Dying by Faith
Notes
Transcript
1 | How have I experienced the tension?
Have you ever experienced tunnel vision?
Where you get so fixated on something that it’s difficult to see or desire anything else?
Maybe it was a book series, a TV show, or a new project at work.
When Ali and I first started dating, we had been friends for a year when she pulled me aside and told me she had feelings for me. And suddenly, tunnel vision.
Ali—beautiful, smart, kind, and humble—was interested in me? I couldn’t believe it. We talked, texted, went on walks, had fun dates, and sat together in gatherings. When she studied, I sat with her. And when we weren’t together, I was checking my phone every five seconds.
Then she moved to China, and I wasn’t a fan of long distance. I’d wake up, immediately check my phone, read her latest message, and wait for the next FaceTime call.
It makes me wonder how long-distance relationships worked in the 1800s. Would I have just lived in the telegraph office, waiting for a beep of Morse code?
I was so focused on Ali that I barely noticed anything else happening around me.
2 | How have you experienced this tension?
We all experience tunnel vision at times, usually from two emotions:
• Excitement—When we start something new, like a hobby or TV series.
• Fear—When uncertainty consumes our focus.
This week, I realized how easily I get tunnel vision with politics. The more fear I feel, the more I check the latest news, feeding my anxiety. It becomes an endless cycle that narrows my definition of victory—where life is only good if my hopes are met and my fears never happen.
When we get tunnel vision, we fixate on what we can control and struggle to focus on what God desires.
3 | What do the Scriptures say about this tension?
I imagine the Jewish followers of Jesus who received Hebrews struggled with tunnel vision, too. Living under Rome’s oppressive rule, facing persecution, and fearing for their lives—it makes sense their focus would be on their suffering.
That’s why the author has spent this chapter listing example after example of those who lived by faith in Israel’s history. And now, in Hebrews 11:32-34, he speeds up the storytelling:
Read Hebrews 11:32-34
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
This sounds like a pump-up speech for a football team. But notice something—all these acts of faith happened in the midst of the impossible.
If you aren’t familiar with many of those names, don’t worry, those are biblical deep cuts. But each of them were individuals who are being called out as those who lived by faith. Their confidence was in that in which they could not yet see.
Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah were warriors from the time of the Judges. David was the great warrior King, and Samuel was one of the most significant prophets of the history of Israel.
They each lived through distinct difficulties, but they all shared at least in certain moments of being those who put their hope in God’s promises.
If we stop here, we might think, “If I just have enough faith, I’ll always win! Healing will always come. Struggles will disappear.”
That’s the false teaching of the prosperity gospel—that faith guarantees earthly success. But Hebrews doesn’t stop there.
Verse 33 says some “obtained promises,” which can feel unsettling if we believed God promised us something—a healing, a job, a relationship—and it didn’t happen.
How do we discern if something is truly God’s promise?
1. Discover and Submit Personal Desires
2. It aligns with Scripture. (Example: God isn’t promising you that your favorite married celebrity will divorce and marry you.)
3. Prayerfully submission alongside Biblical Community.
Because the truth is… sometimes the lion’s mouth isn’t shut. Sometimes the healing doesn’t come. The passage continues:
Read Hebrews 11:35-38
Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Incredible!!! Resurrection news, but wait doesn’t that mean death?
Look at some of these results… mocked, flogged, enchained, imprisoned, stoned, sawn in two, killed with the sword.
These aren’t just random hypotheticals. The Scriptures, Church tradition, and ancient writers like Clement of Rome tells us:
• Jeremiah was stoned to death.
• Isaiah was sawn in two.
• Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel lived in poverty, wearing sheepskins instead of fine clothing.
These ancient faithful few lived out of their commitment to the unseen God in the face of hostility.
It reminds me of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Gotham City is corrupt, broken, unworthy of Batman’s sacrifice. And yet, he fights for them anyway.
They were not the ones their worlds wanted, but the faithful witnesses their worlds needed. Because of this “the world was not worthy of them.”
These heroes of faith endured suffering, not because the world was worthy of them, but because God’s grace and mercy were being revealed through them.
They stood firm, believing there was something better ahead.
Read Hebrews 11:39-40
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
They lived by faith, but they didn’t get to see the full picture.
But everything changed when Jesus arrived.
The kingdom of God broke into our world. Everywhere Jesus went, he pushed back sin and death, bringing life and freedom.
The heroes of faith lived in expectation. We live in the reality.
They longed for the Messiah. We know his name.
They waited for the promise. We have received it.
And now, we don’t just receive grace—we participate in God’s kingdom.
4 | How can the Gospel bring resolution to this tension in your life?
It would be nice to say that after this letter was written, following Jesus became easy. But within a decade, many who received Hebrews likely faced martyrdom, and it would spread throughout the ancient world.
Some followers of Jesus were miraculously spared—like the Apostle John, who survived being boiled alive. But most weren’t.
One of John’s disciples, Polycarp, was arrested at 86 years old. When Roman officials demanded he renounce Jesus, he responded:
“Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
They threatened him with wild beasts. He said, “Call them!”
They threatened him with fire. He said, “You threaten me with a fire that burns for an hour and is soon quenched, for you are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and eternal punishment stored up for the ungodly. But why do you delay? Do what you want.”
And as the flames rose, he prayed and sang—not as a madman, but as a disciple, joyful to glorify Christ with his final breath.
“Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved and blessed Child, Jesus Christ, through whom we have received full knowledge of you, the God of angels and powers and of all creation, and of the whole family of the righteous, who live before you:
I bless you for considering me worthy of this day and hour—of sharing with the martyrs in the cup of your Christ, so as to share in resurrection to everlasting life of soul and body in the Holy Spirit. May I be received among them into your presence today as a rich and acceptable sacrifice.
For this and for everything I praise and glorify you through the eternal and heavenly high priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Child. Through him and with him, may you be glorified with the Holy Spirit, both now and forever. Amen.”
Polycarp died, but he didn’t consider himself defeated. Do you think that what he endured was failure or victory? Did he die living the good life or was his life a tragedy?
Books like Foxe Book of the Martyrs hold story after story of those who have died because of their allegiance to Jesus. Each of them died in ways that our world could only label as tragic or misguided. Likely it would be difficult for any of us to automatically think of those who live in persecution or die for Jesus as victorious.
According to the recently released 2025 World Watch List
Today, 380 million Christians face high levels of persecution.
• 1 in 7 Christians worldwide experience discrimination.
• 1 in 5 in Africa.
• 2 in 5 in Asia.
In our own culture sometimes through the lens of culture wars Christians decide to pick fights with little concern for demonstrating love, grace, and kindness to those who disagree and label it persecution when those outside of the church punch back.
But there is a very real version of persecution and hostility that the dragon, our spiritual enemy, desires to stoke up in the hopes of stopping Jesus Kingdom coming here. Now.
None of this is to give us new reason for fear nor was it meant to do that to the ancient audience, but to remind ourselves: we all belong to the same story. We are all part of the same faith as those who suffer with Jesus today and over the last 2000 years.
In the midst of our tunnel vision though it can be difficult to see that. When our gaze is focused on the things that excite us or terrify us today or as we look toward tomorrow, it is difficult to know how we cannot possibly be consumed by those realities.
One day when I was working in Guest Relations at Magic Kingdom I was on a walk with one of my leaders as the Festival of Fantasy Parade was making its way through Town Square as Maleficent Dragon stood tall overhead breathing fire.
When all of a sudden my leader noticed a little boy crying, she stopped our conversation, got on one knee and began to talk to him, he told her he was scared of the dragon…
Fair point.
But then she said without missing a beat… don’t focus on the scary dragon, you see that prince underneath? That is Prince Philip and he always defeats the dragon.
And with that important piece of information his tunnel vision vanished and he cheered on the champion as he slew the dragon for the 40th time on that parade route.
I don’t know what you are tempted right now toward being tunnel visioned on, whether it is an excitement or a fear, but I know for myself and my fears over the state of our world my opportunity here and now is to join in with that child and with the great cloud of witnesses, those who stopped the mouths of lions and those who were sawn in two at staring at the prince…
Because our prince always defeats the dragon.
Let’s pray.
