Hebrews 12:1-11 LET US FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS
Memory verse Hebrews 12:2(KJV)
“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”.
Today, we are studying a new Chapter. This chapter
is one of my favourite chapters in the bible. The Christian life is likened to
that of an athlete running a race. I am not an athlete but I do know that
before any competition, an athlete must have done some rigorous training months
or even years before the competition. Last year, we witnessed the Olympics, and
we saw athletes like Usain Bolt and Mo Farah defending their titles. These men
have been preparing religiously for the competition, they had long hours of
endless trainings, trying to beat their previous records. In the end those
training paid off. They won gold medals. But not all who run in a race finish
it, some will fall by the wayside due to one reason or the other, it is God’s will that we all run this
Christian race to the end. We have been provided with some biblical examples of
men who ran the race to the end, let us learn from them as we run this race. I
pray that God will give us the grace to finish the race even as we fix our eyes
on Jesus. Amen
Let us take a look at verse 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, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us”,
In chapter 11, we saw some of the great witnesses of
faith, these people ran the race with faith and now they have passed the baton
to us. According to verse 1, what are we to do? We are to lay aside every
weight and sin that can hinder us from running this race.
Have you ever seen an athlete running a race with a
backpack or a box? Those things will slow them down. We have been set free by
Jesus (John8:36), therefore let us lay our burden down at Jesus’ feet. What are
these weights that we should lay aside? Some Christians carry bags of guilt,
shame, worry, anger, disgrace and so on. We can be weighed down by the pursuit
of wealth, career, and societal status. We should never allow these things
distract us from the ultimate goal. Jesus knew what his purpose on earth was
and nothing could stop him, not even the shame, pain, scorn, suffering, and
humiliation. The journey may look far but you need to keep moving, there is no
reward for those who give up.
Let me tell you a personal story, on a very faithful
Tuesday, we had just finished from fellowship and about 7 of us (2 girls and 5
boys) went to the bus stop to take the shuttle home. After 5 mins of waiting,
the bus came and to our dismay it didn’t stop at our bus stop but it went on to
the next bus stop. Immediately, we decided to give it a run, the other girl and
I had bags that were hindering us from running and we could see the boys really
ahead of us. While we kept running, we overtook some people on the way and some
other people also overtook us.
I decided to stop running when I noticed the other
girl was too tired to keep running. We were almost at the next bus stop, we
could even see the bus but because we were too tired to continue we missed the
bus. If we didn’t have our bags or if we had preserved, we wouldn’t have missed
the bus. We had to wait for 30 mins in the cold to get the next bus but while
we were waiting, it dawned on me. We had a goal and our goal was to catch the
bus. We actually started well but our strength failed, we gave up and missed
the bus. Some started running late but they overtook us and made it to the bus
while other started well and ended well.
As Christians we have a goal and our goal is to make
heaven and win as many souls as we can for Christ, our strength alone cannot
guarantee us finishing the race, we need more than our strength to run this
race. Verse 2 tells us that we need to fix our eyes on Jesus our perfect
example, he had a goal set before him, and he didn’t ascend into heaven until
he finished the goal. His goal was to die for you and I, to save us and restore
our relationship with God.
Verse 4-11 talks about enduing hardship as discipline.
God loves us so much to leave us in our wretched state, we are his children and
he can choose to discipline us as he wills.
As believers, we shouldn’t be discouraged when God
rebukes us in form of discipline. The
author quoted Proverbs 3:11-12 to emphasize that God only disciplines those he
loves. Discipline is always painful but the end product is rewarding.
When I was younger, I always saw my dad’s discipline
as wickedness, but as I grew older I realise that my dad didn’t enjoy
disciplining my siblings and I, but he had to do it so that we do not become
spoilt. I am grateful for those times he disciplined me because they actually
helped in putting me on the right track.
It is unfortunate that some Christians take God
discipline the wrong way. When we go through discipline, God wants us to learn
something that will be useful to us in life. We live in a world where churches
are preaching the wrong message that a Christian cannot undergo hardship. This
is false because God can discipline us and his discipline may include one form
of hardship or the other. Just as our earthly parents will not turn a blind eye
when we go wrong so also God cannot and will not ignore us when we go wrong. He
will always try to bring us to the right path.
As we run this race, let us continually focus our
thoughts on Jesus. And no matter the persecutions or sufferings you are
currently undergoing, remember that Jesus also went through the same sufferings
but he never gave up. He is our great High Priest and he intercedes for us
continually. So hold on, persevere for surely you will receive a reward in the
end. Amen
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