The Only Race That Really Matters

Hebrews 12:1-13

How many of you like college football? Yeah, I see a lot of hands. I figured I kind of would. I’m pretty excited that the season’s getting close, although right now it is Brewers time. There’s no doubt about that. So many of you know that I spent the first 22 years of my ministry in Tennessee and went to my first UT volunteer football game. And right before the game starts, they have this– what I think is a really cool tradition– that the band marches down to the tunnel where the team is going to come up, and the band forms this huge T for Tennessee. Get it? We’re pretty smart in the South. And then the team comes flying out the tunnel and runs through that T. And I couldn’t help thinking to myself, if I were a freshman running through that T, how would that feel? I’ve got to think that’s got to be just so cool. And it’d be particularly true if some of the great players from the past were in the stands, right? So let’s flip the spot from UT, from Neelan Stadium to Lambeau Field. You’re running onto the field for the first time at Lambeau, and up in the stands is Reggie White, and Curly Lambeau, and Don Hudson, and Forrest Gregg, and Bart Starr, and Vince Lombardi, and all these Packer legends of the past. Do you think that might motivate and inspire you to be ready to play the game? Kind of guess and so. All right, why begin with this analogy? It’s because it kind of captures what the author is trying to say here at the beginning of chapter 12. The book of Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish believers who were thinking about leaving Christianity. They were Jewish by culture, by race, but they had become believers in the true God. Now the challenge was this. Christianity was illegal. And since Christianity was illegal, the government could step in and persecute Christians pretty much whenever they wanted. Take their property, take their kids. It wasn’t ongoing, but it was kind of like this cloud that hung over them all the time. By contrast, Judaism was legal. So if you’re Jewish by religion, you don’t have that cloud hanging over your head. And so these Jewish believers are thinking, “This Christianity thing is hard. Do we really want to do this? Why don’t we go back to Judaism? It’ll be so much easier.” And so the writer of the book of Hebrews, who never identifies himself, lots of people think Paul, some people think Apollos, some people think Barnabas, some people think Aquila and Priscilla, there’s all kinds of theories that are out there. If God wanted us to know, He would have told us. But the writer basically says to them over the course of 13 chapters, “How can you possibly think about turning your back on Jesus?” And he walks them through about how Jesus is just superior to everything. He’s superior to the angels. He’s the superior prophet. He’s the superior priest. He offered the one and only sacrifice that worked. And he just piles it on over and over and over again with the implication, “You have eternal life. How would you possibly think about turning your back on this? How could you leave to go back to what can no longer save you?” And then we get to chapter 11. And if you will, chapter 11 is kind of like the Old Testament Believers Hall of Fame. We hear about people like Noah, who had to build the ark in the midst of that slew of unbelievers. We hear about people like Moses, people like Abraham, people like Rahab, the prostitute in Jericho, people like David, people like Joseph. And he runs through all of that in chapter 11, and it’s with that in mind that he says, “Since we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses,” who is that great cloud of witnesses? He’s wanting them to think that they are the freshmen who’ve just run onto the UT football field, and that up in the stands are all these heroes of faith cheering them on. No, it’s not literally that way, but that’s the way he wanted them to think about it. Make sense? Now, we think about those heroes of faith. How did things go for them? Oh, a lot of them had it kind of tough. Just like that freshman football player comes running out there onto the field, looks up into the stands, there’s all those great heroes of the past. “Man, this is going to be great. I’m motivated and inspired.” And then the game starts. And I would guess a few of you have played football, true or false. By the end of a football game, you’re sore. And you’re tired, because you’re dishing out hits, and you’re taking hits, and you’re having to sprint, and then you stop, and then you sprint, and then you stop, and you get over the sideline, you might be sucking down some oxygen, and by the end of the game, you’re a mess. This is hard. But you look up there in the stands, and there’s Bart Starr, there’s John Brockington, there’s Fred Carr. I do know my old Packers. And what does it do? It gives you a burst of energy so you can keep going, and that you can set that next block, or run that next sweep, or run that next pass pattern, or cover that wide receiver going down the field. And that’s the way God would have us think about the heroes of faith that came before us. They’re up in the stands, cheering us on, saying, “Tatiana, you can do this.” They add it, saying, “Chuck, you’ve got this. We’re behind you,” saying, “Isaiah, we are with you, and we’re cheering you on. We know what it’s like to be on that field. We are on that field.” And remember how many of the heroes of faith – they had it rough. What does God do with Noah? Golly, Noah has to build this huge boat amongst this slew of unbelievers who seem to be making fun of him. Noah is also described as a preacher of righteousness. We’re told that his days the world was filled with violence. You got to think they’re mocking him, making fun of this idiot who’s building this great big boat. And then when the whole thing gets done, talk about PTSD. Everyone he knows is dead. Except for the eight people in his family. His daughter-in-law’s family’s dead. His uncle’s, cousin’s, aunt’s dead. Sound like an easy road? I don’t think so. Abram, God calls him to leave behind his homeland and his family and everything else and go to a land that God would show him. Joseph, sold into slavery by his own brothers. Over and over and over again, we read about these heroes of faith, and it was hard. Moses’ parents. How hard must that have been to try to protect your son from the Pharaoh’s horrible edict to kill all the male children? And so the implication to those first century New Testament Jewish believers is, yeah, this Christianity thing can be tough. No kidding! Brothers and sisters, this Christianity thing can be tough. The devil is going to fight you every step of the way. Our own sinful flesh is going to fight us every step of the way. The world around us is going to fight us every step of the way. Sometimes even floodwaters will fight against us, as they did last Sunday. That’s why God describes this race as agony. If it’s hard, don’t be shocked. Which is why God wants us to fix our eyes on those, or to think about, that great cloud of witnesses, those believers who have gone before us. Can you imagine? What would they say to you? Noah would say something like, I don’t know exactly, of course, but something like, ‘Yeah, it was hard, but man, it was worth it.” And some of those guys got entangled in some really rough sins. Abraham would say to you and me, “I tried lying about my wife; that didn’t work well.” Don’t lie. David would say, “I had an affair that worked out terribly.” Be faithful. Moses would say, “I murdered somebody out of anger.” Don’t sink vengeance. Throw off that sin that so easily entangles. And how are we going to do that? It’s by doing what the author says in verse 2. As valuable as it is for us to remember those heroes of faith who have gone before us, it’s far more important that we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, and perfecter of our faith. How did it go for Jesus? Did he have an easy road? No, he didn’t. He had to endure the cross with all its shame. And can you imagine? The reason he had to endure the cross was because sinners like us put him on that cross. Can you imagine? The holy, perfect Son of God is nailed to a cross by sinful human beings. And he did it. Why did he do it? Because he loves you dearly. He did it because he wanted your sins to be forgiven. He did it because he wanted you to have a home in heaven. And so for the joy set before him, it says, Jesus endured that cross. What’s that joy set before him? There’s a number of things that are that are suggested. It could be that he was going to be re-exalted to the right hand of God, etc. But what seems to make the most sense is that the joy set before him was the honor of saving you and me. Wow! That the Son of God would think saving sinners like you and me was a joyful thing? Yeah! And Jesus did whatever it took in order to make sure that you were saved. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and particularly you, our new faculty and staff, co-workers, how incredibly important it is for us to fix our eyes on Jesus. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we have assurance of the forgiveness of our sins. And the shame and guilt that can so weigh us down is set aside. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we can have confidence because we’re reminded that we have a Savior who not only loved us enough to die for us but was powerful enough to rise from the dead. And now he’s promised to be with us always. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, we’re reminded that his road was tough, too. And so if the path marked out for us is also challenging and difficult, Jesus gets it. He understands, and he can empathize with you. But oh, he’s also strong enough to be able to help you and strengthen you. And where are we going to fix our eyes on Jesus? In the Bible. It’s in the Bible that we hear about Jesus. It’s in the Bible that God brings us to Jesus. So my fervent prayer for all of us, and especially for our new teachers, is that we be Word of God people. Because if we are Word of God people, then we will run with perseverance the race marked out for us. The only race that really matters, the race whose finish line are the mansions of heaven. May God grant us laser focus on Jesus through his word. Amen? And amen.