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Transcript of a sermon on Hebrews 11:32-40
If you have your Bibles, please take them and turn with me to the book of Hebrews. Today we are in Hebrews chapter 11. We will look at verses 32 through 40 as we wrap up this discourse on those who have had faith.
The end of this passage is actually verse 2 of the following chapter, but as far as the biographies go, we are going to wrap up those biographies today as we consider Hebrews chapter 11, beginning in verse 32.
“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and floggings, while still others were chained and put in prison.
They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword.
They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect or would they be made complete.”
Let’s pray.
God, you are the giver of gifts. And so, Lord, today I ask that through your word that you would give us a deeper trust in you, that you would give us a deeper knowledge of you as Savior, as Master, as Lord, and as King. We pray that you would give us deeper power in our private prayer, that you would give us a taste of sweetness from your word and a better grip on the truth that is there.
Give us deeper holiness through this. Lord, by the power of your word, plow deeply in our hearts so that we might be a field with roots of grace spreading far and wide so that the world might see the flowering of your love in our lives. We pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
INTRODUCTION
So one woman by faith comes to Jesus and cleans her life up from the horrors of drug abuse. Another woman has the same faith in Jesus and yet struggles, for the rest of her life, with the same addiction.
One man has faith in Jesus and lives a life of prosperity and ease, using the wealth given to him by God to bless those who are less fortunate. Another man lives a life of struggle and poverty.
One family has a deep abiding faith in the promises of God and lives their lives in safety and peace. Another family has a deep abiding faith in the promises of God and lives in fear of violence and persecution.
What’s the difference?
The author of Hebrews today is wrapping up for us his discourse on the list of those who have proven to us that living by faith in God’s promises is far better than living by faith in the rites and rituals of the Old Testament covenant. In this passage that we’re going to consider, rather than focusing on one person and their faith, he gives us a summary of those who did by faith what they otherwise could not have done and those who endured by faith what they otherwise could not have endured.
And then he wraps up this biographical sketch that he has given to us with these two verses in verse 39 and 40, telling us that those were commended for what they did for faith and what they did not receive and then linking us to them. As you and I have the completed fulfillment of God’s promises in the life, the death and the ongoing work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we have no excuse for not continuing in the power of God that is ours by faith and by faith alone.
DOING THE UNDO-ABLE BY FAITH
So let us first consider those who did what was undo-able by faith.
The author opens this section with the question, “And what more shall I say?” Well, he goes on to mention other people directly and indirectly. The force of this opening question is basically this: “I’ve given you enough evidence. What more do you need?”
Wednesday night at our prayer meeting, we looked at John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, which say this:
“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
What we talked about Wednesday night before we spent time in prayer for the church and for the members of the church, was that John could have written far more about the work of Jesus, but he didn’t. Why didn’t he? Because he had given us enough to know what we needed to believe, that Jesus is truly God and truly human, and that in believing we could receive the eternal life that is promised through belief in Jesus. And that’s the same sense that the author of Hebrews is giving us here at the beginning.
He is saying, “Time and paper will run out before I run out of examples. But you don’t need any more. I’ve given you enough examples of those who are commended because of their faith and not because of their works.”
But just in case you want to do some more study on your own, he does give us a list of specific people and a list of characteristics of people that we will briefly, briefly, briefly consider today to see those who are commended for faith and not works. He begins by listing these six people.
Gideon, we learn of Gideon in Judges six through eight and in Judges six through eight, we see that Gideon tears down altars and shrines to Baal and to Ashtoreth, even though he feared the repercussions, the consequences that would come from those worshipers of Baal who should have been worshiping God.
He puts his life in danger by faith to tear down these altars. And then later on, with an army of a mere 300 men armed with clay jugs and a torch and a trumpet, he defeats the armies of Midian because he had faith in God’s promise to work through him to defeat those armies. He goes to Barak.
Barak in Judges four through five is called by God to lead the army against Jabin’s army, the army of Israel against Jabin’s army. And with the help of Deborah, he leads the army, calls them together. And God, according to his promise, gives victory to Barak and the armies of Israel.
Samson, a colorful character indeed. If you read from Judges 13 through 15 at the end of his life he had faith that God would strengthen him as he had done previously in his life. He calls upon God one last time as he tears down the temple of Dagon, defeating the Philistines.
Jephthah in Judges 11 and 12 frees Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites by faith in God’s promise to work through him.
David, we learn of in first Samuel 16, all the way through the end of second Samuel. He was the king of Israel who by faith was described as a man after God’s own heart. Samuel, who we read about in most of the book of first Samuel, serves as a man who by faith in the promises of God transitions Israel from the rule of warlords and judges to the rule of kings, anointing the first and second king of Israel, Saul and David.
The author is saying, “Whether these men had a weak faith or a strong faith, a persistent faith or an on again off again faith, these men were empowered by faith to do what otherwise could not be done in their own strength.”
The kings, the prophets conquered kingdoms, they administer justice or administered righteousness since those two words are linked together. We do not pursue justice without pursuing righteousness as well. And if we are going to pursue righteousness, as we should in the power of Christ, we should also be pursuing justice.
And each of them received what God had promised to them. David conquered Jerusalem. David conquered the Philistines by faith in God’s promises to give his people possession, full possession of the promised land.
And then the author goes on to give us another list of people, but he doesn’t name them by name. He gives us enough hints about who they are so that we can see that they acted by faith.
He says that by faith, someone shut the mouths of lions. We think of Daniel and Daniel chapter six as he is unjustly thrown in a den of lions merely for praying to God when it was illegal in the land to pray to God. And yet by faith, he shut the mouths of those lions.
We are told of those who quenched the fury of the flames. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down in worship to the statue that Nebuchadnezzar built. And so Nebuchadnezzar threatens them with death in the fiery furnace. And they say to Nebuchadnezzar, “Our God will rescue us. But even if he doesn’t, we have faith in the promises that he has given to us to give us an eternal rescue.” As they are thrown into the flames, they are rescued by the pre-incarnate Christ.
Elijah, first Kings 19, is enabled by faith to run far away from Jezebel as she seeks his death. Hezekiah was healed of his weakness, of his illness, because he repented, believing that God would bless him for his repentance. We see that in Isaiah 38.
We read also in first Kings 17 of the widow of Zarephath and second Kings 4, the Shunammite woman who received back their children from the dead because of faith in God’s promises.
None of these things would have been possible apart from faith in the promises of God that God is a God who rewards those who believe in him.
The original audience needed this reminder because they were being persecuted and tempted to turn their back on their faith in Jesus, to renounce the work of Jesus and to put their faith, their hope in their own ability to keep God’s law.
The choice for them is faith in the promise of God to give salvation from sin and judgment through the finished work of Jesus or faith in their ability to keep the law. Ephesians chapter two begins with the declaration for we were dead in our trespasses and sin.
Dead people cannot raise themselves. Dead people cannot rescue themselves from sin. And it goes on to finish out in Ephesians two, verse eight through 10, reminding us that by grace, God has worked through faith to raise us to new life, to set us apart as holy. And it all comes through faith in Jesus completed work.
Are you hoping in your ability to please God or are you hoping in Jesus completed and finished work of pleasing God? Only one of those ways leads to salvation. And so by faith, we are able to do what would be impossible without faith.
ENDURING THE UNENDURABLE BY FAITH
By faith, we are also able to endure what would be impossible to endure without faith.
In the second half of verse 35, we have one of those kind of record scratch shifts in focus, in tone. He says,
“Others were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers or insults and flogging while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawed in two. They were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.”
At best, there are some that by faith are completely rejected and expelled from society. No longer allowed access to those things that you and I take for granted. In the book of Revelation in chapters two and three as Jesus is speaking to the churches. He gives hints. He gives direct statements in there that there are people who by faith are suffering economic depravity. They’re suffering poverty and injustice.
At worst, the author of Hebrews tells us that there are those who are suffering death and torture and insults because of their faith.
We have men like Isaiah who tradition has it King Manasseh sawed in two because he was faithful to proclaim what God had called him to proclaim.
We read throughout the book of Jeremiah that as Jeremiah goes to the king that he was called to proclaim to as he goes to that king and proclaims, he is tortured and put in prison.
As Elijah by faith is running from Mount Carmel is running from the sword of Jezebel. Jezebel is rounding up every single prophet that she can get her hands on and is putting them to death by torture and by the sword.
These men and women if we look at the different examples that came after that these men and women suffered by faith in the promise that they might rise. They would rise again to a better life or as the NIV says it so that they may might gain a better resurrection. They endured torture by faith.
They endured insult and ridicule by faith. They endured exile by faith. They even endured the martyrs death by faith because they had faith that God would reward them with the eternal resurrection life that awaits.
Why are you and I able to hold loosely to the material rewards of this world? Because we have faith in God’s promise to give us better rewards in that resurrection life that comes through Jesus. How do you and I endure the hardships of this life? By faith in those words of Paul that anything that we could suffer in this world will pale, will infinitely pale, in comparison to the weight of glory that awaits us in the new heavens and the new earth. We endure the unendurable through faith in God’s promise to bring us to that better resurrection life.
And the author closes with these two verses verses 39 and 40. These were all all of these men all of these women from from verse 3 of or excuse me verse 4 of chapter 11 all the way through to the end.
“These were all commended for their faith yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
As we consider the commendation that came because of their faith, we note a difference between them and us and we note a commonality between them and us.
First, the difference.
The difference is that they look forward to a salvation and we look backward to our salvation, our completed salvation. It says none of them received what had been promised. Well, what had been promised? We talked a little bit about this in Sunday school this morning.
Where is the first promise of redemption and reconciliation in the Bible? Genesis 3:15. God says, “I’ll put enmity between your seed and her seed and the seed of the woman will crush the head of the seed of the serpent even while his heel is being bruised.” They looked forward to God sending the Redeemer that would bring about the victory that they could not bring about in their own power.
They had hope as they looked at the prophets, the priest and the king that God would bring the perfect prophet, priest and king that we’ve studied throughout the rest of the book of Hebrew. They had hope as they looked at the sacrificial system that God would bring the perfect sacrifice that would once and for all defeat the serpent and bring us salvation. You and I do not look forward to the greater prophet, priest and king.
We look back to the one who has said, “It is finished.” God’s promises are yes and amen in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that the serpent, our enemy, Satan, has been defeated. His head has been crushed at the cross as Christ was bruised and bloodied for our salvation.
Their faith look forward to something yet to be. Our faith looks back to it is finished.
But we have something in common with them as well.
They had faith in the promise of being raised to a better, fuller resurrection life. And that is our hope as well. The passage from Revelation six, which we read earlier, talks about a number being complete.
Hebrews 11:40 uses the same phraseology, except it is translated in the NIV that they would be made perfect. What’s the idea here? The idea here is that there is a certain number of people that God has set that will come to faith in him. Some of them will come to faith and live lives of victory and success.
Others will come to faith and live lives of defeat and death. And yet there is a full number that has to be completed. Those Old Testament saints are part of that number.
You and I are part of that number. And we all are looking forward to that day when Jesus comes back. And that better resurrection life is ours in its fullness.
It is ours now today in Christ. But we long for the day when it comes in its fullness and we suffer success. And we suffer pain and trial in faith that that resurrection life is ours in Christ Jesus.
CONCLUSION
So we do the undoable by faith. And we endure the unendurable by faith as well. Like the opening examples that I used in the introduction, our passage today highlights those who experienced great success by faith, As well as those who endured great pain and trial by faith.
I ask you again, what’s the difference?
There are many in the American church today who would answer you that the difference is the strength of the faith of those that the author highlights. Brothers and sisters, that is a lie straight from the pit of hell that smells like smoke.
And it’s a dangerous lie because if you are living your best life now, you’re headed to hell. It is not a lack of faith. It is not a lack of strength of faith in the prophets or those who suffered.
If you look at the life of Samson, he had one specific act of faith in his whole life. When he prayed to God and said, you’ve promised me in the past to give me strength, give me strength one more time. To pull down the temple of Dagon.
Or the thief on the cross. How strong was his faith? How developed and robust was his faith to say, “Lord, may I be with you today in paradise? I deserve to be here. You don’t.” And Jesus says, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
It’s not the strength of your faith. It is the strength of the one whom your faith is in. It is the sovereignty and providence of God that determines whether your faith in this life will be rewarded with success or pain. And if we’re honest with ourselves. Our lives are a mix of both of those.
There are moments when by faith we experience the joys of this world. And yet there are moments by faith where we are called, we are drug to learn and lean more and more upon the promises of the next.
Do you, brothers and sisters, have a theology of suffering? Or rather, more accurately, what is your theology of suffering? All of us have some idea, some belief, some view of the relationship between God and suffering and us. You may have fallen into the trap thinking that your suffering is proof that your faith may not be strong enough. But people, it’s not life on this earth that determines the strength or the importance of our faith.
It is God’s sovereignty and it is the life, the better life in the next. By faith in God’s promises that there will be no more suffering in the world to come, you can endure even the worst of trials. Where is your hope? Is it in the things of this world? Or is it in the assurance that God will keep his promises?
Let us pray.
God above, we believe. We also cry out, help our unbelief. Remind us, oh, Lord, that it is not the strength of our faith., but it is the power of the one in whom our faith is in. If our faith is in ourselves, we are lost. But if our faith is in you, whether it’s a faltering faith, whether it’s a struggling faith, whether it’s the strongest of earthly faiths, it is still a faith that you honor and glorify.
And so, Lord, while we believe, help our unbelief. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
If you don’t know the bliss of the thought of your sin being paid in full at the cross, if you don’t know for sure whether you are trusting in your own righteousness, in your own goodness, or in the finished work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, please see me or one of the elders following the service or soon and talk to us and make sure you understand. But God calls us to leave here with his blessing upon us.
Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him. For he shields us all day long. And the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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