Hebrews 12.11
Meat
November 9th 2014
Welcome.
Prayer
Music
Silence
Back to Hebrews 12.
Last week the writer reminded his audience that God will disciple those He loves – and that they ought to take this into account as they were suffering crisis of faith, and other difficulties with the end of the age.
This is what we covered.
Hebrews 12:5 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:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
After our gathering last week the question was posed:
“Was the Greek word for despised (which we talked about last week and means with little care) used in verse 2, where speaking of Christ the writer said:
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Forgetting that the Greek word for despised in verse 5 is not used anywhere else in scripture I said the words were the same.
They are not.
Verse five, speaking of Jesus, the Greek really means abhorred and despised, whereas the verse five despised, as stated, means to treat with little care.
Just wanted to make that clarification.
Okay, so the writer continues to expound upon his illustration between God treating us as real sons and daughters, and so he says:
Hebrews 12:9 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?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 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.
Let’s wrap these up before moving on. Back to verse 9.
9 Furthermore, (He adds) 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?
The writer is obviously hitting us with some additional considerations to get the reader to accept chastisement with a humble, open heart.
While the author does make a comparison it is a comparison of inequalities and not of equals.
He seems to be saying, “if we were willing to humbly submit to our earthly, fleshly fathers (with all of their failures and faults and passions, their short-sightedness and prejudice) when they would correct us, and we not only submitted to them but we reverence them for their time and attentions, doesn’t it make even more sense to be in subjection to the Father of spirits, he says, and live.
I take something from this that may or may not hold water but in this comparative we learn that fathers of our flesh and our subjection to them may make for a productive and protected life in the flesh but subjection to the Father of spirits is what grants life hereafter.
In other words where our fleshly fathers may certainly help us in this economy it’s the father of spirits and his directives that grant life in the heavenlies.
In Numbers 16:22 God is called “the God of the spirits of all flesh.”
This is the realm wherein He lives, operates and moves. It seems like it was only at the advent of Christ Jesus that God, becoming flesh, was then able to fully integrate into this fallen place.
Prior to this it appears there was a disconnect of some sort, a chasm between the ways and wiles of fleshly man and that of Holy God.
Of course when we examine scripture we know that the will of the Father of spirits for all human kind is to believe on His Son – which was something the Hebrews were threatening to abandon – but the principle remains, if we are willing to obey failing fathers of the flesh, we ought to be willing to submit to the almightly father of our spirits . . . and live.
The word submit here in the Greek is a compound word HOOP O TASSO
Tasso means to order, set in order, align or to arrange in an orderly fashion. The verb would be the action of setting the order and the noun would be the set of orders themselves.
Hupo means under, to place under.
So Hoopo tasson is to say, “to place orders under.”
The most popular synonym is obey or obedience but I think “subordinate” might be better – which we know means to place under the control of another, or to make something of lesser import than something else.
The obvious application to this context?
Since we have placed our will under the control of failing human fathers and reverenced their guidance and discipline doesn’t it make sense to do the same with the only father whose interests and ambitions for us are utterly perfect and void of improper passions.
It’s really just a question of will, isn’t it? His or ours.
I suppose that this is the ultimate end point to it all – “to what extent does the individual submit or subordinate his or her will to the will of God.”
It’s the central question in salvation, since it is God’s will that all would believe and receive His Son, and it is really the only question left standing when the curtains close since it His will that we love all as His Son commanded.
(beat)
The writer is appealing to logic, facts and reason here to sway the will of his readers. It is one way to influence the human submission to God.
Guilt is another. Fear another. All have their place in bringing people around to submitting. Somehow I can’t help but think that the motive for compliance will also lend to the end assessment of our will to His.
Obedience out of guilt or fear – acceptable, but probably not optimal.
Submission in order to gain a reward or crown? A very biblical principle, used all over the place to entice rebellious people to surrender. But again, a bit antithetical to submitting out of love.
So, again, in the end, where submission is vital, why the submission must play a part in the overall assessment of our lives on display before the King.
Which introduces us to a paradox – it is a greater act of love to do the will of God when we don’t feel like it or want to do it OR if we are so submitted to Him through love that whatever He says goes?
Since genuine agape love is certainly sacrificial – it subordinates itself to the will of God – wouldn’t the greatest manifestation of this love be when we may want to do our will but do His because we want to please Him?
(beat)
Let’s step back a second.
Obedience is primary – whether it is felt or desired or not.
Jesus spoke to this in a parable found in Matthew
Matthew 21:28 But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, “Son, go work to day in my vineyard.”
29 He answered and said, “I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.”
30 And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, “I go, sir: and went not.”
31 Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
32 For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.
So we know that doing the will is what is paramount – whether from the heart out of love and devotion to God or not.
But we also know that God judges the heart, the motives, the drivers.
Cain, like Abel, did offer sacrifice – he cannot be accused of not doing, not obeying. But we know the offering, while done, was not accepted, because even though compliant, “He did not do well.”
I would have to suggest then, that when it comes to doing the will of a superior in this life, motives are irrelevant. And, quite frankly, those who do what they are commanded – even though they would rather not – are exercising more strength then those who agree with doing what they are commanded to do.
But when it comes to doing the will of God I think we would have to say that actions from a pure heart are superior, and take more love, than actions from a faulty one.
Not sure we really did the topic justice but we got the wheels churning on some complex things to consider.
Continuing on with the parallel the writer says:
10 For they (fathers of our flesh) verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he (God) for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Where the writer says that the fathers of our flesh chastened us “after their own pleasure” for a few days, it seems the meaning is while we are abiding on earth in flesh.
That for this vaporous existence they, out of their own will, and desires – driven by all sorts of motives for themselves – chastened us, God is calling for our submission for our own profit, for our good chastens us.
To what end?
“That we might be partakers of his holiness.”
First of all, notice that the writer ties chastisement from God upon His sons and daughters to sanctification.
Meaning there is a purpose and reason for his disciplines – we cannot just push this aside.
And yet we do everytime we celebrate and highlight the fact that we are completely justified AND sanctified the moment we believe.
While true, I think we do a great disservice to the expectations and lives of believers when we focus on this and not on the fact that once we have been saved God goes to work on us – and it can be arduous.
Unless a believer understands this they may be inclined to suppose that Christianity – despite all of the historical evidences to the contrary – is supposed to be a walk in the park.
Hardly.
God wants those who are His to be “partakers of His holiness.”
Apparently this is NOT possible unless He submits those “who will partake” to the “purging of their self” and the purgative discipline is accepted and embraced as coming from Him out of love and for our good.
This is how Peter puts it in his introduction to 2nd Peter 1, saying:
2nd Peter 1:1-4 “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Going back to verse 10 I have some questions. Let’s read it again:
10 For they (fathers of our flesh) verily for a few days (I would interpret as our vaporous lived here on earth) chastened us after their own pleasure; but he (God) (and it’s these last two lines that are of interest to me for the moment)
(chastened us) “for our profit,”
“that we might be partakers of his holiness.”
Again, the chastening is not out of ANY self interest or motive of God (as might come from natural fathers) but for “our profit.”
We covered this last week.
What is the hope for the chastisements to which we are subjected? He tells us, saying:
“that we MIGHT be partakers of His Holiness.”
The line of thinking seems to be this:
We are humans – even as believers – and have issues.
He chastises us so as to rid us of such issues and He does this for our profit.
It comes in and through our partaking of His Holiness which (verse 12 says)
yieldeth the peaceable “fruit” of righteousness (which is for our profit).
Let’s attempt an illustration.
As believers we all find ourselves trees transplanted into the garden of God.
God looks upon us and wants us to become producers of good fruit, holy fruit, “fruits of love” because trees that bear such fruits are in and of themselves good, and peaceful and healthy trees.
And the fruit they produce is good and beneficial and of value to Him and His plans which is of value to others.
Upon belief we were transplanted into His garden. Not from birth – the only tree to originate from it from birth and grow in its soils was His Son – we were all transplanted and arrived as corrupted trees which was producing corrupted fruits.
Our roots, trunks, limbs, and leaves (we have not produced any real fruit (meaning any good fruit yet, only bad) because due to genetics and environments which produced structural deformities and abnormalities our ability to produce peaceable fruits of righteousness has been hindered.
Remember, we’re in His garden. We’ve been transplanted from the world and into the garden of eternal life.
But before we are able to produce fruits of holiness and righteousness we have to submit to His hand upon us.
His work begins on the inside, and so he teaches us that the only source of nourishment is His light and His living water.
Sometimes He lavishes it upon us and sometimes He seems to hold back – to where we feel like we are left almost . . . in the dark . . . and almost as if we were completely dehydrated.
He’s working on killing the growth within us that has thrived on synthetic light and polluted water.
He knows what we need, what we don’t and to what extent.
Then he gets to working on the diseased exterior – a trim here, a “lop” there. At times we get chopped (chain-sawing for some) until he has gotten us to the place where the externally corrupted has been greatly reduced – even eliminated, at least for a time.
Here’s the deal – the whole time we choose to submit to his hand and treatment and pruning – and we allow Him to nourish us (or not) . . . we allow Him to cut us back (or not).
And when I say, “or not,” what I mean is we have the freedom, even while planted in His garden and believing, to seek and imbibe on polluted waters and unnatural light, to refuse his hand upon our lives, and to bristle at His discipline.
This is tantamount to faithlessness (not trusting in God) and it’s what the writer is warning against.
By accepting His hand and nourishment upon our corrupted trunks, we – under His care – “begin to partake in His holiness” – which is requisite in our eventually producing fruits of righteousness.
A bad tree cannot produce good fruit, the master once said.
When we allow ourselves to think about it partaking of the Holiness of God is superior to anything else we could entertain (in this human realm).
What is the value of partaking in His holiness? What is the reward of having His sanctification in our lives – in the most literal sense? We’ll the writer tells us here but I think we can better understand the answer if we allow ourselves, in this case, to try and sense the answer in our hearts.
Give yourself a minute and try and recall a moment in your life when you KNEW you were right with God in every sense of the word.
Maybe it was when you were born-again and experienced His love and utter forgiveness for the first time.
Or maybe it was one of the fleeting moments where He actually whispers to the soul, “Hey, you are perfect with me.”
Have you ever had one of these moments? Years ago when we were first involved in ministry I used to fly back to work and attend school from Utah and I got really low and uncertain about my course.
And so I took a bike and rode down to the beach at night – to a place I had spent many years of my life as a kid and dropped the bike in the sand and really tried to talk openly with God.
The sky was blustery and back put accentuated with silver clouds illuminated by a full moon.
And while I did NOT hear an audible voice it may has well have been because in my pleas for God to help me and guide me and open my eyes I was suddenly and utterly told in my heart that I was all right, that I was His.
The experience is as strong today in my heart as it was then.
Here’s the point – in order for me to be alright (or to at least hear that God viewed me as all right) I had to have been Holy.
Of course my holiness came in and through faith in His Son but I was reassured, right then and there, that I was accepted of God, and this tacitly meant I was holy in God’s eyes, and the realization of these things brought me, overwhelmed me with . . .
Peace.
This is what the writer is telling these people. That as partakers of His holiness we will experience, we will yield the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.”
Which, in this world, is of more value than ANYTHING else – ANYTHING.
Compare the peaceable fruit of righteousness to being healthy, wealthy, powerful, intelligent.
Compare it to having a thousand sons and daughters, to being surrounded by friends and associates, to owning the whole world!
What can anyone who stands on such treasures EVER say in the face of Holy God, who in His holiness, in His utter righteousness, in His absence of darkness, remains utterly removed from such juvenile trappings.
Show me a man filled with the Holiness of God and I will show you the King of the World and the reason such a being (which is God) would be the King of the world is because there is absolutely no THING, circumstance, situation, lack or abundance that can alter or disturb His peace.
This is why Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, who, having endured all things, stands not only in utter peace but brings utter peace to all who are His and all who have submitted to the same processes that He submitted to at the hand of the Father.
This is what the writer is getting at here in verses 10 and 11, saying:
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward (after the chastening) it (the chastening) yieldeth (produces) the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” unto them which are exercised thereby (in them what have submitted to His hand).
I read NOTHING in these passages (or passages like them) that suggest He overwhelms us and we are molded against our will to conform to His desires.
All I see is a mutual reciprocity – God moves, God acts, God provides and God does the work, but WE must submit, not overcoming the bark and rotting limbs and diseased leaves on our own but willing to let Him have His way with us.
In verse 11 the writer admits to something, saying:
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous . . .
In other words, God’s chastisement ain’t no fun! The Word for grievous is lupe and it means heavy, weighty, and sad.
Let’s be honest, the by-product of God’s
chastisement is pain – there is no getting around it.
If I have ever had a fundamental similarity with some Christians and a fundamental difference with others it is in reference to opinions on pain.
Show me a believer who does not appreciate the process and presence of pain, who believes Christianity ought to be fun, and light, and wealthy, and healthy and I will show you a class of believers with whom I personally cannot relate.
I am NOT questioning their love nor devotion to Christ Jesus. But in terms of the approach to following Him and walking with Him I could not stand further from their world view – in all of its applications relative to comfort and pain.
Maybe you are one of them. Maybe you believe God wants His children to experience luxury, and comfort, and health and wealth in this life.
This is the promise many purveyors of such teachings promote.
I am NOT suggesting that God wants all people to be in poverty nor am I saying He doesn’t bless some with lives of comfort and material wealth.
But I am suggesting that irrespective of the external environs with which God surrounds His children, all – if they are His – will experience pain and suffering at His hand.
At we cannot get around the fact that this pain, and the suffering that accompanies it, is His will and it is purposeful and aimed at our benefit.
All we have to do is look at the life of the Lord and the descriptions of His life to understand what this suffering looks like.
It’s really quite plain. Most of it – if not all of it – comes down to us suffering our will to take a back seat to His.
I doubt very much that when the sold-out true and genuine Christian arrives at their place of death that few will begrudge the suffering they endured at the Hands of the King.
In almost every situation we are blessed with the hindsight of what God was working to do in us at the time of the difficulty.
I would suggest that most of us will, in the holds of faith, look back over our lives and realize the effects of the trials God exposed us to – trials, which at the time may have seemed like there was no way to survive them.
I would also suggest that whatever is “placed on our plate by God” can be managed by the individual involved – so long as God is given a chance to assist – if not bear the load entirely.
When I look at the suffering of others – I am personally astounded by their reserve and resolve to bear them patiently, directly, and with an eye on the cross.
It’s an interesting phenomena that whether we are suffering with a papercut or the loss of a child, suffering at the hands of God is an entirely subjective experience and few of us, when allowed to really examine what God is doing, would change places with the trials of others.
I know this is easy to say, but I truly believe the idea has merit.
Sure, we might say something like, “I would trade places with you any day of the week,” but in reality, I would suggest that believers know, intrinsically and through faith, that God is working on us and through us specifically with whatever we are experiencing – hard as it may be to bear when in the midst of it.
To challenge this is to challenge our trust in Him and His knowledge and care and attention to our individual person. And I’m not so sure such a challenge holds water.
Walking by faith we almost have to believe that whatever we experience in this life we are personally experiencing for a reason.
To lop it all in as chance smacks of faithlessness, bitter indifference and a God who is an absentee father.
But we are not bastards and He is not absent. Cognizant of the sparrows and hairs of our head He is certainly aware of the plights of His children, which, as we have learned, have purpose.
So after saying all of this the writer at verse 12 gives us a wherefore.
“As a result,” “in light of this,” “because of all I have said,” wherefore . . .
Hebrews 12:12 . . . lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;
13 And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 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;
16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For ye 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.
This will be our text for next week.
Comments or questions.
PRAYER
