Men’s Healing and Growth Group SPCC 2003

Devotion 1: The Discipline of the Father

Introduction

Isa 38:15-17; Heb 12:1-2

topic foundational to spirituality and discipleship

Australian culture: indulgence and comfort lack of discipline, Bible reading, prayer etc. (laziness, procrastination, distraction) in the church a symptom and not a cause

A. Discipline of Sonship in the O.T.

1. Adam

a. God’s first son (Luke 3:38) and heir (Gen 1:26ff.)

b. Eden a place of delight

c. Adam disciplined before he sinned (Gen 2:17)

d. Discipline an essential element of Father – son relationship and not a mere  corrective device.

e. God’s “No!” brought hurt (at least at the time of temptation) but was intended to keep from harm.

f. Satanic temptation: life without (external/internal discipline).  Enjoyment without cost/limit.

g. Failure to grasp divine wisdom: pain multiplied, glory of sonship lost, confusion  about discipline.

Discussion point: are we able to clearly distinguish hurt from harm in God’s dealings with us?

2. Israel

A. The Law

a.Israelis God’s son (Ex 4:22; Deut 1:31; Hos 11:1 etc.)

b. God addresses the nation as the heir of his promises in terms of his purposes in discipline in the wilderness (Deut 8:3, 5)

c. The desired outcome is not pain but permanent possession of the Promised Land (Deut 8:6 -20)

B. The Writing

a. The principle of fatherly discipline is embedded in Israel’s consciousness.

b. Proverbs 13:24 the son as heir is the father’s hope.

c. No discipline communicates illegitimacy and breeds hopelessness.

d. The love of the father is revealed in the pain he causes the child for their good (Prov 3:11-12).

e. In a mature relationship, the pain of discipline is received as a revelation of fatherly delight.

C. The prophets

a. The prophets add an additional dimension to the dynamic of discipline.

b. In Babylonian exile the people cry out to God and he responds (Jer 31:18 – 20).

c. The pain in Israel’s life is a sign of God’s delight and compassion.

Discussion point: have you had human authority figures with godly motivation in discipling your life?

d. The prophets recognise the difference between God’s justice and anger (Jer 10:24- 25 cf. 30:11; 46:28).

e. Discipline takes into account human weakness and frailty but anger/wrath does not.

f. If anger is the opposite of delight, when the children of God pull back from the discipline of God they are confusing it with wrath (cf. Deut 8:5).

Discussion point: are you able to distinguish in your heart the difference between God’s discipline and anger?

D. Messiah

a. The concentration point of the divine favour in the Old Testament is the anointed one of God, Messiah.

b. Psalm 2:7 – 8 develops the themes of intimacy and inheritance on a scale beyond the promises to Israel as a nation.

c. These echo the commission to Adam and Eve to fill the earth.

d. The task cannot be accomplished without discipline (Ps 89:26,30ff.).

e. In practice, all the anointed kings of the Old Testament fail, just as Israel and Adam did.

f. It is left to the Son of God to redeem discipline as a gracious gift of God to humanity.

Discussion point: what is there in the relationship between power and discipline from God that the kings of Israel seemed not to be able to receive?

B. The Discipline of the Son of God

1. Before the Cross

a. Old Testament themes and promises of sonship and inheritance come together at Jesus’ baptism (Luke 3:22 cites Ps 2:7 and Isa 42:1).

b. Jesus has a two – fold experience: power to bring in the kingdom of God and fulfil the Father’s joy (Acts 10:38).

c. He is now exposed to evil men and angels which will function as agents of the Father’s discipline.

d. Both of these are indispensable for a mature life as a disciplined child of God.

e. Jesus journey’s immediately into the wilderness to confront the devil (Luke 4:1 -2).

f. He is faithful to the Father’s discipline where the faith of Israel failed.

g. From here he works by words and signs and stirs up the opposition of sinful men who plot to kill him (Matt 12:14; Mark 3:6; Luke 4:29; John 7:19ff.).  There is no evidence that this troubled Jesus.

Discussion point: how are Psalm 2 and the Servant Songs of Isaiah related in a way that seems strange to us?

2. The Great Discipline

a. Gethsemane is a state of deep distress (Mark 14:32- 34; Isa 53:3).

b. This draws out an intimacy with God as Father nowhere else recorded in the Gospels (Mark 14:36).

c. The “cup” in the Old Testament is God’s anger (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17 – 22 etc.).

d. It is never associated with the divine compassion (Lam 3:31-33).

e. Jesus embraces an experience of being outside the experience of the Father’s love (Mark1 5:34) in a state never designed for humanity but only for evil (Matt 25:41).

f. This is not an ordinary experience of discipline but the absence of the delight of the Father, disinheritance and hopelessness.

g. The infinite intensity of the anger of God against sin tells Jesus nothing about the Father.

h. The mercy of God on sinners (Ps 103:10ff.) is not the experience of the Son of God (Isa 53:10).

i. “Angry” and “Father” are polar opposites.  The hands of God are not his Father’s heart.

j. It is not possible to simultaneously feel God is angry and he is your Father.

k. Jesus, outside of the loving discipline/Fatherly delight bears the state of bring “reduced to nothing” (Jer 10:24).

l. Yet Jesus is not “reduced to nothing” because in the perfecting of his faith (Heb 12:2) he continues to obey God in a Father -delighting manner (Ps 147:10 – 11; Eph 5:2).

m. Jesus penetrates beyond the limits of hell and breaks through to surrender his spirit to his Father (Luke 23:46).

n. In this great act Jesus is perfected through suffering (Heb2:10; 5:7 – 8) and enters into the joy of his Father (Heb 12:2); the fullness of the recognition of his Sonship (Ps 2:7; Acts 13:33; Rom 1:4).

o. As our forerunner in the fruit of discipline Christ sends the Spirit from the Father   (Acts 1:8;2:33) that we with him as disciplined sons might inherit the nations of the world (Rom 4:13).

Discussion point: what did Jesus endure on the cross that we never will?

C. The Discipline of the sons of God

a. Hebrews 12:4 – 11, the most extended passage on discipline of the Christian flows   on from the story of Christ.

b. We do not choose discipline for ourselves; it is God’s initiative (v.7).

c. It is a sign that God is our Father and we are his children and heirs (v.8)

d. It is painful now but fruitful later (v.11).

e. Pain is not harm (v.9) and punishment is not wrath (vv.5 – 6).

f. All godly persons understand that discipline is foundational to maturity: Paul (2 Cor 6:9 = Ps 118:18; 2 Cor 12:1 -10).

g. This is understood as a participation in the dying and rising of Christ (2 Cor 4:10).

h .This imparts an inner authority to discern and apply the discipline of God to the  church (1 Cor 4:21;11:30-32; 2 Cor 13:1 – 4).

i. “The greater the work ahead the greater the trial now.”

j. These principles also apply to the discipling of nations (Matt 28:19).

k. A “lucky country” or a disciplined one ? (Hos 6:1 – 3)

Discussion point: what is your personal response to “The greater the work ahead the greater the trial now.”