Ultra-joy

Jeff Bradford. That was doctor Mike Parnell from Temple Baptist. He's been leading us through our liturgy this morning and we have a combined service of our two churches on Easter, on Good Friday, on Maundy Thursday and this has been a beautiful partnership. We are here. Our congregation's here at the warm welcome and invitation of Temple Baptist who have been an incredible partner for us. And we're so grateful to be able to worship together this morning with different parts of our churches contributing to worship. We don't CTK usually get a handbell choir or a regular choir and just lots of good this morning. And I am wearing a tie. I know that's unusual.

So this morning we're gonna be in Hebrews chapter 12 verses one through two and it is our practice at Christ the King to read God's word out loud together. So if you want to find a pew bible, those it's on page ten sixty nine. You can read in your bulletin or you can read it up on the screen behind me. Let's join our voices as we read God's word.

Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross despising the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. — Hebrews 12:1-3

This is the word of God. Thanks be to God.

You know, I've never been much of a runner. I know there's a bunch of runners in our congregation. I've done the Krispy Kreme challenge. I've done a couple five k's and a 10 k, two half marathons only because family members have wanted to do this together. But this is not a shape for running. Nobody's ever called me fleet of foot before.

I've heard of a phenomenon called an ultra marathon. Have you heard of this? And it sounds like to me a form of torture. Maybe one of the most famous ones, the most grueling one is in Melbourne Australia. It's called the Melbourne Sydney ultra marathon. 543.7 miles. And it's brutal not just for the distance but for all the extremes. Heavy rain, desert conditions, very cold, very hot, changes in altitude. It is a brutal brutal race. And it's only for crazy people. That's what I'm convinced of—ultra marathons are for crazy people.

But I want to ask you this morning, when you hear a passage like this from Hebrews 12 that says, let's run with endurance the race marked out for us. How do you hear that? Does that sound to you like an invitation to joy or like an ultra marathon? Does that sound like inspiration or exhaustion to you?

The Joy of Jesus

You know this passage is really—we'll miss this if you don't understand that this passage is not primarily about your running. Rather it is about his joy. And when Christians miss that, we miss the whole point.

Here's my main idea: People are not generally motivated by guilt or fear or duty or routine. That doesn't keep people going over the long haul. You can motivate Christians by those things for short periods of time, but you will always run your life toward what you love, toward what is beautiful to you, what's captivating to you, what you find is worth giving all your joy to.

So here's my question for us this morning that I hope to really wrestle with today: Why is Jesus worth your joy? Why is Jesus worth your joy?

Because until we see Jesus as worth our joy no matter what we profess about what we believe, no matter what we claim about what we believe, we will never follow him a hundred percent. We'll never give our lives fully to him. We'll never really trust him. We'll never see him as anything but a burden in some ways.

You know that's kind of the litmus test of the Christian life. God allows hardship and troubles to come in and when those things come in we really see where our hearts really lie. It's one thing to say I want to follow Jesus. I want to believe in Jesus. Yeah, I know about Jesus. It's another thing for Jesus to be the very joy of your life.

You know one of the things I've heard said about life in the South is that people in the South are not uninformed about Jesus. You go around interview people and ask them about Jesus. They know a lot of the facts. It's not that they're uninformed about Jesus. Rather it's that we're unimpressed by Jesus. And that includes a lot of Christians. There are a lot of Christians who are joyless Christians. Have you ever met any of those? The world is filled with joyless Christians.

There's a disconnect there. When we hear a passage like this, we think: try harder, do more, run longer, endure more. And it sounds like we are losing a race. Because we're not captivated by him, because we aren't taken with him, we aren't running toward him, and there's a disconnect.

Let me give you a couple of examples of how joy is what really forms us. In Genesis chapter 29, we read about a man named Jacob who falls in love with a young woman named Rachel. The condition of him being able to marry Rachel—her dad says this: "You can marry her, but you have to work for me for seven years." And here's what the Bible says about this for Jacob: those seven years felt like days to him. Why? Because he was captivated by her. He's like, that's what I adore. That's who I adore. And so those seven years felt like days.

But the opposite can also be true. If you are pursuing something in life that is not capturing your joy, those days can feel like years.

The Power of Joy to Transform

Have you ever seen a young man change everything because of a young woman he's interested in? This is guilty as charged for me. So in college, I went to college near Charlotte, and my uniform that I wore all the time was work boots and ripped jeans and printed t-shirts and a canvas, mono-colored, earth-tone canvas shirt unbuttoned over the top. That's what I wore all the time—different shades of brown, but always brown. No bright colors. I looked like I stepped off a construction site.

So junior year, me and two buddies decide we're going on a triple date and we're going to go for it. We're all going to ask out the girl that we really want to ask out. I asked the most beautiful girl on campus, and to my surprise, she said sure. And I couldn't believe it. But I knew this girl had always gone out with preppy guys before, so I knew I couldn't just go as Jeff. So I borrowed a paisley shirt, khaki pants, boat shoes, and a braided belt. And I showed up to this date wearing clothes. The only thing I owned on me was my socks and my underwear. And my friends were shocked. They were like, "Who are you?" Why? Because there was a joy set before me.

Joy works despite reason too. Around Raleigh, you'll see people driving with something in their hand. You know what I'm talking about—they've got a cell phone in their hand. We see it all over town. People are driving. Why? We all know you shouldn't drive with your cell phone. That's dangerous. But why do we drive with our cell phones? Because we're captivated by the phone. We know it's dangerous. We know it's not good for us, but whatever's on there, despite reason, takes over.

We are people who are hardwired to live for joy. God has made us this way.

Jesus' Race and Jesus' Joy

I want to think this morning about two kinds of race and two kinds of joy. I want to look at Jesus' race and Jesus' joy, and your race and your joy this morning.

First, his joy, his race. We see this in Jesus. Jesus was hardwired to pursue what gave him joy. Now that may sound odd to you. I think sometimes we feel guilty as people for being joy-oriented creatures. But Jesus was captivated by joy. Do you know that Jesus was a man full of joy? A lot of people don't think of Jesus this way. Jesus is the shepherd who rejoices at going out and finding the lost and the stray and bringing it back. Jesus was a man that was so full of joy that people around him gossiped about him. He said that guy parties too much because of how much time he spends enjoying people.

Hebrews chapter one actually quotes a psalm in the Old Testament that says this about Jesus:

God, you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness. — Hebrews 1

Jesus' life was one that was anointed with gladness. And then that comes out in this passage, doesn't it? For the joy set before him. Jesus pursued joy. Joy informed every step for Jesus, including his death.

This is what it says in verse two:

For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. — Hebrews 12:2

What held Jesus on the cross? Nails did, but joy did as well. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

What was his joy? Jesus is the only person in human history who chose death. You may say, "No, no, no. There are lots of people who died on behalf of somebody else, who sacrificed themselves for somebody else." But that's not true. They only chose the moment of their death. It's like death was in the future, and they're faced with a crisis, and they pulled death forward from the future into the present, and they sacrificed themselves for somebody else. They chose the moment of their death. Only Jesus chose the fact of his death.

He was not obligated to die. It wasn't an obligation for him. He chose his death. One writer puts it this way: it's like Jesus took his soul in one hand and his body in the other and ripped him in two. Jesus chose to die.

Why? What motivated him going to the cross? What motivated him to come here? What motivated him to put on human flesh? To be with sinful people? What motivated him to live a righteous life? To be misunderstood? To be persecuted by the religious leaders? To suffer an illegal trial? And eventually to be executed on a Roman cross? What motivated him?

This passage says he was motivated by joy—for the joy set before him. What did Jesus gain from the cross that he didn't already have? What did he gain that he didn't have? The father's love? Got it already. Glory? Got it already. Authority? He's got it already. What was the joy set before him that he gained from the cross? Do you know?

You. You were the joy. What motivated him was you. The one thing he didn't have was you. The joy of welcoming you into his family, of calling you his brothers and sisters, of you being adopted into the family of God. This is the one thing that Jesus didn't have that he gained through the cross. His joy was you.

The Melbourne Ultra Marathon

Back to the Melbourne ultra marathon. So in 1983, 150 runners show up from all over the world to run in this hyper endurance marathon race. And people came dressed like you would think for a marathon—running shoes, shorts, little tiny jerseys—and they're each given a number and they line up for the race.

Well, that day a toothless 61-year-old potato farmer and shepherd named Cliff Young shows up for the race. And he's wearing overalls and he's wearing galoshes. And people think this is a joke. But he goes up to the table and he asks for a number. The people running the race were like, okay. They gave him the number 64, pinned it on him. And when the gun goes off, everybody else takes off except for Cliff. Cliff begins this slow kind of shuffle-run-walk.

Now here's a picture of Cliff—real guy. People were like this is a joke. All of Australia began to tune in for this race because the word got out that this guy is running or shuffling. People are like somebody should stop this crazy man before he hurts himself.

So five days and fifteen hours and four minutes later, Cliff Young comes shuffling across the finish line in Melbourne and he wins the ultra marathon. And he doesn't just barely win the ultra marathon, he won by nine hours and fifty-six minutes. People couldn't believe it. What happened? They were stunned.

Everybody knew the only way to win an ultra marathon was to run this way: you run for eighteen hours and then you sleep for six hours and you get up the next day and do it again and again and again for five days. That's how everybody else ran the race. Cliff didn't know that. He just started and kept going and he just shuffled his way across Australia until he won the race.

Jesus, Our Champion

Now why am I telling you this story? The point of this sermon isn't you go be Cliff Young. The point of this sermon is Jesus is our Cliff Young. Jesus ran the race for the joy set before him and sat down.

There are two words in this passage that contain a universe of joy in them. Two words I want you to know. First, the pioneer of our faith. Did you notice that in our passage? He's the pioneer of our faith. That's a Greek word, archegos. And nobody knows how to translate it. It appears in only one book in the Bible—the book of Hebrews—and only in a couple of places. So different translators have it different ways. The CSB we just read translates it "pioneer," like Jesus was Neil Armstrong, the first person on the moon. Good translation? Meh. I don't think so. What about the ESV? ESV has it as "founder of our faith," like Jesus started a company. You like that one? The NIV has it as "author of our faith," like Jesus wrote a book about faith. Again, I think the best translation for that is champion. And champion in the sense of like David and Goliath champion.

In the story of David and Goliath, there are two people and each of them represent an entire nation. If David wins the fight with Goliath, Israel wins. If Goliath wins, Philistines win. Jesus is our archegos. He is our champion. Meaning that he did what nobody else could do and represented us. He represented you. He ran the race of faith and completed it. He won, just like Cliff Young.

The second word we read here—let me finish this. In Hebrews 2, this is what it says about Jesus, why he ran this race:

It was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory should make the pioneer of our salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who sanctify all have one source.

That's why he's not ashamed to call them brother. Jesus didn't come as an example for you to follow. He came to do what you could never do on your behalf.

Now the second word in this passage—he's the pioneer of our faith. The second word is perfecter. The perfecter of our faith. Again, it's a word that appears only right here and only in the book of Hebrews. People don't know how to translate it, but it's the same word that means end or destination. It's a special term to summarize the extent to which Jesus has won. Jesus has secured your salvation. Jesus has done everything to make the life of committed faith possible for you.

It's like saying this: Jesus is the one who begins the life of faith for you. He's the one who completes it. Jesus is the A to Z of faith. He does everything needed.

Now what's the significance of this? Jesus is not only the champion who suffers on the cross for you, for me, in our place. He's not only the one who completes the work of the cross. He's also the one who gives you his righteousness. He gives you what you never could have achieved on your own. There's this amazing swap. He has made your faith complete. He's the beginner and the perfecter. That's his race. That's his joy.

What about your race and your joy? Jesus found joy where he was designed to find it. He found joy in you, and you're designed to find your joy in him. We're created to direct our lives toward what gives us the most joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. — Psalm 16

I want you to think about what is at God's right hand. I think a lot of people would say, "Oh, there's eternal guilt at God's right hand. Eternal long distance running at God's right hand. Survival at God's right hand?" No. This is what's at God's right hand for you: eternal pleasure forevermore. If his joy was you, what is your joy designed to be? Him. Him.

I think one problem that we see a lot in Christians—this is why there are so many joyless Christians in the world. We're trying to run a race where we don't really want the prize. We're trying to run a race and we don't really want Jesus at the end of it. That's why it feels impossible and joyless to us.

Is Jesus worth your joy? Unbelievably so. Absolutely so. If Jesus becomes our joy, it changes what we wear and where we look and how we run.

What We Wear

I want you to think about this. First, it changes what we wear. Go back to verse one:

Lay aside every weight and everything that entangles you. — Hebrews 12:1

Now that makes sense. The writer of Hebrews couches all his doctrine of salvation and sanctification in this. It's not "what is sin and how do I get rid of it?" but "if I'm running, what's getting in the way of my running?"

I like to swim for exercise, and if you watch the Olympic swimmers, nobody's wearing baggy shorts. You wear tight-fitting stuff if you're going to swim. Why? Because it's aerodynamic. You're sleek in the water. You could wear jeans if you want to when you go swimming. But jeans are going to hold you back. There's no rule in the NCAA and competitive swimming about not wearing jeans. But nobody wants them because it's a burden. It gets in your way.

When Jesus becomes your joy, you don't have to be forced to let other things go in your life. Nobody has to tell you that you gotta let go of some things. You want to let go of things that are getting in the way of pursuing Jesus. You want to lay aside anything that holds you back. You want to take off the weights. You run with endurance, not with encumbrances.

Where You're Looking

Second, it changes not only what you wear but where you're looking.

Looking to Jesus — Hebrews 12:2

In Greek, that means looking away, like looking up to the horizon. Looking up. To look away means you're not looking down at yourself. There are a lot of Christians who are really good at navel gazing, looking at themselves all the time and being therefore really discouraged. You look at your failures. You look at your inconsistencies. You look at all the ways you are exhausted. You look at other people and you compare yourself to other people around you. But the call is to look up. Look to Jesus. Eyes on the prize. That will get you where you want to go.

Now I have six sons, so I've taught a lot of kids how to ride a bike. And here's the secret. The secret to teaching a kid to ride the bike is teaching them to look up. If they look down at the pedals, if they look down at the tire, they're going to fall over. They're going to go so slow they crash. Because looking down won't get you where you need to go. And here's the irony: if you look up—this is hard with kids—teach them to look up, that front tire somehow follows where it needs to go.

Those pedals somehow turn. You get the double gyroscope of the two wheels and you keep going. Look up Christians. Look up to Jesus. Look up to him. Look at him. Finally it changes how we run.

Remember Cliff Young? Everybody thought you had to run a certain way to run that ultra marathon. Everybody thought it was eighteen hours on, six hours off. Eighteen hours on, six hours off. But not Cliff. He didn't know any better. He just kind of shuffled along.

Some of you are exhausted. Some of you are exhausted because you think you gotta run a certain way. You think you've been trying to live the Christian life based on guilt and pressure and fear and duty and you're worn out, aren't you? You're on the brink of throwing in the towel. You're like, I'm kinda done with this. Stop running like that. You're wearing yourself out. Learn from Cliff. There's another way to run.

Here's our version for Christians. You want to know? Our version of the Cliff Young shuffle is this. Make Jesus your joy. Make Jesus your joy. If Jesus is your joy, you will go the distance. You're his joy. Tap into his joy. His joy is you so that your joy can be him.

Jesus is at the finish line. And he's not saying, you better make it on time. You better hurry up. Now here's the secret of the Christian life. The reward is not just at the end. The reward is all through. The reward is at the beginning because Jesus has done everything for you. The reward's in the middle because his spirit is with you running with you, sustaining you. The rewards at the end when you come home with him. All of it is his reward and he's with you every step of the way.

Three Tests for Joy in Jesus

Now I wouldn't be a good preacher if I didn't give you a couple tests this morning. So I'm gonna give you a couple tests. How do you know if Jesus is your joy?

First, it just comes out of you because it's in you. There's a difference between somebody who likes to collect albums, vinyls of opera music and somebody who sings opera in the shower. Somebody who collects these things can say, well I have these. They're my treasure. They're on the shelf. I know where they are. I like to listen to them every once in a while. Pull them out. But it's different for somebody for whom in the white moments of the day—when you're in the car, when you're in the shower—what's inside of you comes out of you. You just start singing. A person who has Jesus as their joy, it comes out. It comes out of this.

Second, it doesn't get depleted. If Jesus is your joy, you don't get depleted. Now I know you all know about depletion right now because you're paying a lot of money at the gas pump. You know what? You're very aware of how often your gas tank is getting depleted. How quickly. That's one kind of engine. A combustion engine runs on fuel that runs out.

And there's a way to live your life, even if somebody professes they're a Christian, where your life is constantly being depleted. The reason is because something else is your joy. You may profess I believe in Jesus. My life's about Jesus. But if something else is your joy, you're going to run out of gas over and over again. Whether it's your career, your portfolio, your relationships, your likes on social media, your friend group—whatever it is, it's going to run out.

But there's another kind of engine out there and I know you know it because every night you can go outside and look up on the sky and see it, and every day you can go out in the sky and see an even bigger one. What is that? A star or a sun. That's a different kind of engine. That's not a combustion engine. That's a fusion engine. The sun, a star, makes energy by under great pressure compressing hydrogen and turning it into helium at super high temperatures. And it just keeps going and going and going and it doesn't collapse on itself. And it keeps shining and giving light. Joy in the life of a believer is that kind of engine and it doesn't run out and it keeps giving light and heat and it keeps sustaining you. Jesus is worth your joy.

Finally, last test. It's not affected by circumstances. Is your joy affected by circumstances? Imagine a deep sea diver. Remember the old timey deep sea diver outfit where they got a huge metal helmet on that looks like a globe and a big body suit and tube that goes up to the surface. Now that deep sea diver can go way, way down into very dark places in the bottom of the ocean with lots and lots of pressure around them. And it won't matter if there's a storm up on the surface of the water. It won't matter if it's dark outside. It won't matter if it's really cold. It doesn't matter if there's a lot of intense pressure. That deep sea diver's okay because they're in that suit. They're protected. They're insulated.

Again, this is the life of joy for a Christian. If your joy is in Christ, it can be storming around you. It can be dark.

Circumstances can be hard. There can be a lot of pressure on you and God doesn't guarantee none of those things will happen to us. But we're okay because we're in him and in his joy.

Here's my invitation for you this morning. And I don't care if you're a Christian. I don't care if you're not a Christian. Make Jesus your joy. Make Jesus your joy. He is the only thing that's worthy of it.

I'm gonna close our sermon today in a different way of praying than I normally do. I'm gonna invite you to pray after me. And I'm gonna say a line, you can say it out loud if you want to, you can say it in your head, you don't have to do this. But I wanna encourage you to ask Jesus to be your joy today.

Would you bow your heads and pray with me?

Jesus would you be my joy? I've tried lots of other things out as my joy. They don't satisfy. They don't last. I need you. I need you. Change my heart today. Change my heart today. I crown you as king of my heart. I crown you as king of my heart. Melt my self centeredness. Change my heart. Change my heart. Make Jesus my joy today and always. Amen.

Amen. Let's stand and sing together.