Running with Jonathan Edwards

Good morning everyone and happy new year to you all as we begin 2024. It was about this time last year when I stood up here that I said that one of my new year's resolutions was to run a marathon.

Last year that is. And my second resolution was to do it in a personal best time. Given that it was my first ever marathon, it was if I achieved the first one I would achieve the second one automatically, which I did in July last year.

Having run that marathon, by the end of July, in fact, before I'd even finished the marathon, I resolved never to run another one again.

However, I do want to encourage you today to run. That's my goal today, is to encourage you to take up running if you have not yet taken up running and to particularly run in 2024.

Not a marathon, I wouldn't necessarily encourage us all to do that at all, but in fact to run the race of faith in Jesus Christ.

So if you're someone who takes notes, I've really got four points. If you've got the translator version in front of you right now, you'll see three points there.

That's because I gave it to John yesterday and I woke up early this morning in order to add a fourth point.

So my four points is to run. Secondly, to run with Jonathan Edwards. Thirdly, to plan your run. And fourthly, lastly, how to run.

That's the four points for the direction we're going to take this morning.

So first of all, run. New Testament letter to the Hebrews. Ash has mentioned it, just read out a section of it just then.

It was written to a bunch of Christians who were losing sight of what it meant to be disciples and to follow Jesus.

The most famous section of this letter is chapter 11, verse 1, through to chapter 12, verse 3.

Isaiah 11:1

It's the section about the great examples of faith from the past.

Chapter 12 refers to it as the great cloud of witnesses who were there, if you like, as in the stadium, watching us compete in the race of faith.

The writer is hoping to inspire the Hebrews, the recipients of this letter, with examples of those who had gone before them as faithful disciples of Jesus.

And chapter 12, verse 1, is the main application of the section.

So open your Bibles, it'd be great if you followed along with me here.

It's the main application.

The word can mean race.

It can also mean a struggle.

It can mean a fight.

It can mean a contest.

As difficult as a marathon is to run, I think those of us who have lived long enough realise that life is fundamentally harder than just running a marathon.

It's a contest.

It's a struggle.

It's a fight.

And the life of faith is, in fact, a fight.

In fact, this whole section in chapter 12, if you continue to read on, talks about enduring.

It talks about shedding blood.

It's all within the imagery of the Olympics.

It's all within the imagery of fighting, struggling.

Endure is what Hebrews 12 is telling us to do.

Fight the good fight.

Be disciplined.

Train hard.

Run the race set before you.

Of course, we know that that operates in a physical sphere as well for us, not just in the spiritual sphere.

Doctors will tell you that you are not going to live a good life, a healthy life, or even a long life, unless you are willing to exert yourself and sweat.

But our bodies get to a point where they will not be able to perform normal daily exertions, unless there are times of extraordinary exertions called exercise.

So what a command to a church here that was getting old, was settling into the world, losing its wartime mentality, starting to drift through life without focus, without vigilance, without energy.

Their hands were growing weak.

Their knees were feeble, according to verse 12 of chapter 12.

It was just easier to meander in the crowd of life than to run the race of faith.

Or to treasure Jesus and pursue their joy.

And so against this mentality, having spent chapters after chapters of elevating the majesty and the splendor of Jesus Christ,

he then calls the church to endure, to persevere, to run, to fight, to be alert, to be strengthened.

Don't drift.

Don't neglect.

Don't be sluggish.

Don't stroll.

Don't meander.

Don't wander aimlessly.

Run as in a race with a finish line, with everything in life hanging on that finish line.

Fight the fight of faith on the basis of Christ's spectacular death and resurrection.

Now, we need help here.

We need help in the modern world because we are convinced in the modern world that the chief aim of life is our happiness and our comfort.

On the most part, we are busy, incredibly busy, with secondary to-do lists and neglecting the importance of working hard to grow in treasuring Jesus.

Growing in God's faith and growing in God's faith and the gospel joy.

And the gospel joy that comes as a result of that.

So I want to do something here this morning, which I've done before in the past.

I want to turn to someone who, if Hebrews 11 was taken right through into the 18th century, this man would be included in this list of those who have run the race as part of the cloud of witnesses.

And I want to encourage us to run with Jonathan Edwards.

Jonathan Edwards was born on the 5th of October, 1703.

He died March 22, 1758.

He was a preacher, a theologian, a philosopher, a missionary to First Nations people in America.

And he was the first president of Princeton University.

Edwards is considered now by both secular and Christian historians alike to be the greatest Protestant thinker America has ever produced.

He was a small-town pastor for 23 years in a church of about 600 people, because back in those days, everyone went to church.

He was a missionary to First Nation peoples for seven years.

First president of Princeton for a few months before he died.

He reared 11 faithful children, giving credit to his wife on that one as well.

And the more you understand his life, you give even more credit to his wife on that one as well.

He reared 11 faithful children.

He worked without the help of electricity, without emails, word processors, computers, or even sufficient paper to write on.

He lived only till he was 54, which I'm turning in a few months myself.

Yet this man, in such a short life, led one of the greatest spiritual awakenings of modern times.

He wrote theological books that administered to people for more than 250 years.

And did more for the modern missionary movement, the global advancement of Christianity, than any single person of his generation.

A remarkable individual.

Now, as a teenager, Edwards wrote down, a teenager mind you, right?

This is before social media and gaming.

And he wrote down 70 resolutions to govern his life.

And to help cultivate growth as a disciple of Jesus.

70 resolutions.

He went on to reread this list at least once a week to keep his mind focused and renewed.

These resolutions sustained his vision for God and drove him to persevere and grow as a disciple of Jesus.

I've printed out maybe 10, 15 copies of those resolutions.

They're not hard to access online.

You can grab them online and you'll see the remarkable focus of this man.

And my prayer for us this morning is that we will see something here that will give us a new sense of zeal and commitment to the most important things of life.

And there are four broad exhortations, if you like, from the life of Edwards that I want to focus on this morning.

I'm not going to go through all 70 resolutions.

You'll be grateful to know that.

The first thing I want to say is Edwards exhorts us to radical single-mindedness in our occupation of spiritual things.

Two of his resolutions that he made in 1723.

He was almost 20 when he wrote these.

Resolution number 44.

Resolved.

That no other end but religion.

Now when he uses the word religion, what he means by that is the Christian faith.

Resolved.

No other end but religion shall have any influence at all in any of my actions.

And that no action shall be in the least circumstance any otherwise than the religious end will carry it.

Number 61.

Resolved.

Resolved.

Resolved.

Resolved.

Resolved.

Resolved.

That I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it.

I think that's the application of the Apostle Paul's principle in 2 Timothy 2 verses 4 to 6.

2 Timothy 2:4–6

No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs.

He wants to please his commanding officer.

Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules.

The hardworking farmer shall be the first to receive share of the crops.

What happens for many of us in the busyness and the difficulty of life is we start to give way to amusements and diversions and hobbies just to survive emotionally.

They don't just become helpful things.

They become our way to survive emotionally.

The evenings and the days off are filled up with harmless, enjoyable diversions and what happens is before too much longer the whole focus shifts.

The radical urgency of the kingdom priorities fade.

The wartime mentality shifts to a peacetime mentality.

The lifestyle starts to get cushy.

The all-consuming singleness of vision of life evaporates.

I want to ask you, in all seriousness, how many Christians do you know, how many Christians do you spend time with, who are laboring, and I use that word intentionally, laboring to know God.

Who are striving earnestly to study of the scriptures and prayer to enlarge their vision of God.

So the first exhortation from Edwards is to be radically single-minded in our occupation of spiritual things.

Secondly, Edwards exhorts us to labor earnestly to know the scriptures in particular, to know the Bible in particular.

Don't get your vision of God secondhand.

This is Edwards' example himself.

An early biographer of Edwards said that he came to his pastorate, his church in Northampton.

He says he had studied theology, not chiefly in systems or commentaries, but from the Bible.

Edwards once said in a sermon,

Be assiduous.

That is, I had to look that up.

Showing great care and perseverance.

Be assiduous in reading the holy scriptures.

This is the fountain whence all knowledge and divinity must be derived.

Therefore, let not this treasure lie by you neglected.

He was an amazing example in his own diligence in studying the Bible himself.

One example.

I think you can see this Bible from memory in a museum in Germany, if I'm correct.

He grabbed a Bible.

He took the binding off the Bible, separated every page of the Bible,

put a blank sheet in between each page and bound the whole thing back up again

and drew a line down the middle of every blank page.

And the blank page, the two columns were just filled with notes, page after page after page,

notes of the scriptures as he studied them.

And then when they were filled, he turned it sideways

and wrote over the top of his notes the other direction.

I think there is reason to believe that Edwards really did follow on his 28th resolution.

Resolved.

To study the scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently

as that I may find and painfully perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

I find this resolution to be a rebuke.

How many of us have a plan of growing in the grasp of the whole terrain of scriptures?

I don't mean the terrain of just the Bible verses to prop up my theological preferences.

I mean the whole terrain of scripture.

How many of us have a plan of growing in that way?

Do we labor over the scriptures in such a way that we can plainly see

that today we understand something that we did not understand yesterday?

Some of us work at reading books on the Christian life with a view of growing,

but have no plan and no sustained effort to move steadily and constantly forward

in our understanding of the Bible.

Study the Bible so steadily and constantly and frequently

that you can clearly perceive yourself to grow in them.

Resolution 11 is one of the reasons why he made such amazing progress

in his theological understanding.

It says,

Resolved.

When I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved,

immediately do what I can towards solving it,

if circumstances do not hinder.

What he's saying there is his resolution was not to be a passive reader.

He read with a view to solving problems.

Most of us in the modern world are cursed with a bent towards passive reading.

We read, if we do, in the same way that we watch TV.

We don't ask questions as we read.

We don't ask,

Why does that sentence follow that sentence?

How does this paragraph relate to the one that was there three pages earlier?

We don't ferret out the order of thought or ponder the meaning of terms.

And if we see a problem,

I think we habitually just leave them to the experts.

Thirdly, Edwards exhorts us to redeem the time

and to do what our hand finds to do with all of our might.

His sixth resolution was pretty simple and powerful.

Resolved to live with all my might while I do live.

Resolution five was pretty similar.

Resolved never to lose one moment of time,

but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.

He was a great believer in doing what you could in the time that you have,

rather than putting things off to a more convenient time.

He was clearly a person who was disciplined in mind and body and spirit.

He would spend up to 13 hours a day in his study.

He rose early,

even for non-electricity and alarm days.

In fact,

he was probably entirely serious.

I read it as a joke,

but he was probably entirely serious

when he wrote in his diary in 1728,

I think Christ has recommended rising early in the morning

by his rising from the grave very early on the Sunday.

I commend for your consideration

whether such care to maximize time and effectiveness

in devotion to the pursuit of God and his word

is what the preacher meant

when he says in Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10,

Ecclesiastes 9:10

whatever your hand finds to do,

do it with all your might,

for in the grave where you are going,

there is neither working nor planning

nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Fourthly,

the theological,

the biblical labor of Edwards

exhorts us to study

for the sake of hearts of worship

and for practical obedience.

What you see in Jonathan Edwards

is the sweet marriage of reason and affection,

of thought and feeling,

of head and heart,

of study and worship

that took place in the life of Edwards

that I think is rare today.

So the final exhortation from Edwards

is to recover what the old-time Puritans

used to call logic on fire

or fire with joy and obedience.

Edwards did not pursue a passion for God

because it was an icing on the cake of his faith.

He wanted to be smarter than everyone else

in terms of the Bible.

For him,

faith was grounded in a sense of God

which was more than what reason alone could deliver.

In other words,

it is to no avail whatsoever

merely to believe that God is holy

and that God is merciful.

For that belief to be of any saving value at all,

we must have true delight in it

of what it is in and of itself.

We must delight in that truth

for it to have saving power.

Otherwise,

the knowledge of God

is no different than what Satan has.

Satan knows that he's merciful.

Satan knows that he's all-powerful.

But Satan does not delight

in that knowledge of God.

Does that mean that all of his study

was in vain?

Not at all.

He said,

the more you have

of a rational knowledge

of divine things,

the more opportunity there will be

when the Spirit

shall be breathed into your heart

to see the excellency of these things

and to taste the sweetness of them.

So the goal for Edwards

was not just growing

in knowing God,

but growing in delighting in God,

in savoring God,

in relishing in Him.

for all of his intellectual might

and frankly,

he was a very,

he had a very powerful mind.

But Edwards,

for all of that,

Edwards was the furthest thing

from a cool,

detached,

neutral,

disinterested academic.

Disinterested academic.

We often fall on one side or the other

for the donkey on this.

We're either the academics

who are coolly detached

or we're people so-called

filled with the Spirit,

alive in Jesus

but don't know the Scriptures.

Edwards rebukes both.

He was as intent

on cultivating

his passion for God

as he was cultivating

his knowledge of God.

He said,

or he wrote,

seek not to grow in knowledge

chiefly for the sake of applause

and to enable you

to dispute with others

but seek it for the benefit

of your souls

in order to practice

according to what knowledge

you have.

This will be the way

to know more.

Edwards is remarkable in this.

He said,

the moment

in your study

of the Scriptures,

the moment

you don't put something

into practice

from your study

is the moment

you stop growing

in knowledge.

Knowledge is to be put

into practice

and the moment

you don't put into practice

is the moment

you stop growing

in knowledge.

The greatest thing

I think

that we can learn

from Edwards,

I think,

is that God

is glorified

not most

by being known

nor by being

dutifully obeyed.

He is glorified

most

by being

enjoyed.

If you've been around

St. Paul's

a while,

you will

potentially

put together

my love

for Edwards.

in our vision

statement,

treasuring

Jesus

together

for the joy

of all people.

The joy,

treasuring Jesus

and joy

go together.

Edwards wrote this,

God is glorified

not only

by his glory

being seen

but by

being rejoiced

in.

when those

who see it

delight in it

God is

more glorified

than if

they only

see it.

In other words,

the disciplined

life,

the goal

of a disciplined

life

is the joyful

worship of God

and the

undisciplined

life

robs us

of delighting

God,

our greatest

joy.

So that

brings me

to my

third point

that is

and I'll

briefly run

through this

stuff,

plan your

run.

The essence

of the

challenge

for us

as we

step into

a new

year

is to

plan your

run

with

Jesus.

News

of a

terminal

illness,

attending

a funeral,

they are

often times

when we

focus on

what really

matters in

life.

The sharp

realities of

life come

to bear

on us in

that moment.

And I

think the

beginning of

a new

year may

be a

distant

but a

relatively

close

third as

well.

We must

labour to

ensure that

the most

important things

stay the

most important

things in

life.

So be

inspired by

in

Edwards.

Get

some

plan in

place to

grow in

the

important.

Don't

coast,

don't

meander,

redeem the

time.

That's the

challenge from

Hebrews and

Edwards.

For the

past year,

we have been

constantly saying

here at

St. Paul's

encouraging you

to take

your next

step.

We have

the good

news of

the gospel.

It's written

out there on

the board

straight behind

me here.

We have

the good

news of

the gospel

and on

the other

board we

have what

the gospel

gives us.

Embrace the

good news of

Jesus Christ

and you end

up with a

life of

satisfaction and

meaning and

hope and in

other words,

joy.

They are the

consequences of

trusting in

Jesus.

So how do

we pursue,

pursue,

pursue the

gospel in

our life in

order that

those consequences

might grow

more and more

and more in

our hearts

and our

minds.

We're going

to be talking

more about

that in our

vision series

in a few

weeks.

But to get

Hebrews and

to put Edwards

together, I

just want to

say one

thing about

planning your

joy.

Pursue

godly habits

in life.

Pursue

spiritual

disciplines,

spiritual

practice,

diligently

pursue them,

train in

those things,

sweat in

those things.

we're going

to emphasize

seven things

as we move

forward.

Weekly

worship,

daily

devotions,

Christian

community,

use of

our talents,

the service

of others,

generous

giving,

witness of

the gospel,

and rest.

Rest.

something that

we do not

know how to

do in our

modern world.

Now I'm not

expecting any

of us to

be the next

Edwards,

the next

Jonathan

Edwards,

or to take

on all of

his disciplines.

He was a

remarkable man

who I think

we should

just frankly

admire.

But I do

want you to

take your

next step.

I do want

to exhort

you to a

discipline

life.

Because life

and faith

is a race

and therefore

all of us

have at least

one next

step to

take.

At least

one next

step to

take.

Lastly,

how to

run.

As a,

someone who's

done a bit

of running

over the

years,

more recently,

and

trained for

a marathon,

marathon,

I had to

Google

how to

run a

marathon.

How to

actually run

a marathon

and get

advice from

a bunch of

people,

how to

train for

a marathon,

all that

sort of

thing.

So how do

you run

the race

of faith?

life?

life.

life.

So this is my

last point,

but let me

just say,

very significant

point.

How to run

the race of

life and

faith.

This is the

crucial

dynamic.

It is,

if you like,

the petrol in

your engine.

Reading for the

beginning of

Edwards'

resolutions,

and it sets

the tone for

the entire

70 of the

resolutions,

Edwards wrote

this right at

the beginning,

being sensible

that I am

unable to do

anything without

God's help,

I do humbly

entreat him by

his grace to

enable me to

keep these

resolutions so

far as they

are agreeable to

his will for

Christ's sake.

Hebrews 10

puts Edwards'

introduction in

these, sorry,

Hebrews 11 puts

it in these

words.

Fix your eyes

on Jesus,

the pioneer

and the

perfecter of

your faith.

You might say

the pioneer

and the

perfecter of

your race.

Jesus is

not simply

the pattern

of life and

faith, he

is the

completer of

it as well.

He is the

only one who

has perfectly

lived it and

he did it for

us.

So I'm not

just exhorting

you to a

life of

discipline.

I'm exhorting

you to a

life of

discipline that's

focused on

Jesus who

has run the

race before

you and

completed your

race for

you.

There is a

great gulf

between the

understanding that

God accepts us

because of our

efforts and the

understanding that

God accepts us

because of what

Jesus has done

for us.

religion operates

on the principle

that I obey

and therefore I

am acceptable to

God.

The operating

of the Christian

faith, the

operating principle

of the Christian

faith is I'm

accepted by God

through what

Jesus Christ has

already achieved

for me and

therefore I

obey.

Therefore I

pursue.

Therefore I run

the race.

Two people

living by those

two very

different principles

may in fact

look the

same.

They may

even be sitting

beside you in

church now.

They both

pray.

They both

give generously.

They're both

loyal and

faithful to

family and

the church and

they're good

citizens but

they live it

out with

radically

different

motives.

Religion

tries to

live out

divine

standards out

of fear.

If we

don't live a

disciplined

life then we

fear we'll miss

out on God's

blessing now in

this life and

in the next

life to come

every time

something bad

happens in

life.

And you

go,

hang on a

bit,

what?

Oh,

I haven't

been reading

my Bible,

I should

have gone

to church

and give

a little

bit more

money.

That's a

life of

fear.

Gospel

motivation is

gratitude for

the blessing

we have

already received

because of

Jesus.

That's why

the writer

to the

Hebrews

spends 10

chapters

exhorting the

Hebrews about

the supremacy

and the

magnificence of

Jesus Christ

before he

says run.

Run.

Gospel

motivation is

gratitude for

the blessing

we have

already received

in Jesus

Christ.

While the

religious person

is forced

into obedience,

the Christian

rushes into

it in a

desire to

please and

to resemble

the one who

endured the

cross for

them, for

their joy

and for

his.

And so my

exhortation for

you this

morning,

today,

beginning of

2024, is

rush,

rush,

rush into

obedience

with joy.

Look to

Jesus and

the gospel,

plan your

run with

him and

take your

next step

of faith

in 2024.