The Loving Discipline of God

Hebrews 12 from verses 1 to 13. Therefore, since we are reminded, thus also 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, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself so that you may not grow weary and or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 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. For the Lord disciplines the ones He loves and chastises every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you have to know that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 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? 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. 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.

Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. This is the word of the Lord. How about we pray before we open God's word together? Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word. What a privilege it is that You speak to us through your word, the Bible.

Lord, we pray this morning that as we look at this portion of your word together, that You would give us hearts to hear and eyes to see and faith that receives your word to us. We pray it by your Spirit and in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I do wonder what you think of when you hear the word discipline. Perhaps for some of you, it sounds kind of harsh.

It conjures up images of a kind of strict self imposed training regime or something like that. Or maybe even worse, it brings back memories of an angry parent dishing out punishment and laying down the law when you stepped out of line. Discipline could be a painful word for some of us this morning. Or maybe you are a parent, and like me, you hear the word discipline and you think, yep, it sounds nice in theory, but in reality, I've got no idea what I'm doing. What do you think of when you hear the word discipline?

Because there is a sense in which our preconceived ideas about what discipline is, what it looks like, shape how we feel about the reality of a God who disciplines us. And that's exactly the reality that's given to us in our text today. Hebrews 12 verses 1 to 13 tells us that God disciplines us. Today, we're going to look at three truths about the loving discipline of God. And I hope that as we unpack these truths together, we'll come to see that it's quite a wonderful reality that we have a God, a Father in heaven who disciplines us.

The first truth that we see together is what we've said already, is just the simple fact that God disciplines the ones who He loves. In verses 5 and 6 of this chapter, the writer to the Hebrews, he gives them a word of exhortation. Exhortation is kind of a mixture between encouragement and just spurring someone on. That's what this truth is meant to do for us. It's meant to encourage us and spur us on.

Verses 5 and 6 say, 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 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises every son whom He receives. Now in the case of the Hebrews, the discipline or the chastisement that's being referred to here is likely the opposition and persecution that they had been facing. That's referred to in chapter 10 of Hebrews. Not sure if you want to flick back a couple of pages, but verse 34 of chapter 10 tells us the Hebrews had been insulted.

They'd been mocked. They'd had their property taken from them. So verse 4 of chapter 12 says that in spite of all that, mocking, theft of property, they'd been put in prison. But verse 4 of chapter 12 says that the Hebrews hadn't yet resisted sin. Sin here meaning the sin of those people who were opposing them.

The Hebrews hadn't resisted that to the point of shedding their blood. These people were facing strong opposition and persecution, but no one had lost their life yet. No one had shed their blood. Nonetheless, this was a genuine hardship. And the writer to the Hebrews tells them that this hardship that they were facing was in fact the disciplining hand of God.

God was the one behind it all, orchestrating things. He was disciplining them because He loved them. He was treating them as a Father treats His children. When we experience hard things in life, it can make us wonder if God has somehow forgotten about us. If God really loved us, then surely this hard thing in my life wouldn't be happening.

But this text tells us that the hard things we go through in life are best understood as the loving discipline of God. God is sovereign over everything, good and evil. Nothing that happens in this world, in your life, happens outside of His will. Even hard things, tragic things. We see this truth in the Bible when Naomi in the book of Ruth lost her husband.

She lost her two sons in tragic circumstances. What did she say? She said, don't call me Naomi anymore. Call me Mara, which means bitter. Why did she want people to call her that?

Well, she said, it's because God has dealt bitterly with me. In other words, the loss that she experienced, she understood to have been dealt to her by God. What about Job in the Bible? Losing all of his children, all of his possessions. Remember what he said?

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Naomi and Job got it. Hardship comes from God, and this chapter tells us that it can be understood as His loving discipline. You say, well, how can that be?

What kind of a loving God would do that? If Christianity is new to you, perhaps you're sitting there thinking, I don't like the sound of this God who disciplines people, dishes out hard things. But it's good for us to remember that saying that God disciplines us is different to saying that He punishes us. In fact, the Greek word behind this word discipline refers more to the process of guiding and training someone for life. Yes.

Sometimes through unpleasant means, but never as a punishment. Discipline is oriented towards the future rather than based on something that's happened in the past. The good news of the Bible is that even though we deserve to be punished for our sins, for rejecting God, for living life our own way without reference to Him, even though He made us and gives us everything we have, we deserve to be punished for that. But Jesus came into our world, died on a cross, and took that punishment for us. Through Jesus, we are adopted as God's children.

And our whole life then, even the hardship and suffering that we face, comes under the love and the care of God. You don't need to worry about God being angry at you or punishing you. Jesus took that anger and punishment on the cross. You are God's child who He loves. And now even the hard parts of your life can be understood as His loving discipline.

The writer of the Hebrews goes on to say in verse 7, what kind of children aren't disciplined by their father? It's a reality of life that dads discipline their kids. It's also a reality that kids don't like it. It's unpleasant, and it's painful. But a father disciplining his kids doesn't mean for a second that he doesn't love them.

If anything, you would argue that the opposite is true. Imagine you've got a kid who's out there putting themselves in harm's way, running onto the highway or something silly like that, and Dad just sits there and doesn't intervene, says, not my kid. That's not love. A loving Father intervenes, steps in, and corrects the child's behaviour. Or think about this.

As parents, perhaps grandparents even, you've got an understanding of the kind of character that you want to see in your kids. But imagine if Dad never actually does anything to try and instil that character in them. Just kind of sits on the couch, drinks beer, watches footy all day, isn't proactive in shaping his children's character. That's not love. A loving Father intervenes, gets involved in the discipline of his kids, even if he has to deal firmly with them or cause them pain.

He's doing it because he loves them. He loves them, therefore he disciplines them. Discipline when it's done well, not in anger or with the wrong motives or overly harsh. Discipline isn't the mark of an unloving or absent father. No.

Discipline is the mark of a Dad who loves his kids and wants what is best for them. And it's the same with God. God disciplines us because He loves us. I don't know what hardship or struggle you're going through at the moment, whether it's a mild inconvenience or something far more severe. Whatever it is, please remember this word of encouragement.

God disciplines the ones who He loves. He's treating you as His child. I think the challenge for us in the middle of our hardships is to really believe that and accept this truth. Even in the kind of simple day to day frustrations of life, kids that won't eat their dinner again, people at work giving you grief in a job that you don't really like, coming home to an empty house when you crave companionship. Each of us faces these kind of day to day hardships where life isn't all what we wish it was, and these hardships aren't trivial.

They're real. But how often do we stop and think to ourselves, God is disciplining me here because He loves me. I wonder what He's trying to teach me in this. Some of our hardships are indeed more severe. Taxing issues like chronic pain or some other illness that robs us of quality of life or caring for someone with such an illness.

The grief of losing someone you love, the thought of facing another day with searing pain in your joints, or crippling anxiety and depression. Friends, when you feel that pain, that exhaustion, that grief, when those things wash over you like a wave, please don't think of them as some kind of cruel, impersonal, random force. Instead, remember God as your Father who loves you. Yes. Dealing with you in a way that's painful, but at the same time and in the same way that a loving Dad would discipline his kids, stooping down, putting his arms around you and saying, I know this hurts.

I know you don't like it, but please trust me. I'm doing this because I love you. God disciplines the ones He loves, and that is meant as a word of encouragement for us. Not only that, but God's discipline has a purpose. That's the second thing that we see in our text.

The second truth about God's discipline is that His discipline has a purpose. Look at verses 10 and 11 of chapter 12. It says, for they, that is our dads here on earth, disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He, that is God, disciplines us for our good. Why? That we may share in His holiness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Why does God discipline us? He disciplines us so that we might share in His holiness. He disciplines us so that we might yield a harvest of righteousness and peace in our lives. What does that mean?

Well, on the one hand, God wants us to be holy in the sense that we're cleansed from sin. Verse 1 of this chapter tells us to throw off the sin that entangles us, throw off every weight that holds us back from running the race set before us. God disciplines us as a means of helping us to throw off that sin. We need to be careful here, of course. It doesn't mean that every hardship we experience in life is the result of some specific sin.

You can't point to someone who's been diagnosed with cancer and say, this has happened in your life because of some specific sin. Never. That's not what this text means. But it does mean that when we experience hardship, it is a cause for us to at least examine our lives and see if there's something that God is trying to put His finger on. Through prayer and self examination, God might show you some sin that you need to throw off.

The hardship of financial wise might be God's way of showing you that you depend too much on your money rather than on Him. The hardship of a difficult marriage might be God's way of showing you the sins of selfishness or an unforgiving spirit that you need to repent of. Sometimes those things might become clear, especially with hindsight, but probably not always. In fact, maybe not even often. Perhaps God might not be trying to show us some specific sin.

Instead, He's simply training us so that we can grow in godly character. Remember that word discipline is all about training. It's future oriented. A bit like if you can remember the movie The Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi.

There's a new show on Netflix actually, Cobra Kai, that goes forward. It's really good. But, anyway, yes. Mr. Miyagi, he disciplines the karate kid not because he'd done something wrong, but because he wanted him to learn, to be prepared for future situations, to become wise and skilful and patient like Mr. Miyagi was. Wax on, wax off, washing the car.

Didn't make much sense at the time, but down the track, it all became clear. And it's the same with God's discipline. God disciplines us, maybe not because of some specific thing that we've done wrong, but to train us to be like Him. Sometimes we'll be a bit like the karate kid, enduring some kind of suffering with no obvious rhyme or reason to it. And in some ways, that's often the hardest part, not having the exact reason why we're experiencing suffering.

And the truth is that in this life, we'll probably never get all the answers. But it's worth asking the question, what is God trying to teach me here? How does He want me to grow in holiness? And friends, isn't it good news that God works in our lives in this way? Because if you're like me, then you want to grow in holiness.

Jesus said, you're a person who hungers and thirsts after righteousness. You want to be a person of character. And the good news is that God wants that for you too. You might even say that God cares more about your holiness than about your happiness. He is in the business of shaping your character even if He has to use hardship to make it happen.

The fruit of righteousness so often grows out of the soil of suffering. You see it all the time, don't you? If you're someone who's experienced grief and loss, perhaps God has used that in your life to make you more understanding, more compassionate, more empathic towards other people who experience grief and loss. And by being understanding and compassionate, there's a sense in which you're being like God. You reflect something of His character, something of His righteousness.

If you're someone who lives with a debilitating health condition, perhaps you've learned through that condition that you are indeed human, and you've learned to rely on God and lean on Him more than you ever did before. And you can take that kind of story and put it on repeat. Recently, I was reading the story of an Australian mum called Cécily Patterson who wrote a book called Love, Tears and Autism. She prayed that God would help her to love people better. That's a good prayer to pray, isn't it?

God, please help me love people better. A few weeks later, her three year old son was diagnosed with autism. She wrote that her dreams were shattered. Her life became exceedingly difficult. But for her, that challenge has been the road to a deeper kind of love.

She said in an interview, listen to these words. She said, the main thing I've learned is that loving someone when you don't get anything back, loving someone when it's really hard, when the other person doesn't say I love you back, that's when you understand how much God loves us. She said, I've learned to love as God loves in a whole new way. Cécily Patterson is sharing in God's holiness. She's loving as He loves.

God disciplines the ones who He loves in order that we might share in His holiness and produce a harvest of righteousness and peace. But we have a role to play as well in terms of how we respond to God's discipline. That's the third and final truth that we see in our text, that God's discipline demands a response. Specifically, there are two sets of do's and don'ts that we need to pay attention to. Notice in verse 5, we're simply told, do not regard lightly the Lord's discipline.

Do not regard it lightly. What's the opposite of making light of the Lord's discipline? Notice verse 9, we've all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Don't make light of the Lord's discipline.

Rather, be subject to Him and live. We've looked at this a little bit in our first point, but we make light of the Lord's discipline when we fail to recognise His hand in our hardships. So often when hard times come our way, instead of stopping to reflect and pray and examine ourselves, we just look for the quickest way out. And, of course, it goes without saying that it's not wrong to look for relief. If you're sick, go to the doctor.

If you put your back out, go to the physio. If you're having money troubles, do what you can to try and pay down debt and get on top of things. But don't stop there. See, we can actually fail to be trained by God's discipline if we make light of it and only ever just look for relief or worse, get angry and bitter at God. But if we humble ourselves, acknowledge God's hand in our circumstances, pray and ask Him to reveal what He's trying to teach us, seek to allow our circumstances to grow us in holiness, that's what it looks like to be subject to God.

Don't make light of the Lord's discipline, rather submit to Him and live. And finally, our second set of do's and don'ts. Verse 5 again, do not be weary when reproved by God. Rather, verse 12, lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees. Don't grow weary.

Strengthen your drooping hands and weak knees. Keep running the race. Allow God's discipline to be the thing that helps you to lay aside the weight of sin so that it can so easily entangle. Keep on running. Be assured that He loves you and wants what's best for you.

Of course, that's easy to say. I have no doubt that some of you are dealing with immense hardship that can feel all consuming and overwhelming. A chronic health issue that makes your life miserable, crippling depression or anxiety, major disappointments in family life. The temptation in the face of all of that is to lose heart and give up.

Nothing in this chapter is designed to minimise that hardship or deny the pain that goes with it. Rather, God gives us this word of encouragement so that we won't lose heart, but that we would be strengthened and persevere. Yes. Life can be trying and taxing and exhausting and depressing. And that's why we need to fix our eyes on Jesus.

Look at verse 1. Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Let us run with endurance the race that's set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Look to Jesus, who not only went before us, but runs alongside us as our great high priest who can empathise with all of our weaknesses, who is familiar with our suffering, and who helps us in our time of need. Look to Jesus who experienced every kind of hardship under the sun.

He was a man of sorrows and suffering, acquainted with grief, familiar with pain, despised and rejected and betrayed and mocked. He was oppressed and afflicted. And what did He do? He persevered. He kept going.

He was subject to His Father when He prayed, not my will, but yours be done. He persevered as far as the cross, dying there and rising again so that we could be called children of God, loved by Him, and, yes, disciplined by Him as well. God disciplines us because He loves us. He disciplines us so that we might share in His holiness and produce a harvest of righteousness. Don't grow weary, but run with perseverance, fixing your eyes on Jesus.

Let's pray. Lord God and heavenly Father, we want to acknowledge before you this morning that this can be a really hard truth to accept. Lord, as we face difficult things in our lives, it can be hard to see those things as coming from your hand and being used by you to shape us and train us. But, Lord, we do pray that you would give us eyes to see that this morning. And we do pray that we would be encouraged and spurred on and enabled to keep running the race that you've set before us.

Help us, we pray. Thank you for our amazing Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who makes all of this possible. Thank you for the adoption that we have as your children. Thank you for a Saviour who helps us in our time of need. Thank you for your Holy Spirit who lives within us, giving us eyes of faith.

We pray that you would keep working in us more and more. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.