• Assuming they'd received his doctrine and exhortations, the Hebrew-Christians likely had one more question.
  • He had explained to them, in detail, just what they had in Jesus.
  • He had bolstered them for their race by telling them to...
    • ...commune with God (10:19-22).
    • ...stir up and meet with one another (10:23-25).
    • ...hold tight to their gospel confession (10:26-31).
    • ...expect suffering for Christ (10:32-34).
    • ...look forward to the great, promised reward (10:35-36).
    • ...learn to live by faith (10:37-12:2).
• But these exhortations bolstered them for, without rescuing them from, the struggle.
  • So, they might ask, what is God doing during our struggle?
    • Perhaps you can personalize this: what is God doing during my struggles?
    • Note: Scripture has more to say about suffering than what we find in Hebrews 12, so this is part of the answer.
      • Answer: He's training you.
  • 3 Further questions:
    • What good does God's training produce?
    • How do I know God's training works?
    • Why should I receive God's training?

Q1 What Is God Doing During My Struggle?

First, A Reality Check

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

• 3-4 Consider him / you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood:
  • First, the author gives them (and us) a little reality check.
    • Jesus endured to the point of death for his mission.
    • But we have not yet resisted to such a point.
  • Perhaps we need this perspective.
  • Still, back to our question, what is God doing during my struggle?

1 He Is Loving You As His Child

5 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. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

• 5-7 Discipline of the Lord / Reproved by him / the Lord disciplines the one he loves / chastises every son whom he receives / Treating you as sons: Notice each phrase. They drip with fatherly love.
  • Because of God's paternal care, he engages in our maturation.
    • God is a good dad who wants to help mature his children!
• 6 Disciplines / Chastises / 7 Endure: Training / Correction / Goal.
  • God has the right to tell us what to do.
  • God also has the right to actively intervene in our lives to help us become.
• 7 A main goal is to help you learn to endure.
  • All his tutelage, education, instruction, and training is designed, not to punish, for Christ has dealt with our punishment, but to build us up.

2 He Is Producing Good In You

9 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? 10 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. 11 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.

• 10-11 Share his holiness / yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness / trained: What is God doing during your struggle? Training you to bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

• Example: The lion and bear were God's way to build David up for Goliath.

  • Life is a struggle and the potential for failure is ever present, but those who live in fear of failure, or hardship, or embarrassment will never achieve their potential. Without pushing your limits, without occasionally sliding down the rope headfirst, without daring greatly, you will never know what is truly possible in your life. -- William H. McRaven, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World

  • But for the Christian, God helps us "slide down the rope head first."

    • He uses the struggle to produce good in us.

Q2 What Good Does God's Training Produce?

1 Resolve For Life

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

• 12-13 Lift / Strengthen / Make straight: Don't react to God's discipline by despising it, being overly discouraged by it, or simply moving through it. Instead, be trained by it!
  • We might suffer for our foolishness (1 Peter 2:20), stand for Christ (1 Peter 3:14), current sins (1 Corinthians 11:31), past sins (Galatians 6:7), or God’s purposes (Job).
  • But we should move forward with resolve, conviction, and determination.

2 Peace With Others

14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

• 14 Peace with everyone: As much as depends on you, be at peace with others. Don't bring unrest with others into your life through personal unholiness.
• 14 No one will see the Lord: Don't get in the way of others' chance to see God with your own unholiness.

3 Clean Hearts

15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

• 15 Grace of God / root of bitterness:

  • He alluded to a time they renewed the covenant before going into the Promised Land.

    • Deuteronomy 29:18–19 (ESV) — 18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, 19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’

  • The root of bitterness, here, is drawn away from God.

    • The bitter heart isn't living in the grace of God.
    • The bitter heart causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.

4 Better Vision

16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

• 16-17 Esau / birthright / single meal / afterward / rejected / tears: Esau's story (Genesis 25:29-34).
  • He did this, because he was sexually immoral and unholy. The fruit of his life demonstrated the root of his heart.
    • He cared more about the present than the future, the physical than the spiritual, the flesh than the spirit.
  • These Hebrew Christians, as they looked at friends and family who had it better than them, needed a better vision.
    • Don't give away your birthright!

Q3 How Do I Know God's Training Works?

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Because You Are Under The New Covenant.

• Not the old.

• In his concluding remarks, he again, but this time succinctly, compares the two covenants.

• Old Covenant vs. New Covenant

  • Physical - "may be touched" (18) vs. Immaterial - "the heavenly Jerusalem" (22)
  • Fearful - "darkness, gloom, tempest" (18) vs. Celebratory - "angels in festal gathering" (22)
  • Law - "messages" (19) vs. Grace - "to the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (23)
  • Exclusive - "If even a beast touches the mountain..." (20) vs. Inclusive - "to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven" (23)
  • Moses was the mediator - "Moses said" (21) vs. Jesus is the mediator - "Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant" (24)
  • Animal blood - "the blood of Abel" (24) vs. Jesus' blood - "sprinkled blood that speaks a better word" (24)

• Major lesson of Hebrews: The New Covenant works!

Q4 Why Should I Receive God's Training?

1 Because We Have God's Finest Revelation.

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

• 25 Do not refuse him who is speaking / warned them on earth / warns from heaven: The New Covenant is a much greater revelation.

  • Hebrews 1:1–2 (ESV) — 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...

  • And we want to respect this great revelation. The cross was costly. We love God for it.

2 Because We Have God's Kingdom.

26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

• 26-27 Shook / Shake / Shaken / Removal / Remain: In God's new creation, he will have to shake the first creation, and only the most important things from the first will endure to the second.

  • 2 Peter 3:11–13 (ESV) — 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

    • But we are often drawn to the lesser things which will not endure.

3 Because God Is Worthy.

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

• 29 God is a consuming fire:

  • He refers to Moses' speech to the generation who went into the Promise Land.
    • Deuteronomy 4:24 (ESV) — 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
    • You have God! Move forward with him alone! He is enough!

• 28 Acceptable worship: After all we've learned in Hebrews, all God has done for us, including a kingdom that cannot be shaken, we must live for him!

Close

• I realize I'm making it sound as if the letter has concluded.
  • The major letter has.
  • Next: bonus tracks, epilogue