Hebrews - Talk 9

The family likeness -- endure instruction, discipline and hardship so you may produce the fruit of holiness and reached the heavenly goal.

Introduction
Quite a few years ago I was in a soccer team, or a football to if you like, with a coach who was quite frankly obsessive. This coach had played in very high level teams in his day, and his expectations were a little higher than what we were used to. In fact preseason training started in January, in the sweltering heat of summer, and we didn't touch a football for the first eight weeks of training.

In fact we ran for two hours every training session, and we didn't drop below half speed at any stage during the two hours. And we had three of these sessions per week. So I have to admit, at the time I didn't like the bloke very much, spending six hours a week running around an oval didn't seem like a very productive use the time to me. And while previously a number of the guys stood up for him, but even they lost the last shred of goodwill towards this guy, when he turned up to training one day, with a trailer on the back of his car.

And the trailer contained a full load of bricks. So we all got two bricks, one for each hand, and then as usual we ran to two hours nonstop, with a brick in each hand!

By the time the first game of the season came around, some three months later, everybody wanted to kill him. But then our attitudes changed as we started the season, and we could quite clearly run faster and for longer than any other team in the competition.

So there was method in his madness, even though it was very unpleasant at the time. In fact one of my lasting memories of that time, was a mate of mine turning up to training straight after work, and stepping out of his car, while finishing a bowl of cereal. Now to say that training was extreme - really was an understatement, it was physically exhausting. So what possessed my mate to try and eat cereal just before we started running is beyond me. And as you may have guessed the cereal decided to leave his body a little sooner than he had anticipated and not by the means that the good Lord had originally intended.

Nothing about this experience was enjoyable at the time, but it had to be said there were great benefits from the hardship much later in the year.

Hardship is never pleasant at the time, but we often see fruit from hardship.

Now as I find myself approaching Christmas, I also find myself having to prepare to answer the question, from well intended people, ‘so Andrew, how was your first year of Ministry?’

‘How do you answer that?’

How do you assess a year, where obviously plenty of things have gone wrong really?

How do you try to piece it together as a Christian person?

There is no question it has been a hard year, so how do I rightly understand, assess and process, all that has come my way this year?

Well this passage of Hebrews is instruction about what we are to do when it feels like the wheels have fallen off life!

Introduction to the passage;
This passage is all action, so if you can't find something to do after the sermon, you clearly weren't paying attention, because the preachers to the Hebrews gives us lots of commands;

- In V3 he commands us to consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart
- V5 he tells us do not make light of the Lord's discipline and he tells us to not lose heart when the Lord rebukes us
- V7 he commands is to endure hardship as discipline because God is treating us as Son's
- Verse 12 he commands you to strengthen your feeble arms and week knees and make level the path for your feet
- V14 he commands us to make every effort to live at peace with all men and to be holy
- In v15 he commands us to see to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up
- V25 he commands us to see to it that you do not refuse him who speaks

And at the conclusion of the chapter he gives this exhortation, and encouragement;
- V28; he exhorts us let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe

This passage is jammed full of action and calls for a response from people who find themselves in hardship, trial and persecution.



So in our first section today which goes from versus 1-13, we get our first point;

1.strengthen yourselves and endure the Lords discipline (verse 1-13)

12 Therefore,
Strengthen** your feeble arms and weak knees.
13 "Make** level paths for your feet,"
so that the lame may not be disabled,
but rather healed

5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:

"My son, do not make light** of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart** when he rebukes you,
6 because the Lord disciplines
those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."

7 Endure** hardship as discipline;
God is treating you as sons.
For what son is not disciplined by his father?

The Hebrew believers who are the recipient of this letter, a suffering persecution from both family and the government for following and proclaiming Jesus as the Christ.

And you can imagine them thinking to themselves, ‘we are doing the right thing in following God, why are we suffering for it?’

You can imagine their friends and family saying to them, ‘Does your God, Jesus Christ really care, if he did how could you suffer like this?’

‘If your God is really is the God of all creation, why are you suffering, unless you have done something to displease him? Surely God only blesses and never curses those whom he loves, and those who love him?’

And I suspect many of us today can feel the weight of the accusation, why does it seem so difficult at times to live the Christian life, how can persecution or sickness or hardship or trial be part of God's plan?

And The image which the preacher uses in versus 12 and 13, of weak arms and weak knees, betrays his picture of a group of people who are profoundly discouraged from the cause of Christ, you can imagine them thinking, is this really worth all the hassle, maybe I'll just let it slide a little.

But the preacher commands them to strengthen themselves and to endure it.

Which is easy to say but, ‘how do you strengthen your selves so you can endure it?’ Well there are two ways, firstly they are to consider Christ, and secondly they are to consider God their father.

So firstly they are to consider Christ, and there are two reasons to consider Christ. Firstly Christ is the means of their salvation, and secondly, Christ is the example to follow.

Again we look to those famous verses of chapter 12 and that summarise the intent of the preacher throughout the book of Hebrews,

Versus 1-3
Therefore,
since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy set before him
endured the cross,
scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider** him who endured such opposition from sinful men,
so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

So Christ is the means of our salvation, he died the death on the cross that we could not. Jesus is the author and perfector of our faith, from start to finish, from Alpha to Omega, he has done everything to ensure our salvation by faith.

But not only is he the means of that faith, he is the example par excellence of that faith. He took the path that was laid out from him, the difficult and dreadful path to the cross, he endured the cross and scorned its shame, and he did it to save you and me, by faith.

So we are to be strengthened by focusing on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, who is both the means of our salvation and our example.

And secondly, we are to be strengthened by considering God our father.

And there are three things to consider about God our father;

Firstly our God is holy. Throughout the passage we are reminded that God his first and foremost HOLY. God who we call father, is a consuming fire who spoke to his people in such a way that his words alone terrified them. God is a holy God, to which no un-holiness can approach, without being destroyed.

The family we have joined by faith in Christ, has a family likeness, which is Holiness. God is holy and his children must be HOLY.

Secondly God is sovereign. The God who created the heaven and the earth, and Mankind himself, is the sovereign God who will recreate these things by his sovereign will, and his effective word, all at his good time.

God is a sovereign God, and as we see from V3 that even the efforts and desires of sinful men cannot thwart the sovereignty of God in his good purposes. Sinful men put the Christ to death, and yet God would triumph in his plans to save men and bring glory to Chris as the Lord of the universe, despite the best efforts of sinful men and the devil himself.

So God is sovereign.

And the third point to consider about our father which is an encouragement to us, to strengthen us, is really a logical outworking of the first two points, (so God is holy, and his sovereign), leads to our third point about God our father, that he desires holy children.

The preacher encourages to hearers to endure the hardship, because ultimately God is using this hardship to train them, and to instruct them, so that they may be holy, that we may share in Christ's Holiness V10 and that it would produce a harvest of righteousness and peace, by those who have been trained by it.

The preacher makes an appeal, and says by analogy, that all fathers discipline their children, this is obvious to everyone, and mostly they do it for their children's good, or at least they try to even if they get it wrong. So how much more should God who is holy, discipline his own children, for their own good. The preacher appeals to us that only God the father can discipline his children truly fairly, so if we submitted to our own earthly fathers and it was far our own good, how much more should we submit ourselves to the discipline of quite a father who loves us and does it for our good, in this he treats us as real sons and daughters.

And then he goes on to state the bleeding obvious -- that no discipline is pleasant at the time! Like he needed someone to explain that to you!

So be strengthened, by considering Christ, and by considering God our father.

Now In the midst of a hardship, people often ask the question why?
Why is this happening?
Where is God, when this is going on?

I think the Bible, does offer us genuine comfort in situations when we find ourselves asking the question why? But it seems to me the Bible gives us confidence about a situation in a general sense, in that we can trust in God's goodness and sovereignty even though we may not understand the particular incidents we find in front of us. In the particulars of the situation it is often hard to answer the question why in any detail.

But the passage before us today, challenges us, that the mature Christian response in times of difficulty and hardship, trial and persecution, is to push beyond question ‘why’ (as legitimate and important as that question his) and to ask the question - what?

To ask the question what is God teaching me about discipleship through this hardship, how is God disciplining me as his child in this hardship, irrespective of how it comes to us, whether from our own hands, the fallen-ness of the creation, or the evil schemes of sinful men, the mature Christian asks the question, ‘what is God teaching me about discipleship, and holiness and through what I am facing’. ‘How does God want me to change, to be more holy, to produce the fruit of holiness, because of the hardship of the situation.’

Romans reminds us that God works for the good in all situations of those who love him, and our good, is our Holiness, not something as paltry as our material comfort.

Strengthen yourselves and endure the Lords discipline.


2.see to it no one misses the grace of God that must be shown in peace and holiness in the Fellowship (v14 17).

14 Make every effort** to live in peace with all men
and to be holy;
without holiness no one will see the Lord.
15 See to it** that no one misses the grace of God
and that no bitter root grows up
to cause trouble
and defile many.
16 See that no one is sexually immoral,
or is godless like Esau,
who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.
17 Afterward, as you know,
when he wanted to inherit this blessing,
he was rejected.
He could bring about no change of mind,
though he sought the blessing with tears.

So the preacher says see to it that no one misses the grace of God, that we may live lives of peace and holiness. The characteristics of peace and holiness, characteristics of the son and the father aren't they? God is calling us, to live like we have been made, we are to bear the family likeness.

Peace and holiness are required, because without Holiness no one will see the Lord. Holiness is a pre-requisite of meeting the Lord in his kingdom after this the life. To reach our goal, the goal for which Christ died, we must hold fast to the Holiness we have received by the grace of God.

So we are commanded, see to it that no one misses the grace of God, the grace that must express itself in peace and holiness. Holiness is the pre-requisite, but holiness is the gift of God by faith. The book of Hebrews reminds us through its warnings particularly in chapters six and 10, that the grace of God by faith is a gift that can be rejected and despised by people. So he warned us to not rejected the gift of God, the grace of God.

So how could we reject the grace of God?

Well throughout the book, the primary sin that has been the temptation to the Hebrew readers, is the temptation to sin by apostasy.
Apostasy is the conscious and public denial of Christ as Lord, and to deny Christ as Lord, is to deny Christ and all his benefits towards you. It is to be without a mediator, and the High-priest, before holy God. Holy God, who condemns or on righteousness. It is to fall into the hands of the living God, who is a consuming fire.

And our preacher pointed out to us two symptoms, that present themselves, when people are on the path to apostasy. And those two symptoms are both forms of godlessness, one is sexual immorality, and the second is the root of bitterness.

So firstly sexual immorality, throughout the old Testament, sexual immorality is very closely linked to Idolatry – or godlessness. Now this is particularly because of the expression of religious practice that was undertaken in the worship of many idols, but Israel herself was portrayed as an unfaithful wife. The link was that to engage in unfaithful behaviour physically, was a concrete expression of an unwillingness to submit to Yahweh's Lordship spiritually – to be godless.

And the preacher to the Hebrews want us to consider the warning of godlessness through the example of Esau. Esau treated the holy things of God, like they were common. He did not honour the birthright he had been given. Esau traded upon the grace of God, and the problem with that approach is that in our sinful craftiness, mankind doesn't perceive the train of God's grace leaving the station. Esau finally twigged that there was a problem, but long after he had the opportunity had gone to put things right through true repentance.

Esau’s Godlessness, is a warning to us all about the dangers of idolatry, and particularly a call to sexual purity. Do not treat the holy things of God, like they are Common, and do not presume and trade upon God's grace. These things lead down the path of apostasy, or godlessness.

Instead considered the heroes of the faith we talked about last week, and consider their outcome, "the world was not worthy of them", and by faith they received the promised inheritance. We are called to holiness.

Secondly, the root of bitterness.

It seems within the context of the letter, the stronger brothers and sisters who kept meeting together, we struggling to deal and relate with the weaker brothers and sisters who were in real danger of (or even the process of) falling way. It seems likely the ‘root of bitterness’ that rises up to cause trouble and defile many within Fellowship is the bitterness of pride and un-forgiveness.

All people will stand before God, by the grace of God, and that is why the preacher implores us and commands us to make sure no-one misses or forgets the grace of God. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and not by works so none of you can boast.

And let us not give up leading together as sum are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as we see the day approaching.
Brothers and sisters do not let the root of bitterness start to grow within your heart and so within this congregation, but remember the grace of God that we all share, and the grace of God demands from us a response of peace and holiness.

Christian maturity endures the discipline of the Lord, and by the grace of God, that results in us resisting sexual immorality, and resisting bitterness.

Christian maturity seeks to ensure that other believers do likewise, that the fellowship resists sexual immorality and the root of bitterness.

See to it no one misses the grace of God that must be shone in peace and holiness in the Fellowship.

3.make sure you remember who is speaking to you!

Verse 25

25 See to it** that you do not refuse him who speaks.
If they did not escape when they refused him
who warned them on earth,
how much less will we,
if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

This section of the letter uses a very common rhetorical technique that is employed throughout the new Testament and in particular by Paul, it is this expression of the light and heavy.

If the lighter thing was true, the revelation of God to Moses upon Sinai, for which the Israelite people were judged when they failed to obey it. How much more, the heavier thing, will the Hebrew hearers be judged because they have heard the final and full and complete revelation of God in his son Jesus Christ, if they are found to disobey it?

We are to hear the encouraging warning, of the immensity of God's judgement upon a person who would dare taste and see that the Lord is good, to see all the Christ has done and bared on their behalf, and turn their back and walk or away.

So we need to remember who is speaking to us.

4.let us be thankful and worship God with reverence and awe!

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
let us be thankful,
and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
29 for our "God is a consuming fire."

This passage reminds us, that God is a holy God, God is a faithful god, God is worthy of our worship.

The NIV translates to words as worship, the first word really means to honour, to praise, to give thanks, to declare his goodness, to give due reverence, to the one (the only one) who is worthy of worship. In its most literal sense, it means to bend at the waist. It's the reference you show a great King when you went to the throne room.

But the second word the NIV translates as worship, is the word that is used here and, and it means ‘to serve’. It means to serve in all of our life, every corner and action, the one true and living God.
let us be thankful,
and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,
29 for our "God is a consuming fire."

And so it seems the preacher has told us, that the holy God has spoken and most purposefully in his son, who endured the path set before him, to bring us the uncomfortable comfort of the cross. And he did it so that we who have received his grace can endure, (being disciplined and instructed) by hardship, so as to produce the fruit of holiness and worship and serve God as we head towards our heavenly goal.

Now - Like I said that in the beginning this is a passage full of action, there is direct and clear application, so let me ask you, what will you do now that you have heard the holy God speak today?

What will you do now?
Well if it helps, let me tell you what I'm going to do now!
You know what I am going to do when hardship comes my way?
Well with the Lord's help -- endure!

And let me tell you five practical steps to help achieve that;

1.pray. In times of difficulty, trial, anxiety or doubt, I am going to challenge myself to pray. To pray to the holy and sovereign God, who desires my good which is my Holiness. When difficulty and hardship comes, the challenge is to pray, and to say to God, "Lord you have my attention, what is it you are trying to teach me.

2.focus on Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith.
Jesus is the means by which we are saved, but he is also our example, through how he bared up under hardship, but also how God's purposes were achieved through his unjust suffering. Jesus is the means and the example that ‘by faith’ our hardship may end in his glory.

To focus on Jesus, is to hear the story told of the Christ who died for us, most purposefully in the Bible itself, but also in talks, books, and song.

3.turn my back on worldly pleasures. The heroes of faith did not consider the world worthy of them. This means they did not give in to the temptation of temporary pleasure, because of their eternal goal.

Practically what this means from this passage? it means sexual purity -- plain and simple, a profound challenge to any Christian in this modern world. And it also means no root of bitterness -- do not be proud, and do not judge a Christian brother, remember the grace of God you have received and a share in common.

4.remember the goal -- the best is yet to come, and it has not been revealed yet, Heaven may be beyond our site, but it is not beyond our means by faith.

The declaration of independence of the United States o f America, stated
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

The preacher to the Hebrews hold these truths to be revealed by their creator, that Christian people are endowed with certain benefits in Christ by faith, and among these are Grace, endurance and the pursuit of holiness.