Hebrews 12 and Bible study method...
I've been cruising through Hebrews right now, so you get to join with me some more as we look at chapter 12 today. But, more than just some thoughts, I want to show you how to study your Bible as you read it. So journey with me now as we toss out the opening text...
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.
I love this set of verses. It's encouraging to know that there are people cheering for us ("surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses"). It's also great to know that Jesus initiates and perfects our faith. But, we're not simply reading it, we want to know what it says, what it means, and how that applies to our lives.
The first thing we need to do is figure out what the "therefore" is there for (I know, some of you are groaning, but that's still how I think!). Remember yesterday we looked some at Hebrews 11? That's what comes before this chapter and it's what informs this section. In that chapter, he talks about people of faith who have gone before, then says that "we are surrounded by such a huge crowd." Who do you think he's talking about? All those who had faith prior to us! This also alludes to their example: they ran the race to its completion and are cheering for us to run our race. Thus, we throw off all that hinders and encumbers us.
But, what does he really mean to "strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up?" Lets think about it. What does it mean when we talk about stripping? It generally refers to taking off clothes to nakedness, but it can also refer to removing bark from a log/stick, or removing a covering from a floor or other finished surface, etc. The key to realize is it's always about getting rid of an exterior layer to reveal what is underneath. Also of note is the permanent nature of the phrase: "strip" isn't a continuing verb, but a one time verb. We see this when we talk about stripping a floor or stripping bark: you do it once and it's done! When he talks about stripping off every weight that slows us down, it means completely getting rid of those things, not temporarily putting them aside! Think about the analogy he's using: when running a race, do people load up on backpacks, water bottles, extra clothes, etc? Heck no! At any track meet you'll ever see the runners are wearing as little as they can manage to give them the edge they need. In any longer race, they have stations setup where you can grab a cup of water and keep running. I mean, if you watched the Boston Marathon do you think anyone is carry a bottle of water with them? The word picture is clear: we are to completely rid ourselves of anything that is going to hinder or stop us ("the sin that so easily trips us up") as we run the race of faith.
Moreover, he speaks of running with endurance. In a longer race, it's never about how fast you start, but about running at a set pace and finishing hard. Watch any long distance race in the Olympics and you'll see it: the man who starts fast and is in first probably won't wind up there at the end! Why is that? Because they used up the best of their energy at one chunk instead of spreading it out across the entire race. But, more than that, this passage offers insight into how we focus our attention as we run: "keeping our eyes on Jesus." I'll never forget Gavin's first track meet: he was running a 50 meter race as a 5-6 year old. I watched him run once or twice and told him one important bit of advice: focus on where you're going, not anyone around you. I told him that because as he shifted his attention from person to person, he bobbed and weaved that 50m into closer to 100m! We tend to run our spiritual race the same way, so we need the instruction that is so clearly contained in the text: "We do this [run with endurance the race God has set before us] by keeping our eyes on Jesus."
Okay those first couple of verses make sense now, but what about the rest? It seems unrelated, outside of the race metaphor, but it is the most important piece. The reason we can run our race is because someone else cleared the way for us to run. Have you watched racing at all? They talk about drafting when someone stays close to the tail of another racer to reduce the drag on their car/bike/body. That allows them to conserve the energy they need to slingshot around the leader and finish hard. Geese follow the same principle: one flys lead so that the others can draft him, with them rotating through to share the load. Jesus flew lead for us, and we are only needing to draft Him to get to the finish. It reminds us most pointedly with the last verse: "you have not yet given your lives..."
So, we now know that these verses contain a lot of information! More than that, they contain an important reminder for us as believers. We are called to run the race of faith and need to put our all into it. If we allow sin/ourselves to get in the way and weigh us down, we're going to have a tough run. So, instead, we need to drop our pretenses, sinful tendencies, selfish nature, and own agenda if we are to actually run the race. Then our job is to "follow the leader" as we run down the trail Jesus blazed, remembering that we have it mildly compared to all He suffered for us! But, what does that mean to us in our everyday lives? This is the most important question in any Bible study and one we cannot ignore...
The first application I see is the command in it: get rid of the things that will make running the race of faith harder for you. This is a simple call to repentance and newness of life. It might mean dropping friends, certain music or movies or tv or websites, dropping activities, dropping absolutely anything that is holding you back. If you remember W4 a couple of years ago, I took our cross and we nailed whatever was holding us back to it. Is that same thing still holding you back? Or if you think you're all good, ask God to show you what is holding you back, unfortunately He's always faithful to show us those things...
The second application I see is that we can draw encouragement from two sources: those who have gone before us in faith and Jesus Himself. This could be as easy as talking to one of the older folks at church (and by me saying this it means someone older than me!) and learning their story because despite things changing a lot, things stay the same a lot too! It could also mean you need to brush up on the life of Christ in the gospels (Matthew, mark, Luke and John) so you can see what he went through for you and remind yourself that you don't have it too bad!
There's a lot more I could say, but this rambling post should show you what I'm thinking about and also help you walk through any text yourself! Remember, start with what it says. Then move to what it means (look up words in the dictionary if that's a problem!). Then take those two and apply it to your life. Today I'm taking away a personal examination of my faith and how I'm running. I haven't gotten rid of the things that weigh me down completely, and I need to be reminded of that and let them go. My worries and other things are keeping me from running the race the way God made me to run, so I need to let go and focus my attention of Jesus who initiates and perfects my faith...
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.
I love this set of verses. It's encouraging to know that there are people cheering for us ("surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses"). It's also great to know that Jesus initiates and perfects our faith. But, we're not simply reading it, we want to know what it says, what it means, and how that applies to our lives.
The first thing we need to do is figure out what the "therefore" is there for (I know, some of you are groaning, but that's still how I think!). Remember yesterday we looked some at Hebrews 11? That's what comes before this chapter and it's what informs this section. In that chapter, he talks about people of faith who have gone before, then says that "we are surrounded by such a huge crowd." Who do you think he's talking about? All those who had faith prior to us! This also alludes to their example: they ran the race to its completion and are cheering for us to run our race. Thus, we throw off all that hinders and encumbers us.
But, what does he really mean to "strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up?" Lets think about it. What does it mean when we talk about stripping? It generally refers to taking off clothes to nakedness, but it can also refer to removing bark from a log/stick, or removing a covering from a floor or other finished surface, etc. The key to realize is it's always about getting rid of an exterior layer to reveal what is underneath. Also of note is the permanent nature of the phrase: "strip" isn't a continuing verb, but a one time verb. We see this when we talk about stripping a floor or stripping bark: you do it once and it's done! When he talks about stripping off every weight that slows us down, it means completely getting rid of those things, not temporarily putting them aside! Think about the analogy he's using: when running a race, do people load up on backpacks, water bottles, extra clothes, etc? Heck no! At any track meet you'll ever see the runners are wearing as little as they can manage to give them the edge they need. In any longer race, they have stations setup where you can grab a cup of water and keep running. I mean, if you watched the Boston Marathon do you think anyone is carry a bottle of water with them? The word picture is clear: we are to completely rid ourselves of anything that is going to hinder or stop us ("the sin that so easily trips us up") as we run the race of faith.
Moreover, he speaks of running with endurance. In a longer race, it's never about how fast you start, but about running at a set pace and finishing hard. Watch any long distance race in the Olympics and you'll see it: the man who starts fast and is in first probably won't wind up there at the end! Why is that? Because they used up the best of their energy at one chunk instead of spreading it out across the entire race. But, more than that, this passage offers insight into how we focus our attention as we run: "keeping our eyes on Jesus." I'll never forget Gavin's first track meet: he was running a 50 meter race as a 5-6 year old. I watched him run once or twice and told him one important bit of advice: focus on where you're going, not anyone around you. I told him that because as he shifted his attention from person to person, he bobbed and weaved that 50m into closer to 100m! We tend to run our spiritual race the same way, so we need the instruction that is so clearly contained in the text: "We do this [run with endurance the race God has set before us] by keeping our eyes on Jesus."
Okay those first couple of verses make sense now, but what about the rest? It seems unrelated, outside of the race metaphor, but it is the most important piece. The reason we can run our race is because someone else cleared the way for us to run. Have you watched racing at all? They talk about drafting when someone stays close to the tail of another racer to reduce the drag on their car/bike/body. That allows them to conserve the energy they need to slingshot around the leader and finish hard. Geese follow the same principle: one flys lead so that the others can draft him, with them rotating through to share the load. Jesus flew lead for us, and we are only needing to draft Him to get to the finish. It reminds us most pointedly with the last verse: "you have not yet given your lives..."
So, we now know that these verses contain a lot of information! More than that, they contain an important reminder for us as believers. We are called to run the race of faith and need to put our all into it. If we allow sin/ourselves to get in the way and weigh us down, we're going to have a tough run. So, instead, we need to drop our pretenses, sinful tendencies, selfish nature, and own agenda if we are to actually run the race. Then our job is to "follow the leader" as we run down the trail Jesus blazed, remembering that we have it mildly compared to all He suffered for us! But, what does that mean to us in our everyday lives? This is the most important question in any Bible study and one we cannot ignore...
The first application I see is the command in it: get rid of the things that will make running the race of faith harder for you. This is a simple call to repentance and newness of life. It might mean dropping friends, certain music or movies or tv or websites, dropping activities, dropping absolutely anything that is holding you back. If you remember W4 a couple of years ago, I took our cross and we nailed whatever was holding us back to it. Is that same thing still holding you back? Or if you think you're all good, ask God to show you what is holding you back, unfortunately He's always faithful to show us those things...
The second application I see is that we can draw encouragement from two sources: those who have gone before us in faith and Jesus Himself. This could be as easy as talking to one of the older folks at church (and by me saying this it means someone older than me!) and learning their story because despite things changing a lot, things stay the same a lot too! It could also mean you need to brush up on the life of Christ in the gospels (Matthew, mark, Luke and John) so you can see what he went through for you and remind yourself that you don't have it too bad!
There's a lot more I could say, but this rambling post should show you what I'm thinking about and also help you walk through any text yourself! Remember, start with what it says. Then move to what it means (look up words in the dictionary if that's a problem!). Then take those two and apply it to your life. Today I'm taking away a personal examination of my faith and how I'm running. I haven't gotten rid of the things that weigh me down completely, and I need to be reminded of that and let them go. My worries and other things are keeping me from running the race the way God made me to run, so I need to let go and focus my attention of Jesus who initiates and perfects my faith...
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