God's Loving Discipline

GOD'S LOVING DISCIPLINE

August 31, 2014 - Hebrews 12:3-13

INTRODUCTION

A question we might have from time to time is "why does God allow his people to suffer or experience hardship? Is that a question you think about?  Have you ever wondered about this? I know it is Labour Day weekend and you want an easier sermon to listen to. You might not want to think about such a heavy question. But that is that question that is being answered here in these verses...important question. 

You may have been watching the news and you hear and see all that ISIS has been gaining more and more territory in Iraq. And how they have been deliberately and brutally persecuting Christians. It is horrific!Have you ever stopped to think and wonder, why?  Why is God allowing these things this his people? Maybe we could process and perhaps understand why this might happen to non-Christians. But to the bride of Christ?  We sometimes have a hard time this. It may not be because we are so terribly persecuted. It may be because we are not. We have a hard time because we know really nothing about persecution because our lives are virtually free of this. We might face opposition when we try to live our faith publicly...but nothing like in many parts of the world today. So why is this happening to them and not to us?  Why are we so blessed with freedom to the point where we think it is normal and other Christians are being persecuted. Is this really part of the Christian life? Some people and some Christian groups even go as far as to say that they don't have enough faith or that God is judging them for sin or something, being to fanatical. We might struggle with this.

Take the street evangelists as an example. They freely stood up and preach on the street corner and they are mocked, heckled, yelled at, cursed, sometimes threatened. I believe they were being persecuted. But time and time again when the police were called they very professional and they had absolute freedom to preach and witness. They were never really in any real danger. I asked them what was the strongest reaction against them and their methods. One of the men was head-butted as he was trying to protect their stuff. But that is all the physical rebuke that they had in the 13 weeks. They were never in any real danger. What freedom!!!  What opportunity!!!

This should motive and embolden us. But the Christians in Iraq today and in Rome in the first century did not have this kind of freedom. If they would preach in first century Rome like the street preachers did here in Canada, they would be fighting for their lives. They were in real danger for their lives, lost their jobs, ostracized by family and friends, lost their homes, etc. There were no laws protecting their rights. They were seen as a cult, a sect. They had no religious protection. But they probably still had the same question as we sometimes have but more personal. "Why is this happening to me and my family?  Why are people in the church going through terrible persecution?  Why are we hated so much? I thought God was sovereign. I thought Christ is king. The temptation was to just keep quiet, to be Sunday Christians, to compartmentalize their faith and ultimately to compromise their faith. Pressure was getting to them. They were discouraged.

What the author is trying to do here is give a little perspective on the hardship they are facing or perhaps would face if they lived radically for Jesus Christ. Perspective is important. It's like two shoe sales men trying to sell shoes in Africa. One reports back, "Prospect are slim, no one wears shoes". The other reports back, "What a great opportunity. Prospect for sales are great, no one has shoes." Perspective is so important…

What is being taught?  Why are we suffering and what are they to do in face of suffering and hardship? I just want to warn you this is not an easy sermon. This isn't a feel good section in Hebrews and therefore this isn't a feel good message this morning. If you are hear visiting this morning, its not going to be easy…

Piper - "The book of Hebrews is a very mature and sober book when it comes to the pain and stress of Christian living and the endurance that it takes to run the race and fight the fight and finish well. It's not a book that people (especially teenagers and strong young adults) gravitate toward - unless they have suffered and struggle for some explanation of how that relates to God. In other words, the more easy and pain-free your life has been, the less you will cherish the kind of spirituality taught in this book. And the more you have suffered, the more you will cling to the precious teachings of this book - if you are willing to believe them. It is a massive statement about the gracious sovereignty of God over the evil that befalls his people. And the big IF is: will you believe this? Will you accept the mystery of God's providence in the pain of your life, and be trained by it (as verse 11 says) for the sake of good and peace and holiness and righteousness and life? 

Or will you kick against this chapter and demand in the season of suffering that God give a greater account of himself than he does in this chapter?

Those are the possible reactions to what is being taught here…that is the question…will you believe what is being taught here are grow or will you rebel?

I. Endure as Jesus did (3-4)

Look at what he tells them to do. He doesn't tell them to take some time off, to take a break, to go on a much deserved vacation where it is safer. He doesn't tell them to keep quiet. He does not give them a way out in suffering or facing pressure or experiencing hardship or pain or weary, getting mocked or disowned or evicted. He tells them to look at Jesus, why?  Because he suffered far worse and he still endured.

Consider how much Jesus suffered. Think about the hostility. We read about that last week - dying on the cross. Think about Jesus. Why we are to consider him and his suffering? So that they do not lose heart…this tells us that they were very weary…tired…emotionally drained. The weight of persecution and hardship was taking its tole…

Notice where does the suffering come from? Sinners and sin. And losing heart is a great spiritual danger for Christians in this state especially if you have an unclear view of the sovereignty of God and why God allow these things to happen.  These Christians were weary, tired,  at the end of their rope. He doesn't give them some pop psychology or some prosperity gospel tidbit. He tells them to consider Jesus…notice verse 4…talk about an encouraging verse!!!

Jesus resisted to the point of shedding his blood, you guys haven't yet, so cheer up and don't grow weary and fainthearted…

Things are not as bad as they could be. Things may get worse. But in whatever kind of suffering or pain or persecution or pressure consider Jesus. This is how Christians endure and this is what he has been teaching them all through this book. He has been trying to show them Jesus is better, Jesus is better than comfort and safety, Jesus is worth it. Just look at how the book begins...its all about Jesus. He wants them to get Jesus right. Remember Stephen in Acts 7:54-60. That is hard for us to think about, isn't it?

Notice the second thing he wants them to do. This is where it gets tuff.

II. Remember the truth of Scripture (5-6)

He wants them to remember Scripture. Notice what the author does.  He connects Proverbs 3 and what is taught there to their experience of hardship in order to give them a bit of perspective. He does this because they were beginning to doubt God's love for them and it was causing them to lose heart.

What does this scripture teach us...this is hard to comprehend, hard to take

1. The Lord disciplines his people through persecution and hardship

The author uses the illustration from Prov. 3. of a father disciplining his son to give them perspective on their situation and he gives perspective by tell them who really is behind all the persecution and hardship. It is The Lord God himself! God is allowing all this hardship to happen in the lives of Christians. God is sovereign over all of this. It isn't the case where God can't do anything because really Satan in control and that is the reason Christians suffer. It's all from the hand of God.

The word discipline is interesting because when we hear it, we think mostly in negative terms - in terms of punishment and it can have that meaning. But the word has a wide range of meaning. The meaning ranges from teaching and training to the ideal of corporal punishment. So God uses persecution and hardship to train and something punish or rebuke his children. Persecution and hardship and suffering is not always because of sin in the life of a Christian. It can be. But I think most often God wants to work something out in your life. He is training you to become more like Christ. The reason you are not more like Christ is because of sin. But God is not necessarily always punishing you, but teaching you...

This is so foreign to us, isn't it?  This is because so often we buy into the secular notion that pain and suffering is useless, it is to be avoided at all cost. They have no account for it. They do not know why it exists. In the secular view of life, suffering is only an interruption to individual happiness and comfort. But suffering always wins. It cannot be eradicated. But secularists do no know what to do with it and the result is deep despair.

But Scripture teaches that God is in control and is loving teaching us and will see us through this life.What could God be possible teaching us in pain and suffering?

C. S. Lewis - "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain."

What is he shouting? Depend on me, trust me, look to me.

John Newton, remember him? He was an 18th century English slave trader turned Christian and abolished the slave trade, he wrote Amazing Grace, he had a similar experience. One author describes Newton as having the feeling he wanted something better in his spiritual life.  He cried out for a deeper knowledge of God. He expected some wonderful vision of Him rending the heavens and coming down to shower blessings into his life. But instead of this Newton had an experience in which for months God seemed to have abandoned him to Satan. He was tempted and tried beyond his comprehension. Yet at last he did come to understand and saw that this experience was an answer to his prayer. God had allowed him to go down into the depths to teach him to depend on him entirely and he got a deeper knowledge of God.

2. The Lord disciplines his people because he loves them

What is the first thing we doubt when we are experiencing pain?  That God loves us, right? Their experiences were enough to make them want to doubt God's love. God's motive is love. The author wanted them to remember this. Just like a father disciplines his children out of love, so God disciplines his people because he loves them. God knows what is best for us, we don't always. He wants whats best, but we are so dull and hard of hearing. John Piper puts it this way, "God reigns over the hazards of circumstances and over health of our bodies and over the hostilities of our adversaries and he designs all of life ultimately as a loving father's discipline." 

3. We must rejoice in our sufferings

i) Do not regard lightly

ii) Do not lose heart

iii) Do not let adversity drive you to despair 

Because God is working in your life through hardship and pain...and most of all, God loves you.

• James 1:2-4; 1 Pe. 3:14; 4:14

III. Realize Discipline is part of being a Christian (7-11)

1. Proves legitimacy (7-8) - Gives assurance

2. Proper response (9)

3. Purifying benefit (10-11)

Piper - "God is not an ER doctor who only repairs our hurts; he is a master surgeon who plans out hurts in order that he might do us greater good...what hostile sinners mean for harm, God means for good...What they will as hurtful, God wills as helpful. What they plan as destruction, God plans as salvation. What they design as a deterrent to faith, God designs as discipline for faith.

Scheler - "In light of the cross, suffering becomes "purification, not punishment,"

• Genesis 50:20

IV. Fight hard to Finish the Race (12-13) 

Two commands here...kind of a rally cry...

1.  Brace up your drooping hands and weakened knees

Despondency 

• Isaiah 35:3-8

2. Make straight paths for your feet

• Proverbs 4:6