The Father Of Our Spirit

Hebrews 12:4-13

In the spirit of Father’s Day, I would like for us to discuss the Father of our spirits, the Father of our eternal life!

I thought I had a unique sermon thought going, but the further I read, the more it changed away from my idea. The heart of the message became about God and Who He is. Isn’t that most important?!

Let’s start at the beginning of this chapter, this will come in handy as we move through the rest of this sermon!

Verses 1-3....gives us a great introduction to this “Race of faith” that we are running. Every human has to and will deal with their eternal state. This is what this life is all about, whether you think it is or not. This earthly life would be over, if God wasn’t so merciful!

Lamentations 3:22 “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”

It is only because of God’s mercy that we are still here! He is striving for us and in turn we must strive for Him!

Paul spoke some, especially in Acts 17, about being His offspring! By faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (The Person and Complete Work of Jesus Christ), we have become sons and daughters of God!

The first part of this chapter speaks to running this race as the sons and daughters of God...

Lay aside all the things that weigh us down:

Legalism

Materialism

False teaching

society

The temporal things

Lay aside the sins, that pull at us every day!

Let the importance or dominance of your life be on running this race of Faith! With Jesus being our mark!

Jesus is our mark, He did everything laid out for Him, so that He can be that mark! The redemption or restoration of mankind back to God!

He was completely righteous before God in human flesh. Which no other human has ever done!

He bore our sins on the cross, to pay the penalty for those sins of all of us! To cleanse us before God! Making way for God to live in us through His Spirit.

He was risen from the grave, to guarantee us everlasting life!

Now, Jesus ever lives to make intercession (going to God on our behalf) for us!

Looking unto Jesus, now consider Jesus! Jesus is the supreme example of suffering in obedience to God!

Running the race of faith is not without opposition, but believers are not to lose heart or become weak!

Jesus faced a much greater suffering in obedience to God, if we consider this and look to Jesus our supreme example, then we can continue on our race of faith!

Most of these believers had not, in their race of faith, faced martyrdom at this point. Not sure about the setting of this letter, but persecution had not become bloody at this time and place for these Christians!

The key phrase for this letter is “striving against sin”. That is the race of the believer! Our example is Jesus, who knew no sin and sin does separate us from God, so, our striving sin!

Whether be the strife of abstaining from sin....

Or whether it is preaching or teaching this message (laying aside the sin which so easily besets us and looking unto Jesus)

It is a striving that is continual in life! It never stops

It is a striving that we might fail in at times.

So, now the writer turns to discuss this struggle we have in this striving and quotes Proverbs 3:11-12.....

Do not despise the discipline of the Lord......The Lord disciplines those that He loves!

Correction is the best use of the word discipline or chastisement! When we get weary and stop in this race or when we get lax in our striving, do not despise the discipline of the Lord, because it is correction!

Serious persecutions were coming for all Christians in that day and I believe we are headed in that direction now!

In order to endure, we must be disciplined/corrected in our race!!

This discipline is done out of love from the Father!! Do not despise His correction, listen to it.....

Now, this is the part I want to get to........

God deals with you as children, whom the father disciplines!

One of my favorite parts of this passage, although, in the KJV it uses a word that society has made into a taboo word....I just want you to hear what the writer is saying.....

The writer tells them and us that if a child is without correction/discipline, which all followers of Christ should have experienced, then you are bastards, not sons! Meaning, you are children without a father!

No correction from God, means that we have no Eternal Father!

There are sometimes when I feel convicted by what something that I am doing or not doing, there is a sorrow to turn back to God and His way through Jesus Christ, but there is also a joy in that moment that I have a Father and He is dealing with me!

He loves me that much to put that much effort in bringing to a glorious way!

In verse 9 we read that our earthly fathers corrected us and we gave them reverence.....

He uses our 2 fathers here in a comparison: Earthly verses eternal!

The writer is not pitting the two against one another, he is just telling us that if we give reverence to the one who corrects about things in this temporary life, how much more important is the correction from the Father of spirits, better translated Father of our eternal spirit??

The correction of the earthly father only gets us to the end of this life, the correction of the Father of our spirits gets us to eternal life!

Wouldn’t you much rather be in subjection to the Father of the eternal!

My dad and others, I am sure, used to use the phrase “If you going to be dumb, you gotta be tough”! Which is a profound statement in life!!

However, considering the eternal, you get Jesus wrong, that is a mistake that will never go away and has eternal consequences!

Which of these carries more weight??

In verse 10, the writer tells us that our earthly fathers corrected as it seemed best to them. Maybe not getting it right all the time!

I know that in my time as a father, I have reacted and corrected based on what I wanted Jacob and Britt to be doing, it really had no bearing on things on true importance! Maybe even it was for my benefit more than theirs!

God doesn’t make that mistake, he corrects for our profit!!! I love that! He corrects so that we can be partakers in His Holiness!

To be His children....Ephesians 2:10 comes to mind: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

God wants us to stay on this path of good works, which He is the Author of!!

Discipline is not joyous, it is a hard, but it yields/produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness!

What does that mean?? It seems the writer is referring back to the previous verse, in that we will be partakers of His Holiness.

Fruit of righteousness is being in a right relationship with God the Father! No human on the planet can accomplish that on their own, Jesus Christ is our mediator, advocate, example, and our life!

In following Christ we are made right with God!

Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”

Peaceable fruit, the production of following Jesus is being made right with God and that brings forth peace with God, which our true eternal spirit longs for!

This is why we shouldn’t despise the correction of the Lord, it is for our good, for our profit! It produces so much more than temporary blessings, it is an eternal state of blessedness which produces peace and fruit for the world to see!

James 1:17-18........God has given us the greatest and perfect Gift, in His Only Begotten Son, He gave Him to us so that we might live with Him! God the Father is the creator (Father of lights) and He has and is dealing with us, to bring us unto Himself, which is the greatest life that can be lived!

God never changes and He never moves His shadow! That ought to make us desire to follow Him!

We are His children by His Word of Truth, Jesus Christ!! We are born again, we are born into the family of God

Romans 8:15-17 “15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”

We are His new creation, bringing forth His fruit!

As children, Look to Jesus, follow His life and teachings, believe in the peace that He with God for us! If we become slack or look back, let us relish the chastening of the Lord to bring us back, because it is for our eternal profit/good that we are being disciplined!!

We have a glorious Father that cares for us deeply, let us follow Him through Jesus Christ!