Introduction

I have to confess to you that I’ve struggled to work out where I was going in planning and preparing this sermon today.

Why is that?

It’s because every single weak and feeble mortal gets worn down.

Tired.

Weary.

And ceases to function, as we’d probably say, ‘optimally’.

We get worn down to the point we can’t think so clearly, or creatively, or productively.

We can get worn down to the point where we lack commitment and follow through, to the point where (as one dear person said to me not so long ago) it becomes a struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

And the disastrous thing about getting to that position is not that we lose our enjoyment, our enthusiasm, our ‘Zing’.

Those things are in many ways just simply lost pleasures, motivating pleasures, but still just losable and loss-making pleasures.

The disastrous thing is that we defect to this path of least resistance.

And Hebrews is a deep book which addresses just that problem.

1) What Hebrews is getting at

Now, I said Hebrews was a deep book and I hope that word didn’t simply pass you by.

Hebrews is a deep book because it comes out of and addresses another culture, and when you drill down to the detail of the book (or get swamped by it, which is easy) it is a book written for people with a deep knowledge of the theology at the heart of their history.

And that meant they’d be acquainted with and skilled at handing long texts and the convoluted arguments that they contained.

So for our modern Western minds we need to break it down to the big points it is making (of which there are two) and then the ways it supports those two points (of which there are a number, each of them running to several chapters each) … which should give you an idea of why we’re going to pick the points out and move at pace to the things Hebrews is trying to tell us about not seeking the path of least resistance when we’ve been battered.

a) The state of its audience (10:32-34)

Now the original audience for the reading of this book of Hebrews had quite clearly been battered, and it is written because they’re considering the path of least resistance.

It is addressed to Hebrews … people of Jewish origin descended from the Twelve Tribes of Israel, ten of them now lost through the battering they’d taken and the path of least resistance it had driven them to.

But it is clear this book isn’t written to Jewish people still worshipping the old ways, but Jewish people who’ve come to follow Jesus, yet who were feeling the pressure of following Jesus in a world that had crucified Christ and was now trying to do similar things to them (His followers) too.

You get that in Hebrews 10:32-34, which is worth looking at:

“Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. 

Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.

You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.”

Funny how that’s put in the past tense there … we’ll see that’s relevant later.

For now, it’s clear that this pressure they were under, the weariness with their experience in a rebel world, was seriously tempting them to take the path of least resistance.

So Hebrews 10:35 continues:

“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For,

“In just a little while,

    he who is coming will come

    and will not delay.”

And,

“But my righteous one will live by faith.

    And I take no pleasure

    in the one who shrinks back.”

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”

In that context, the book’s goal is now two-fold.

b) The book’s goal

i)               The book’s role firstly is to ‘Big up’ Jesus

So frequently the troubles we meet in life, and the wearing down of us too, would be better met with a bigger view of Jesus.

By that I mean a bigger idea of Who he is what He has done and can do, but also a zoomed in view of Him on the screen in our minds so that He is a bigger part of our picture of things.

Hebrews consistently aims at both those things.

So, for example …

Constantly the first ten chapters of Hebrews return to using the word ‘better’ … so Hebrews 7:19 for instance says that in just one of the Lord’s perfections that it’s highlighted:

“a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”

That’s just one example.

Everywhere Jesus is ‘better’ – better than the path of least resistance these world-weary pilgrims would defect to.

ii) The book’s role is to challenge to persevere with Jesus, WHATEVER comes

So the book goes on from those first ten chapters to lead into the second part of the book on persevering faithfully with Jesus, whatever the world made them weary with, and however tempting the default non-options seemed to be.

First of all then, as we unpack this, the book of Hebrews demonstrates …

            c) The absolute superiority of Jesus, Hebrews 1-10

Please notice that the author of this book is spelling out the superiority of Jesus to the comfortable old things they had once held dear, because discredited old ‘comforts’ might look like comforts, but when they do they are simply still discredited.

i)               Discrediting the old comforts

Hebrews takes some time discrediting the specific discredited old comforts they were toying with returning to, showing Jesus is

Superior to the Angels & the Torah, chs. 1-2

Superior to Moses & the Land, chs. 3-4

Superior to the Aaronic Priesthood & Melchizedek, chs. 5-7 

Superior to the sacrificial system and the covenant, chs. 8-10

ii) Summing up His superiority to anything else

Chapters 1-2 assert that Jesus is better because He is God’s Word incarnate … whereas the Torah was not God WITH us.

Chapters 3-4 assert that Jesus is better because He brings hope for all Creation … whereas Moses and the Land did not offer any such thing.

Chapters 5-7 indicate that Jesus is better because He is a priest FOR ever - and indeed one greater than Melchizedek is here - so whereas human priests and people were morally flawed and needed to make regular repeated atonement for sin, Jesus is the ultimate priest and King being morally flawless and eternal … a priest for ever.

It followed that rejecting Jesus, God’s perfect and eternal mediator and go-between with God amounted to rejecting God and the warning to avoid doing that rang clear in this section.

Then chs. 8-10 show how Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross is better than all the animal sacrifices offered at the Temple. 

The temple sacrifices had to be offered constantly, daily and annually in the appointed place. 

But Jesus sacrificed His life once for ever on the Cross … a ‘done deal’ sufficient for the sins of the WHOLE world.

The warning is sounded, then, to avoid walking away from God’s invitation to this all-sufficient atonement which is, in point of fact, the new covenant spoken of by the prophets in which all sins are forgiven.

Given this superiority of Jesus, the second part of the book moves on to say that the readers should follow the example of the great heroes of the faith found throughout the Scriptures and remain faithful to Jesus, trusting that whatever hardships this course of action brings, God WILL NOT abandon His people.

But our two texts today do not start there.

Having established great hope for us in the multi-faceted superiority of Jesus to any other distracting thing on offer, these verses go back to where Hebrews 11:1 actually finds world-weary people and starts to pick us up from there.

2) Where Hebrews find us and helps us, 11:1-2

Where does Hebrews find us?

World-weary and worn down, looking for the path of least resistance.

It’s going first to inspire us with the faith of the elders, because that faith addresses directly our world-weariness and defecting to the path of least resistance.

Check out this introductory and theme-setting paragraph:

Hebrews 11:1-2

“Now faith is 

confidence in what we hope for and 

assurance about what we do not see. 

This is what the ancients were commended for.”

a)    Faith

Of course this can have its origins in plain old tiredness, but when we submit to being worn down and world-weary, the issue that’s a stake in us is often faith.

We are believing in what’s temporary but visible, rather than the certainties that are unseen but eternal.

So as of FIRST importance, the book of Hebrews is taking us there.

If faith fails, then world-weariness and discipleship-fatigue will rule the roost.

So Hebrews is about to walk us slowly around the gallery of the faithful, to pause and soak up the beauty of their trusting walk with God.

This IS not a rationally based problem, and our skilful pastor to the Hebrews is not addressing it in that way, but he is inspiring and moving the hearts (and the motivation) of the weary with the beauty of the example of the ones who’ve gone before.

b)    Confidence

The word is ὑπόστασις (hupostasis) 'confidence/essence' … it’s a fascinating word with a wide range of nonetheless specific meanings including what settles (sediment), a thick soup and pus!

In this context it means confidence, an assured position, being sure.

Now THAT is the bulwark against worn-down world-weariness that protects the soul, says Hebrews here, and then rolls out two phrases to unpack that before leading us quietly into the gallery where we can view what the ancients were commended for.

Faith is, firstly, this word here ‘confidence’.

And that confidence is what goes first when faith fumbles because we’ve been ground down and grown weary in the world.

Faith is the CONFIDENCE or the ASSURANCE of the things Christians hope for … which cuts the legs from under the ground-downness this world does to us, and it does so when our faith is renewed.

But then it feeds the word our NIV translation gives us ‘assurance’ for, as well.

Let’s look at that quickly … it’s an interesting one!

c)    Assurance

The word they’re translating this way here is ἔλεγχος … it’s a word that commonly means rebuke or reproof.

Faith is the rebuke or reproof; a proof, that by which a thing is proved or tested and then by extension from that a tested, tried and proven conviction.

Hebrews is going next to show us how that faith becomes a tested, tried and proven conviction as we view the Gallery of the tested, tried and proven historic faithful ones the chapter goes on to walk us around.

I’ve got to be honest I am not a great fan of ‘spiritual biographies’.

That’s just a personal thing.

But HONEST spiritual biographies can be powerfully helpful, especially when our faith and faithfulness has been worn down.

I tend to go for the full-on heroics of the missionary history of Western Christianity … but wherever your personality takes you, the fellowship of God’s people across the ages can be immensely helpful.

I don’t have time to drag you through the gallery in the rest of this chapter here, but their example stands to prove the remedy Hebrews 11 sets out for the world-weariness the reader has encountered …

Hebrews 11:1-2

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

This is what the ancients were commended for.” 

Then he opens the Gallery – do go and read it – but we are pressing on past the gallery to get down to the stadium.

3) Where Hebrews is going and ultimately wants to take us, 12:1-2

In the face of these facts and this inspirational pattern of faithful examples, Hebrews wants to take us into a life of disciplined spiritual athleticism.

The imagery used suggests we’re off to the Games.

            A) Throw off, v. 1a

I got a new follower on Twitter recently, a farmer and HGV driver who certainly appears to have an ironic sense of humour.

He seems to have a lot of interaction with urban vegans and earth-friendly theorists who frustrate his agricultural approach to his environment … he runs a farm and gets fed up by people with no understanding of his world telling him where he’s going wrong.

(There’s surely a lesson in that situation somewhere for preachers … but we’ll leave that aside for another day!)

Here’s the point: at the top of your social media account you have your profile, and in his he lists his interests as including ‘pretend Pagan Naked gardening’.

Something at once make us realise he’s being ironic, because the thought of even doing something as steady and unenergetic as gardening unclothed is a place that our minds don’t want to travel to.

But here’s the thing, in the Graeco-Roman world athletes, it wasn’t funny.

They didn’t slip their tracksuits off revealing shorts and vest.

They dropped their togas to run, jump and throw things stark naked.

And THAT’s the idea Hebrews is putting out here.

The athlete at the track (in their world) dropped ALL the outward things that would encumber them to run, jump and throw things optimally with freedom of movement, guaranteeing optimal opportunity for best performance.

Hebrews 12:1

 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

It is sin that gives the world around us the foothold to cling to us.

And that is too great a burden to carry.

You are going to be wearing yourself out.

Now our sins can feel very familiar and comfortable … our ‘blankey’ to help us through life’s hard experience.

You tend to find those things appeal in some way to your five senses, visible-feelable things, gaining access to beat you up from the inside out.

You need to have thrown them off to deal with the world-weariness and the short cuts on offer to the path of least resistance, says Hebrews ch 12 and v. 1.

Because then there’s an opportunity to exercise that freedom for the next thing …

            B) Run, v. 1b

Encouraged by the faithful example of those heroes in the Gallery of Faith, then …

“let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”

But, you say, I haven’t the energy or inclination to run.

Running is exertion.

It requires determination and getting down to quite hard work … I had to lend a hand on Thursday getting somebody’s strayed cattle out of the village and trust me it gets harder as you get older!

Too weary to run?

The remedy for that is what’s being set out before us here!

When worn-down the key thing is renewing faith … the confidence in what we hope for and the assurance of what we DO NOT see … you view the gallery and then you drop the kit that’s clung to you (the hinderances we’ve encountered and the sin that so easily entangles us) and then we RUN.

But see, the thing is, when you have freed up your limbs and filled up your lungs and are now exerting yourself to run … there are two ways to run.

You can run towards your goal or you can run seriously amok!

Imagine one of those – really brave, I think – blind Paralympians running their race with somebody attached to their wrist calling out instructions to keep them in their lane as they run.

Then think about what it would be like if suddenly in the middle of the race all the assistant runners slipped their lead.

They would all either stop running or run amok … wouldn’t they?

The way to make sure you don’t end up there in that situation, says Hebrews, is obvious.

So here’s the last thing: throw off, run, then …

            C) Fix your eyes

Hebrews 12:2-3

“(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. 

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

As you attempt the conversion kick you follow through with your eyes to the place you want that ball to go.

As you take your swing at life in your following by faith after Christ, you fix your eyes on the target you want to gain … fix your eyes, says the Hebrews, on Christ … He is the author and he is the perfecter of the faith we’re going to need to protect us from the grind of our earthly existence and stop it producing the world-weariness that make us ultimately lose heart.

Fix your eyes on him who for the joy it would lead to endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and having persevered now sits at the right hand of the Majesty in Heaven.

World-weary friends, tempted now by the path of least resistance, that path of least resistance IS NOT WORTH IT!

Throw off.

RUN!

Fix your eyes.

         Conclusion

For worn down, world-weary pressurised people Hebrews seeks to big-up Jesus and challenge them – US – to persevere with Jesus whatever comes, because Jesus is just so much BETTER than any of the other easier-looking options.

And it is FAITH (as supported by the encouragement found in the Gallery of Faith) that gives us the confidence and assurance to persevere with the things we can’t see that are eternal rather than bunking off to grasp what looks like the path of least resistance but is both fundamentally temporary and ultimately passing away.

And it is casting off the encumbrance of sin, running the race marked out for us but doing so keeping our eyes fixed on the author and the perfecter of our faith which is the action required of us to persevere running the race straight on to be with Him in Glory.