「神の忍耐と信仰者の忍耐」 八月第四主日礼拝 宣教 2025年8月24日
ヘブライ人への手紙 Hebrews 12章1〜11節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning. It continues to be hot every day, but I thank the Lord for the opportunity to worship with you all this morning. The forecast is for another week of midsummer days, so please avoid going out unnecessarily and prioritize taking care of your health. We pray for the Lord’s protection.
The Wednesday prayer meeting will be on hiatus until this week and will resume next week on September 3. We will start reading the Gospel of John from chapter 1. The Gospel of John is a Gospel that describes the person and teachings of Jesus as the Savior from a different angle and perspective from the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Please take this opportunity to pray for attendance at the Wednesday Prayer Meeting. September is also “Church School Month. This is a 30-minute adult class on Sunday mornings from 10:10 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. We will be reading the book of Joshua in September, and although it will be a challenge to leave home an hour early, we hope you will join us as we will receive more grace.
Now, in August, we are listening together to God’s story from the Bible with the word “patience, perseverance” as our key word, and last week and this morning we were led to listen to the letter to the Hebrews about patience. Patience is tested as we face a variety of challenges and problems, such as illness and injury in ourselves and our families, caregiving, childcare, study, work, and poverty in our lives. In particular, various problems related to human relationships are the most nerve-wracking, seemingly troublesome, and require patience and perseverance on a daily basis. However, this letter teaches us that even such vexing burdens have meaning and purpose. We are told that the tribulations are there so that God the Father can train us.
As we discussed last week, the letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage Jewish Christians who were in danger of severe persecution and imprisonment because of their faith in Jesus and had to leave their beloved Jerusalem, and to encourage them to remain in their faith in Jesus as their Savior. Verses 33 and 34 of chapter 10 give us a background that some were imprisoned because of their faith in Jesus, some suffered violence and harassment, some lost all their possessions, and many had to leave their familiar cities and move to different parts of the world.
The purpose for which this letter was written is that no matter how the times change, no matter what hardships those who believe in Jesus as their Savior may face, God’s promise and oath of blessing will never change, and this promise and oath have already been fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Therefore, I encourage them to keep their eyes focused on Jesus alone, who died an atoning death on the cross and was raised by God, to keep trusting in the Lord Jesus alone even in the midst of tribulations, to stay connected to this Lord, and to remain in faith. He reaffirms that there is absolute hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, even if you are going through great suffering in your life at this time, even if you are in a desperate situation with no hope in your life, keep looking to Jesus alone, keep believing in Him, keep following Him, God and Jesus will never abandon you or let go of you, so keep walking with the Lord Jesus’ hand on you. God and Jesus will never abandon you or let you go.
Because God and Jesus are true, those who put their trust in Him can walk with Jesus Christ, and they will be given rest for their souls and strength to persevere and move forward day by day. Beyond that, there is the promised eternal life and eternal blessings. The hardships and trials are the training to continue to believe in Jesus Christ, the Word of God’s promise, as our Savior.
Chapter 12, verse 1 says, “Therefore, since we also are surrounded by such a great crowd of witnesses, let us also lay aside every burden and entangling sin, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. To encourage Christians who are discouraged in the midst of severe persecution and hardship, the writer of this epistle lists in chapter 11 a number of people as a flock of witnesses, who had faithfully obeyed God’s word in the Old Testament era.
The writer is not saying that these people are great and should be an example for us to follow in life. These are people who testified through their lives how true God is. We are saying that this Truthful One is with you, and that He is “Jesus, the Founder and Finisher of our faith. He encourages you to surrender to Jesus all the burdens and sins that are entangled in your heart like spider threads and torment you, and to run the race that you must run, looking up to Him and running patiently and persevering through it, never giving up, never letting go of His hand. Do not give up in the middle of the race, and do not let go of Jesus’ hand.
Verse 2 says that Jesus is “the author and finisher of our faith. It is Jesus who gave us faith, and it is Jesus who leads us to the Promised Land where God is and completes our salvation. He encourages us to look up to Jesus before striving on our own, and to keep walking in surrender to the Lord Jesus, so that we can run the race of faith and receive great joy and blessings.
To give us this joy and eternal life, the writer writes, “Jesus endured the death of the cross, forsaking the joy that was before Him and the shame that was upon Him,” and that God the Father raised Him from the dead and brought Him back to heaven to sit at the right hand of the throne of God, thus letting us know that God is the truth. He reminds us that God is true and encourages us to trust in him without giving up hope.
There are sufferings that we cannot solve by ourselves in order to experience this truth of God. Suffering and trials are not there to torment us, to discourage us from living, to exhaust us, or to make us abandon our faith. Let us know that they are there to train us, to give us further growth. Jumping around a bit, we read in verses 5 and 6, “And you forget the following admonition, which is spoken to you as to children. ‘My children, do not despise the Lord’s discipline. Do not lose strength when you are chastened by the Lord. For the Lord disciplines those whom He loves, and flogs all those whom He accepts as His children.'”
The words in parentheses are taken from Proverbs 3:11-12, where the word “train” means to educate a child. In other words, God is trying to train us and bring us up, and we should not take this lightly, that is, we should not become discouraged without understanding God’s true intention and purpose. God is treating you as His children.” God is treating you as His children, says in verse 7.
Some may read these words and think that they are anachronistic. But before we say that this is a violation of human rights and harassment by God, we should know that we are violating God’s will by living self-centeredly, ignoring the will of God, who created each one of us and gives us life through love, and that we are ruining God’s love and the death of Jesus. We should know that we are violating God’s will and ruining God’s love and Jesus’ death.
We also need to know the true purpose of why God is training us. That purpose is stated in verse 10. He trains us for the purpose of bringing us into the presence of His holiness. The words, “He trains us for the purpose of bringing us into the presence of His holiness. These words are preceded by the words, “that the Father of spirits may be glorified in us. We need to understand that God’s purpose is to train us in order to make us His children.
Going back to verse 3, he says, “Compare our sufferings with the shame and pain Jesus endured on the cross to save us, and with the rejection and rebellion He endured in order to make us God’s children. He also asks us to consider who it was that Jesus suffered for.
Verse 4 says, “You have not yet resisted until you have fought against sin and shed your blood.” He says that Jesus fought against sin by shedding His blood on the cross to save you and gave His life for you, but you have not yet resisted sin to the point of dying to live with Jesus in order to keep the faith He gave you, and you are always living in compromise. He seems to be asking, “Are you willing to forsake that life and return to a life filled with sin, forsaking Jesus who gives us eternal life? Is that really the right thing to do?
This time the Word shows us that the patience of God and Jesus is rooted in their love for us. At the same time, we are also informed that the patience of the believer in Jesus as Savior is rooted in a faith that believes, thanks, and surrenders to God and Jesus that they love, forgive, and pray for us.
Verse 11 says, “For discipline is not pleasant at first; it seems sad, but later it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness in those who have been trained by it.”
Suffering is indeed painful and sad and to be avoided if possible. However, those who see their current suffering as a discipline from God and trust in the Lord God, when they believe that they are in the process of being remade as holy people who can live forever in the Kingdom of God, with all unnecessary things removed from their suffering when they enter the Kingdom of God, they can bear fruit that will make them righteous in God’s eyes. When we believe that we are in the process of being transformed into holy people who can live forever in the Kingdom of God, we can bear fruit that is righteous in God’s eyes through the Lord’s mercy and experience peace with God. That is why I feel that we are encouraged to endure our current suffering, to look only to Jesus, and to listen to and follow His voice and words of guidance. Thank you Lord for your love and patience toward us.