They needed endurance. This didn’t sit right with some of the boys in our High School Sunday School class. Why is endurance necessary if they have already received salvation? Perseverance was not a new biblical word for them, but I expect to some it seemed impossible or pointless. They needed to believe that there was something further to be gained. They needed to see in the Bible that they were enduring for something, not only struggling against something. They were running to gain an extraordinary reward.
Hebrews 12 calls believers in Jesus to run the race set before them with endurance and in faith so that they will receive what was promised. By looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, we can run to win the prize and not grow weary.
Pastors preach to congregations who enter into our churches weary from life in this world. The smaller size of our churches and communities means that the small-town pastor is often the point person to know and to see all the hard things that are happening in the lives around him. Weariness threatens the congregation and their pastor.
Looking to Jesus
The best athletes run with their eyes forward. Of all the spectacular biblical testimonies to the worth and assurance of the promised reward, the greatest is the life of Jesus.
Hebrews 12:1-2 says,
“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, 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.”
As we follow the example of those who ran before us, as we seek to unburden ourselves of weights and sins, it is Jesus’s example that shows us that endurance is not pointless. Jesus endured the shameful, painful death on a cross because of the joy at the end of it. While the race before you may be filled with waves of hard seasons, disappointments, and little deaths (the death of expectations, of pride, of plans), look to Jesus. See in him that endurance is not impossible. On the throne, he is exalted above every power. See in his death that endurance is not pointless. The hard things your congregation goes through that you carry with them are leading you to a joy that, once experienced, will never be taken from you.
Consider Him
We should look to Jesus not only for encouragement that enduring is worth it, but to understand what makes enduring hard things possible for us.
Hebrews 12:3 explains,
“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
Jesus suffered from hostility. He gave himself over to the hands of sinners full of hate and malice. We’re invited to consider our own sufferings in light of Christ’s. Our struggle may feel similar. The town doesn’t like this church!
And we’re invited to consider further…
“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’”
While it may look to our eyes that we’re suffering at the hands of those hostile to us, all of the hard things our churches face are overseen and shaped by very different hands and for different purposes. In light of Christ’s sufferings, we see that we suffer in an entirely different manner than Christ. Our suffering is not punishment, it’s loving reproof. These hard things are for our good that we may receive the full reward. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:7). Enduring to the end is possible because Jesus bore the full punishment for our sin and because suffering now serves to bear peaceful fruit that pleases the Lord.
Enduring in the Faith
Pastor, as you carry the hard things in your congregation, remember that enduring to the end is not impossible or pointless. Remember that it is not in your hands to keep your congregation from suffering. They are in the hands of the Father. These hard things are what he uses to sanctify and strengthen his people to endure.
Remember that you have an example for how to run the race set before you. Jesus saw that there was joy at the finish line. There is an extraordinary reward that is worth striving after.
To gain the extraordinary reward, endurance is needed. Because of Christ, endurance is possible.