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“THE LORD DISCIPLINES HIS PEOPLE”
Text: Hebrews 12:4-24
Sunday August 24, 2025 – Pentecost 11
Trinity – Creston
Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Our text for this Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost is the Epistle lesson form Hebrews 12 that was just proclaimed.
Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that in times of trial or unexpected loss we can go forward as God’s child redeemed be you, Jesus. Amen.
Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:
When you were a kid, did you love being your parents’ kid? If you’re a kid now, do you always love having your parents as your parents? Did you? Do you? Always?
I’m sure we know, by and large, what a blessing it is to have our parents. They love us. They want the best for us. But occasionally there’s that little thing that brings every kid—and every parent—grief. Can’t avoid it. Really. It’s necessary, even helpful. You know what it is. Call it the “D word.” (Discipline)
In our text this morning, the writer to the Hebrews tells us about how the same dynamics work in our relationship with God. It begins, of course, sweetly enough. You are a son of God. So, ladies are you left out? No.
a. You see, central to a proper understanding of the Old Testament is the topic of sonship.
(1) It was the son who received an inheritance from his father.
(2) And if you were the firstborn son, you received a double portion of the inheritance, leadership over the family, and the blessing of carrying on the covenant promise.
b. This language of sonship carries over into the New Testament as well.
(1) While we are by nature children of wrath and sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2–3), we have been adopted as sons of God (Gal 4:5) in the blood of Christ.
(2) And if you are a son of God, then you are an heir to all the blessings that Christ has won for you through his crucifixion and resurrection: forgiveness, eternal life, salvation.
c. This sonship and all its blessings were first given to you in the waters of Holy Baptism.
3. What that involves sometimes brings grief: the Lord disciplines his sons.
a. As sons of God, there is the temptation to believe that life will be easy. However, the author of the book of Hebrews reveals this is not the case.
(1) Similar to a race (12:1), life as sons of God is often difficult, challenging, and painful.
(2) We can grow weary and fainthearted (12:3).
b. We bring many of these difficulties and challenges upon ourselves because of the sins we commit.
(1) As sons of God, we desire to walk in the ways of the Lord (vv 14–16).
(2) Yet we often stumble and fall into sin, bringing pain upon ourselves and those around us.
(3) This pain should be a warning that moves us to repent of these sins.
c. Then there are other times when we suffer and do not know why.
Losing a loved one.
Working hard and doing things right and still coming up short.
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffering assault or even death.
d. And so, as sons of God, we struggle with sin (Our own sin and the sins of others) and its effect on our lives.
e. Yet the author to the Hebrews would have us consider the Lord’s hand in all of this.
(1) He reveals that the Lord himself disciplines his sons (vv 5–10).
(2) This discipline is painful and unpleasant (v 11).
2. But it’s in love that the Lord disciplines his sons.
a. Hearing that the Lord disciplines his sons seems odd.
(1) Scripture reveals that God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Ex 34:6).
(2) So when we are enduring the Lord’s discipline, there is the temptation to believe that God does not love us. (Examples above and othes)
(3) Forgetting the exhortation that addresses us as sons (v 5), we begin to see God in his wrath (vv 18–20).
b. When we forget that God disciplines his sons, we would do well to look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (12:2).
(1) In the fullness of time, the eternal Son of God took on human flesh.
(2) Jesus was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin (4:15).
(3) On the cross, he suffered the Father’s wrath for your sin.
(4) And through the shedding of his holy and precious blood—a blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (v 24)—he has redeemed you from sin and reconciled you to his heavenly Father.
c. As Jesus endured the Father’s discipline for our eternal salvation, we begin to see that the Lord does not discipline his sons in his anger and displeasure. Instead, the Lord disciplines his sons in love (v 6).
(1) Consider the example of our earthly fathers (vv 7–9). They discipline us for doing wrong. As this is never pleasant, we may begin to question their love for us. Yet they discipline us specifically because they love us.
(2) So it is that every son that the Lord loves and receives he punishes and chastises also. In fact, if you were not disciplined by the Lord, you would be considered an illegitimate child (v 8).
1. And the Lord’s loving discipline of his sons is certainly for their good.
a. Consider once again the example of earthly fathers.
(1) They discipline their sons for various reasons, and they do this according to their own wisdom.
(2) While earthly fathers discipline us for a short time as seems best to them, God disciplines his sons for their good (v 10).
b. The old Adam, with all his sins and evil desires, still clings to us in this life.
c. So it is that through the Lord’s discipline, the old Adam in us is put to death and we live out our holiness (v 10), just as he is holy (Lev 19:2).
(1) The Lord disciplines us for our good so that we may walk in his ways (vv 14–16).
(2) This is for our good—lest we defile ourselves with sin and fail to obtain our eternal inheritance in heaven (v 15), which Christ has won for us through his crucifixion and resurrection.
The Lord Disciplines the Sons Whom He Loves— for Their Good!
Paul Gerhardt (1607–76) is considered one of Lutheranism’s= finest hymn writers. He wrote 134 hymns in his lifetime, seventeen of which are found in Lutheran Service Book.
While these hymns reflect Gerhardt’s steadfast confession to the truth of God’s Word, they also are shaped by times of confessional crisis and personal tragedy. Gerhardt endured the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48).
He lost his pastoral position in Berlin for refusing to compromise his Lutheran convictions. He also grieved the death of four of his five children and his wife.
One hymn to come out of Gerhardt’s suffering is “Rejoice, My Heart, Be Glad and Sing” (LSB 737). It seems odd to sing a hymn that speaks of rejoicing in the midst of suffering.
And yet, Gerhard’s hymn reflects much of what the writer to the Hebrews describes: God, in his infinite wisdom, disciplines his children (Heb 12:4–11).
In the midst of tears, there is no reason to despair (st 3). Jesus is our treasure, joy, life, light, Lord, counselor, shield, and great reward (st 2). In Christ, not only can we endure suffering, but we can also rejoice knowing that God will make a blessed ending (st 6).
Dear children loved by God:
Through the blood of Christ, you’ve been made a son(child) of God and have all the benefits that come with it: forgiveness of sin, eternal life, salvation.
And while there is that thing that grieves every child and parent—discipline—also in our relationship with the Lord, do not grow weary or fainthearted.
Instead, lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees (v 12) with the promise that God loves you for Christ’s sake, and he is disciplining you for your ultimate good—to bring you into his heavenly Jerusalem with innumerable angels in festal gathering, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant (vv 22–24).
And until that day, “do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him” (v 5). Nor let us forget that the Lord disciplines the sons whom he loves for their good! Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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