No Pain, No Gain, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. A good parent doesn't immediately satisfy a child's every want and whim, because a good parent is concerned for that child's character, future, and heart attitude. Through Christ, God claims us as His own children. Because of this, God is concerned with far more than our immediate comfort and pleasure.

Yes, God uses the challenges of this world to train up His children. Hebrews 12-11 tells us that our Father's loving discipline yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. In today's message, Pastor Rich unpacks the meaning of our Father's discipline, why we need it, and how God uses hardship in our lives.

Let's listen in now. Now, if you would have your copy of the Scriptures open once again to Hebrews chapter 12 for exposition today. The title of today's message is No Pain, No Gain. In this series, now through the end of Hebrews, this series is entitled Living Out Faith, Living Out Faith. In our text for today is chapter 12, verses 3 through 11. So in honor of the Lord and His word, would you please stand with me as we seek His aid to hear and heed His word today. Father, it is with great delight that we bow before you this morning acknowledging your goodness, your greatness, your holiness, your sovereignty, your grace, and your love. Thank you, Father, for giving us your word, that you've made yourself known to us so that we can know you and walk with you and serve you with delight. Father, I pray that you would grant us understanding this morning of your word as you open our hearts and our minds. Find us coming to you, Father, with a heart of expectancy and a mind of humility. Thank you for what you have done and for what you will do. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please be seated. So the writer of Hebrews tells his readers that they are running a race and they are to run it with endurance. They are to run with endurance the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. There is something to be said about this endurance because we recognize that we live in hardship. We live in a context of adversity. Difficult things happen. Difficult things are in our lives. Did you know that I went to boot camp once?

When I was 14, I wanted to go into the Marine Corps. Don't laugh, but I did. Can you see this hair with this head with no hair on it?

OK, now you're laughing. All right. Never mind. But I did go to boot camp, but it wasn't it wasn't the Marine Corps boot camp. This is in Merritt Island, Florida. I went with Teen Missions International. We were going to go down to Columbia, South America. We were going to build dormitories for a youth camp down there where we would have to live in tents.

We would have to build our own bricks in order to build the dormitories. For a month, we were down there. Before we went to South America, I had to stay at Merritt Island, Florida for two weeks living in a camp. No niceties, no luxuries, nothing. The only thing cold all week was the milk we had in our cereal in the morning.

That's it. The spaghetti, if you could call it that, was well, never mind. We had to rough it. In other words, we had to rough it. Now, this is designed for me, it wasn't that big of a deal.

But this is designed for people like American youth who are so used to all the comforts and niceties of American culture. You know, they had to come to Merritt Island and they had to go through the rigors of this boot camp in order to prepare to be down in South America for a month, roughing it all that time. And this was their preparation for it. Now, it involved teamwork, involved in obstacle course that we had to go through.

This is the slew of despond, if you will recognize that from Pilgrim's Progress. All right. There's a rope hanging down there over a mud pit. The first person had to sacrifice himself. He had to jump out there and grab the rope, swing across the other side and throw the rope back to the rest of the team. And the team had to get through that.

All right. Everyone had to make it through that. And then one of the other obstacles was the wall of fear is 12 feet tall.

Every member of the team had to make it over the wall and it was done through teamwork. And the reason why we had to go through these hardships in this training was because we were getting ready to live in South America roughing it, living a whole month in a tent while building dormitories and making our own bricks. You see, the preparation for us, ready to us, prepared us for that time that we would have to spend in South America. It made us prepared for the task before us. It was molding us. It was shaping us.

It was disciplining us. And so that is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about when he's speaking to the Hebrew people who are suffering persecution. What was the reality of Jews who had become Christians in just after the day of Christ? Now, this is in the time of the apostles. Hebrews was probably written before 70 A.D., most likely written before 70 A.D. What was their reality?

Look with me back at chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 32 to 34. The writer of Hebrews says this, But recall the former days in which you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings, partly while you were made a spectacle, both of reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated.

For you had compassion on me and my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. So you see some elements in there as some of the things that the Christians had to endure. Here are some of the things that first century Christians were enduring, particularly the Jews. Number one, they were ridiculed in public.

Christians were ridiculed in public. The writer of Hebrews writes to them, understanding that these are the things that they're facing. This is an adversity. This is a hardship. And this is why he's writing to them. Not only were they ridiculed in public, but they were cut off from society.

How would you like it? And this happens in many places in the world where someone will come to faith in Christ and their father will look at them and say, you are no longer my child. You are dead to me.

How does that make you feel? See, Christians were facing this sort of thing. And Ananias, the high priest, was taking a very hard line. All the Christians were considered unclean and they were banished from any holy places.

The synagogue, the temple, and all of these places. They couldn't go there because they were Christians, because they were followers of Christ. And it was a difficulty for them. Not only were they cut off from society, but they were also physically assaulted. Christians were physically assaulted. We see examples of this in the New Testament. And this is why he's writing to them as he wrote chapter 11, all the people living by faith in the Old Testament, these are your great cloud of witnesses.

And they are saying it is worth it to make Christ, the great I Am, the object of your faith and satisfaction. And so he's writing them, they're identifying with the people of chapter 11 because they were physically assaulted. Not only that, their homes were plundered. Their homes were plundered. Christians today, in other parts of the world, still experiencing this sort of harassment from ungodly forces.

Not only were their homes plundered, but sometimes they were cast into prison. We see examples of this in the New Testament. If you were to look at Acts chapter 4 and 5, Peter and Paul, Peter and John, excuse me, Peter and John, cast into prison because they were preaching the gospel of Christ. In chapter 12, James is executed by Herod. If you look in Acts chapter 11, Paul and Silas are at Thessalonica and there is a mob, there is a riot there because the people have risen up and they said these people are turning the whole world upside down.

And then they go to Berea and the same thing happens there. In chapter 21, Paul goes down to Jerusalem and he goes into the temple and there is a mob scene because Paul is there and they're harassing him for his faith. Now this is why the writer of Hebrews is writing this letter because many Christians are experiencing this level of adversity and this following Christ thing was becoming hard.

It was becoming a difficult thing to do and for many of them, as they were putting their foot in and tasting the waters and as they were becoming associated and identified with Christ and the Christian church, they were receiving these persecutions and they were looking back and saying, you know, I'm not sure if this following Christ thing is all it's cut out to be. I'm not sure I'm into this. I think I'm going back. I'm going back to where it's easier, where I'm just told what to do.

People don't harass me there. It's to them that the author of Hebrews is writing and he's giving them these warnings and to the Christians that are there who are committed, he's encouraging them and saying, listen, don't go back. Do not abandon Christ. But we see examples of that in the New Testament where it did happen, where Paul and Barnabas were on a mission trip and John Mark was with them and Mark jumped ship.

It was too hard for him. He says, I can't handle this and he leaves them. Paul and Barnabas had a falling out over that when they were ready to start their second missionary trip. Paul said, let's find some help. Barnabas says, OK, let's take Mark again. Paul says, nope, he's a quitter. I'm not attacking him.

You remember that story? OK. Demas, Paul said of Demas, he said in his letter, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. See, as Christians face these struggles and the difficulties, the adversities of life, it's to them that the writer of Hebrews is writing is saying, listen, look at it for what it is. Paul said in his last letters to Timothy, his last words that are ever written by Paul that we know him in the canon of scripture, he said, all have forsaken me. None stood with me.

A lonely man. Why? Because people were abandoning ministry. They were abandoning Christ because of the hardships. The writer of Hebrews writes to them and says, look at it for what it is.

Understand it for what it is. There are four words in the text that describe it. In this text, verses three through 11, there are four words that describe it.

The difficulty, the adversity that the Christians were facing. The first one is chasten, chasten. This word occurs eight times. Now, this is in the New King James.

One of them is the word correct in verse nine, where our fathers corrected us. It's the same word. It's the word translated chasten. It means to instruct, to discipline. There are occasions in the context where it means to punish. That's not how the author of Hebrews is using it. He's using it of instruction and discipline.

Think of it this way. Discipline, not in the punishment sense, but discipline in the forming and molding sense, like a coach does to an athlete. A coach disciplines his athletes. He helps them build strength and endurance, stamina, ability.

He prepares them for the task. How many of you have been in formal athletics with a really good coach? A really good coach is what kind of a coach?

A hard one. And how many athletes think their coach is just nothing but a sadist? I've been there. I played high school basketball.

First man off the bench, but still, you know, I was in practice. How many more suicides do I have to run? My legs were just burning and my lungs were just gasping for air. I can't do this anymore.

How much more do I have to do? But that's what a good coach does, because he's training you. He's molding you for the task. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.