NewCity Orlando Sermons

Hebrews: Unshakeable | Hebrews 12: 1-17

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In this theologically rich and pastorally grounded sermon on Hebrews 12:1–17, Rev. Dr. Michael Allen explores the discipline of the Lord as a key marker of our identity as beloved children of God. Drawing from the great “cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 11 and the example of Jesus, Dr. Allen calls the church to run the race of faith with perseverance, eyes fixed on Christ, who endured the cross for the joy set before Him. He unpacks how God’s discipline is not punishment but a fatherly training that forms us in holiness, shaping us to share in His righteousness and peace.

Throughout the message, Dr. Allen urges believers to resist discouragement and spiritual complacency, reminding us that our trials are not meaningless—they are signs of divine sonship. With pastoral clarity, he challenges us to lift our drooping hands and strengthen weak knees, pressing forward in grace and striving for peace and holiness in community.


Damein Schitter:

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damian. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening.

Gina Fickett:

Please join me in the prayer of illumination. Heavenly Father, we wish to see Jesus. By your Spirit's power, give us eyes to see his glory. Through Christ, we pray Amen.

Gina Fickett:

Today's scripture reading is from Hebrews 12, beginning in verse 1. 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. Consider him, who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted In your struggle against sin. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 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 Lord. Nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Gina Fickett:

Besides this, we have earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live For? They disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 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, who have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Gina Fickett:

Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal, for you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing. He was rejected for. He found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. This is God's word.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Thanks be to God.

Gina Fickett:

Please be seated.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Well, we all know the saying life's a journey, not a destination. True, but getting to the destination matters, doesn't it? I suspect all of us, in some time and in some way, have experienced that feeling where you set off heading home from a long road trip, feeling where you set off heading home from a long road trip. You're coming south down the interstate and all is as you might pray it would be, the children are happy and peaceful, there are clouds but no rain, the road seems to move along smoothly, there are no crashes, no officers stopping you here or there, and you're ahead of time. And then you find yourself reaching Ocala and for some reason I know not where, I know not when the interstate has been cursed, and what was an efficient, a speedy, a smooth trek home has become a parking lot, no bathroom in sight, no food to be had, no destination to be reached anytime soon. Or perhaps you like to fly and you find that everyone boards the plane returning home. It goes smoothly, you're able to take off quickly. The book you're reading, the movie you're watching, it goes by fast, or better, you've napped, and suddenly you're being told prepare for descent and you're going to pull in, arriving early, so early, my friends, that when you reach the ground, they tell you I'm sorry, there's not a gate for us. Tell you, I'm sorry, there's not a gate for us. And so, with your newfound friends surrounding you, you're able to spend a little while waiting, watching, taking in the best of Central Florida. There, on the tarmac, we can start. Well, it doesn't really matter unless we endure to the end. It doesn't really matter unless we endure to the end, until we see a journey through to its finish. Life is a journey, not a destination. But it really does matter that you reach that destination, doesn't it? And let's be honest, we live in a world where we hear often of deaths, of despair. We live in a state where there are twice as many pain clinics as hospitals. We live in an age, and as human beings, where we so often can grow cynical in our disappointment, bitter in the way in which our ideals have been taken from us At some point we know not when in years past. And we can turn to many things. We can turn to this or that benign distraction, or we can turn to those death-dealing tools that promise a way out. Endurance matters greatly in life, doesn't it? Life's not only a journey, not a destination. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and Christianity offers a different way.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

And Hebrews chapter 12 offers us a map, a map of understanding the challenge of endurance, a map of understanding how God longs to see you through to the very end. Consider the number of times in just the first few verses that idea of endurance is raised. In verse one we read let us run with endurance the race that's set before us. In verse two, we hear it said of Jesus that he endured the cross. And in the next verse, verse three, we're told that he endured the cross. And in the next verse, verse three, we're told that he endured such hostility from sinners against himself. This is a passage about enduring to the very end, and this is a sermon or a letter, this book of Hebrews. That is about endurance from beginning to end. We can think back to chapter 3, verse 14, which told us we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold firm our confidence to the end. Or in chapter 4, verse 11, where we read let's strive to enter God's rest so that no one may fall short. Or in chapter 10, verse 23, let's hold fast to the confession of our hope. And perhaps most pointedly, at the end of chapter 10, verses 35 and 36, we read don't throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance so that, when you've done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. It is a hard journey and there are many trials and occasions to grow bitter cold, cynical, but Christianity, cynical but Christianity, more specifically, jesus offers promise and hope. Let's dig into Hebrews 12, 1 through 17, seeking to gain a map, a map through the pain and the trial, a map where God carries us and calls us to endure to the end. The first thing we see here endure to the end. The first thing we see here, as we consider how Hebrews 12 frames this journey, is that pain is a threat. Let's begin at the end, if we could.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

The strange mention of Esau. Esau does not get a lot of love in the Bible, but this is a brief reference to a famous story from Genesis 25. You know it Jacob and Esau are these two brothers. Esau is the older, he's the manly man of the fields who hunts and provides, and he's gone out. And you've got to know Esau he is the heir to the birthright. And you've got to know Esau he is the heir to the birthright. He's going to be the next great patriarch and yet here, at the end of Hebrews 12, we read of how a single error costs him all.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Esau, for a bowl of stew or porridge, sells his birthright to his brother, jacob. Why? Well, we're told that he's exhausted. He says that in Genesis 25 in his own voice, that he is famished or exhausted and he longs for the stew which he smells the aroma coming from. They had brown bags back in the day, hunters carried food with them. Unstated in Genesis 25 is that Esau did what I'm sure no child at New City would ever do, and that is went to school without his lunch bag, went off on the hunt unprepared, didn't attend to the fact that he grows weak, that he has a feeble frame, that he demands calories throughout the course of, I'm sure, a trying hunt, a busy and full day. And in that moment of weakness, in that experience of hunger pains, he makes one of the more absurd trades in human history. He sells his birthright, he sells the promise for a bowl of soup. I love a good bowl of soup, but that's a high price. And he is here an example, a warning to us all. We ought not overlook the power of pain. Pain is a real threat.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Reminded of another verse in the New Testament, paul, writing to the Ephesians in chapter 5, verse 18, says don't get drunk with wine, for that's debauchery. Okay, not shocking. Christians aren't supposed to get hammered. Paul tells the Ephesians that it's a little bit surprising that he follows up don't get trashed with, be filled with the spirit. Like don't get loaded, do get. Charismatic. Seems a strange pairing, until you realize what's going on underneath.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Paul's not merely concerned and not predominantly concerned about external behavior. Why would one of the Ephesians get drunk with wine? Why do most people get drunk? They want to check out, they want to get rid of the pain, they want to forget what has otherwise led them to despair and disappointment. And notice Paul isn't content there to say don't go to the booze, but he offers a positive path to deal with the pain.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Because pain is a real threat. If we don't listen to it, if we don't attend to what it communicates, we will find that eventually we give in, like Esau or the Ephesian drunks, to something that can cause detrimental harm, lasting pain and loss. Pain is a threat we dare not ignore and that's why Christians, like Jews before us have attended to the significance of naming our hurt, of lamenting our loss, of praying before God, of all the ways in which we experience disappointment and frustration, both from what's outside us and, so often, what we harbor within. Pain is a threat we dare not ignore. That's the first thing we learn as we look at the way Esau is invoked here at the end of our passage. There's a second thing we see Fear is a killer.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Here at New City, we come from the Presbyterian and Protestant tradition. We look back to the great 16th century pastors who reminded us of the importance of God's grace, of Christ's all-sufficient love and mercy, of the fact that, as Hebrews said once for all, he has satisfied God's demands and he has sat down at the very right hand of God, having made sacrifice and atonement for sins. It's important to know those weren't cliches and bumper sticker slogans. In the abstract they mattered greatly because of a real human problem. Like us, and even more so in the 16th century, life was hard. There were famines, there were plagues, they didn't have antibiotics, they didn't even have essential oils, my friends, it could get dire and one might be led to despair, thinking that if it's so hard and it's so difficult, I must be cursed of God. This must be a sign that I'm due to experience hell and judgment, curse and condemnation. How could you not interpret it that way? The cards are all dealt against you. Life is a long and plodding experience of what eventually will be overwhelming and eternal. That was what Christians in the 16th century were tempted to believe, and against that we have the remarkable witness of pastors reading and preaching Hebrews.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

John Calvin, looking at this passage, said God offers himself as father to all who endure his correction. Martin Luther, looking at this passage, said the life of suffering is the way and direct path to salvation. There are those persons who, having suffered infirmity or poverty or violence, complain that they're not able to serve God. Yet God says here that true righteousness is made perfect by suffering of this kind. What do we see here? We see that fear is a killer, but not for sons and daughters.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

If we read on through Hebrews 12, we encounter two remarkable words about the difficulty and the trial that faces each and every one of us. In verses five through seven we hear this have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, don't 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. It's for discipline you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. However much we might receive the trial and the suffering of this day, the frustrations and the aches of this world, we need to remember they're not foretastes of judgment. They're fatherly provision that we might grow.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

And if we read on, there's a second remarkable reframing of how we experience, how we perceive, how we imagine the difficulties of the journey. We see in verses 11 and 13 that what we're undergoing is not bare suffering or challenge, trial or frustration. No, it's God's training and God's healing. In verse 11, we read for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness in those who have been trained by it. We read in verse 13, make straight paths for your feet so that what's lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. There's a remarkable difference between a bully and a coach, between a parent and a sadistic human.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

What we see here is that God leads us on this journey with, yes, its challenges and trials, but he does so as father and he does so for our good, our growth in grace and unto glory, not to punish us, not to curse us. And you and I can know why, because we are now 12 chapters deep in Hebrews and this anonymous author has said so very much about all that Jesus is and has done on your behalf. We are long past him being put forward as a propitiation and sitting down, having made atonement for our sins. We are long past him being the captain of our salvation, having come and born flesh and blood, all the aches and pains that he might sympathize with you. We are long past all the many ways in which Hebrews 10 reminds us that, once for all, god's wrath and judgment, his curse and condemnation, were dealt with. We are long past all of that, and so we can experience the challenge of today and we can weather the harms of tomorrow, knowing they are not a sign of God's scowl, but they're the demonstration of God's commitment to you. They're the provision of a father who wants to discipline you. They're the training of a coach who wants to see you flourish. They're the gift of a physician who is in the business of healing you from all the struggles you bear within.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Fear is a killer, but not for sons and daughters. We might expect it to end here. Life stinks. Jesus is a savior, let's go have some dessert. But the text goes on and Hebrews isn't content simply to say he died once for all, that he's the final sacrifice that the great high priest can sit. Hebrews takes you and your humanity so very seriously, more seriously than Esau and I suspect you and I do.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Hebrews wants to communicate ways in which God not only provides a savior, but a community and an example, a captain and an encouragement that you might know this, that you might remember this, that you might live in light of this. And so we see still further provision in these verses. Third, we see community is for encouragement, and in two ways. Where does our text begin? But talking about community, looking back, you'll remember at chapter 11, which we spent a couple weeks on, looking back at what here is named as a great cloud of witnesses. Notice what we're told.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

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 set before us. It's calling you to be mindful of all that's just been said, all that you've just been reminded of by faith Enoch and Noah, by faith Abram and Sarah, by faith Rahab and so many anonymous followers of God. They obeyed, they followed, they risked, they endured, and what we learned was that God was faithful. What we saw was that God's goodness was steadfast. We're those who go through fits and starts, and Hebrews 11 has showed us that God is faithful and steadfast again and again. Here you have witnesses invoked, those who might testify in a trial in a courtroom, those who might speak on behalf of another. These are references, these are witnesses. These are those who, in their lives and often in their deaths, could attest not their merit and know-how, not their genius and their cunning, but God's faithfulness and his steadfast love exist for you, not that you might imitate their idiosyncrasies, not that you might dress or speak as they do, but that you too might run the race set before you. I've not been called to build a boat or to leave or to let spies in through the city walls, but I have been called in my own life, in my own vocation, to be mindful, to remember and to be encouraged, knowing that the God who did call Rahab and Abram and Noah is the same God who calls me and that the God who made good on those promises then is the God who remains faithful today and preview of coming attractions. We're not done with stories.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Hebrews 13, which we'll get to soon in verses seven to eight, brings it much more close. It says remember your leaders, those who taught you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life. Imitate their faith. Remember your leaders, people of just the last generation, not the famous old people, the Noahs and the Abrams. Remember the grandfather, remember the elder, remember the last pastor. Consider what they've done. Don't imitate every detail. You're not them and your race isn't the race they were called to run. Imitate their faith.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

And the next verse tells us why. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Living by faith in Christ made sense then and it makes sense tomorrow. And I assure you it makes sense now because the same Christ who was steadfast, the same Christ who is faithful a generation ago, is the same Christ who, for such blessing as we've sung of, will be steadfast and faithful to you and me and our children and our children's children to a thousandth generation. What we see here is a reminder that, because God is faithful and because his love is steadfast. We can learn from the community of the past and be encouraged for the future. But we also see communities for encouragement not only then but also now.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

If we look to the end of our passage, we see here in verse 14, strive for peace with everyone, for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled. We not only need examples from the past to encourage us to testify to God's goodness. We need a cohort, we need a community today those who are with us in the valley, those who are alongside us as we face difficulties and trials, overwhelmedness and indwelling sin. That's why bitterness is so dangerous. Did you catch that? The root of bitterness which splinters communities, the root of bitterness which splinters communities, which inhibits our ability to be honest and candid with each other, is such a threat Equal to sexual immorality here. Why? Because we need each other, because we're meant to be vulnerable and intimate with one another, that we might be encouraging and hopeful for one another. We need not only examples of God's provision in the past, but we need people who remind us of God's commitment to us in the present.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Think of those road trips again. How often have we journeyed long and far and found ourselves still on the way home, even as we go through the middle of the night. And what is more lonely and perhaps more dangerous than the solo driver trying to keep themselves awake? Late, late, early, early. Staying alert as one drives through the middle of the night is a task made for a wingman, someone who will keep you alert, awake, attentive, alive, someone who will keep the music going or the conversation flowing, someone who will make sure that you do not grow dull and tired, weary and overwhelmed with the long day past. And if that's true, for the road trip, how much more for the journey of faithfulness to Christ? For the journey of faithfulness to Christ, how much more do we need? Not a solo effort, but a wingman, a community, those who will encourage us, those who will keep us attentive. That's why, so often and so frequently, and with such energy, we communicate the importance of community here. That being a Christian is not an individual act, though it is a personal commitment. Being a Christian, a follower of Jesus, is about finding a family, a community, those who will keep you alert, those who will encourage you no matter the circumstance. Fourth and finally, we see not only that we are given community for encouragement, but we are given an example. Christ is the example of faith and endurance. You want to see what life is meant to be and you want to see how death and difficulty are meant to be experienced.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Read the first verses of our passage. We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Yes, we are called to run the race set before us. Yes, but notice, the author leads us to one more thing. Look to Jesus, we're told in verse three.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, right there in verse two, we see Jesus is not oblivious, jesus is not out of touch. Jesus is being ostracized as Jesus is being tortured and he's not unaware. It's not that his being God somehow renders him incapable of pain. He was long known as the man of sorrows and we've already read in chapter 5 that it was with loud cries and tears that he went before his father in prayer that night. Here we're told he despised the shame of the cross.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Jesus is not a masochist and Jesus is not a stoic. He's aware of the pain and the difficulty of the trial and of the death that is imminent. He's aware of the physical extremities his body's about to be taken to. And he's not indifferent either to the fact that this is a shameful act meant to humiliate somebody before everyone. And yet he endured. He endured that in the face of such difficulties.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Why? For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, hearkening back to the great words of the servant song of Isaiah 53, where, in verse 10, isaiah prophesied of one who would see the fruit of his travails and would take joy. He would see you. He would see you. He would see his delight, his people his redeemed, and he would be heartened. He would see you, whom he poured his life out for, and he would endure. He would see you, for whom he'd come from heaven on high and he would persevere. Jesus here is not merely the great sacrifice and priest who is once for all made atonement for our sins but, sisters and brothers, we're reminded, he is the great model, he is the example of faith par excellence.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

He is the true Adam, the only human fully alive in this world, unencumbered by sin, unhindered by all of our corruption, living a life fully dependent upon his father's grace, entrusting his very life to his father's resurrection power, father's resurrection power. And he does that such that we might look to him. Looking to him not only to stand in the gap and to serve as our substitute, looking to him to be, as we've read earlier, the captain of our salvation, the leader at the head of the pack, the one whom we follow. We so frequently talk about how we're meant, in discipling others, to say follow me as I follow Christ. And we can say that because Jesus, in the way he walked about this earth, he said follow me as I follow our father. He showed us what it is to live by hope, to walk by faith, to bear trial and pain and difficulty and to endure to the very end, knowing God's life-giving promise. And he longs for you not only to rest in all that he's done on your behalf, but to put on your shoes and to go walk another day, to stand up yet again and look forward and to follow the captain of our salvation, that we too may walk by faith, for God remains faithful and his love it, is still steadfast.

Rev. Dr. Mike Allen:

Let's pray, god. We thank you for the rich abundance of your word, for the fullness of your grace, and we pray even now that you might remind us of the all-sufficient mercy you give us in Jesus and of the way in which you long for us to live, no longer marked by fear, but that we might experience the joy of walking by faith. We have need for our weak knees to be strengthened, and we pray, oh Holy Spirit, that you would come, that you would be Lord by being life giver, that you would reign and rule by strengthening and renewing each of us who grow so weak and weary. We turn to you with open hands and hearts, praying for your provision now, in Christ's risen name, amen.