Sermon Tone Analysis

Ministry of Chastisement

STRANGE MINISTERS

Ron Dunn

Hebrews 12:5-17

 

 

        Open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews 12.

I am going to start reading with verse 5 and read through verse 17.

The people to whom the author is writing are having spiritual fainting spells.

Much of the book of Hebrews deals with trying to encourage these Hebrew Christians, trying to cure their disheartenment because of trials and tribulations and sufferings and difficulties that had come their way.

In the passages preceding this one, he has been giving reasons why they should not be disheartened because of adversity.

You remember that chapter 11 is that great faith chapter.

There the writer is pointing to them as examples.

The faith of these great men was wrought out through suffering and trials and adversity.

In chapter 12 he uses the example of Jesus as one who suffered; therefore, they should not be disheartened when they suffer.

But there is a third reason that they suffer.

Much of their discouragement and disheartenment is a result of their forgetting a primary truth in the spiritual life.

In verse 5 he picks up this third reason that Christians suffer.

This thing that they have forgotten has led to some doubt and frustration, which in turn has caused some disheartenment in their Christian life.

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence:  shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; or as seemed good to them.

But God chastens us for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous:  nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:  Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.

For he know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected:  for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

One of the greatest mysteries that face Christians is this mystery of suffering.

Why do Christians suffer?

That used to be one of the most favorite sermon topics.

Let an evangelist come into a church for a week and announce that he was going to preach a message on why Christians suffer, and there was immediately a built-in audience.

None of us is exempt from asking that question.

Why is it that after I have given my life to Jesus Christ (not in a nominal way but have really given to him the obedience of my life, and as much as in me is have acknowledged him to be the Lord of my life and strive in all ways to please him) that so much trouble comes into my life as a Christian?

You will not read very much of the Bible until you discover that a great portion of God's Word struggles with this mighty mystery of divine providence and human suffering.

Why do Christians suffer?

David almost backslid; well, as a matter of fact, he did because he said, my feet were in the well and I slipped because I became envious at the wicked.

I look at the wicked, that man who cares not a thing about the Lord, and he seems to have it made.

Everything goes smooth for him.

There seems to be no problem surrounding his life.

David said he knew nothing but trouble, sorrow, and tears.

I began to think I was serving the Lord for nothing, that I was making a fool of myself.

I think there are three reasons illustrated by three biblical characters as to why Christians suffer.

Some Christians suffer like Job who was a perfect man, and God allowed the devil to afflict and inflict him as a test of his faith.  1 Peter, chapter 1, says that God is going to test or try our faith so that the Father might be glorified through our stability of believing.

So many times a Christian will suffer as Job suffered.

Job illustrates that kind of misfortune and tragedy and sorrow and suffering that falls into a Christian's life in order to exhibit that this man's faith is sound and firm and steadfast—and to increase this man's faithfulness and stability in the Lord.

God allows this to happen.

Paul, the apostle, and his thorn in the flesh is another example of the Job-type of suffering.

Then there is the Jesus-type of suffering.

Jesus suffered simply because he was godly.

Jesus suffered because he was truth.

Peter says again in chapter 4:  don't be surprised when you suffer as Jesus suffered.

In John, chapter 15, Jesus said: if the world has hated me, you know that it will also hate you.

In Matthew, chapter 5, as he was giving the beatitudes, Jesus said: when you are persecuted for my sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad.

Christians suffer like Jesus suffered simply because Jesus was obedient to the Heavenly Father.

He was identified with the righteousness of God, and the world reacted towards that with suffering and chastisement.

Christians suffer like Jesus suffered simply because they are identified with Jesus.

When a Christian suffers this way, the Bible says he ought to be happy because it identifies him with his Lord.

Then there is a third kind of suffering—the Jonah kind of suffering.

Jonah suffered not as a test of his faith, not because he was identified with the righteousness of God, but Jonah suffered because he was disobedient and rebellious to his Lord.

The Bible calls this chastisement and discipline.

The Hebrew Christians had forgotten that, and the writer is saying that some of you are suffering like the heroes of faith suffered—the Job-kind.

Some of you are suffering like Jesus suffered—simply because he was righteous.

Beginning in verse 5 he says some of you are suffering because of your disobedience, because of the sin that is in your life.

You are experiencing the Jonah-kind of suffering.

The message this morning is the Ministry of Chastisement--or the ministry of discipline.

The Bible very clearly teaches that God is going to discipline his children.

God has a right to do it as any Father has a right to chasten, whip, spank, or discipline his child.

As far back as the book of Deuteronomy, God warned the people that this would be.

In Deuteronomy 8:5 he says, Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.

Again in 2 Samuel 7:14 the Lord says, I will be his Father, and he shall be my son.

If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.

God says, I am going to be a father to you.

If you commit iniquity, I am going to chasten you.

Just as any father chastens the son that he loves so the Heavenly Father is going to chasten us.

Not every time that suffering comes is it an indication that I have sinned.

It is not always chastisement.

This is why it is important for you to live right with God so that when adversity and difficulty come, you will be able to know whether or not this simply God trying your faith, or is it God punishing you, chastening you, disciplining you because of sin in your life.

We are going to look at the ministry, the manner, and the message of these verses.

Follow along as we study what God has to say about this matter of chastisement.

First of all, let's look at the ministry of chastisement.

God not only has a right to chasten us; he has a reason.

God never does anything without a purpose.

Notice in verse 10 that he is using a contrast between our earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father.

He says our earthly fathers chastened us for a few days.

That means while we were living with them, under their tutorship.

After their own pleasure is an unfortunate translation.

That doesn't mean that the dad got a kick out of doing it.

I say this because I have a feeling some young people are sitting here thinking: I knew it all along.

Now I have Scripture to prove that the only reason my dad spanks is because he enjoys it.

That is not a good translation.

Sorry about that.

What it means is that they chastened as seemed right or as seemed good to them.

The writer is saying that they were not always correct in doing it.

Any parent knows that there are times when he chastens a child for the wrong reason, more because he is angry than because they have disobeyed.

Sometimes they are punished wrongly.

I could write a list of times I got spanked for something I didn't do.

But I could make a longer list for the times when I did something and didn't get caught or get a spanking for it.

I have no right to complain about those times that my father and mother misjudged and misinterpreted the circumstances and perhaps punished me wrongly.

It didn't happen very often.

Actually, they were just catching up for all the things I did they didn't know about.