Well, folks, maybe you want to turn to Hebrews chapter 12 now.
This is where we've got to in our little series that we've been in.
Since we've been back in the building in the evenings,
looking at the Christian life as it's been described to us
by the author of Hebrews,
who's encouraging his generation to keep on keeping on for Jesus Christ.
So we took in 40 verses last week,
which was a big task, but I think we got there.
What we're going to do maybe mercifully this week
is we're going to hone in on just two verses.
We're just maybe going to slow the pace down,
which is ironic given what we're looking at,
but we're going to slow the pace down a little bit
and just focus on these couple of verses,
which are so key to the letter.
So let's just read them.
This is verses one and two of Hebrews chapter 12.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything.
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
For the joy set before him,
he endured the cross,
scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God.
Amen.
And I'm sure God will bless the reading of his words
and it will not return to him without accomplishing the purposes
which he has for it.
So,
if anybody sees me ever going near a boat again,
you've got my permission to shoot me.
You said that?
Steve Redgrave.
Sorry, I shouldn't have asked you to speak.
Steve Redgrave said it, right?
Steve Redgrave, the roar.
Do you know when he said it?
He said it rhetorical.
He said it seconds after winning the gold medal
at the Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia in 1992, right?
Guy was in absolute agony.
You feel that in his words.
Every bone in his body aching,
every muscle aching.
I always love it how reporters
just put the microphone straight in an athlete's face
straight after they finished the race,
which is probably why they get the lines that they do,
don't they?
But this is what he did.
And here's the reality behind his words, right?
Sprinting.
I used to do it all the time at school.
Sprinting is easy.
Right?
Easy.
It's why you watch UC and Bolton
doing the 100 meters back in the day.
Hardly ever broke a sweat, did he?
Right?
Sprinting is easy.
But endurance running,
endurance racing,
is unbelievably hard.
Some of you might know that
if you've done any kind of marathons in your time.
Unbelievably hard.
And here is what we're being told
about the Christian life tonight.
Right?
It's an endurance race.
Now let me just pause for a second, right?
And just ask you the question
I was asking myself all week.
Do you think of your Christian life like that?
Right?
Do you see it in the context of it being a race?
Because here's what I was thinking this week.
How often I view my life
as almost a series of many, many sprints.
Right?
I think to myself,
if I can get from one holiday
to the next holiday,
if I can get from one weekend
to the next weekend,
if I can get from the morning
to the evening,
then I'll be okay.
Right?
Hardly do I ever stop
and think about my life
as a race?
And as I said,
ironically,
this passage really helped me
slow down this week
and regain something
of the bigger picture
of the Christian life.
think about it.
Okay?
This,
this,
I hope tonight
will be extremely freeing
to think of our lives like this.
What does being in a race tell you?
It tells you two things.
First of all,
that you can expect
periods of pain.
Okay?
If you've ever done
any running in Edinburgh,
you'll know
what that's like.
Because what is Edinburgh not?
It is not flat.
Okay?
One minute you're going downhill
and you're thinking,
I'm loving this.
I could do this all day.
Sign me up for the Berlin Marathon.
And the next minute
before you know it,
you're going uphill.
Your calves are tightening.
Your thighs are burning.
And you're thinking to yourself,
I just want this to end.
Now,
how often is that
the Christian experience
in the Christian life?
Okay?
Some of us will be here tonight
and we're flying
with the Lord.
Right?
Every conversation you have
with somebody
somehow gets to the God.
You're on fire for the Lord.
And some of us will be here
and we're in really tough
periods of our lives.
Okay?
We're dealing with
some really painful stuff.
We're asking some
really big questions.
And if truth be told,
we are thinking about
tapping out.
Or in some kind of way,
just dropping the pace
a little bit.
Can expect periods of pain
in the race?
And secondly,
there's a prize at the end.
Okay?
We're not running aimlessly.
We're not,
we're running somewhere.
There's a goal.
There's an end.
There's a heavenly city.
There's a resurrection future.
There's a risen savior.
That's the prize.
Him.
And so verse one,
here's what our author writes.
Let us run with perseverance
the race which is marked out for us.
You see in the text?
Let us run with perseverance.
Here's what's going on
in Hebrews 11.
Background to Hebrews here.
When these folks,
this generation of Christians,
when they first came to know Jesus,
they came flying out the traps.
Okay?
What did Linford Christie used to say?
He used to go in the B of the bank,
didn't he?
Right?
That was these guys flying out the traps for Jesus.
If you want to flick back to verse 32 of chapter 10,
if you've got it there,
you'll see this.
Our author writes,
verse 32 of chapter 10,
he says,
recall the former days.
Right?
Verse 32 of chapter 10,
recall the former days.
In other words,
remember back to what it was like
when you first came to know Jesus.
Right?
You were standing with those
fellow brothers and sisters
who were going to prison.
Right?
You were standing with,
I'm with them.
That's what you were saying.
You were looking out for those
who were struggling in the fight
and to get them back on their feet again.
Some of you might know what that was like.
Remember back when you first came to know Jesus.
Right?
Boom.
Flying out the traps.
That was these guys.
But now,
the pace has dropped
massively.
Right?
They've been rejected
probably by their
Jewish community
that used to be part of.
Ridiculed by a world
that thinks Jesus is offensive.
All of a sudden,
they began to drop
the pace.
And he writes,
you're in an endurance race.
Why does that come as a surprise?
This stuff is happening to you.
You've got to see.
You've got to keep going.
You're in an endurance race.
Do you see the word,
therefore,
at verse 1?
Right?
Every time you see a therefore,
we've got to ask,
what is it there for?
And it connects this invitation
back to everything
that's come before
in chapter 11.
This great cloud
that he's talking about here
is every single person
that has been mentioned
in chapter 11.
As if to say,
these guys were in the same race
that you're in.
Right?
What does he call them?
He calls them witnesses.
Love that word.
Witnesses.
Two meanings here probably.
Firstly,
their lives.
Everyone in Hebrews chapter 11.
Their lives are testifying
to the fact
that the race
is worth persevering in.
Right?
First image.
Second image.
These people,
as it were,
they finished the race.
They're now either
watching on from the stands
or maybe they've even
made it down the side
of the track
and they're cheering you on
saying,
keep on going.
Keep on going.
You know,
I loved a bit this week
hanging out with Abraham.
Right?
As I read about him,
remember we met him
in chapter 11
hanging out with Abraham
this week.
You could feel him.
Keep on going.
Friends,
we're in a race.
We're in a race,
an endurance race.
Now,
the what of that race,
what we encounter
is going to look different
for each of us.
Right?
The unique things
that we'll
come up against
while we're on this race,
the things that the Lord
knows about
that he's sovereignly put there
and the where
will be different
for each of us.
Where we are
in this race.
Right?
We've got no idea
where we are
in this race
for all I know
I was thinking about
I could hit the finishing line
tonight
when I go home.
Right?
But make no mistake
of what might be different,
the where might be different,
but the race is exactly
the same
and the goal is
exactly the same
and the goal is
to finish the race.
Finish the race.
And so just
in the time we have remaining
let me just ask us
two questions
from this text
to help us
think about
our race.
Okay?
Here's the first one.
Friends,
what might be
slowing us down?
Okay?
What might be
slowing us down?
You see this
halfway through verse 1.
What does he say?
Let us throw off
everything that hinders
and the sin
that so easily
entangles.
And here's the cultural image
that the author's tapping into.
One that every single reader
of this
would have been
very familiar with.
So what you did
if you were an athlete
in the day,
if you were serious
about competing,
serious about winning,
what you used to do
is to run stark naked.
That's what you did.
So that nothing
held you back.
Now don't dwell
on the visual for too long,
okay?
Except to make,
see the two
spiritual realities
that I think that image
is actually really helpful for.
Okay?
Is there anything,
friends,
that we need to
strip back
from our life
so that we can run better
in the Christian life,
in the Christian race?
Okay?
Stuff that's
getting in the way.
Okay?
That's just clogging up
our
spiritual life.
You know,
I found out this week
did it with our Hoover,
right?
It was Hoover
and all of a sudden
the thing cut out
wasn't working anymore.
Thinking to myself,
get me that guarantee,
get me that customer service
number,
I'm going to give them
a piece of my mind.
Do you know what it was?
The thing was just clogged up.
Right?
Just spent ages
just trying to,
pulling out hairs
and bits of couscous,
that's always nice,
isn't it?
Pulling things out
of the Hoover
and all of a sudden
once I got everything out,
put it back together,
hey Presto,
it was working again.
Friends,
stuff that's
clogging us up,
right?
It could be anything.
So many good things
can do this,
right?
I uninstalled Twitter
on my phone last night
because I realised
it's just eating up my time.
It's just eating up my time.
Right?
It could be anything.
A DVD box set,
a place and a committee,
a do-it-up house,
a job that's demanding
all your hours,
a relationship that you're in
that's just not helpful.
Friends,
what is clogging up
your walk with
and your love for Jesus?
I remember a good friend
of mine
phoning me
and telling me
that he just stopped
going to the gym.
Because he realised
that it was eating up
all his time
and it was doing more
than that.
Actually,
it was obsessing him
with how he was looking
and he thought,
do you know what?
It's nonsense.
And here's the other
spiritual truth
about the athlete,
right?
I was trying to think
about it this week.
To run naked
is to open yourself up,
isn't it,
in the eyes
of the watching world
and to make yourself
very vulnerable.
And let's just give you
an example
of what I mean here.
Remember,
we were on holiday
down in Cornwall
a few years ago
and we went to
just Google churches.
The first one
that came up
with a New Frontiers one,
which was a couple
of miles away,
so we went there.
They gave us
a wonderful welcome.
But the thing
that struck me
when I was there
struck me most,
it was the notices,
right?
Hear me out,
it was the notices.
because the pastor
stood up
and he gave out
the notices
for the week
and he talked
about the guys
who meet
at the Tesco Cafe
on Tuesday mornings.
I thought,
what on earth
is that notice about?
So I got chatting
to him after the service
and what it was,
it was a group
of people in the church
who met up regularly
with one another
to help one another
in their battle
with pornography,
right?
And this is what they did.
They just met up
in Tesco Cafe
on a Tuesday morning,
right?
Committed
to sharing struggles,
right?
Determined to help
one another
in their Christian race,
right?
Committed to speaking
the gospel to one another,
right?
You've fallen this week,
get back up,
remember,
we're saved by grace,
keep your eyes on Jesus,
right?
No condemnation
because of his blood.
Okay, okay, okay.
And they start going again,
right?
This is what they did.
They met up in this cafe
to talk this stuff out.
Get the stuff on the computer,
anything you need to do
to just to cut it out.
This is a sin
that so easily entangles
and they did this
in front of the church.
The church didn't need
to know who went.
Okay, it was a kind of
what happens in Tesco Club,
stays in Tesco Club
kind of thing.
But everyone in the church
knew this went on
and it was inspiring them
to take the action
that they needed
in their lives
to deal with a sin
that so easily entangles.
And I remember thinking,
how great is that?
My friends,
maybe some of us today
it will be Tesco Club,
right?
Right?
And let's make that happen.
Let's get in touch
and see if we can meet up
to chat things out,
to help one of us.
But whatever that looks like
in your life,
that is the call
of this passage
to make yourself vulnerable,
right?
Whatever it is, friends,
in our lives
that we struggle with
to come forward
and say,
Lord Jesus,
I need you.
Right?
Think of it like this.
What is the first thing
that we read happens
when Adam and Eve sin?
Right?
What do they do
after they sin?
They hide their nakedness.
Right?
Think about it.
They hide their nakedness.
But here's what the gospel does.
It frees us
from having to pretend
and live a life
of empty religion
and covering up
and pretending
that we're sorted.
Right?
Because if we were sorted,
then Jesus would not need to,
would not have needed
to die on the cross
for us.
Okay?
Jesus bore our shame.
He bore it all.
He paid every penny
of the ransom
to buy us.
And you see how
this invites us
to admit our struggles
and to run to him
for fresh grace.
I know I read somebody
on the internet this week.
They put up,
I think it was on Facebook,
they said,
what is your favorite line
from a hymn?
Right?
And just boom, boom, boom,
all these comments.
It was wonderful to read.
Do you know what my favorite line
from a hymn is?
It's these words
from Horatius Bonar.
I penned these
all these years ago.
He said,
I heard the voice
of Jesus say,
come unto me
and rest.
Lay down,
thou weary one,
lay down,
thy head upon my breast.
I came to Jesus
as I was,
weary,
worn,
and sad,
and I found in him
a resting place,
and he has made me glad.
You know,
so thankful
that that is the Jesus
that we encounter
day after day after day.
Friends,
what is
holding us back?
What is slowing us down?
It's a great question
to ask ourselves.
Here's the second question then.
What's slowing us down?
Second question,
just really simply,
are we looking
to Jesus?
Okay,
tell you about
something Alex and I found
happened a few weeks ago
with our girls.
we would ask them
to do something,
right,
just wash your hands
before dinner,
or just put your knife
and fork away
at the end of the meal,
something like that,
and every time
we used to ask this,
right,
they would just go,
huh,
right?
Somebody told me
this is like living
with a three-nager,
that's what it is,
but huh,
every time we asked,
huh,
I would look to each other
thinking,
where did they learn
this from?
Right,
I don't think they've
learned it from others,
but I don't know,
right?
Do you know where
they'd learned it from?
They'd seen it
in this little cute,
innocent little TV program
that they watched
just before dinner,
and they picked it up
from one of the characters,
right?
The character would just go,
huh,
anytime she had to do
something,
so this is what they do.
Here's the real simple
truth of life,
friends,
that what we look at
affects the way we live,
right?
What we look at
affects the way we live.
So do you see
where we're invited
to look here,
right?
Do you see
as we run the race,
verse 3,
fixing
our eyes
on Jesus.
That's how we're to run,
by looking at Him,
looking at Him.
What is it about Him?
Let me just give you
three quick things,
okay?
Here's the plea,
in the race,
never stop looking at Christ,
never stop gazing at Him,
breathe Him in,
savour Him,
take hold of Him.
What do you need to take in
and hold of?
Three quick things.
Firstly,
that He's our Saviour,
okay?
Follow with me in the language here,
the pioneer
and the perfecter
of our faith,
right?
Notice that those two
are both perfect words,
okay?
In terms of Jesus being
our perfect Saviour,
that He has ran the race
perfectly,
that His righteousness
is ours,
it is done,
okay?
Those words,
it is done,
not it will be done.
It's not like the
John Lewis crane,
right?
Down near the Omniscientor
that says this will be done
and what's it say,
like summer 2022,
just bear with us
while this work goes on.
It's not like that
with Jesus,
right?
His work is done.
It's done.
These are perfect,
finished words.
That's why we get
at the beginning
of this letter,
we're thinking about
this morning as well,
weren't we?
What is Jesus doing
in heaven?
He is sitting.
He's sitting.
This is done.
We are His,
His perfect life,
His righteousness,
we claim as ours,
which means that
when we stumble
in the race
and we stumble
all the time,
friends,
what gets us back
on our feet
is not legalism,
right?
It's not,
I want to do better.
What gets us back
on our feet
is who Jesus is for us,
His grace.
Right?
When sin does
entangle us
and we trip,
we always come back
to who He is
for us
and He is the pioneer
and the perfecter
of our faith
and that's who we are.
Right?
I love what
Scottish minister
Robert Murray McShane
used to say
to his congregation
and he would have said
it in the city here.
He said,
for every one look
at your sin,
I want you to take
ten looks at Christ.
Right?
Just do that
next time in your head.
You fall,
look to Jesus,
look to Jesus.
I look at Jesus,
look to Jesus,
look to Jesus
and our eyes
are fixed on Him.
He's our Savior.
What is He secondly?
He's our example.
Do you see in the text,
for the joy set before Him,
He endured the cross,
scorning its shame.
So the question is,
what made Jesus
endure the cross?
Answer,
it was the joy
set before Him.
What was that joy?
Going back to being
in the very presence
of His Father
that He'd left
to take on our flesh.
And because of His work,
the presence
that He will one day
bring all His ransomed
people into
that we might enter into
and share
in the joy
of the Father,
the Son,
and the Spirit.
And that joy
saw Him endure
the most horrific
of deaths.
And I hope that encourages us
wherever we're at
right now
that when we feel
the pain of suffering
in this life,
right,
whether it's suffering
in general
or suffering
because we stand
for Jesus
and something in us
in that moment
longs for that day,
friends,
in a really profound way,
we are sharing
in something
of the life
and the death
of our Savior.
And I often think
what often gets me
through a run
and I run home
from the office
during the week
and did it this week.
When you're running
in the rain,
what gets me
to the other side,
right,
the joy that's set
before me
so often
is a warm shower.
Right,
we'll go through anything
because I know
the warm shower is there.
And this challenged me,
how much more
should the joy
set before me
eternally
cause me
to keep running
the race
with my eyes
fixed on Christ.
Friends,
he's our Savior,
he's our example
and thirdly,
he's our helper.
He's our helper
and sat down
at the right hand
of the throne of God.
See,
the author here
brings the attention
to where Jesus is.
He's seated
at the right hand
of the throne of God.
What's he doing there?
Is he twiddling his thumbs
wondering what time
am I coming back?
No,
he ever lives
to plead for us.
He's praying for us.
Isn't that a magnificent thought?
He's praying for us.
We thought this morning
if you tuned into that
how often our prayer lives
are substandards,
they're up and they're down.
Christ's prayer life
for us
is people
that never falters.
He's given us
the spirit,
the very presence
of God
living and working
in us
and he promises
to equip us
with everything
that we need
to live
a life
for his glory.
But friends,
just as we finish here,
we're in a race.
We're in a race.
You know,
there were two other guys
in the boat
with Steve Redgrave
when he won his race.
Right?
You had Matthew Pinson,
he was the other guy.
The two of them
got all the limelight.
Right?
Fast forward a little bit
and there's a knighthood
in there as well
as gold medals.
The third guy
that was in the boat
was the cocks.
Right?
His job
is just to know
his roars inside out,
is to know
what they need to hear
and to know
when they need
to hear it
and keep them going
right to the finish line.
Right?
And that's what
the author
to the Hebrews
is doing
right here
to a tired
and to a battered
generation
who are on the verge
of giving up.
He's saying,
come on guys.
Come on,
we can do this.
Come on.
Let's keep going.
Let's keep running.
Oh,
that you would know
what's at the other side
of the finish line
and you would know
that that is worth
enduring
every single strain,
every single insult,
every single sleepless night,
every single hardship
because that prize,
oh,
it's so good.
one thing to do
practically
just as we finish this.
Friends,
I want us to think about,
maybe some of us
know right now,
those in the race
who are really struggling
at the minute.
Right?
It's one of the beauties
of being a church family.
Right?
Those in the race
who are really struggling
to keep going
at the minute.
You know,
I love those scenes
in the marathon,
you know,
when somebody's struggling
and somebody comes in
from the crowd
or whatnot
and they just go
under the shoulder,
don't they?
Just take them around
and they just carry them,
help them keep going,
carry them on.
Well,
maybe that's something
that all of us
could do this evening
as we go home,
as we leave here.
Maybe it's even somebody
that's sitting here,
you know what they're
going through.
Friends,
could you be the cocks
in their life?
Could you be
Hebrews chapter 12,
the one who just
helps lift our eyes
to who Jesus is?
So if anyone sees me
going anywhere near
a boat again,
you've got my permission
to shoot me.
Friends,
in all the pain
that's in that quote,
don't miss the fact
that the context of it
is that the guy
who's just won
the gold medal.
Christian,
you're in a race,
we're in a race,
let's fix our eyes
on Jesus
and let's run it
with perseverance.
Let me pray.
And Father,
in the silence now,
we would just maybe
bring to you
our own prayers.
Father,
of the ways
that where we know
we are struggling
right now
and Father,
thank you for that promise
that in Christ Jesus,
Lord,
you promised to give us
the power to live
a life of godliness
and so Lord,
I pray,
Lord,
wherever we're at
that the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ
would be so precious
to each of us
and that your spirit
would be at work
in each of our lives.
Father,
help us fix our eyes
on Jesus,
the founder
and the perfecter
of our faith.
And we pray
in his precious name.
Amen.