[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Today’s discussion is going to be a little hard for some, or at least, it might appear that it will be, but let’s work through it for our benefit. Hebrews chapter 12, starting in verse 1: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us 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” (ESV).

       The image set before us is that of a grand race, a race which occurs in front of a stadium of people. We might think of a track meet where the runners run the oval of the stadium. In order for a runner to run effectively, that runner strips off the unnecessary clothing down as light as possible. Wearing heavy clothing only slows the runner down. That’s the image. We in twenty-first century America are pretty familiar with this kind of setup individuals do when going for a run. Whether we are athletic or not, whether we run ourselves or not, we understand it. Whole lines of clothing are geared to running. Thus, we get the metaphor, but what are some thing that might be holding us down? We need to remember that we are coming to this text with Hebrew Christians in mind. And we are aware the author has spent a great deal of this letter so far talking about the problem of trying to live under the Old Jewish Law in conjunction with the new way under Christ. We’ve gone over that again and again. Undoubtedly, that’s what the author has in mind when he’s speaking of stripping down what is unnecessary, in getting rid of that extra weight. The Old Jewish system no longer needed to be practiced. It was obsolete. The runners, the Hebrew Christians, needed to focus on the new way—the easier way which is found in Christ.

       The encouragement is also made for the listeners to lay aside sin. That seems like a no brainer, but he hasn’t particularly dealt with sin much his epistle. One thing he does point out, and it does seem to be the experience of all, is that sin “clings so closely.” Unfortunately, that’s the way our human flesh can be, right? As we all have the sin-nature, no matter how hard we try at this or that, we know that sin is always an inch away from us. Always lurking behind the corner it is, ready to try to trap us if were not careful. Sin is a problem because, to use runner terminology, it can trip us up. It can cause us to lose valuable time—and can even give people permanent weight, if you will, that will weigh them down so that the cannot run as fast as others. That’s the problem, that’s the problem. That’s why sexual sin, for instance, is so bad because it can lead individuals to have problems for the rest of their lives. If a family is broken up, that causes everyone in that family to be affected. That only complicates everyone’s run. And now each person is going to have deal with the psychological effects that will bring. Drugs and alcohol can do the same thing. They could, for instance, lead to legal trouble for a person. Driving under the influence, or being busted selling drugs, whatever it is, causes persons to be weighted down, and messes up their race. That’s why the Christian abstains from sin. That’s why a Christian is supposed to abstain from sin. It matters where one focuses his or her attention.

       Of course, we’ve heard it many times, and yet we know it’s true, and that is the goal of our lives is to be like Jesus. To model Jesus’ character in our thoughts, our words, and our actions so that we are beneficial both to ourselves and to others. It’s not complicated, and it doesn’t mean we will ever be perfect. Yet, it is a goal, or should be our goal. That’s how we look to Jesus. As time passes by, and as we go through life, moment by moment, each of us becomes more and more perfected. It’s the process of sanctification in our lives. Sure, we are sanctified at the moment we believe, but it’s also true that we go through the process of sanctification. And to some degree, we have the ability to choose how fast or advanced we want each our individual sanctifications to be. It is found in where we align our thoughts, our studies. What are we focusing on, on a daily basis? Where do spend our devotional time each day? Hopefully we are spending time seeking to grow into a better person, with whatever teachings we choose to focus on. Do we focus on our minds, in how to think better? Everything leads back to the mind. Learning about ourselves, about why we do what we do, and how we can do things better, produces awareness. We need to have awareness or we can’t make improvement in the first place. We have to realize we have a issue in order to seek to make correction as pertains to that issue.

       Jesus had to “endure the cross.” That image is vivid in our minds. One technique he used to do that, the writer tells us, was to focus on what was to come after all the misery of the cross. That’s how he despised the shame and everything else that came with it. Now, it’s probably not good practice to always look past something hard, but if someone has something that’s absolutely miserable, like Jesus had, that would be something to focus on. We understand that our lives are ultimately temporary, and they are subject to the fall. Our bodies will decay and die unless we get to experience The Rapture. Assuming we don’t, there may be misery ahead. Unpleasant circumstances are going to crop up, things we’d rather not deal with. If there’s not anything else we can do, one thing we can focus on is the fact that it’s all soon going to be over. Whatever the problem is, it has to have an end someday. We can be seeing others around us suffering, and be bothered so much by that that it makes us miserable. Well, we can always remember that soon, at some point, this moment will be gone. This problem will be gone, and we will some day be in Heaven with Jesus. Sometimes in certain circumstances, there comes a point where all reasonable hope has been lost. In Jesus’ case, as he was enduring the cross, there was no hope that it wasn’t going to carry through to the end. He had to look past that. And there may be points in our lives where we have to do that. It reminds the speaker of a quote from Thomas Jefferson, where he said that some things “will only be cured by the all-healing grave.” Jesus arrived at the spot where he is seated next to his Father in Heaven, and we will arrive at the point where we will be with him in Heaven as well.

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

       The outward pressure from the Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus presented a problem, a temptation, for these Hebrew Christians. That’s the reality. Apparently, the hostility had gotten so great that it was becoming miserable. There was the temptation to simply say to themselves, “Maybe we should consider going back to Judaism, and abandoning all this Christ stuff. That way we can live in peace, and won’t have family and friends who war against us.” That had to be the type of thoughts and conversations that were taking place. What the writer of Hebrews is trying to point out to them is that, though the situation is bad right now, and yes people were verbally coming against them, at least it hasn’t reached the point of physical violence or force. That’s what he’s saying, when he says, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.” We know that that was what Jesus ended up doing. Slowly and surely, as Jesus preached the Gospel, his fellow Jewish leaders began to grow in resentment toward him, and in their jealousy sought to destroy him from the face of the earth. They wanted him off the scene. And it eventually came to that. They would have him arrested, tried, and flogged. Then he underwent execution through cruxifixction, one of the hardest kinds of violence than can be done against a person. No mercy in their hatred of him did they have. Jesus endured through all of that, not opening his mouth, and made it all the way to the end. He made it to the tremendous blessings. Now, the writer is telling the Hebrew Christians they haven’t faced anything to that degree, so they should consider themselves fortunate. If they will think on what Jesus suffered, perhaps they won’t feel as threatened as they do.

       Verse 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. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 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? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (ESV).

       When coming to this text, typically it seems we see that it is taken out of context. Often the familiar interpretation appears to be that God causes bad to happen since he wants cause growth to occur in his people. Yet, we need to remember the context. The context of this chapter as well as the last several chapters, really a theme of the whole book, has been that there were some who were tempted to leave behind the Christian part of their faith and to go back to only practicing Judaism. Now, to back up a little bit, there are two kinds of discipline. One there are good disciplines that we seek to put into practice to better our lives. They may be uncomfortable to do, or may require work (like a diet), but we do them for later betterment. The second kind of discipline we can bring to mind is that of discipline as a result of our disobedience (like a child who gets in trouble by a parent and has to go to their room for awhile). When we are coming to this passage, the kind of discipline we are focusing on is the second kind. It would seem that God was allowing trouble to come upon the church because they weren’t following the straight and narrow. There were persons who either had left, or were seriously considering leaving. Thus, God allows the external hostilities to come upon them. He doesn’t fight with Satan to try to prevent them. And, remember, again, that’s because of the individuals’ disobedience. If they had been doing what God wanted, this wouldn’t have happened. But God wants to see who’s in, and who’s out. He needs to see who’s going to stay, and who’s going to leave.

       It’s important to bring up at this point the fact that most bad things that happen to people are ordinary life circumstances, and are not the result of disobedience. Most to the time we should not assume that bad, unfortunate events are resultant of us acting disobediently toward the Lord. People’s spouses die, children die at birth, homes catch fire, cars are destroyed, and all sorts of things happen to people. The world is the world. It is affected by sin. In our current dispensation, God does not seek to prevent all forms of evil, and indeed, it’s safe to say he cannot—for then he would have to close this current period of history. People have free-will. Satan and his fallen angels have free-will. People will do wrong at times which leads to bad events, and Satan and his forces will do wrong which causes trouble. That’s the way it all works. Not to mention even the earth itself, including outer-space, is subject to the fall. It isn’t always in perfect order. Storms come, volcanos erupt, waters get too high, earthquakes happen. For sure, all kinds of things can happen on the earth. When individuals assume that bad events happen in their lives to teach them a lesson (as is way too often taught—for the speaker himself used to teach it), that’s a very narrow and simplistic way of understanding things. The world is complex, and has many, many variables. God just doesn’t control everything to the point that there’s no need for Satan, or that Satan is somehow his coworker in bringing about bad things. Satan is against God. This bad line of thinking can lead many, many people to needless sorrow and anxiety, and even anger at God, when God was not the cause.

       There’s an interesting parallel passage to consider when thinking about this whole topic, and that’s found in the Old Testament, in Lamentations. Lamentations chapter 3, verses 31 to 33 states, “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men” (ESV). This passage encapsulates what was just said a moment ago. It tells us two things. One, if the Lord is directly causing affliction, it is due to our disobedience. Are we thinking about leaving Christianity? Are we thinking about leaving our wife or husband? Are we thinking about abandoning the family? Are we thinking about getting involved in some illegal scheme? Whatever it is. God wants to see where a person stands. On the flip-side, number two, the passage also tells us that “the Lord… does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men” That terrific news for some; that’s wonderful news in fact. For the vast majority of problems, of things which occur in our lives, in our world, the Lord is not causing them. It’s not in his nature to want to bring disaster upon persons. He’s not behind most forms of disaster. He doesn’t want to upset people; that’s not where is heart is at. He doesn’t want to grieve people; that’s not what he’s like. If God does permit bad to happen to those who are considering something bad, it’s because he wants to preserve them. He wants to keep them on his side. He doesn’t want them to leave, or to do something really bad. In reality, it’s the only card left that he could play.

       Continuing. Verse 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? 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” (ESV).

       Thus the subject of discipline continues. A necessary point is made that it would be better to endure the discipline rather than totally abandon Christ. That may have been the temptation for some, to say, “Well, if God’s going to discipline me, I’m just gonna to leave the whole thing altogether.” Yet, the author is arguing that one should not do that—that in the long run it’s better to endure the discipline for the disobedience rather than give everything ‘Christian’ up. Again, it seems safe to assume the author is talking about discipline as pertains to disobedience since he speaks of this discipline as being “painful.” It doesn’t seem that early fathers, for instance, go around willingly inflicting painful situations on their children. However, if a child is disobedient, a painful situation could occur for that child, like the loss of allowance money, or being grounded to one’s room for a period of time, or perhaps even missing out on a family vacation. The child did something bad, and now they are being disciplined for it. The point is made in the text that earthly fathers disciplined “as it seemed best to them.” Indeed, God gives earthly fathers the free-choice to decide how discipline is going to go for their children. In other words, there is more than one correct way to do it, to carry it out. Regardless, in all of this, moving back to God’s discipline, we know that God is not going to be overbearing in his form of punishment for disobedience, for the Apostle Paul told the Colossians, “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged” (Colossians 3:21, ESV). Therefore, God himself is going to follow the same standard, and better than earthly fathers can. It is when discipline is too hard that children can lose respect for their parents. God certainly doesn’t want that.

       Obviously, the whole point of the discipline is so that we will act better later. A couple insights can be noted in regard to this. First, is that one becomes “trained” by discipline, and that is, if one allows themselves to be. Just as God can induce discipline for us, it’s also true that we often discipline ourselves. An easy example of this is when we decide to diet or do a workout regimen. In either of these cases, we are deliberately making our lives harder in the hope that something good will be borne out of it later. We either want to lose weight or we are trying to build muscle. For a lot of individuals, both those experiences are unpleasant. Yet there are certain things in life that simply require us to put ourselves through this or that. This leads to the next point. Second, is the more obedient one becomes, the less discipline they are going to have to endure. It seems like a reasonable conclusion that when someone first becomes a Christian, they are going to experience more discipline in the beginning because there is more to correct. They’ve often just come out of a life of doing whatever the flesh desired, and that’s going to take some time to change. The good news is that it appears as we go along that less and less discipline from God is going to be required. To use a personal example, coming to mind is the previous pet dog (who has since passed), who was named Scrappy. Due to her obedience in that she was well-behaved, she rarely required any kind of discipline. She just usually always did what was right, what made for peace for the speaker and for her. That being the case, it seems we also can assume that as we grow and progress, and “try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” as Paul told the Ephesians (see Ephesians 5:10, ESV), that will experience little to no discipline in our lives. This is the encouragement. This is the reward for growing in obedience to Christ, to the Word of God.

       The final verses for today: “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” (ESV).

       Our hypothesis appears to be confirmed by the author that what was being discussed actually relates to disobedience. The whole thing is an encouragement. The free-will choice exists for us to think positively, to grab the bull by the horns, and make change. We have the ability to make a crooked path straight in our lives through God’s help. The thought that one needs to leave Christ to become free is absurd, and yet that’s what some of these Hebrew Christians were thinking. It doesn’t make sense for one to leave behind the One True God, the Creator of the Universe, even to the point of not facing persecution. To leave behind the True God is go into falsehood for the sake of temporary peace. And is it really peace? If individuals only like you if you act in a certain way, like the Law practicing Jews, do they really like you in the first place? That goes for anything. That’s deep; think about that. If we have anything “out of joint” in our lives, it’s best we work on it while circumstances are still good. If we ignore it, or say, “You know, I think I’m just going to live with this leg out of joint even though I’m lame,” if we do that, we have nothing else to expect but what God’s going to say about it. If we’re Christian, he’s expecting us to try to live a righteous life. It is as Paul told the Galatians, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Galatians 5:13, ESV). We have freedom, and we can choose what we are going to focus on. It doesn’t mean we don’t need help from resources, like good books, or from other people, but it means we have the freedom to go in the right direction. That’s what God desires to see in us. If we are going in the wrong direction, and we know it, and don’t take any corrective action in our free-will, then what else can we expect but for God to weigh in on the matter? Either way, healing can be brought about. It’s as the famous saying goes, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

- Daniel Litton