The Lord Disciplines Those He Loves

Hebrews 12:3-11

BACKGROUND

As we’ve seen, Hebrews was written to a group of people considering turning their back on the faith, people who, because of difficulties they were facing for being Christians began to wonder if following Jesus was worth it.

To address that the author has taken great pains to point out the superiority of Christ over all other things: Moses, angels, the Old Testament priesthood, etc.

Christ is better than all these things you want to go back to, he tells them. And in more recent chapters, he’s also pointed out the steadfastness with which their ancestors followed God under very difficult circumstances. We saw that in the “Roll Call of Faith” in chapter 11. He’s saying, you’re not the first group of people in history to be persecuted for the faith.

And at the end of chapter ten, he even reminds them of their own steadfastness earlier in their lives as believers, that there was a time when they were persevering in the faith despite difficulty.

But they’ve begun to grow weary and they’ve begun, having once put their hand to the plow, to look back, and the author has a pastoral concern for their souls and so he writes them this letter.

As Pat pointed out last week, he turns a bit of a corner in chapter 12 and begins to give some practical instruction for his hearers. Much of the book so far has been laying the groundwork for what we read beginning in chapter 12. Hebrews is didactic or designed to teach. Many people believe it was originally a sermon.

Again, Pat touched on this last week: One of the most important things to determine when reading didactic literature is whether the passage is indicative or imperative. Said another way, whether the passage is telling us what is true or telling us what to do. Theologian Mike Horton says all of the imperatives of Christianity, all of the things we are called to do, flow out of the indicatives, flow out of what is true about Jesus Christ and the Gospel.

For example, when Paul tells us not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies in the book of Romans, he can tell us that because he’s already told us earlier that thanks to the work of Christ we are dead to sin. Our ability to resist sin is possible because of what Christ has done.

Our passage this morning is an imperative. The author is telling his readers, and by extension us, how they should live, what they should do. But he’s telling them that in light of the truths he has shared with them so far regarding the superiority of Christ.

This passage is an important one for us to consider and take to heart in our day. We live in a culture that increasingly rejects Christ and sees those who follow him as not just misguided but as those who should be ostracized and even persecuted.

I expect in the next few years for believers in this country to find themselves in the same position in society as these Jewish believers found themselves in first century Jewish culture – cut off from family, friends and polite society because of their commitment to Christ.

But, this is not just something to file away for the future. This morning, some of us sitting here because of personal circumstances may be asking the same questions these first century Jewish believers were asking: in light of what’s going on in my life, is it worth it? Can I go on? Why is this happening?

If that’s you, the author of Hebrews, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has a word for you this morning. And if that’s not you, hold on, it will be. At some time in our Christian life we all reach a point where we need the kind of encouragement this passage gives us.

So let’s delve into it together.

BIG IDEA

The Lord disciplines those He loves in order that we may share in His holiness and achieve righteousness and peace.

PASSAGE

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 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.

6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 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? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 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. 11 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.

Let’s Pray:

Father, thank you that you’ve chosen the foolishness of preaching to teach us your word.

Bless us this morning with clarity, understanding and resolve as we consider this important passage breathed out by the Holy Spirit through the pen of the author of Hebrews.

In Christ’s name, amen.

CONSIDER THE CHRIST OF SUFFERINGS (Vv. 3-4)

When I was first working on this message my outline point here was “Consider the sufferings of Christ.” But the more I read this passage the more it dawned on me that the author is not telling us to look at the sufferings of Christ but the Christ of the sufferings. The key here is to look to Christ, in light of his suffering certainly because we cannot consider him apart from that, but first and foremost we look to Him because of who He is.

(v. 3a) Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself…

Isaiah describes this Christ of sufferings this way:

3 He was despised and rejected by men;

a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not. – Isaiah 53:3

The author is not talking about everyday difficulties of life like sickness or job loss but a concerted effort by enemies to oppose Jesus. These were people with a vendetta against him. He was despised and persecuted by sinful men. And those to whom he is writing are experiencing similar things.

Yet, He did not just suffer, he endured.

The author calls them to consider the Christ of sufferings who endured, the Christ who completed His mission for the Father. Back to Isaiah:

4 Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed. – Isaiah 53:4-5

The suffering servant completed His mission and through His suffering, by His wounds Isaiah says, we are healed.

This echoes what the author of Hebrews told his audience earlier:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. – Hebrews 4:15

He suffered but He endured.

In the midst of their troubles, they could take comfort in the finished work of Christ, the one who can sympathize with them in their difficulty, the one who secured their salvation and now sits at the right hand of the Father.

This is true for us as well. No difficulty is so great, no trial so serious that the work of Christ can be undone. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8:35-39:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 …

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And they are to fix their eyes on Christ he says…

(v. 3b) “…so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

He sees Christ as the antidote to weariness and faintheartedness. We often thing of being weary as being tired but the force of the words the author chose is stronger. We might use the phrase “being at the end of your rope.” He speaks of exhaustion to the point of fainting, being ready to succumb to the forces arrayed against you - about to go under for the last time.

Have you been there, the point where life and circumstances cause you to question if Christianity is true and if you should continue to pursue it? At some point in our Christian life we’ve all been there.

And yet in circumstances like that, the most difficult circumstances imaginable, he gives them a message that has come through over and over in this book - Christ is enough. Look to Him.

Back up to verse two that Pat covered last week:

“…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. – Hebrews 12:2

He’s calling them to do those same things, despise the shame, look past what’s happening in the moment and look to Christ.

This is not some Pollyanna wishful thinking mentality but a realization that, yes, things in the moment are tough, but what is to come is so much better than what is today and what is today is the method God is using to get us to what is to come.

It is, as we saw in Hebrews 11 with regard to Moses, he chose to be mistreated with the people of God because he was looking ahead to his reward.

And then verse four:

(v. 4) In your struggle you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”

How’s that for encouragement?

You’re to the point of exhaustion, some of you are about to give up – but take heart; it’s going to get worse!

They have not yet suffered as badly as Christ and not even as badly as many of their ancestors outlined in chapter 11. But the day is likely coming when they will.

Why does he go there?

Well, for one thing because it’s true.

The author is not saying this to scare them or further discourage them but to prepare them.

This warning is similar to the one Jesus gave his disciples:

I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. – John 16:1-4

I believe the author has a similar purpose here. His goal is not to further discourage his hearers but to prepare them for what is to come, to strengthen their resolve. The people he’s speaking to were looking back to a place of safety and considering returning there.

He challenges them here, as he does throughout the book, to look forward, yes, to a place of potential danger but beyond that to a place of comfort and rest, a place that can only be reached by going through the trials to come.

Friends, we don’t have the option of navigating to the Kingdom of God through perpetual ease and comfort; you can’t there from here as the saying goes. We must, as Bunyan vividly illustrated in Pilgrim’s Progress, get there through the valley of the shadow of death.

And that’s why they must look to Christ. Only by looking to Him can they endure the trials to come.

That’s why we too must look to Him.

If the author was writing this today he might say to comfortable middle class American Christians you have not yet resisted to the point of losing your jobs or having your home taken away for sanding firm for Christ, you’ve not yet resisted to the point of being fined or having your Church’s tax-exempt status taken away…but the time may come when such things are a real possibility and apart from being anchored in Christ, we’ll be swept out to sea when they arrive. In such circumstances, He is our only hope.

So, first and foremost, look to Christ.

But not only remember him and his sufferings but also remember your position. Don’t just remember who Christ is but remember who you are.

DO NOT FORGET YOU ARE SONS (Vv. 5-8)

The writer says:

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.

6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 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? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

You have forgotten, he tells them that you are sons of God.

The author admonished them earlier for being immature (Hebrews 5:12). This passage in Proverbs (3:11-12) is one that would have been well known by a Jewish audience and it is the chapter of Proverbs most quoted from in the New Testament.

So he’s saying, you’ve forgotten this basic teaching of scripture from this commonly used passage. You’ve forgotten a passage you should be familiar with, that you should be turning to for help and encouragement.

And what is in this passage that is so important?

(v. 5b1) “…My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord…

The word “discipline” in the first line of the verse is associated with the training of children. It has the sense of helping someone reach full development. The difficulties they were facing were the Lord training them – perhaps for this future time when they would be called to shed their blood for the faith – but ultimately to equip them in their Christian life and prepare them for the life to come.

And the author tells them not to take that lightly. The verb form implies continual action: do not “keep on taking it lightly” or “keep on caring too little about it.”

How do we care too little about the discipline the Lord sends into our lives?

Most of the time if I’m facing difficulty, I care a whole lot about it. But, here’s the thing, it is all in how I view it. By treating it as a nuisance, or as something just to be endured until it’s over, or as disconnected from my Christian life, after which I can get on with my life or my ministry or whatever – like a train pulling off of the main track onto a siding, I am not in a position to learn from it, to grow from it. As I heard someone say, difficulty is not a distraction from your ministry, it is your ministry. It’s not a sidebar in the journey for a Christian, it is the journey.

Paul tells the Corinthian church:

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. – II Corinthians 1:8-9

God had a purpose for the difficulty He placed Paul in. God has a purpose for the difficulty these Jewish believers were facing. He has a purpose for the difficulty He places in my life and in yours.

John Piper wrote a book called “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” By that he meant, don’t lose the opportunity to grow as a Christian and glorify God that something like cancer provides you with.

The author is saying something similar here, don’t keep on acting like these difficulties have no purpose, don’t see them as nuisances or as something just to get through, see them as discipline from the Lord. See them as something God has placed in your life to grow you in the faith. Don’t take them lightly, don’t waste them.

He goes on…

(v.5b2) “…nor be weary when reproved by him.”

He talks of another type of God’s work in their lives - reproof.

This word has a more negative connotation than “discipline.” This word is associated with rebuking someone, exposing their guilt or proving them wrong.

Not all difficulty that comes into our lives is a direct result of our personal sin –The man born blind John tells us was not that way because of his sin or his parents but, so that God’s works could be displayed (John 9:1-2).

But some is.

When believers are involved in sin we should expect the Lord’s correction.

Often that comes in the form of a fellow believer coming along side us and gently pointing us back to the right path. At other times it may reveal itself as a consequence of our actions – a man who steals from his company is discovered and fired. At still other times it may be seemingly unrelated, such as an illness.

Again, not all difficulties are the result of my personal sin but when I find myself in a continuing difficult circumstance it pays to examine my life and see if there is any sin from which I need to repent.

Could it be some of the difficulty they were facing was because they were looking back like Lot’s wife and considering a return to their former way of life?

They were considering abandoning the faith so the Lord was reproving or rebuking them for this.

Whatever form it was taking with the recipients of Hebrews, they had become weary of the Lord’s correction. They wanted it to stop before it had done its work or before they had done what they needed to do, such as repent, because they didn’t see in it the hand of God.

But the author reminds them that such things, discipline and chastisement, are marks of God’s love and of their status as His sons and daughters.

(v. 6) “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

These difficulties are a mark of God’s care and concern for them as His children.

Therefore, the author says, you must endure it.

(v. 7) “It is for discipline you must endure.”

What he’s saying is the endurance is necessary for the discipline to be effective. Part of the discipline is the waiting, is the trusting God in the midst of difficulty. If you seek to short circuit what God is doing in your life or you don’t seek to learn from it or you run from it, the discipline the Lord is trying to bring to your life, the growth He’s seeking for you, as His child, won’t happen.

It is for discipline you must endure.

And he closes out this section with a sobering thought and a dire warning: If you’re not being disciplined, you don’t belong to the Lord.

When the Bible tells us that something is the mark of an unbeliever, we need to listen up because it’s important.

(v. 8) “If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

Let that sink in a minute. If my Christian life makes no demands on me, does not stretch me and is always problem free I might not be truly converted. And while I don’t think we can say because we’ve had lots of difficulty we’re for sure believers, based on what the author says here, if we are not experiencing the discipline of the Lord either positively as training or negatively as chastisement and rebuke when necessary, it’s a sign we’re not converted.

A friend of mine once told me “The most dangerous place you can be is involved in sin and experiencing no adverse consequences for it.”

In other words, if I’m not being chastised for my sin, if I’m not experiencing negative consequences of my sin, if I can just sin with impunity and be fat and happy about it, or even worse, proud of it, it’s because the Lord does not consider me His son or daughter and He’s therefore not taking the time to discipline me.

Friends, if someone ever tells you the Christian life is a life of health and wealth and ease and the only reason you’re not experiencing those things is because of your lack of faith or your lack of positive thinking and speaking good things into existence run from them, they’re a false teacher.

In this life you will have trials Jesus told His followers. If it was true for Him it will be true for us. Thankfully for believers those trials are not random purposeless things but tools a loving Father uses to mold us into the likeness of Christ.

And not only remember you are sons he says, but ACT like sons as well.

So our next point is…

BE SUBJECT TO THE FATHER OF SPIRITS (Vv. 9-10)

(v. 9) “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them, shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

Here we see him use the “lesser to greater” (a fortiori) argument, an argument he uses several times in the book (for example Hebrews 10:28-29).

This form of argumentation takes a lesser thing that is not in dispute and makes the argument that you must accept the greater thing as true if the lesser thing is true.

We see this argument many times in scripture. Jesus uses it often:

Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! – Luke 12:24

If God feeds the birds, and we know that He does, we know He will take care of us since we are more valuable in His sight than the birds.

So here the author says, if we respect our earthly fathers when they discipline us, how much more should we respect and submit to our heavenly Father when he does so?

This disconnect reveals itself in many ways in our lives. Someone who would never think of being disobedient to his or her earthly parents finds it easier to disobey the Lord. Someone who sees the value of spending time with a loved one neglects prayer and Bible reading – spending time with the Lord.

If it's important to spend time with people we love, if it’s important to respect and honor our teachers and bosses and parents, which are lesser things, how much more so to do those things with the God of the universe who created us, saved us and perfectly seeks what’s best for us?

Friends, don’t neglect your relationship with the Lord. If you’re a believer it’s the most important relationship in your life. Treat it as such. Submit to Him, even in the midst of difficulty, and live.

For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them… (V. 10a)

… but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. (v. 10b)

There is much encouragement in this short phrase. None of us fathers is perfect, as the author says, we discipline our children as seems best to us. But I know I often get it wrong. And some have not had a positive experience at all with their earthly fathers. The discipline they received may have been harsh or even abusive. In other cases it may have been missing altogether because the father was missing or uninvolved. But I encourage you, if that’s you, don’t let that color your relationship with the Lord.

Because here we’re encouraged that the discipline of the Lord is always done for our good. If you’re a follower of Christ you don’t have to worry about him being cruel or capricious in the application of discipline. You can be assured that everything He does is out of love and is for your good and His glory.

This is reinforced by Psalm 94:12:

Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law,

Not only is God’s discipline for our good but it is a blessing to us, because His desire is that we share in His holiness.

Simon Kistemaker says of this passage:

“God prepares us for the life eternal. Therefore, we cheerfully accept God’s discipline, for we know that the adversities we experience are for our spiritual welfare.”

REAP PEACEFUL RIGHTEOUSNESS (V. 11)

We’ve talked about some heavy things this morning. The author admits this to his audience:

“For the moment…” he says, “all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.” (V. 11a)

Again, his audience was trying to avoid it or run from it. They were seeking to return to what IS pleasant in the moment. How much like you and I that is. We don’t want pain, we don’t want difficulty; we want an easy life. But the author of Hebrews pulls back the curtain for us. He says that’s not what you really want because this pain and difficulty is a sign you are sons and daughters of the King. It is not without purpose.

So his final statement in this passage reinforces their hope and should reinforce ours as well:

“…but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

There is a payoff in the end. It is the “peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Some translations say “a harvest of righteousness and peace.”

The idea is that just as a farmer must do certain things, often unpleasant and difficult things, up front to ensure the harvest, in the end, his hard work produces good, delicious and satisfying fruit.

So what is this “fruit of righteousness and peace” that will be produced in our lives?

There are two senses in which this is true. There’s a future component and there is a present component.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. – I Peter 1:6-7

So one encouragement is that the trials of this life are temporary and one day either when we leave this life or Christ returns the trials will be over and we will live in peace and joy with the Lord forever.

But there’s another component as well. Though our ultimate hope is in the Kingdom of God to come, God has graciously given us reason for hope in this life as well in that our trials produce fruit in the present:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4

BAND

The Lord uses discipline both to prepare us for His Kingdom come in which we’ll participate as well as to make us more and more like Him in this present life to the praise and glory of the Father.

“When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike it resolves a great deal of anxiety.” – A.W. Tozer

I pray that will be our attitude. I pray that God will use this passage and this message to spur us on to endurance in the midst of difficulty, to prepare us for trials to come, to help us become more like him in this life and to encourage us as we travel the road to the celestial city where there will be no more suffering, no more tears and no more sorrow. A place that Paul says no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no heart has imagined the wonderful things God has prepared for His people.

Pray with me as we close:

Lord, our God.

You are our God when things are going well. You are our God when things are not.

You are faithful even in times of sorrow, even in times of waiting. You are patient and time is in your hands.

But we find it hard to be patient, Lord, when afflicted so we ask that you have mercy on us, your children.

Help us remember that Christ has come, that He is the first and the last, the ever-present Lord.

Help us to trust in Him and wait in Him who has come already and is always with us, even Jesus Christ.

We pray this in Christ’s name.

Amen.