Hebrews 12:1-11

Well, I do hope that you are well and your life is good at the moment, that things are going well.

! But as I say that, it is not always the case, is it, that life is peachy, that life is easy.

Often life throws a curveball at us. Life is full of hardship and difficulty.

The question is, how do we respond to life when it goes bad?

I want to say that this passage that we've got in front of us is about that issue of coping with hardship and of difficulty.

It's about endurance, particularly in the Christian life, in following Jesus.

The word endurance appears four times in the section here, doesn't it?

It's written to a group of Christians who, if you go back in your Bible at home maybe, look at chapter 10,

that you can see what kind of experience they've had recently.

They've suffered public attacks.

They've suffered affliction of various kinds.

They've been imprisoned, some of them.

They've had their possessions stolen.

They are in trouble in the world.

And there seems to be no let-up.

But the command of verse 2, if you look there, is pretty clear, isn't it?

Despite the hardships, they should run with endurance the race that is set before them.

They must keep going in the hardship.

They must persevere to the end.

We must endure the Christian life as well as enjoy the Christian life.

And we might ask ourselves, why does it have to be like that?

Why can't I go through the Christian life like a walk in the park?

Why is it such hard work?

The Apostle Paul calls Christians, he describes them as soldiers.

Doesn't he?

And as hard-working farmers.

Or as marathon runners.

Just picture those people, the soldier crawling through the mud with bullets flying overhead.

Or the exhaustion of long-distance running and the perseverance that that takes.

Or the back-breaking work of labour in the fields.

And we can get to the point, can't we,

if we've been a Christian for a long time,

if we've been following Jesus for a while,

maybe the initial excitement of faith has kind of waned a little.

And we're just trudging through from one day to the next.

So why all of this endurance?

God, why don't you just take away the difficulty

if I'm trusting in you and I'm following you?

Well, he gives us three reasons why, I think, in Hebrews 12 today.

Why does it have to be so hard?

That the writer to the Hebrews says, first of all,

the endurance of the Christian life,

the hardships are for your discipline.

For your discipline.

Just look at verse 7.

It is for discipline that you have to endure.

He tells us, doesn't he, that there is a reason behind the hardship.

The reason for the struggle of enduring to the end.

There is a purpose behind that.

There is a godly design in that.

It is discipline.

He wants to really drill this in.

Did you hear that word?

It's just repeated over and over again in the passage.

Don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.

The Lord disciplines the ones he loves.

What son is there whom his father doesn't discipline?

He goes on, discipline, discipline, discipline.

Your life, if you are facing opposition and hardship because you are following the Lord Jesus,

is not out of control.

Things are the way they are for your discipline.

That is the explanation.

So, the writer wants to say, don't take your hardships the wrong way.

Don't view them in the wrong way.

Neither should you despise them, nor should you be overly discouraged by them.

If you look at verse 5 and 6 there, he quotes a verse from the book of Proverbs.

And in that verse in Proverbs, there are two warnings about how we deal with hardship.

Warning one, my son, don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord.

In other words, don't despise what is happening to you.

And don't despise the Lord for it.

When we have hardships coming to our lives, the temptation is to grow cynical, isn't it?

Maybe there are folk who did once trust in God and had great hope in him,

and yet hard things come and they grow bitter towards God.

Because they despise what is going on in their lives.

He says, no, we shouldn't do that.

We shouldn't forget and fail to recognise that God is using these things for some greater good,

for our discipline.

Don't despise it.

And then warning number two comes.

Don't be weary when reproved by God.

Don't be discouraged when difficult times come.

Because, he says, for the Lord disciplines the ones he hates.

No.

He disciplines the one he loves.

Often, much hardship and much difficulty in the Christian life

is a sign of much discipline,

which is a sign of much love from God.

in him being persistent in his intention for your good.

And if you think about it, that is completely upside down thinking, isn't it?

It's just totally counterintuitive.

That sometimes the greater the hardship,

the greater display of love from God,

sometimes when the world is hardest against God's people,

it is a sign that he is most for his people.

You may have heard of the Baptist preacher John Piper.

John Piper is pretty popular, isn't he, in the States.

And a few years ago, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

And in the time of his treatment, over a couple of years,

he thought a great deal about the issue of suffering

and of hardship in the Christian life.

He wrote many things over that time,

but one article really jumped out where he entitled it,

Don't Waste Your Cancer.

Don't Waste Your Cancer.

He was saying, wasn't he,

that counterintuitive way of thinking of hardship

is don't waste the things that make you suffer in this life.

Don't take them the wrong way.

Don't waste the opportunity that God is giving in this moment

to discipline you and to grow you and to teach you things

that otherwise you wouldn't have learnt about yourself and about him.

We should never say, should we, if we're following Christ

and we trust in him, that God is punishing me

if I'm suffering for some reason.

God is punishing me for something I've done

and I'm paying back in this suffering.

I want to say Christians are not punished.

Jesus Christ, as we trust in him,

as he dies on the cross,

he endures, doesn't he,

the suffering that we should have endured,

that we deserve.

He takes every ounce of punishment

that we deserve

for rebelling against God.

But,

we are rebuked

and we are chastened

and we are put back in line.

Christians are disciplined.

But,

what sort of discipline is it?

If you think about that word,

we just don't like it, do we?

The word discipline.

The more I've said it,

I wonder whether you want it to move away.

Does it make us think of

old-fashioned public school lashings?

Is this a brutal,

cold,

systematic kind of discipline

like SAS selection?

God is going to thrash

all of the impurities out of us

like some evil schoolmaster.

Well, no,

because the example he uses

of this discipline

is the caring and loving discipline

of a good father,

isn't it,

in verse 6.

The Lord disciplines

the one he loves.

He chastises every son

whom he receives.

He uses the illustration

later on

in verse 9

of an earthly father

who loves his child

and who disciplines them.

So, endurance

is there in the Christian life

for discipline,

but secondly,

it is there for

fatherly discipline.

not just any old discipline,

fatherly discipline.

The writer's aim here

is to get us

to move from

despairing

and despising

God

in the hard things

to loving him

for them

and taking advantage

of them in our lives

to be subject

to him

for change,

to almost value

these opportunities

that suffering brings.

So, what he does here,

he argues from the lesser

to the greater example,

doesn't he?

He uses the lesser example

of a good earthly father.

This might not be

the experience

of everyone

in this room

of having a good

earthly father,

but we know,

don't we,

what a good earthly father

should do.

That he disciplines

his child

and the child respects

and loves him

for that.

The word in the original

Greek language

means to correct

or to educate.

And an earthly father

does that

for the child

that he loves.

He would be a bad father

if he neglected

to do that,

wouldn't he?

So that the child

develops and grows

and moves from

childish things

to grown-up things

so that they can live

a bigger and fuller life

so that they can engage

with the world properly.

The father teaches

the child

so that they can

experience life

to its fullest.

Our little two-year-old,

we're trying to teach him

not to say,

I want,

but please may I have

every single time

he forgets it.

Please may I have,

not I want.

Why do we do that?

Is it because I'm a stickler

for politeness

and for doing the right thing?

Well, actually, yes.

But it is for the purpose,

isn't it,

of him knowing

how to engage

with people properly,

of honouring his father

and his mother,

and engaging

in good relationships

with people

and eventually

enjoying life more.

It's not because

I want to come down

on him and tell him

he's always doing

the wrong thing

all the time,

but that he will enjoy life.

Discipline is for the

grace

and benefit of life,

isn't it?

And his argument is that

if earthly fathers

know how to do that,

how much more

good

in your life

will God's discipline

do for you?

Just look at the comparison

in verse 10.

They disciplined

earthly fathers

us for a short time

as it seemed best for them,

but he disciplines us

for our good

that we may share

in his holiness.

Earthly fathers

can discipline us,

can't they,

to give us a well-rounded

character

for earthly life.

But do you see

what God is aiming

at here?

He disciplines

his children

to share

his holiness

for a heavenly life.

Hardships come

to develop us,

to make us holy

and to make us

fit for heaven

for a much

fuller life

than we know now.

Hardships come

in God's

plan

that

we will become

more like him

in building

our spiritual

maturity.

So since

God

does this

for his children,

notice

in verse 6,

he does it

for every

son,

that is the one

who receives

the inheritance,

he does it

for every

believer

who is a son

whom he

receives.

It's not a sign

of his rejection

when difficult

things come,

but of his

reception

and of his

love.

Saying to us,

you are in

my family

and you are

going to enjoy

heavenly life.

And if we

are expecting

a life of

roses

and if that

is what we

are experiencing

all of the

time and we

think that is

normal,

we've got to

wonder,

haven't we,

what claim

have we got

in the

family of

God?

He uses the

word illegitimate,

doesn't he?

If we're not

disciplined,

then we're

illegitimate,

sons,

we're not in

the family.

But when

things are

hard,

it is a sign

that God

is making

us holy,

preparing us

for heaven.

So the

endurance is

for discipline,

it is for

a father's

discipline.

Thirdly and

lastly,

the endurance

is for

momentary

fatherly

discipline.

It is for

momentary

fatherly

discipline.

Just drop

your eye

down to

verse 11.

For the

moment,

all discipline

seems painful

rather than

pleasant,

but later

it yields

the peaceful

fruit of

righteousness

to those

who've been

trained by

it.

Let's be

honest about

it,

no discipline

is pleasant,

is it,

in the

moment.

But isn't

it true that

often the

best things

for us are

the most

difficult

things in

our lives?

when I was

a little

boy,

it's a

trivial

example,

when I was

a little

boy,

there was

a bowl

of grapes

on top

of the

piano

in the

living

room,

and I

tried to

steal some

grapes

once,

and my

dad

called to

me,

and I

got a

wallet

around the

back of

the legs,

and it

wasn't

nice,

it was

painful,

but I

learnt

then not

to steal.

It's a

really trivial

example,

isn't it?

in all

seriousness,

it hurts

to have

our weaknesses

and our

impurities

exposed.

As God's

purpose is

to make

us more

holy,

and that

indwelling

rebellion

against him

is still

there,

his concern

will always

be to

expose it

and to

deal with

it,

and that

is going

to hurt

in life.

It will

hurt to

have the

impurities

burnt

away.

God

may end

up dealing

with us

quite

harshly

in life.

He may

take things

away from

us or

put things

into our

lives that

we didn't

welcome and

we didn't

want to

shake our

self-confidence.

But the

point of

verse 11 is

that that

pain is

only momentary,

isn't it?

It will

be slight,

like the

blink of

an eye in

the grand

scheme of

things.

It's like

when a

doctor

pushes on

the wound

to find

out where

the source

of pain

is.

It hurts

for that

moment,

doesn't it?

He does

that as

he seeks

to heal

it,

not to

irritate

it,

God

isn't

just

throwing

things

out in

our

lives

to wind

us up

with

hardship,

but to

draw out

our

weaknesses

and heal

and to

make

holy.

And it's

momentary.

if we

think about

it in

60 billion

years time

in eternity,

if Christ

has returned

and we're

all in

heaven by

then,

with new

resurrection

bodies and

our bodies

are glorious

and there's

no more

pain and

no more

suffering and

we're in

the presence

of God.

60 billion

years time,

will we

have a

second

thought

for the

70,

80,

90 years

of suffering

that we've

had in

this life?

Maybe it'll

be a little

pinprick on

our minds

by that

point,

won't it?

It'll be

momentary and

we'll see it

then for

what it

is.

He says,

then we

will enjoy

the peaceful

fruit of

righteousness.

I think

now we

don't enjoy

this peace

because

actually the

fruit needs

to mature,

doesn't it?

We don't

enjoy that

fruit fully

because there

is still

things in

our lives

which need

sorting out

our own

pride and

our self

concern.

They destroy

that peace

as it should

be.

But to

those who

are trained

by these

discipline

issues,

to us

if we

are willing

to consider

the hard

things in

our lives

as part

of God's

discipline,

if we

don't

despise

those things

and as we

ask God

to help us

understand what

he is doing,

to have our

pride dealt

with,

well,

then there

is a day

when with

perfect peace

we can enjoy

the fruit

of those

things,

that we

will be

perfectly

righteous

and we

will be

holy.

And

hardships

will come,

won't they,

for all of

us,

if they

haven't

already,

many of

you are,

I know,

suffering with

many hardships.

We are to

expect them,

but Hebrews

12 tells us

we should

expect them,

but we

should not

dread them.

We need

not fear

them and

always be

paranoid and

always be

anxious about

future hardship.

The message

is don't

fear

hardship,

actually,

don't fear

hardship,

don't waste

hardship as

well.

Don't miss

the opportunities

that they

bring.

Christians,

we want to

be more

holy,

don't we?

I want

that,

I struggle

with many

things,

but I want

to be more

like Jesus

and God

in his

grace uses

hardships in

that struggle

all.

Let me

close with

a quote

from J.I.

Packer.

He says,

God seeks

the fellowship

of his

people and

will send

them as

gifts,

both joy

and sorrow,

to detach

their hands

from the

things of

this world

and to

attach those

things to

himself.

They are

put in our

lives to

make us

fit for

heaven,

for fellowship

with him,

aren't they?

so don't

despise

hardships in

your life.

Ask God

to mould

you in

his

fatherly

discipline

that you

will enjoy

this peaceful

fruit of

righteousness

as you are

trained by

his discipline.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.