Do Not Grow Weary 8-9-26 PM
I. The problem (Hebrews 12:3).
a. The writer starts out by telling them to set their thoughts on Jesus to avoid one of the great problems Christians face: growing weary in living for the Lord.
i. The word for “wearied” carries the idea of “to despond”.
ii. We don’t usually use this word as a verb, but as an adjective.
iii. We might say, “He is becoming despondent”.
iv. Despondent carries the idea of depression.
v. Despond means to become depressed by loss of hope, confidence, or courage.
b. This whole book is about building up one’s faith in Christ as the Better option to anything offered, including Judaism.
i. Faith gives us courage to face the storms of life in whatever form they may take.
ii. These brethren needed the courage to take on Judaism and their friends and family who were calling them back to it.
c. It takes great courage to stand up for Christ against family and friends.
d. It is very possible to grow weary or lose courage, which causes us to become spiritually depressed.
e. I believe this is why the Holy Spirit inspired the writer to use the word we have translated endured with reference to Jesus at the beginning of this passage.
i. He reminded them of the fact that Jesus endured all that the sinners of the Jewish leaders threw at Him.
ii. That word carries the meaning of “to endure, bear bravely and calmly”.
f. One of the things that has always amazed me about the night and day of the trials of Jesus is the calmness our Lord maintained throughout.
i. He never yelled back or became angry.
ii. He endured bravely and calmly all that was thrown at Him.
g. It could have overcome Jesus but His faith was such that He would not allow it.
i. He wouldn’t grow weary because of that faith.
ii. These brethren, and us are encouraged to have that type faith.
h. This problem of growing weary is very real and we must prepare for it.
II. The possibilities (Hebrews 12:3-5).
a. From where do these trials or storms come?
b. Our writer gives us two places from which these trials come.
c. I want to mention one that is not in this context.
i. Sometimes we are tried because of we live in a sinful world.
ii. Disease, natural storms and things such as this happen, while possible given by God, but not all of them.
d. Sometimes we are tempted to be grow weary because of the sins of others.
i. This is what we see from the life of Jesus.
1. He endured the slights and abuses of sinners.
a. Contradictions means to a speaking against.
b. All types of accusations were hurled at our Lord.
2. He also resisted unto blood.
a. The writer uses a word that is only found here for resist.
b. It literally means to set down troops against.
c. This goes along with the idea of the word translated strive, which means to struggle or fight against a thing.
3. Jesus went to war against sin and set Himself up against it until His blood was shed.
4. These brethren had not done that, but notice the word yet.
5. It was coming possibly and they needed to be prepared for it as do we.
ii. The attacks of the world, the pressures of people around us, can all add up to weary us.
1. We must prepare for them and know they are coming.
2. Faith must be built up and we must be maturing spiritually before the storms arrive.
3. Remember that these brethren had already been chastised by the writer because they had failed to grow.
e. Sometimes we are tempted to grow weary because of the discipline of God.
i. Our writer was inspired to quote from Proverbs 3:11-12.
ii. In this text, the writer is reminding us that sometimes God is disciplining us because we are out of line.
iii. We need rebuking or discipline because of our actions or inactions.
iv. These may be considered storms we’ve brought on ourselves.
f. This was something they should have known because the writer told them they had forgotten this teaching.
i. It was from an Old Testament passage so they should have known it.
ii. It was something that had been taught and needs to be taught to Christians throughout all ages.
g. We have storms in life because of sin in the world, because of the sin of others, and because of our own sin and God disciplines us for it.
III. The purpose of discipline (Hebrews 12:6-11).
a. We might ask why God feels the need to discipline us.
b. The first reason, and greatest, is that He loves us.
i. If God did not care about us, then He would not worry with us when we do something wrong.
ii. Love will not allow someone to keep on sinning.
iii. Love is seeking out the best for someone, which is the opposite of allowing one to continue in sin.
c. The second reason is that God is our spiritual Father.
i. He scourges every son He receives.
ii. Scourges is a metaphor for training to be followers of His.
1. We need this training don’t we?
2. The Christian life is not a natural one.
d. Verse 8 tells us that God disciplines us for our good.
e. He gives us an illustration of our earthly parents.
i. Our parents disciplined us according to their whims, just like we do our children.
1. Certain things that one set of parents may not allow their children do may be allowed by another set.
2. Some things are big deals to one set of parents while they don’t mean so much to another set of parents.
3. Sometimes we discipline for something once and then let it slide the next.
ii. We aren’t consistent like God is.
f. If we honor our parents, should we not much more honor God and place ourselves in subjection to Him?
g. The third purpose that is given is that it causes us to yield the fruit of righteousness.
i. We come to realize the behavior we have been exhibiting is wrong and God will not tolerate it and we change.
ii. This is wholesome or peace bringing.
iii. We will live lives of righteousness because we have learned what is not acceptable through God.
iv. Children come to understand that certain actions are not acceptable because of parental discipline.
v. The same is true for the child of God.