Running through Exhaustion

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

For this very reason then, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay down every weight and the sin which controls us so tightly. Through endurance let us run the race set before us.

Let us set our focus toward the founder and perfecter of our faith, Jesus. Who, for the joy that was ever before him, endured the cross although he despised the shame. He sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who has endured against himself such hostility by sinners, so that you might not give out after your souls’ strength has been exhausted.

Over the past few weeks we have situated ourselves in two chapters of this letter to the Hebrews. We opened up in chapter 1 and have spent three weeks in chapter 11. I have been calling our series In Need of Endurance based on how much the writer is exhorting his hearers to endure in their faith in Jesus. He tells them in ch. 10:32-36

Hebrews 10:26 ESV

26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Hebrews 10:32–36 ESV

32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

That passage highlights the problem the Hebrews are facing. They are catching hell for following Jesus. They’re being persecuted for their faith and are being tempted to find a way to relieve the pressure that comes from faithfulness to Jesus by voluntarily putting themselves back under the old covenant sacrificial system and ceremonial laws. He has been pressing them on the reality that to do so would be going backwards into what’s old and vanishing away.

Now he’s putting before them in our passage another reality. Don’t go backwards, go forward because you have a race that is set before you.

Now, I’ve shared with y’all the fact that I’m a CrossFit enthusiast. I love the suffering and pain of an intense CrossFit workout. While I love getting under the bar to squat or getting on the pull up bar, or swinging the kettlebell, there’s one aspect of exercise that I’ve always hated. And that’s running. The unfortunate thing is that it’s rare to find an effective fitness program that doesn’t involve some type of running. Whenever I have to run it just blows my mind that there are people who actually like to do it. For me, as soon as I start to run, I’m looking for it to be over. So, I’d much rather do a sprint than a marathon. (Any distance runners… marathon?)

I love the suffering and pain of an intense workout. While I love getting under the bar to squat or getting on the pull up bar or swinging the kettlebell, there’s one aspect of exercise that I’ve always hated. And that’s running. The unfortunate thing is that it’s rare to find an effective fitness program that doesn’t involve some type of running. Whenever I have to run it just blows my mind that there are people who actually like to do it. For me, as soon as I start to run, I’m looking for it to be over. So, I’d much rather do a sprint than a marathon. (Any distance runners… marathon?)

You can’t run 26 miles and not get exhausted. I came across a quote from this book on running (Running Within) that addressed this issue of runners fatigue. The author says,

You can’t run 26 miles and not get exhausted. I read a quote from this book on running (Running Within) that addressed this issue of runners fatigue. The author says,

Fatigue is both physiological and psychological. Glycogen stores become depleted and you become physiologically tired. A message is sent to your brain "Why am I doing this? Let everyone pass, I can't keep up". Those thoughts hold us back. We end up becoming upset and anxious which fosters the feeling of fatigue. We need to EMBRACE it and make positive adjustments to push through it.

feeling of fatigue. We need to EMBRACE it and make positive adjustments to push through it.

They’re being tempted to find a way to relieve the pressure that comes from faithfulness to Jesus by voluntarily putting themselves back under the old covenant sacrificial system and ceremonial laws.

Runners have to learn to run through the exhaustion if they’re going to finish the race. Fatigue and weariness set in. It’s inevitable. This is one of the reasons why a lot of people who start a marathon don’t actually finish.

The picture of a marathon analogy is perfect for our text. The Pastor told the Hebrews they had need of endurance, and he’s telling us the same thing. He’s telling us that the life of faith in Jesus Christ is like running a race that God has marked out for you, and you need to endure. Fatigue is setting in, and some of them seem to be in danger of dropping out of the race. Embrace the reality that you ain’t gonna be able to run the race without facing fatigue or exhaustion. So, if you’re going to finish, you’ve got to have a reason to run and the strength to press through the fatigue. God both calls and empowers his people to run through the exhaustion. We’ll see that the reason to run through the exhaustion is because we have Jesus both as our example of faithful endurance and as the source for the strength we need to endure.

Since my mind is on a fitness kick we’re going to work through the text from the perspective of coaching points. It’s like a personal trainer coaching you on how to squat right; keep your back tight, push your knees out, and drive up through your heels. Do that and you’ll rock your squats every time. The Pastor has told them that they need to endure. Now he’s helping us see how you actually do it. So, the question for the day is, “How do you run through the exhaustion?” Here are our three coaching points to answer that question, Stay With the Crowd, Drop the Weight, and Keep Your Head Up.

Stay with the Crowd

The Pastor says to the Hebrews in v. 1, “For this very reason, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay down every weight and the sin which controls us so tightly.”

We just worked through ch. 11 over the past three weeks where the Pastor gets his whoop on,

And then the Pastor gets his whoop in one of the most popular chapters in the Bible. , the hall of faith.

By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. By faith Noah, being warned by God built the Ark. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out. By faith Moses was hidden by his parents. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea. Then he says I ain’t got time to tell you about Gideon and Barak and Sampson and Jepthah and David and the prophets. About all of those who were mocked and flogged and chained and imprisoned, who were killed with the sword, who went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute and afflicted, mistreated. The world wasn’t worthy of them.

That’s the great cloud of witnesses he’s talking about in our text. You see, the race that the Pastor is describing is not a sprint. It’s also not a relay race where I run my leg of the race and pass the baton on to you. It’s a marathon. But it’s a strange marathon. I don’t compete as an individual. I’m not trying to win the race and beat everybody else. It’s a marathon that I run with a whole bunch of other folks who are in the race with me, and the goal is not for me to break away from the pack and cross the finish line. The goal is that we all run together and cross the finish line.

The race that the Pastor is describing is not a sprint. It’s also not a relay race where I run my leg of the race and pass the baton on to you. It’s a marathon. But it’s a strange marathon. I don’t compete as an individual. I’m not trying to win the race and beat everybody else. It’s a marathon that I run with a whole bunch of other folks who are in the race with me, and the goal is not for me to break away from the pack and cross the finish line. The goal is that we all run together and cross the finish line.

The apostle Paul likes to use the race metaphor in his letters. At the end of his life, says in ,

2 Timothy 4:7 ESV

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

1 Corinthians 9:25–27 ESV

25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

I bring those texts up because the life of faith in Jesus Christ is both individual and corporate. So there is sense of me running the race as an individual. It’s valid, but that’s not the Pastor’s emphasis here. All of the references are to “we” and “us.” “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses… Let us lay aside… Let us run the race… The only time he speaks in the singular here is when he refers to Jesus. So, his emphasis on the life of faith is corporate. It’s life as the people God together. Running the race with the crowd. He wants to see everybody cross the finish line. And it’s been that way throughout the letter. He had said that very thing to them in chapter 3 & 4?

“I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness…”

When he wrote to the Corinthians he said in ,

Hebrews 3:13–14 ESV

13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” ( ESV)

Hebrews 4:1 ESV

1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.

The race we run in the church, we run together. We stay with the crowd. And when I read this first part of v. 1 I get the image of a group of people running a marathon at around mile number 17. They’ve already run a long way, but they’ve still got a long way to go. And there’s a large crowd on the sidelines, who’ve run the race already, and are cheering them on and helping them push past the exhaustion. If you’ve ever been a part of a competition and there’s a large crowd cheering for you, you’re able to keep going.

HEB3

The race we run in the church, we run together. We stay with the crowd. And when I read this first part of v. 1 I get the image of a group of people running a marathon at around mile number 17. They’ve already run a long way, but they’ve still got a long way to go. (FCF, NCF have already come a long way, but there’s still a long way to go…) And there’s a large crowd on the sidelines, who’ve run the race already, and are cheering them on and helping them push past the exhaustion. If you’ve ever been a part of a competition and there’s a large crowd cheering for you, you’re able to keep going.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened

The Pastor says to them, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. You’re not the only ones who’ve run the race. There is a rich history of faithful people who’ve run through the exhaustion. He says they’re surrounding us. And as the people of God live out their faith together, enduring through the difficulties together enduring through the fatigue together, the cloud of witnesses who are surrounding us should be a source of great encouragement because they’re not just people who want to see us finish, but they are people who have already run the race of faith all the way to the end. And they ran the race with less information than we have. They were looking forward to the promise of Jesus’ coming. We look back at his coming. How do you run through exhaustion in the Christian life? It’s not by a rugged individualism. Stay with the crowd that’s surrounded by the cloud.

The question for the Christian is never simply, “how am I doing at running the race?” The question always includes, “how are those around me doing running the race?” “Where are those around me starting to fade and fall off and lag behind?” You see that’s part of the reason why the race gets exhausting, and why we need supernatural strength to press on. It’s because God calls his people to bear one another’s burdens. He calls his people to carry those who are weak at the moment.

Drop the Weight

This gets especially challenging when you are pursuing a vision like we’re striving for here at this church. When you’re compelled by the gospel of Jesus Christ that the local church should look like its community in all of its diversity—black, white, asian, latino, citizen, immigrant, rich, poor, young, old—pursuing unity in diversity under the banner of Jesus Christ, it can mean much more cultural discomfort.

So, this vision, this pursuit of faithfulness to Christ by pursuing unity for the sake of the gospel is like running a weird sort of marathon. You run it together with a group of other folks who are running the same race. That’s one way of talking about what the church is. By God’s grace, he would have us run through the exhaustion by running together. We might be cool with that. OK, I get it. I ain’t alone. I need to run with the crowd if I’m going to run through the exhaustion.

The second point is where it gets kind of sketchy. How do you run through the exhaustion? Well, you’ve got to drop the weight. The Pastor says, “since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay down every weight and the sin which controls us so tightly.”

A few years ago I was doing this ridiculous workout at the gym that our trainers came up with. For the workout I wore this 35# weight vest and pushed this sled with 90# on it for 400m… But about half way through that 400m all I wanted to do was take that weight vest off and drop it on the street. I would have been able to get through the workout so much better if I didn’t have that vest weighing me down.

The Pastor’s saying, here’s the deal. The race that God has marked out for us, you can’t run it if you’re not willing to deal with the problem of your sin. When he says, “let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely,” the verb that’s translated as “lay aside” means to “lay down” or to “put away.” It’s used only nine times in the NT. Seven out of those nine times it’s used in the context of laying aside or putting away sin.

Romans 13:12 ESV

12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Colossians 3:8 ESV

8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

James 1:21 ESV

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. ( ESV)

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. ( ESV)

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ( ESV)

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So, if you’re not a Christian, you have a sin problem. Your sin problem is this. All of your imperfections, all your issues, the stuff that other people know about, and the stuff that only you know about; all of that makes you guilty before God. The Pastor points out so well in this letter that God’s standard is perfection. Your problem is that you must be perfect, but you can’t be perfect on your own. What you desperately need is to recognize that Jesus is the solution to your problem because, as the Pastor says in 10:14, “by a single offering Jesus has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” But you don’t even have to go back there. You can look at the next verse in our text where the Pastor says that Jesus is the perfecter of our faith.

So, if you’re not a Christian, you have a sin problem. Your sin problem is this. All of your imperfections, all your issues, the stuff that other people know about, and the stuff that only you know about; all of that makes you guilty before God. Pastor points out so well in this letter that God’s standard is perfection. Your problem is that you must be perfect, but you can’t be perfect on your own. What you desperately need is to recognize that Jesus is the solution to your problem because, as the Pastor says in 10:14, “by a single offering Jesus has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” But you don’t even have to go back there. You can look at the next verse in our text where the Pastor says that Jesus is the perfecter of our faith.

But let’s not get confused. If you are a Christian, you still have a sin problem. Through faith in Christ all of our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future, but they still want to cling closely. They still weigh us down. The Pastor’s like, you all have to lay those aside. Do you have an anger problem? You can’t just say, “God understands I have this problem and he accepts me as I am.” You have a problem with deceit or lying? You have a problem with lustful desires? You have a problem with jealousy, envy, obscene talk? What about the cliques, the spoken and unspoken walls we allow to remain in the church—where we decided that we can only do life according to our affinity groups?

It’s hard to deal with sin. It’s much easier to ignore it and try to brush it aside and not deal with it. It’s much easier to try and ignore it instead of confessing it. But there’s only one chapter in this whole letter where we don’t find the word sin. He’s been careful to show us how Jesus, by his sacrificial death on the cross dealt with the problem of sin. But he’s also been careful to show us that Jesus intercedes for his people before the face of God the Father, and that he helps his people overcome temptations. The Pastor said in ch. 2, “surely it’s not angels he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham” (v. 15). Then in v. 18 he says, “Because he himself suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

So the question is, those things that are hindering our ability to run well, that sin of disunity that clings so closely, that seem to control us so tightly; do we want to lay it aside? In the choices and the decisions we make as individual believers and churches every day do we ask the question, “is this a help or a hinderance to God’s call for us to pursue the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?”

The question is do we want to drop the weight so we can run the race better? We’ve got weight that we need to drop if we’re going to pursue this unity. And I ain’t talking about the scale. The reason this gets sketchy is because we might shake our heads ‘yes,’ but when the rubber meets the road, our actions can give a different answer. Because this is hard. He didn’t say, “let us lay aside every weight and sin that bugs you every now and then.” He said, “that clings so closely.” He’s not talking about the stuff you don’t have a problem with. He’s walking right up the street of the things that mess you up. He’s saying, “that’s what God would have you lay down.” If it was easy he wouldn’t have told us that Jesus helps his people. If it was easy, you wouldn’t need help.

Keep Your Head Up

How do you run through exhaustion? You’ve got to stay with the crowd. You’ve got to drop the weight. And lastly, you’ve got to keep your head up. When I say “keep your head up,” I don’t mean it in the sense of a motivation speech a coach gives to a team when they’re down in the dumps. I mean it in the sense of , that psalm of ascent where the psalmist says,

Psalm 121:1–2 ESV

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

The Pastor says essentially the same thing here in v. 2. How do you run through the exhaustion? Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus is the founder of all true faith in God. That is, he is the pioneer of faith. The Pastor used this word before in 2:10 when he said that it was fitting that God, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. Jesus’ entire life, as one commentator says, is the very embodiment of trust in God. There is no better example of faith for us to see or follow. From beginning to end his life was one of perfect obedience. Although he was a son, we’re told in 5:8-9, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”

Philip Hughes says it well in his commentary,

“It is on him...that in every age the gaze of faith is focused.”

Remember what he said in ch. 11 as he talked about Moses? V. 25-26, Moses chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. Why? Because he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. In every age faith keeps it’s head up, focused on the Savior Jesus Christ.

This keeping our head up and looking to Jesus is not simply about Jesus as our example. He’s our example, yes, but the Pastor doesn’t call us to look at Jesus. He says let us look to Jesus. Look to Jesus for help. Look to Jesus for strength. Look to Jesus for hope. Look to him in the sense of relying upon him. Because he’s not just the founder of faith. He’s the perfecter of faith. A perfecter is someone who brings something to a successful conclusion. As the perfecter of our faith, Jesus brings us through to the end.

This verse is the fifth time in the letter where the Pastor tells us that Jesus has taken his seat in the position of power and authority at the right hand of God. Why so many times? Isn’t it enough for him to have said it in 1:3 and left it at that? He repeats himself so much because the Hebrews are having trouble running the race. They’re having trouble enduring through the point of exhaustion. It seems as though the powers of this world who are causing this trouble, both the people who are against them and their own sin; it seems like those things are stronger than the Savior they have trusted in.

So he reminds them and us over and over again that Jesus is right now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Jesus finished the work that the Father gave him to do. He endured such hostility against himself from sinners. He endured the cross, despising the shame. Throughout his entire life as he endured the hostility, as he endured the suffering, as he endured the cross, what was set before him was joy. The road to the joy ahead of him was through the cross. That joy was an ever present focus. His joy is not just being in the position of authority with the Father. The joy set before him was also to bring many sons and daughters to glory.

Hebrews 9:12 ESV

12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:24 ESV

24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

He always lives to make intercession for his people. He appears continually in the presence of God on our behalf. The Pastor is saying, “keep your head up.” Look to Jesus. Those that are causing you to grow weary and fainthearted are not stronger than Jesus. It’s like the psalmist said in ,

he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. ( ESV)

Psalm 24:7–8 ESV

7 Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!

Psalm 24:9–10 ESV

9 Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory! Selah

PS24.

PS24

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ( ESV)

up you heads O gates! And be lifted O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. He is the King of glory.”

“Lift up you heads O gates! And be lifted O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. He is the King of glory.”

The King of glory helps his people to endure through the exhaustion, all the way to the end. He endured so that we can endure.

Here’s how I would translate v. 3 of our text: “For consider him who has endured against himself such hostility by sinners, so that you might not give out after your souls become tired.”

For consider him who has endured against himself such hostility by sinners, so that you might not give out after your souls become tired.”

Some of us in here are exhausted. Your souls are tired. You feel as though your soul’s strength has been exhausted. Do you understand that God is not surprised by that? Do you understand that you’re not in some unusual place in the life of following Jesus? Do you understand that exhaustion comes with the territory? The point of this passage is not that faithfulness to Jesus means that we won’t get exhausted. It is that faithfulness to Jesus means that you will become exhausted. Can you embrace the fatigue this morning…Can you sit in it and hear God saying, “I want you all to keep running through the exhaustion!” How? Keep your heads up! You endure through the exhaustion by setting your focus on Jesus, the one who endured such hostility against himself from sinners.

And God is saying, “I want you all to keep running through the exhaustion!” How? Keep your heads up! You endure through the exhaustion by setting your focus on Jesus, the one who endured such hostility against himself from sinners.

I can’t put it any better than Helen Lemmel does in the hymn she penned in 1922,

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in his wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of his glory and grace.

How do we run through exhaustion family? We stay with the crowd. When your soul becomes tired, don’t drift away from the church. Stay in it. We drop the weight. We always stand ready to have our sin exposed by God so that we can confess and repent. And we keep our heads up, looking to Jesus who is both our example of endurance and the source of the strength we need to endure.

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