God's Love and Our Maturity

Introduction:

What quality of life does being a believer entitle us to expect to live?

Given the current trends in our society, would you anticipate the next few years to bring normalcy or chaos?

What if we had to live in under the most extreme possible circumstances as believers in Jesus Christ?

Would you question God’s love?

Why would God want His people to face suffering?

Why wouldn’t Jesus come back to save us from having to suffer? Surely, God wouldn’t want that, would he?

Reckon how Daniel thought about living in Babylon and Persia?

They were foreign lands were his personal commitments to God, especially prayer, were intentionally made illegal. Yet, he still prayed. Would we?

We must pay close attention to context in order to understand these passages.

The Race (Hebrews 12:1-3)

The key thought is “let us be running.”

The writer of Hebrews structures participles to convey thought around that core admonition.

Jesus’ own obedience in the face of suffering provides the necessary motivation to keep us from quitting and abandoning the faith.

The Training (Hebrews 12:4-8)

The writer of Hebrews places their sufferings into perspective.

The attitude they have developed shows they have forgotten the encouragement that God, our Father, gives in His word.

They have questioned why Jesus hasn’t returned.

Some have abandoned, or considered abandoning the faith by returning to Judaism.

Others have considered returning to disobedient lives to “blend in” and escape outside punishment.

The initial quotation in Hebrews 12:5 comes from Proverbs 3.

Notice the focus on attitude, namely to “think little of.”

The goal here is place their understanding of suffering alongside disciple or education.

In Heb. 12:8, we also see that the “education” was something universally shared not individually “doled out.”

The Goal