I. Introduction
A. We have before us here an absolute gem of a passage. I can’t tell you how much help there is for each one of us here. For the rest of your life you’re going to need to know what this says. In spite of the weakness of the preacher and the sermon, you will let this opportunity pass you by only to your own detriment.
1. This passage has been a dear friend for over 40 years.
2. I still remember the first time I read this passage. It was such a blessing.
B. Up to this point he has been making it clear that sufferings are a regular part of the life of faith. I suffer, you suffer, all God’s children suffer. But God’s people don’t let that stop them. They walk through the valley of suffering with their eyes fixed on Jesus.
C. In our passage last week the author of this epistle introduced the image of running in a race to explain the life of faith. Today in this passage, he introduces the image of a father disciplining his children to help them understand the role of suffering in their lives.
D. Our passage today answers the question of why God allows suffering. How are we supposed to think about hardships and sufferings?
1. This is not only a question that Christians often struggle with, but it’s very closely related to what is probably the greatest objection to Christianity in our age: the problem of evil. Why does God allow such terrible suffering and evil in the world if He is good and if He is all-powerful?
2. And this passage is one of the many places in Scripture where this question is given an answer.
E. Last week we talked about how Hebrews uses a sports analogy to talk about a life of faith.
1. Hebrews 12:1 “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
2. This continues in this passage. Verses 12 and 13 make that clear: “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”
3. The Greek word translated ‘race’ here is AGON, from which we get our word agony. It doesn’t refer to a casual jog, but to a strenuous contest. And it doesn’t only refer to a race, but to an athletic contest of some kind (wrestling, fight). The reason they translate it “race” is because it is used with the verb “run” in 12:1.
4. By the way, the Greek word translated ‘trained’ in v.11 is GUMNADZO, the word from which the English word ‘gymnasium’ is derived.
II. Explanation of Hebrews 12:4–13
A. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
1. Your sufferings have not yet been raised to level of martyrdom. You’ve experienced ridicule and loss of possessions & even imprisonment, but you haven’t yet experienced the sword or the spear.
2. I wish I could preach a whole sermon on this verse.
3. In a very helpful way, he’s helping them deal with their suffering.
4. The fact is that there are facts God has given us which we are supposed to apply like medicine to our painful wounds.
a. But often we are very slow to go to the medicine cabinet and access the facts and the truths which we needed to dress our wounds. We just roll around moaning in pain.
5. What facts? There are two right here in this verse and several more to come:
a. It’s not as bad as it could be.
b. It’s not as bad as many others are experiencing.
c. Both of these are implied in this verse: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
6. Ours us a society with a very low pain threshold.
a. It’s important to remember that there are many all over the world who would trade for our troubles in a heartbeat.
b. It’s a matter of expectations. If you think something is going to be terribly hard, then your experienced pain is less.
c. The actual hardships we experience are only half of our pain. The other half comes from our response: the stress, the shock, the outrage, etc. “What can these anxious cares avail thee, these never-ceasing moans and sighs? What can it help if thou bewail thee, over each dark moment as it flies? Our cross and trials do but press the heavier for our bitterness.” (Georg Neumark)
7. And then in v.5-7 he goes on to add another wonderful fact...
B. 5-7 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.
1. The Greek word for exhortation here is PARAKLESIS, which we have seen several times before. It is very close to the word Jesus uses to refer to the coming Holy Spirit, translated, helper, comforter, counselor, or even paraclete. Here it refers to what the Lord says when He comes alongside us and speaks words of comfort, encouragement, guidance and exhortation to us to help us in our struggles. Here we see God coming alongside the struggling Hebrew Christians, speaking words of comfort, to help them understand the sufferings they’re experiencing. Like a good parent before his child goes into surgery.
2. The word for discipline in this passage is not a general word as it is in English. It contains the word “child” in it, and refers specifically to child discipline or child training.
3. The author quotes Prov.3:11-12 to say that for the child of God, suffering is discipline.
a. An all-wise Father not only loves you but knows exactly the best way to help you!
b. This means that suffering is a sign of God’s love, a sign of being received by Him, a sign of being delighted in.
c. A child who is never trained by his parents to deny themselves is a cursed child.
4. In the modern mindset this may seem like a very strange way of expressing love, especially to those who have never been parents. But all of us know that sometimes pain is exactly what we need. Great good in our souls can occur as a result of pain: compassion, humility, wisdom, etc.
5. There is an important difference between punishment and discipline.
a. Punishment is born of justice, discipline is born of love.
b. You see the distinction in 1Cor.11:32; “When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.”
c. Christ suffered God’s wrath upon the cross so that we wouldn’t have to. God can’t do that anymore to those Christ died for.
6. When we suffer, we often wonder: Why?
a. Well, here it is. This is why God not only allows suffering in your life, but plans it and ordains it & engineers it. And trust me, He knows how much it hurts. He created pain just so we could suffer. And just like everything else, He’s good at what He does. He knows how to make us hurt.
b. And God uses some pretty severe discipline. Look at the kinds of things he’s referring to here:
(1) Hebrews 10:32–34 a hard struggle with sufferings, being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, in prison, the plundering of your property
(2) Heb.12.4 – Even martyrdom would be included.
7. These verses give us two bad ways to respond to discipline:
a. Regarding it lightly
(1) That doesn’t mean to think it doesn’t hurt much. We regard God’s discipline lightly by not listening to what God is telling us through it.
(2) It’s when a person refuses to be changed by it, refuses to learn the lesson.
(3) Like when a parent disciplines a child by telling him that he can’t go to his friends birthday party and the child says, “I didn’t want to go to the party anyway!” In other words, “I’m not going to let the discipline get to me!” Or even, “I’m going to punish my parent for punishing me.”
(4) It’s when we blame God for our pain: “The problem is not my sin, the problem is my father.”
b. Faint when reproved
(1) One danger of suffering for the Christian is that it can cause us to become weary.
(2) I can’t take this! This is too much! It means despair, giving up.
(3) It means giving up hope: “I’m just a bad person, who always needs spankings.”
8. What then is the right way to respond to discipline?
a. First it means trusting that your daddy loves you.
b. It means remembering that your daddy — and His love for you — much bigger than His discipline. This is not the end of the world. It could be a lot worse. There is still much to be thankful for.
c. It means blaming ourselves, remembering that we deserve it — and much more.
d. It also means gratitude: recognizing that we need it. There are cancers in our souls which need painful therapies.
e. When a little child is in his room saying, “I will never lie again. I will never lie again!” you know that He has gotten the point of the discipline.
9. This is good time to say something about the problem of evil.
a. In response to sin, God imposed two things upon mankind: hell and the curse.
b. Hell was obviously designed to punish man (and fallen angels) for sin.
c. God’s curse (Gen.3:16-19), on the other hand, was discipline on the world, like what Hebrews 12:5-7 is talking about.
d. We look out at the world and groan under the weight of the curse: disease, poverty, war, natural disasters. And we work to try to solve these terrible problems. But it seems like every time we solve one another rises up to take its place.
e. But the fact is that we need these things and without them things would be so much worse.
f. These things humble man. They show him his need for God.
g. You see, the most important thing for every person is not health and wealth and tranquility. Man’s greatest need is to realize is that he/she is second and never first, far from first.
h. Man longs to exalt himself and put himself on the throne. He longs to think everything is all about him. And yet the single thing he most needs to understand is that there is a God, and it’s not him.
i. We see this in the story of the Tower of Babel (Gen.11:1-9). God intervened in the midst of a grand human project. He imposed disunity and ruined their aspirations. But it was a great blessing. They needed to be humbled, they needed the disappointment. They needed to see that God was bigger than them.
j. Without the interventions of God’s curse, man would not think about God, nor see his sin.
C. 7b 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.
1. Discipline is a normal part of being a child.
2. Foolishness in the heart of a child: thinking that everything is all about you.
3. Prov.13:24 “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.”
4. Likewise, God “disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness.”
5. As we all know, the wisdom of human parents is limited. The wisdom of our Father who is in heaven, though, is unlimited. He knows exactly what we need. He knows how much we need. He knows when we need it. He knows how intensely we need it.
6. Let’s think about two OT examples of this:
a. Joseph was not well-parented. He was his father’s favorite and preferred above all his brothers. So, he was very spoiled. But God knew exactly what he needed. Through his brothers’ evil actions, through slavery in Egypt, through time in the dungeon, God turned Joseph into a humble, godly man, a man who recognized that God was doing him good through all the troubles and said to his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” (Gen.50:20)
b. David had been so blessed by God that it began to go to his head. So, God humbled him. In the Bathsheba and Uriah incident, David did not become sinful. He was already sinful. God just allowed David to see what was really in his heart. And all the troubles which came upon him as a result helped cure his pride. Think about the stark contrast between how David responded to Nabal (1Sam.25:13, 32-24), and how he later responded to the berating of Shimei because he knew the discipline of God was upon him (2Sam.16:3-10).
7. God has an agenda for us, and He will not withhold any good thing from those whom He has called, even if those things are painful and hard.
D. 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.
1. Being trained by it is the opposite of regarding it lightly.
2. Discipline changes you, it strengthens you! Like exercise!
3. Think about it. Exercise makes you feel weaker, not stronger. But it does make you stronger, doesn’t it?
4. Imagine lifting weights. The first few lifts are easy. Then it gets harder. Eventually, it takes all your strength to lift it one more time. You feel like you’re getting weaker and weaker — but actually you’re getting stronger and stronger.
5. I had physical therapy on my shoulder last spring. The therapist bent my arm in a way that didn’t seem like it was meant to be bent. Needless to say, it hurt a lot. But I wanted my shoulder to be healed. And if that’s what it took, I’ll endure the pain.
6. If something is necessary for you to become like Jesus do you want God to do it? It feels like it is hurting you but it is really helping you.
E. 12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
1. So, don’t give up, stop getting weary. Don’t be deterred by hardships. Pain is actually a good thing. It’s an important and necessary part of the race.
2. Let’s get going! Let’s run the race! Let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. –Heb.12:1-2
III. Conclusion
A. The pain you experience is not just random suffering, but it is purposeful, and a sign of God’s love.
B. But just because you’re in pain doesn’t mean that the pain is doing you any good!
1. If we regard it lightly or faint on account of it, we miss out on the training which should result.
2. And there is nothing worse than wasted pain.
C. So, learn the lesson well. Ask yourself: Of all the sins I struggle with, which one is this revealing? What am I getting spanked for?
D. Mothers of young children
1. You want to help your children become what they should be, but God wants to help you become what you should be.
2. God is disciplining you through your children, just as God disciplines them through you.
3. You have the power to undo everything you’re trying to teach them: by resisting what the Lord is trying to deal with in you.