Keep Your Eyes Fixed on Jesus and Run Your Race

Introduction

How was your past year? For the speaker at Tokyo Christ Church, 2025 was an unforgettable year: his twin daughters were born and are growing well. But that is not what made the year truly remarkable. The most powerful part is that he learned, like never before, what it means to walk with God.

The Bible compares your life, and especially your life of faith, to a journey. It is a journey where you follow Jesus and walk with God. Sometimes this journey feels like an exciting adventure. But Scripture also compares it to a race, a long race of endurance, often rough, sometimes exhausting, where you are tempted to give up.

The verse that will guide this message is Hebrews 12:1-2: "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith." God has prepared your own race for you. It is not a competition against others. It is a race where there is only one thing to do: keep your eyes fixed on the One running ahead of you.

So, to step into 2026, here are two driving forces to keep you going in this race of faith: drawing inspiration from models of faith, and staying focused on Jesus.

Outline of the Message

1. You Are Not Alone: A Cloud of Witnesses Surrounds You

Hebrews 12:1 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."

Who are these witnesses? They are the men and women of the previous chapter, Hebrews 11. The heroes of faith from the Old Testament. For a long time, the speaker pictured a stadium scene, with these witnesses as fans in the stands shouting, "come on, hold on!" But the original image is closer to a courtroom. These witnesses are not fans, they are witnesses on the stand. Through their whole lives, they give the same testimony: "I believed. I suffered. But God proved himself faithful. His promises were true."

Picture two takoyaki stands side by side on a shopping street in Osaka. One is empty, the other has an endless line. Where would you go? Of course, toward the long line. The crowd of customers is a sign. Well, the cloud of witnesses of faith plays that same role: their sheer number testifies that the Word of God holds. That Jesus is worth trusting.

How many times, as a Christian, have you felt alone? At church, you are encouraged. But at school, at work, in your family, you may be the only one living out your faith. Are you fighting alone? No. The Bible says: you are not alone. A vast cloud surrounds you and tells you: "God is faithful. It is worth believing. Do not give up. You too are capable of this."

2. Your Identity: You Belong to Those Who Believe

Hebrews 10:39: "But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls." This word is not first of all a command ("believe harder!"), it is a confirmation of identity. It says it plainly: "we belong to those who have faith." You belong to the family of those who believe.

Faith is your response to God, yes, but it is also a gift from God for you. If you are a Christian, remember that. If you are not yet a Christian, or you are still searching, hold on to this: God wants to give you this gift of believing in him. Even if you feel weak today, the simple fact of being here, listening to his Word, is already God's work and gift. Your struggle not to give up, your fight to repent: that is already God at work in you.

3. What Is Faith? An Assurance and a Conviction Anchored in God

Hebrews 11:1-3: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible."

This passage is not so much a definition of faith as it is a description of what faith does. What it produces in the life of the person who carries it.

The word translated "assurance" originally evoked a title deed. When you buy a house, you are handed a deed. Even before you move in, that deed guarantees the house is yours. Faith gives you that same guarantee: what God has promised for your future is already yours.

The word "conviction" (or "evidence") evoked decisive legal proof, the kind that, in court, establishes the truth. Faith gives you certainty about what is real but still unseen.

And this certainty does not come out of your imagination. It is anchored in the Word of God. It is because God has spoken ("the universe was created by the word of God") that your faith holds. The faith God wants to give you is an assurance and a conviction based on what he himself has said.

4. Yae's Testimony: A Living Model of Faith Today

The speaker shares the story of a sister, Hiraishi Yae, baptized in Osaka in April of last year. Her life has not been easy: in middle school, her parents divorced overnight, without her understanding why. She lost the bond with the father she loved dearly. She grew up carrying deep anger and deep sadness in her heart, telling herself, "People don't change."

Then she met Christians in Osaka. She heard testimonies of lives transformed by Jesus. She told herself, "Maybe I can change too." She followed these models of faith and began to believe in the invisible God and in his Word.

When she had to move back to Kagoshima for a little over a year, with no brothers or sisters in Christ around her, she kept attending the service online and studying the Bible. She trusted a God she could not see. She eventually discovered the cross of Jesus, recognized herself as a sinner in need of forgiveness, and believed that Jesus could heal the pain and sadness that nothing else had been able to heal.

After her baptism, as fruit of her repentance, she wrote a letter to every member of her family asking forgiveness for the wounds she had caused. She changed how she related to them: instead of answering with anger, she learned to express gratitude. Last summer, on a family trip, she said, "This is the first time in my life I've thought to myself: it's good to have a family."

Today, Yae herself has become a witness. A living model, proof that God is faithful. You are not alone. There are models like her all around you. Draw inspiration from them. And run this year in their footsteps.

5. Two Ways to Fall Into Unbelief

The speaker raises a demanding point: you can commit the sin of unbelief in two ways.

1. By not believing what the Word says. Not holding on to the assurance and conviction God offers.
2. By believing what the Word does not say. Clinging to false assurances, to false convictions that God never promised.

So, today, here is a question for you: What does God, in his Word, guarantee you as hope? What invisible truth does he make you hold as certain? Stay on those promises. Ground your conviction in what God has actually said, no less, no more.

6. The Ultimate Model: Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of Faith

Hebrews 12:2: "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."

The true model, ultimately, is not the heroes of faith. It is the One they themselves looked to: Jesus. He is the one you must not take your eyes off.

The speaker ran a little experiment with the congregation. He held up his iPhone and asked everyone to keep their eyes on it without looking away, while he moved it around the room. A small, almost silly exercise? Maybe. But telling. How many times a day does your gaze slip off Jesus and land somewhere else? Fixing your eyes on Jesus is not a quick glance now and then. It is keeping your gaze steady, fixing your mind on him. Hebrews 3:1 says, "consider Jesus," in some translations, fix your thoughts on Jesus. Fix your thoughts on him.

Fixing your eyes on Jesus means not settling for the surface. It means thinking deeply about who he is, what he has done, how he is with you even today, what he is telling you right now.

7. Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Your Faith

This text says two powerful things about Jesus. First, Jesus opened the way of faith for everyone and he himself arrived at the finish line first. He is the pioneer. Then (and this is more personal), Jesus is the One who caused your faith to be born, who matures it, and who will carry it through to completion.

You do not merely live by faith in Jesus. Since your baptism, you are united to Christ, and Christ lives in you. That means you are called to live out Jesus's own faith as well.

8. The Joy That Sustained Jesus All the Way to the Cross

"For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross." Even in the most painful and most humiliating moment, Jesus was looking toward a joy. Which one?

First, accomplishing the Father's will and returning to be with him, being with God. God is Jesus's joy. But not only that: you are also Jesus's joy. So that you and I could be saved from sin and from loneliness, so we could live with God, he went to the cross. On that cross, he who had all his joy in the Father's presence agreed to be abandoned by the Father in your place. Because he wants you with him forever.

If you walk with Jesus, you too will pass through paths that lead through the cross. But you can walk them with Jesus's faith and Jesus's joy. You can despise the shame and endure, because the One who started your faith will carry it through to the end.

9. Laying Aside, Again and Again: What Weighs Down Your Race

Hebrews 12:1 says, "let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely." In some translations, it is even stronger: "strip off," "throw off." Sin is not something you simply acknowledge, it must be laid aside. And it will come back to cling to you. So you will need to lay it aside again. And again.

But it is not only sins that weigh you down. Sometimes good things become an obstacle too. No one wants to run with a backpack full of sin. But what about those good things in your life that have become overwhelming, that pull your eyes off Jesus? What is slowing you down, or worse, slowing down those running alongside you too?

Because (and this is essential), Hebrews is not describing a lone runner. We are a team. What makes you stumble also makes others stumble. Whatever God is asking you to lay aside today, lay it aside. Again and again.

10. Keep Running: The Faithfulness of Repetition

Running means continuing to do what you started, all the way to the end. Not scattering your energy on new things, but persevering in the essentials. Following Jesus is, in a sense, repeating the same gestures: getting up in the morning and turning your thoughts toward him, opening the Bible every day, praying, letting yourself be led by the Spirit, loving Jesus, loving your family with his love, loving the church, proclaiming the gospel, making disciples.

Of course, you change deeply over time. The speaker says that today, he does not read the Bible, pray, preach, or teach the way he did ten years ago. His old sermon outlines make him smile, sometimes even blush. His seasons of life have changed, his responsibilities too. But daily faithfulness to Jesus does not change. That is what it means to run. From your baptism until the day you are called home to heaven.

Today, in your faith, what are you continuing? Is there something you should be continuing that you have let go of? Then start again. As many times as it takes.

Key Takeaways

1. You are not alone. A vast cloud of witnesses surrounds you and attests that God is faithful. Look around you for living models of faith, and draw inspiration from them.
2. Faith is a gift from God. Even if you feel weak, if you are here today listening to his Word, that is already his hand on you. Do not disqualify yourself.
3. Faith is grounded in the Word. Assurance and conviction come from what God has actually said, not from personal imagination.
4. Fix your eyes on Jesus, not only on the models. He is the founder and perfecter of your faith. He started it, and he will carry it through to the end.
5. Run as a team, not solo. Laying aside sin and unnecessary weight is not just about you: what you carry also slows down those running alongside you.

Personal Application

Take a moment before God, and let these questions work on you this week:

1. What promise of God, in his Word, do you want to receive as your assurance for 2026? Write it down, reread it often.
2. Who around you is a living model of faith for you? Have you taken the time to thank them, or to ask them for advice?
3. What, these past few months, has pulled your eyes off Jesus? How will you concretely put your gaze back on him, starting tomorrow morning?
4. Is there a sin (or even something "good") that you are carrying as a burden and need to lay aside today? Are you ready to name it before God and before a trusted brother or sister?
5. What had you started in your life of faith that you let drop (prayer, reading, service, evangelism)? Start again this week, without guilt, just with Jesus.

Verses Cited

• Hebrews 12:1-2 · the key verse: running with endurance, eyes fixed on Jesus.
• Hebrews 11 · the heroes of faith from the Old Testament, the cloud of witnesses.
• Hebrews 11:1-3 · faith: assurance and conviction.
• Hebrews 10:39 · we belong to those who have faith.
• Hebrews 3:1 · consider Jesus, fix your thoughts on him.

FAQ

Who are the "witnesses" in Hebrews 12:1?

They are the men and women of faith presented in chapter 11: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab, and many others. The word "witness" here carries a legal meaning: through their entire lives, they testify that God is faithful and that his promises hold. They are not fans in the stands, they are witnesses on the stand who tell you, through their very lives, that it is worth trusting God.

What does it mean to "keep your eyes fixed on Jesus"?

It is not a quick glance now and then. The Greek verb evokes a steady gaze, a fixed attention. Concretely: starting your day by turning your thoughts toward him, meditating on his Word, praying, reflecting on who he is, what he has done, what he is telling you today. Hebrews 3:1 sums it up: "consider Jesus," fix your thoughts on him, in depth.

How do you avoid burning out in the race of faith?

Three takeaways from this message. First, remember you are not alone: a cloud of witnesses, past and present, surrounds you. Then, regularly lay aside what weighs you down, sin, but also good things that have become overwhelming and pull your eyes off Jesus. Finally, simply keep doing the essential gestures of faith (Bible, prayer, obedience, love, mission), day after day. Consistency beats intensity that burns out.