See Your Savior in Every Hardship of Life!

13th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/14/16
Hebrews 12:1-13


See Your Savior in Every Hardship of Life!
I. A Savior who endured the hardship of the cross for you
II. A Savior who uses hardships to discipline you


I’m always intrigued by drawings that can be viewed in more than one way. Do you know what I’m talking about? The artist drew an object that can be seen one way from one perspective, and another way from a different perspective. Look at it one way and you can see three distinct objects. Look at it another way and you see four. It all depends on your perspective.

Hardships in the lives of God’s people have a way of narrowing our perspective. In fact, oppressive hardships of long duration can pinpoint our focus. The hardship is causing us so much pain or it’s nearly crushing our hearts, that we lose our perspective. Hardships also cause us to draw incorrect conclusions about what we’re facing. One of them is this: If God loved me, he wouldn’t have allowed this to happen to me. Have you ever felt that way?

The Christians to whom the words of our text were originally written were undergoing tremendous hardships in their lives, most of them the direct result of their Christian faith. These hardships were pulling them away from their Savior. The writer pleads with them, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.” He then proceeds to show them that hardships are meant to draw them closer to Jesus. It all depends on your perspective regarding hardships.

In every age of history, God’s people have faced hardships in their lives. And our loving God’s purpose with each one of them is to have us focus on Jesus, our Savior. Don’t let hardships drive you away from Christ! See your Savior in every hardship of life! May our loving Lord Jesus give us that perspective as he encourages us this morning with his word.

Part I.

We’ve all faced unpleasant situations in life. Some of them we can avoid; others we can’t. So, what do you do when you can’t avoid one? You go into it knowing it won’t last long. For instance, spending time with unpleasant relatives. You don’t enjoy being in the same room with Uncle Bob. But he’s your mom’s brother and if you want to be there for your mom, you’ll have to put up with Uncle Bob. It’s only for a couple hours anyway.

We could endure hardships in life more easily if we knew when and how they would end. But so often, they’re stubbornly chronic. They’re with us constantly and there’s no end in sight. So we ditch the hope of ever shedding hardships this side of heaven.

And then the misguided conclusions begin sprout and grow in our hearts and minds. They sound like this, “God must really be angry with me to allow something like this to happen in my life. What sin did I commit to deserve this kind of treatment?” Or, “Lord, what do I need to do so that you’ll love me and take this hardship away?” Or, worse yet, “If this is the way God is going to treat me, then I’m done with him!”

No matter what the approach, what’s happened is that the hardship has driven a wedge between you and your Savior. We’re looking at it all wrong.

Instead, see the hardship from your Savior’s perspective. Listen to what the writer states, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” He points us right to Jesus and calls us on to consider what Jesus endured and why. He endured no less than the cross. The physical pain had to be unimaginable, but it was nothing compared to the spiritual pain. While on the cross his Father left him all alone to suffer the spiritual pain of hell. That’s something, by God’s mercy, you and I won’t ever experience because Jesus suffered it for us.

And look how things turned out. Jesus endured the worst hardship possible—literal hell—and now he’s seated in eternal glory with his heavenly Father. From other parts of Scripture we know that the purpose for his being seated in glory is so that he can rule over all things for our good. That includes the hardships we face. In other words, his exaltation in heaven isn’t all about him; it’s all about you.

He’s ruling aver all things for one purpose—so that you can join him in the eternal glory of heaven—a life he won for you by the cross. So think about it. We often lose heart because we can’t see the end of the hardship we’re facing at the moment. But Jesus tells us right here how every hardship ends. In fact, his resurrection from the dead guarantees it. When we endure hardships with our eyes focused on Jesus we end up exactly where our God wants us to be—at his side in the glory of heaven.

See your Savior in every hardship of life—a Savior who endured the hardship of the cross for you.

We began by speaking about having the proper perspective. Unfortunately, far too often we’re looking at things the wrong way. Regarding this life, we have a propensity to long for the glory right now. We have this innate desire to make everything right in our lives here and now and then keep it that way. We want to breeze through life. In fact, we think it should be that way for a child of God, right? But we couldn’t be more wrong. Every single person on earth faces hardships. They’re lying if they tell you differently. Every Christian faces hardships. In fact, Christians have the added hardship of bearing their crosses for Christ. Jesus declared, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). The reason Jesus came to this earth the first time was not to remove trouble from your lives. He came to remove sin, to win forgiveness for all sins, so that we can enjoy the life he won for us—eternal life. Every hardship you face in life is a reminder that this isn’t the life Jesus wants for you. Every hardship in life ought to remind us that sin is what brought trouble and hardship into this world and the only solution to all trouble and hardship is in Christ. His death and resurrection have overcome our troubles. His death and resurrection make us certain of life with him. See your Savior in every hardship of life!

Part II.

We’ve all witnessed the behavioral meltdown of a toddler out in public. He doesn’t get what he wants and he has learned that there are few, if any, consequences to his ugly behavior. So he pitches a tantrum right out in the open for all to see. Meanwhile, his mother all but ignores him. But when she can’t do it any longer, she gives in and gives him what he wants. As little as he is, that child’s parents are setting him up for lifelong behavioral problems.

Thank your God that he doesn’t ignore you in the same way! Instead, he disciplines us. The writer tells us, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?” The hardships we face in life are not God’s means of settling the score with us. They are not God’s way of punishing us for our sins. Jesus took that punishment for us on the cross. So, why does God allow hardships to come into our lives?

Because he loves us. The unloving thing for a parent to do is to fail to correct his or her child, to be too lazy to do the difficult thing, to see that this behavior is going to harm the child in the long run but do nothing about it. However, any good parent will tell you that disciplining a child properly is a difficult thing. As hard as we try to do it properly, we still make mistakes. But not our Father in heaven. He is the God who is love, who knows all things and always acts in a perfect way for us. That includes his discipline.

In fact, his discipline is evidence of who we are by God’s grace. We are his dear children, the objects of his love. He doesn’t want to lose us as his children. So he disciplines us when he sees that we’re tempted to live our lives without him. He allows hardships to come our way so that we recall how much we need him in our lives.

In fact, he wants the hardships we face to drive us to him. When is it that you look most for comfort from his word? When is it that you pray most fervently? When are you convinced that you can’t handle what you’re facing, so you place your life in the hands of your Lord? It’s when hardships—even tragedies—have hit you hard.

And when that happens—when we are driven to place our trust and confidence in the Lord—then this is the result, “it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Trusting in your God who has saved you from your worst hardship—your sins—brings you the forgiveness of sins. In other words, it brings you the righteousness or holiness that Jesus won for you by his holy life and innocent death. Blessed with that righteousness, you have peace with the holy God. All is well between the two of you, and that’s all that really matters. That’s God’s purpose for the hardships of your life.

See your Savior in every hardship of life—a Savior who uses hardships to discipline you.

Have you ever spoken this prayer: “Lord, do whatever it takes to keep me close to you”? Maybe you have. If not, speak it soon. And then be ready for discipline. Jesus knows that we’re prone to run after all sorts of things in life to the detriment of our relation with him. Our sinful tendency is to marginalize Jesus, and we hardly even know we’re doing it. So, let every hardship you face remind you that you are a sinful person living in a sinful world and the only solution is your Savior, Jesus Christ. He always knows what’s best for you. Trust him! See your Savior in every hardship of life! Amen.