Disciplined Disciples

How many of you have heard the phrase, “Busy Bee?” What does this phrase mean? It seems to mean that bee’s are busy. Busy doing what? Stinking people? Possibly! Likely, though, it refers to the fact that they are out collecting honey for their hive.

Do you know how many trips a worker bee has to make to in order to produce a pound of honey? It has been estimated that it would require 3.36 million trips to a flower for a bee to accomplish this task. The worker bee makes dozens of trips a day and might visit hundreds of flowers during each trip. He will fly up to 8 miles to gather pollen and nectar. The bee does a lot of work just to help his hive out. The bee is persistent! What a good image for us to think of whenever we are struggling with a difficult task and a call to endure hardship. If a honey bee can persevere, so can you and I.

We just concluded the hall of faith passage in Hebrews 11 and we find ourselves in Hebrews 12 this morning. In this text, the preacher of Hebrews is beginning to “land the plane” if you will and bring home some application to his audience. Because Jesus is Greater and because we are supposed to follow Him and have faith in Him, we must run the race before us with endurance. I’m not sure about your physical fitness, but if you are preparing for a race, you’d better be in shape. As followers of Christ, we must be in shape as well and one of the ways that we get in shape is through discipline. Discipline is not always fun, is it? In fact, it’s usually painful or at least unpleasant. With that said, it has a purpose and it matters greatly to the runner. Should discipline matter to us as followers of Christ? Yes, it should. We are to keep our eyes on Jesus and to know that even in times of suffering and discipline, God is working in our lives and we will look back on our discipline and see the fruit that it yields in our lives.

Hebrews 12:1–11 CSB

1 Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up. 4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him, 6 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives. 7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness. 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

As followers of God, we Run with Endurance (1-3)

In the Bible we see lots of metaphors. Some people get up in arms when you say that you have to do some work to properly understand what the Bible is saying instead of just reading it and taking it literally. Think for a moment, though, when Jesus says that He is the bread of life in John 6:35, is He saying that whenever you repent of your sins and make Him Lord of all that you no longer hunger or thirst? Of course that’s not what Christ is saying! As Christians we continue to find ourselves thirsty and hungry, but we also believe that Jesus is the bread of life. What does Jesus mean by this? This is a metaphor. It’s not meant to be taken literally, especially in the sense of the Lord’s Supper as Catholics and Lutherans take what Jesus says in Luke 24:19-20. Likewise, the preacher of Hebrews uses a metaphor in our opening few verses that is from the world of athletics. Given this fact, some scholars note that this serves as evidence that the context of this sermon is a city that would have been familiar with athletic events such as Alexandria or Rome. If nothing else, this is good food for thought, as we discussed the context and location of this letter months ago.

We see that we are involved in this race. If you ever ran track, you know that there’s a difference in running for fun and running in a competitive race. There’s more pressure when you’re racing in front of spectators. Are there spectators for us as we run this race? You’d better believe so, at least in this athletic metaphor, as the preacher of Hebrews notes that the Old Testament saints serve as a cloud of witnesses who have already run their race.

Their race is over. For some of you, you’re making the turn and entering the final straightaway on your race. For others, the pistol has just been shot and you’re exiting the starting blocks, but the fact remains that we are running this race and the preacher of Hebrews gives us a couple of thoughts as to how we should run this race.

Just as in track, we run to win the race. As a friend of mine used to say, 2nd place is just the 1st loser. You run to win! While some of us might be more competitive than others, we should strive to run our spiritual race in such a way that we “win” and that we would do so with endurance. In junior high, I ran the 400 meter and was on the 4x4 relay team. The 400 meter is an interesting race because it’s not a dead sprint like the 100 meter or 200 meter. The 400 meter is a full lap around a high school track. If you took off too fast, you could hit a wall at the end of the race and get passed. If you took off too slow, the race was short enough that you wouldn’t be able to catch your competitors. You had to sprint with endurance. This is also true in our spiritual lives. We run with urgency because we know that our next step is not guaranteed, but we also run with endurance because we don’t want to fizzle out before the finish line. We want to run the whole way!

Before we can run this race, though, what must we do? We must lay aside every hinderance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Is this an easy thing to do, friends? Sin is a real threat that we are tempted with on a daily basis and the sad reality is that we are prone to wander. We have a fallen, sinful nature and left to our own choice, we will choose to sin. Scripture is full of warnings that we must heed and not fall victim to sin and its power. We must lay it aside as we prepare to run this race.

The preacher says in verse 2 that we keep our eyes on Jesus. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the fact that if you take your eyes off the road for 1 second while traveling on I-44, you travel over 102 feet in that 1 second. That’s a lot of distance in a short amount of time. A lot of things could go wrong in that 1 second. Likewise, in a race, if the runner takes his focus and eyesight off the prize for a split moment, lots of things can go wrong. If I put this mask over my eyes, will my eyes be focused on the finish line or will I have absolutely no idea where I’m going? This thing is thick and made up of black cloth. I can’t see through it. If I put this over my eyes, I’m going to be in a bad situation because I can’t see where I’m going. Friends, you and I are blinded by our sin and if we don’t keep our eyes on Jesus, we will be in a whole world of trouble!

Why should we keep our eyes on Jesus, though? We just got done looking at the hall of faith and many people want to seemingly idolize some of those individuals. As Al Mohler puts it, “This great cloud of witnesses encourages and inspires us, but the One who keeps us in the race is Christ alone.”

Verses 2-3 share with us that He is the pioneer/author/source and perfecter of our faith. He is the one upon which our faith is founded. Peter hits this point in Acts 4

Acts 4:12 ESV

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Without Him life is hopeless and we have no evidence for our belief. Paul talks about this reality in 1 Corinthians 15:14

1 Corinthians 15:14 CSB

14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.

Yet, we see in Scripture that Jesus Christ truly was raised from the dead and serves as the author of our faith. Without Him, we have no faith. He is also the perfecter of our faith and the one who completes it. Christ secures our salvation and serves as our great high priest in the throne room of heaven interceding on our behalf right now. He has accomplished everything necessary for our salvation. How did He do this? He endured the cross. He paved the way for us, as Paul notes that we too are buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life. Just as Christ endured the cross, you and I are called to endure the various things that we face in our lives. Our ultimate hope in this is that just as Christ rose, we too have that resurrection power thanks to the Holy Spirit taking up residence in us.

F.F. Bruce is helpful in focusing on the disgrace associated with crucifixion. Did you know that Roman citizens were exempt from crucifixion? There were some benefits from being a Roman citizen! You wouldn’t be crucified and you could appeal to the Emperor himself as we see Paul do in Acts 25. Jesus, though, was not a Roman citizen. He endured the cross but he didn’t view it with shame. He despised the shame. He submitted to shame and death. How could Christ do this? Because of the joy set before Him. The cross is joyful? Certainly the cross was painful, but we see in Hebrews 2:10 that the cross is essential!

Hebrews 2:10 CSB

10 For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—for whom and through whom all things exist—should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

There is joy even in suffering because of what God is going to bring about through this work of atonement. Even in times of suffering, there is joy. Because of this, we too run with endurance.

So what must we do? As the preacher of Hebrews has said several times, we must pay attention and consider Jesus Christ. Why must we do this? Because of what He has done for us. Jesus is our hope in life and death as the Heidelberg Catechism states. Do you have that hope today? If you do, run the race with endurance! Don’t shrink back and cower down, remain strong and faithful because you know that Christ has conquered sin and death once and for all. In your moment of struggle and despair, hold on and look to the cross.

If you don’t know Christ today, consider Jesus Christ. Consider what the Bible says about Christ and what the Bible says about your current state. Society says that you’re good enough as you are. The Bible says that you and I are unrighteous sinners and that there is nothing inside of ourselves that deserves eternal life with God in heaven, yet even though we are unworthy by ourselves, Romans 5:8 tells us the truth of Scripture

Romans 5:8 NASB95

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Consider what Jesus did and respond to Him today.

As followers of God, we willingly Receive Discipline (4-11)

As followers of God, we are called to run the race with endurance and we see in this second part of our text that we will receive discipline! We don’t like receiving discipline, do we? With that in mind Michael Green notes, “Discipline is not God’s way of saying, “I’m through with you,” or a mark of abandonment by him. Rather, it is the loving act of God to bring you back. CS Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures; he speaks to us in our work; he shouts at us in our pain.” Every one of us knows that there have been times when we would not listen to God or pay any attention to what his Word was saying, until finally he used a severe discipline to get our attention so that we would listen.”

What a great reminder for us that in our moments of suffering when we are discouraged and at the end of our rope, we know that God still has a plan for us and that He uses discipline as a way of showing His love for us. With that in mind, we must not be passive when it comes to discipline. There are some people who think of discipline only coming about when they do something bad, because of this they just won’t do anything at all! There can be a temptation for us to avoid persecution and discipline completely and as a result what do we do? We do nothing, which as a follower of Christ is to willingly sin. Whenever we think of sin we think of doing or thinking or saying things that are ungodly. Sin is also a failure to do what we should do. If God calls us to do something and we don’t do it, we are in sin. What is the point of all of this? In verse 4 we see a warning for these believers as they have not yet resisted to the point of shedding their blood. These Christians have faced persecution but they haven’t faced physical persecution yet. This is how things likely are for all of us in this room. We’ve faced temptation and opposition, but none of us have likely ever faced physical persecution (the shedding of blood), but we must remember that our comfort in that regard is not a guarantee. That reality can change quickly!

In verses 5-8 we see a reference from Proverbs 3:11-12 and a brief commentary from the preacher. His point is this: our hardships and suffering is not a bad thing, rather it is a token of God’s love for us. They prove that we belong to God.

Solomon is encouraging his son in Proverbs 3 to view God’s discipline in a positive light rather than to take it lightly. Administering discipline is the job of a parent. God is at work in our lives in times of joy and in times of adversity. God tests us and God helps us. As we talked about last week, His grace sustains us and His grace is sufficient in times of weakness.

Consider the last time that you underwent discipline. Did you rejoice because of the discipline? Probably not because that’s a crazy thing to do. Whenever you have a consequence due to an action, you’re probably not happy about it. Yet, as followers of God, we see in our text that the Lord disciplines the one that He loves. Friends, if you are experiencing discipline from the Lord and you are undergoing adversity and persecution, this should not drive you to despair but rather to rejoice and praise the Lord! Times of suffering prove that we belong to God. So we endure through suffering and discipline.

In Hebrews 5:8 we see that Christ learned obedience through suffering

Hebrews 5:8 ESV

8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Isn’t this a crazy verse? How on earth could Christ, the 2nd person of the Trinity, fully-God, fully-man, learn obedience? In Gethsemane, before His eventual crucifixion, Christ obeyed God’s call and plan. This is emphasizing the humanity of Christ, is it not? We learn about this in the Old Testament in the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 52-53 and this audience would have been familiar with this text given their Jewish background. All genuine children of God will be disciplined. If you are not disciplined, verse 8 notes that you are an illegitimate child and not truly a son or daughter of God! Do you see that there is a purpose in discipline?

Think back to when you were a child and you were disciplined by your parents. You respected your parents, didn’t you? Some of you did this more than others, but there is a healthy amount of respect between a child and his or her parents. Sadly, that is lost on some in our world today, but parents have been through situations that children are going through currently and they can help provide direction and discipline to help the child out. What is the purpose behind the discipline? To grow and become better. Sadly, parents make mistakes! Sometimes the discipline given to the child is not enough, other times it is too much. Earthly parents are not perfect but they are given the task of raising up a child in the way that they should walk so that they will not depart from it as Proverbs 22:6 notes. The great news for those of us who are Christians, though, is that our heavenly Father does not make mistakes when it comes to disciplining His children. We respect our parents and we should respect our heavenly Father even more! Yet, many people don’t respect God and they certainly don’t respect God’s decisions. The next time that you find yourself being disciplined for sin, don’t look at God as the bad guy, repent and accept that discipline. Look at it as a positive thing done out of love because God’s purpose in discipline is that we would share in His holiness as verse 10 notes!

The process of being made holy is progressive and we will never officially arrive at holiness on this side of heaven, but there is a goal in mind here that we should strive for. We are to strive to be like Christ. We run this race and we endure through times of adversity and times of prosperity and joy knowing that God is working all things together for our good and for His glory as Romans 8:28 shares with us.

Verse 11 finalizes this text by sharing with us that discipline in the short term is painful. Have you ever played the “why” game? Why did this happen? Why did that happen to me? What happens often times in the future? We look back with better perspective and realize that God did that for our ultimate good, even though we couldn’t see it at the time. Discipline is more than a bad thing or punishment. Discipline teaches us. It forces us to grow and to become better disciples for Christ! Whenever we are disciplined and we find ourselves struggling, let us look to the author and perfecter of our faith who suffered far greater than we ever will. There’s a song that we’re going to sing next month entitled, “Before the Throne of God Above” and the 2nd verse says this,

“When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see him there, who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free; for God, the just, is satisfied to look on him and pardon me.”

Whenever we are tempted to despair in the middle of the storm, look to Christ and rejoice in what He did for us 2000 years ago as He took our place and bore our sin once and for all.

Conclusion

Charles Spurgeon told a story once about athletes in the ancient world who trained for the olympic games. He noted, “In the Greek gymnasium, the training master would challenge the youths to meet him in combat. He knew how to strike, to guard, to wrestle. The young combatants received many severe blows from him, but this was a part of their education, preparing them at some future time to appear publicly in the games. He who shirked the trial and declined the encounter with the trainer received no good from him, even though he would probably be thoroughly well flogged for his cowardice. The youth whose athletic frame was prepared for future struggle was he who stepped forth boldly to be exercised by his master.

If you see afflictions come and sit down impatiently, and will not be exercised by your trials, then you do not get the peaceable fruit of righteousness. But you should say, “Now is my time of trial; I will play the man. I will wake up my faith to meet the foe, take hold of God, stand with firm foot and not slip. Let all my graces be stirred up, for here is something to be exercised on.” It is then that a man’s bone, and sinew, and muscle, all grow stronger.”

Do you view discipline properly as something that will make you a stronger and better disciple for Jesus Christ or do you cower away from it and sit around idle and wait for someone else to do what God is calling you to do? Don’t be that person. View discipline in a positive light and see that God disciplines those who belong to Him!

Consider Jesus Christ today. If you are in Christ, continue to run this race with your eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of your faith! Don’t get distracted by the things this world throws at us. Don’t allow our church to get distracted from our purpose to share the Gospel and make disciples. If you are not a Christian. Consider Jesus today! Look at what the Bible says about Jesus and what the Bible says about you and me. We are sinners and we are lost. The only hope for us is Jesus Christ. Not a man. Not a country. Not an idea. Not a place. The God-man who endured the cross 2000 years ago. Look to Him and do business with Jesus.

For all of us, we need to do some spiritual exercise and continue to run this race with endurance.

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