Introduction
Have you
noticed if you’ve been watching the Euro 2016 football tournament how often the
words “superior” and “better” are used? Belgium’s bench is superior. Italy have
the better pedigree but Ireland’s desire was superior. Northern Ireland have a
“superior” goal difference to Albania. Wales have played “better” than Russia
since the first minute. Germany have better technique. And the entirely
predictable; England have got to do “better” than this!
If you have
ever read the letter to the Hebrews end to end, you’ll have noticed that these
two words “superior” and “better” appear all the time there as well. Those two
words are, in fact, the key to unlock what the letter is about and how it can
change our lives – even save our
lives for it deals with the weighty matters of eternal life and death.
Interestingly
– and significantly – the author of Hebrews never says that Jesus is the best – even though he indisputably is
supreme above all things. But he keeps saying Jesus is better.
The reason is
simple. The whole point of the letter to the Hebrews is not to show that Jesus
is beyond parallel – even though he is. The point is to measure Jesus against
something, or someone, else and then contend that Jesus is greater, grander, and
more glorious by comparison with every person, every leader, every angel, every
religion, everyone end everything.
Background
If we’re
going to get the most out of today’s talk, we’re going to have to drill down a
bit and get to grips with the background. That might sound a bit boring, but I
assure you it will pay big dividends, so try and stay with me for a few minutes
if you can.
Here’s the back
story; the people this letter was written to had been drifting away from Jesus for
quite some time and they were now a hair’s breadth away from abandoning their
living faith in him altogether.
Have you been
drifting a bit in your faith recently? It’s surprisingly common. Well listen!
In Hebrews, alarms are going off, bells are ringing and warning lights are
flashing. Drifting away from Jesus, if it is not checked and stopped, puts your
eternal spiritual health at serious risk.
These Hebrews
were in fact Christians with a Jewish background and they were being actively recruited
at this time to return to the synagogue. They were hanging on to Jesus by their
fingertips – and looking over their shoulder for a way out of Christianity.
Why? Here’s why.
At the time
this letter was written, the Emperor Nero Caesar had just recently placed a
blanket ban on Christianity. “No more Christianity! I won’t allow it in my
empire.” You can read about Nero. He was insane. And power-mad. And
bloodthirsty. And volatile.
It was now
illegal to be a practicing Christian because he said so. If you got caught, you
were in real trouble. But here’s the thing: although Christianity was outlawed,
Judaism was accepted, it was tolerated, it was allowed.
Imagine for a
minute that you are one of these Christians living at that time. People are beginning
to suspect that you are part of this new Christian movement.
Your friends
are afraid to associate with you. Thugs are starting to throw stones at your
windows. Your children come home saying that they are getting bullied at school
because people know they are Christians. Someone paints graffiti on your front
door: “Christian scum.” Your job starts to look under serious threat. Some of
your church leaders have strangely gone missing. How do you feel?
Imagine now
that there’s a knock at your door. Your heart is in your mouth. You open it…
It’s OK. It’s only that nice rabbi from the local synagogue. He comes in and
sits down. You have a coffee together. And then he leans forward and makes you
an offer. He will guarantee your family’s safety, on one simple condition; that
you deny Jesus, leave the church and go back to the synagogue.
Well why not?
It’s the same God after all - isn’t it? He puts a piece of paper in front of
you and he presses you to sign it. It says, “I the undersigned hereby abandon
definitively my membership of the church and allegiance to Jesus.” Your
family’s safety is at stake. Would you sign it?
This is why
Hebrews was written and, all through the letter, the author pleads with his
readers; “come on, hold fast, keep the faith, fix your eyes on Jesus, don’t
turn back now, don’t stop meeting together as some already have.” Jesus is
better than anything you could replace him with. He is superior. Don’t throw
your salvation away!
Oh, how tempting
it is, how appealing, when everything is going badly wrong, when God seems far
away, to withdraw from the action and sit on the bench. But listen; only those out
on the pitch can win the game.
I once worked
in a church that refurbished its kitchen. The old one had been an environmental
health hazard. It was badly lit, too small, its equipment barely worked, grime
and grease were worn into all the surfaces and, worst of all, it was home to an
intrusion of cockroaches. They got in the oven, the fridge, the utensil
drawers, the kettle, between the plates… no anti-pest product had any effect.
These insects were indestructible.
The church
held a gift day to overhaul the whole kitchen and I’ve never seen money move so
fast! The new, extended, professionally designed kitchen was fitted out with
all the latest gear. It was state of the art. It was clean and shiny. It was
bright and spacious. It had no cockroaches – or any insects of any kind.
Who, even in
a moment of lunacy, would go back to the way things were before the refit? In
your life, whatever nostalgia you might have for the past, life with Jesus is
better – don’t go back!
You
who know and love the Lord Jesus, remember who he is:
• the supreme fulfilment of all prophetic
longing
• the bread from heaven that satisfies all spiritual
hunger
• the spring of living water that quenches
eternal thirst
• the Light of the World that illuminates every
man, every woman
• the Lamb of God who takes away all your sin
and mine
Were
you better off before?
No? So don’t
drift away now! Keep looking ahead!
Encouragement
That’s the
background to Hebrews, and when we get to chapter 12, verse 4, it says, “In
your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding
blood.”
So no one had
actually died yet. Things were bad, but not as bad as they might be. But it was
getting stressful. Nero was turning up the heat. We know from Hebrews
10:34 that some had been arrested and imprisoned. Some had had their homes
raided and their belongings confiscated. How do you sleep at night when being a
Christian carries that kind of personal risk?
And then we
get these words in v5-13 about the Father’s discipline, the Father’s
correction. He calls it a word of encouragement. Discipline doesn’t sound that
encouraging does it? I mean how many of us when we really need a bit of
encouragement, a bit of cheer, a bit of a boost are actually craving for a nice
programme of correction from God?
We like to
hear about the Father’s joy, the Father’s love, the Father’s singing over us,
the Father’s heart, the Father’s smile, the Father’s embrace and all these
things are true of God the Father.
The Bible
teaches the Father’s loving tenderness but it also speaks of his loving toughness
and here’s why that is encouraging:
It’s because
good fathers correct their children. Good fathers set healthy boundaries. Good
fathers model and teach their children right and wrong. Good fathers know that
if they indulge or ignore their children, they will pay the price later. So it
says in v6 “the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he chastens everyone he
accepts as his child.” It’s proof that he loves you.
Notice here
it doesn’t say “punishment.” God does not punish what he has already forgiven
in Christ. Jesus has taken the full penalty for sin on the cross. So the
Father’s correction is not some kind of payback for the mistakes of the past.
Fatherless Generation
We live in a
fatherless generation.
Here are some
startling stats I found recently*
• 85% of children exhibiting behavioural
disorders are from fatherless homes
• 90% of homeless and runaway children are
from fatherless homes
• 80% of rapists motivated by displaced anger are
from fatherless homes
• 70% of all juveniles in detention centres
come from fatherless homes
• 85% of youths sitting in prison grew up in
fatherless homes
The
article in which these statistics are listed ends with this devastating
conclusion: “Pick a social ill at random; suicide, dropping out of school,
teenage pregnancy, drug abuse… and you will find that the correlation with
fatherlessness is clear and direct.”
Fatherless
children are, the report says:
• 5 times more likely to commit suicide
• 9 times more likely to drop out of school
• 9 times more likely to end up in a mental
institution
• 10 times more likely to take drugs
• 14 times more likely to commit rape
• 20 times more likely to have behavioural
disorders
• 20 times more likely to end up in prison
• 32 times more likely to run away from home
In one
British study it was claimed that fatherless children were over 30 times more
likely to be abused.
The Office
for National Statistics said in 2012 that there were almost 2 million one-parent
families in Britain, 92 per cent of which were lone-mother family units. In the
thirty years between the 1974 and 2004 single parent families rose from one in
fourteen to one in four.
We live in a fatherless,
orphan society. The social and moral mess arising from the ‘anything goes’
culture of the post-1960s has been a disaster both for the many children born
into it and for society as a whole.
No wonder so
many people are deeply uncomfortable with hearing about our heavenly Father’s
discipline. It adds insult to injury – absent fathers and now harsh fathers. In
fact, it is the opposite; it shows he cares, it shows he wants to father us, it
shows he’s involved, it shows he wants the best for us.
The foundation
of discipline is love, a love that cares too much to let someone learn
self-destructive patterns.
This is why
parents discipline their children, to keep them from developing characteristics
and qualities that ultimately will be destructive to a healthy and happy life.
How does Father correct us?
In what ways
does God bring discipline to our lives? There’s one word in v7 that sums it up
and it’s the word “hardship.” It includes troubles, problems, hassles,
adversity, misfortune, conflicts, inconveniences, nuisance and personal
rejection.
It doesn’t
say here that God unfeelingly visits tragedy on us. He is not the author of
evil. It just says when it happens endure it. God, in his wisdom and
sovereignty, permits hardship in our lives. He does not always stop it.
Smith
Wigglesworth was a spiritual giant who saw extraordinary signs and wonders
including several attested resurrections. What was his secret? He said this; “Great
faith comes only from great fights, great testimonies from great tests, and
great triumphs only from great trials.”
Why does Father correct us?
Why does our Father
correct us? I was reading John Piper on this chapter and he said that some
Christians simply do not believe what it teaches. This is not a feel-good passage
about how to make the most of our troubles. It is a statement about the
gracious sovereignty of God over the adversity and stresses of our lives.
And the big question
is: do we believe this? Will we accept the mystery of God's wise use of the
painful experiences of our life, and be trained by it (as verse 11 says) for our
good and for our peace and our holiness?
God’s mission
is not to give us a cushy life. His objective is to produce in us a holy life.
Feelin’ Down
There are
many passages in the Bible when godly people go through great stress and
hardship.
The Psalmist,
despondent and weary, says “Why are you downcast, my soul, why so troubled
within me?”
Elijah, tired
and burned out says, “Take my life, Lord, I’ve had enough!”
Maybe a good
question to ask in times of hardship and misfortune is “Loving Father, what are
you trying to teach me here?”
Someone did a
survey a few years ago on spiritual formation. Thousands of people were asked
when they had grown most spiritually, and what contributed to their growth. The
response was humbling - at least for someone who works at a church.
The main
contributor to spiritual growth was not transformational teaching. It was not
being part of a home group. It was not reading deep theological books. It was
not energetic worship experiences, nor finding meaningful ways to serve.
The
surprising conclusion was that suffering was the key to spiritual growth.
Respondents noticed that they grew more during times of loss, pain and crisis
than they had at any other time.
It just
occurred to me that we have not put anyone in charge of pain distribution, so
now I are working out how to create more pain per church member for maximum
spiritual growth!
Ending
One more
thing to end.
Ravi
Zacharias tells the story of a young, keen Christian interpreter, Hien Pham,
who assisted him on a preaching tour if Vietnam in the early 1970s before its
takeover by the communists.
Ravi often
wondered what became of him, until 17 years later he received a phone call. It
was Hien. His story was incredible, both terrible and wonderful. When Vietnam fell
to the Vietcong, Hien was imprisoned in a slave labour camp, accused of helping
the Americans.
They forcibly
brainwashed him with Marxist indoctrination against Western democratic ideals
and Christian faith. After some years, Hien began to doubt his faith. “Maybe”
he thought, “I have been lied to. Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West has deceived me.”
In the end Hien
resolved that, when he awoke the next day, he would not pray any more or think
of God ever again. The communist programming had done its wicked work.
The next
morning Hien awoke, and for the first time he chose not to turn his heart and
mind to God. He was assigned the filthy job of cleaning the prison latrines. As
he emptied the oil can that was used as a toilet, there in the excrement, on a
filthy bit of toilet paper, he noticed some English print. He picked it out, put
it in his pocket, later washed it and, once his fellow prisoners were asleep,
began to read it.
It was a
fragment of Romans 8: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him and are called according to his purpose. For I am convinced…
nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God.”
And as he
read those words, Hien broke down and began to sob. He knew his Bible well
enough. He knew there was no more relevant verse for a man on the verge of
abandoning his faith as this.
On the very day
Hien decided to give up on God, God showed that he had not given up on him, and
in the squalid filth broke through and spoke to him of his faithfulness.
As an officer
in the camp was apparently using an old Bible as toilet paper, Hien asked the
commander if he could have the permanent job of cleaning the latrines. Each day
he picked out sheets of scripture, cleaned them, and collected them into a book
for night-time reading.
And God’s
word sustained him. Later, remarkably, Hien was freed and escaped the country
on a self-made boat.
“Endure
hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children… No discipline
seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a
harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
* Source: Simon Ponsonby’s book God Is For Us.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 26th June 2016
