, they must also strip themselves of the sin which doth so easily beset. The word here is εὐπερίστατος (euperistatos). It has the idea of something that is all around. Any direction they would turn in this world, its sin would beset them, become attached to them. They can’t help but bump into it.

This word is the contrast between being “surrounded by heaven’s cloud of witnesses” Here they are encircled by the world’s sin. But if they would look heavenward to the surrounding cloud of witnesses, then they could escape this world’s encircling sin.

This then gives us three actions to take in order to run our own faith’s marathon.

See, Shed and Strip

Today we are the believers being exhorted and encouraged by God’s Word to keep running the race. So here are the three things we must do to keep running.

See the Saints - First we are to see those who have run before us. We are to keep in mind those who have gone before us. Paul, through the Holy Spirit inspired scriptures, is encouraging us to see them, to always keep their testimony, their witness before our eyes. Find our spiritual motivation though the documentation and illustration of the manifestation of their submission to the Lord.  We should live, work, serve and sacrifice motivated by the lives of who have gone before.

Let me share with you some of my family heroes that motivate my life’s run. I had a great-grandfather, William Minefee, who lived in West Texas. He was a Baptist preacher, I met him only once as a young boy, but I remember his prayer for his family to serve the Lord. I expect him to welcome me to heaven when the time comes. And I’ll tell him, thank you for that prayer. I never forgot that pray.

I don’t write a sermon, preach a message or teach a lesson without thinking of my Granddaddy Van George.  Before I could read, he told me the stories of the Bible. He prayed with his grandkids, kneeling all around the living room and giving each one of us a chance to join in a time of approaching the throne room of heaven. Most times when I begin my prayers I say, Precious Heavenly Father, because that’s how he began his prayers. My grandma Buna George sang children’s songs about Jesus loving me and of this little light of mine.

My Papa and Grandma Minefee helped build the church where I was saved and gave me my first Bible. They all are still witnesses to me. The testimony still rings in my heart.  I never want to let them down.

My Mom, sacrificed so much of her pride, her health and her future to provide for my brothers and sisters. When my Dad’s alcoholism meant no one would hire him. She worked any job she could to make enough to put food on our table. She was one of the lunch ladies at our High School cafeteria while I was in school and I was never embarrassed, because I knew she worked there for us. She made sure we were at church, every Sunday, every Wednesday, every Revival, every workday, every outreach day. Our family cleaned the church even when the mop handle was still taller than I was. The church helped Mom by giving her $50 dollars a week. She split it evenly between us 5 kids, even though I was thought I did most of the real work. Actually, Mom did the real work and gave real love to a bunch of poor kids growing up with a drunk Daddy. Many times as a teenager when I was tempted to go out partying with my High School friends or try marijuana or harder drugs, it was her sacrifice and love that kept me back because I knew how badly it would hurt her. This was her witness to me. And even today I still see that witness. How can I give up, how can I quit when she never did.

These are mine, but all of us have the great cloud of witnesses of Hebrews Hall of Fame in Chapter 11. They are our great cloud of witnesses, from Adam, to David, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, to Peter and John. From the first saint who died to the latest saint who has just passed into the presence of the Lord,  all those who have served and sacrificed await us and their witness, their testimony must be our motivation. Motivation to live in such a way that I can joyfully enter heaven, feel their embrace and know they are saying, Welcome, your ran the race faithfully for your Lord.”

Shed The Stuff - I must see the witnesses and I must lay aside the weights, shed and cast off the things that keep me from fully serving the Lord. I must throw off that which hinders me as I serve Him.  

This Greek word is ὄγκος ogkos; it means a mass, something that cause a bending or bulging by its load. a burden which hinders. This is burdens of this world that have no place in the life of one trying to run a believer’s marathon. There will be relationships I must give up. Friendships I must forsake. Jobs I cannot work. Recreation I cannot participate in. Not because they are wrong, but because I have a purpose. I have a heaven given goal. Yes, We are on a mission from God. I’m in a life-long marathon, I’m running for the Lord.

As my old coach used to say, run with them or run over them but don’t you dare stop running.

Nehemiah’s response to Sanballat when he tried to distract him from building the wall.  Nehemiah 6:3 I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

It wasn’t sin that Sanballat wanted to get Nehemiah to engage in, it was simple a distraction. But Nehemiah, was on a mission from God, “Nehemiah, Build that Wall!”

Strip The Sin - Not only must I throw off the burdens of this world, but I must also strip my life of besetting sin. Paul is describing a sin that is like a walk through a field full of burs. They seem to be everywhere and they attach themselves to you so easily and they are hard to get rid of you. These sins are a symptom of my human weaknesses, my fatally flawed nature. I will not be rid of them completely until heaven, they easily beset me, so I must be careful of the places I go and the things I give my mind to so that my life does not become plagued with them. They are easy to pick up and so hard to get rid of.

How differently we would run our marathon if we could keep in our minds eye the spiritual grandstands of heaven. We are surrounded by the witnesses and histories of those who have gone before us. How much of this life’s burdens and sin would we shed if we could just see heaven’s heroes waiting to welcome us home. How faithfully I would then run right into  eternity.

Paul goes on in the second part of verse 1, talking about the race we are to run.

Our Dedication - Hebrews 12:1b

…and let us run with patience the race that is set before us

Running with Patience

The word in the Greek language here for patience literally means “in persevering endurance.”

So, the race that Paul is describing is not a sprint but a marathon, we probably should call it an ultra-marathon. It is a race we run throughout life. There are many miles, many years and multiple obstacles to overcome before this race will be finished. The believer’s marathon requires not quick exploding power from the starting line but long-lasting patience, perseverance, and persistence. It is not about beating a deadline but about dedication to a lifeline.

Notice also Paul says, “run the race that is set before us.” This not a race you just happened to stumble into and thought, “Well why not it might be fun to run for a while.” Christians are not like Forest Gump who just decided to start running one day and then one day suddenly decided to stop. This is the race that is set before us. God has called the runners to the starting line. He has prepared the course. He knows every step I will run along that course and He has appointed the prizes that each of us will receive if we run as He directs.

We must run as Paul told the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection...

Paul ran faithfully and at the end of his race, he wrote Timothy, his son in the faith in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Running Is Your Life

The Christian race is our life and run in answer to God’s call to serve Him. This race is not a short-term commitment, it is not a intermittent sprint for run from time to time. It is a lifelong marathon and it requires the commitment of your life to run it.

Throughout God’s word we find time and time again the exhortation to run with patience, endurance, commitment.

Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Philippians 3:12-14 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Churchill’s last address

In June l955, Winston Churchill, who was then near the end of his life, was asked to give a commencement address at a British University.  At this time, he was physically weak; he even had to be helped to the podium. He removed his trademark hat and cigar and hung his umbrella on the podium and then he held on to the podium for what seemed a long time.  There was barely able to stand. Again and again throughout Churchill's his career, he had known setbacks. Three times, his career apparently was over, he was sent off to oblivion but he came back.

This man who had held Britian together during its darkest days. This man who had almost by the fierceness of his spirit had defied the might of the unstoppable Nazi war machine, now he stood with his head bowed down but then finally he raised his head, and the voice that years before had called Britain back from the brink of destruction sounded publicly for the last time in history. He looked out upon his audience and called out three short sentences, "Never give up. Never give up. Never give up."  And with that, Churchill put on his hat, put his cigar back in his mouth picked up his umbrella and turned and went back to his seat. There was utter silence, and then, as one, the whole audience rose to give a standing ovation that shook the building and made the window rattle. They honored the man who lived the words he had just uttered.

And from the halls of heaven that is our call today, “Never give up! Keep running the race.”

So where does that endurance come from? What will inspire us to keep to finish the race that the saints before us motivated us to start? The answer is in verses 2-3.

Our Inspiration -  Hebrews 12:2-3

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Look To Jesus

Now we come to the peak of the book of Hebrews. Paul has been climbing higher and higher each step built up the truth of “Jesus is better.” But now Paul tells these Jewish Christians who are beaten, and battered from persecution, he tells them quit looking at who Jesus was and instead, “Look to Jesus now. See him face to face.” They are ready to turn back under the terrible pressure that the world was bringing against them, but instead Paul says, Look into the face of One who is the author and finisher of our faith.

Jesus, the better high priest. Jesus who gives a better rest. Jesus who was the better sacrifice for sin. Jesus the one who was the object of a better faith. If they would look to Jesus they would find the hope and the help they needed to stay the course and finish the race set before them.

Jesus was their inspiration. He looked past the agony and suffering of the cross to the joy that was awaiting him on the other side. Jesus was able to overcome the shame and is now honored and glorified at the right hand of God’s throne.

Look, Paul tells them, to Jesus who endured the confrontations and lies of sinner against him. Look to Jesus and you will not fail, you will not fall, you will not faint you will be faithful in the race that God has set before you.

Keep Looking to Jesus

The same truth is for us as well. Look to Jesus when you are ready to quit, and near collapse from the hardships and struggles of this world. Look to Jesus, that you can keep going when the obstacles are too high and the race seems too long. Look to Jesus, when all you can hear is the overwhelming noise of this cancel culture and sin filled society. Look to Jesus, when you feel you are too tired, too old or too broken hearted. Look to Jesus, even when have gotten off the course and lost sight of your calling to run the race.

Look To Jesus.

Look there in the distance at the finish line at heaven’s welcoming shore, stands our Savior. He is the One who began this race of faith and He is the One who finished this race before us and now, now, He waits for us. He calls to us, He stand with his arms outstretched, a smile of welcome on his lips and his eyes filled with joy because you are coming home to receive your reward. Keep your eyes on Him. He is our inspiration.

Yes, there is a crown of gold. Yes, there will be the glories of heaven. Yes, our loved ones in the Lord will be there. These and more than we can image all wait for us, but the power that will keep us faithful and running this spiritual marathon of life, is seeing Jesus at the finish line. He is why we ran. He is why we didn’t give up. He is why we endured.

Listen to the words of Paul as he thought about going home to Jesus in Philippians 3:7-14 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul ran for Christ, he ran to gain Christ, he ran to be like Christ and finally, when he had run his course, he ran to Christ. We must run the same race, for the same reason and to the same finish.