Discipline yields the fruit of righteousness

Hebrews 11:32-12:13 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; ³⁶ and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated ³⁸ (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

³⁹ And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

12 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

³ For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

⁴ You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; ⁵ and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
⁶ For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

⁷ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. ¹¹ All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

¹² Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

The writer of Hebrews has listed many accounts of those who exhibited great faith to encourage us that we too can have that same kind of faith to walk in the promises of God. Still, we often think our faith is not great enough, that we need more faith or bigger faith for the difficulties and trials we face.   Today’s text says:     let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith        In truth, this is what will see us through our hard times. It’s not really the size of our faith that matters. Jesus says:  “Truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” (Matthew 17:20) Faith the size of a tiny mustard seed, not much bigger than the .  on this page, can move mountains, yet we feel like we have insufficient faith to face the challenges in our lives. The key is fixing our eyes on Jesus. It is not the insufficient size of our faith that hinders us. It is the improper focus, the misdirected object of our faith.

In Matthew 14, we read the account of Jesus walking through a storm on the surface of the water. Verses 24-31 tells us about Peter, who also walked on the water.     … the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”     Although Jesus says: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  It really was the object of Peter’s faith that failed him. As long as he walked out into the storm with his eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter, the object of his faith, he was able to walk. As soon as he took his eyes off Jesus, seeing the wind, he became frightened. We, like Peter, tend to see the wind, the difficulties and trials, we look at the circumstances we face, rather than looking into the face of the one who will help us to overcome them.

The account in Matthew 14 continues saying:  When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!”     Here again we see how we sometimes mistake what it is that is our security. It was not the boat that was the security of the disciples. While they may indeed have made across to the other side in the boat, it was Jesus Himself, the Son of God, who calmed the storm. Jesus says: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)    There are many things we can look to and depend on when we face difficulties. The psalmist says:  Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. (Psalm 20:7)     Remembering the name of our Lord is what we really need to do. He, Jesus our Lord, has overcome. When Peter lost his focus, seeing the wind, he remembered the name of the Lord. The text says:   he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him       James 5:16 says:   The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.        There is perhaps no prayer more effective and fervent recorded in all of scripture than these three words of Peter; “Lord save me.”  The answer to Peter’s prayer was:  Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him.      Jesus didn’t stop the wind or the waves immediately, He simply took hold of Peter and Peter was secure. The Lord may not always stop the turbulent circumstances in our lives. At times they may rage on for quite awhile. Still we are secure in Him. The psalmist says:   though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)     Even death is nothing to fear if we are in Christ, He has overcome that too. For those who are in Christ there is eternal life with Him. Death is merely a shadow.

We need also though to understand that the rod and the staff of the shepherd are tools for the protection, the guidance and discipline of the sheep. In the shepherds care, in his discipline there is comfort.     Today’s text says:  “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, “ … All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.      In our culture and society we have made discipline to be a bad thing. We reward all behavior rather than rewarding good and disciplining bad behavior. The result is that we are teaching that it does not matter how you act, whether good or bad, so rather than the peaceful fruit of righteousness, our society and culture is yielding the destructive fruit of unrighteousness.

Nothing we can do, putting our trust in human philosophies, in human knowledge will not deliver us from the storms that rage in our culture. We, like Peter, need to remember the object of our faith. We need to remember the name of our Lord and trust in Him.

We need to pray the effective and fervent prayer,      Lord save us!    Amen