The Courageous Risks of Faith

THE COURAGEOUS RISKS OF FAITH Spring Valley Mennonite; April 19, 2020; Hebrews 11:30-40 (Covid-virus quarantine sermon) Good morning! Today marks the fifth Sunday we have been unable to meet together as a congregation because of the Corona Virus. One positive outcome has been the addition of a number of viewers on our new YouTube channel, viewers who are not usually part of our congregation. We welcome all of you who are joining us on our Youtube channel! We are a theologically conservative Mennonite congregation which has the distinction of being the first Old Order Mennonite church in Kansas. We are a country church with our roots buried deep in Kansas wheat country. We began a study of the book of Hebrews last August, and we are in the last few chapters. My method of preaching is verse-by-verse exposition of the Biblical text. Today we have come to the last 10 verses of Hebrews 11. This chapter has been called “Faith’s Hall of Fame.” These last 10 verses present “The Courageous Risks of Faith.” As we examine this chapter, we note that the faith of all the individuals has something in common. Their faith in God is active and is seen in what they did. True faith is more than simply believing something, it is living in light of those beliefs. Scripture calls this “walking by faith.” I believe this idea corresponds to what the Apostle James teaches regarding faith. A genuine faith produces change and actions which are a proof of that faith. This chapter begins with a definition of faith: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” But such faith is not natural to man. Walking by sight is what is natural. Doubting what we cannot see is natural. So, Faith is purely a gift of God; however, righteous action and works will be a fruit of genuine faith. This suggests a question: What does faithful living promise to the followers of God? Does it always promise blessings? Yes, it does, but blessing by God’s definition. Does faith promise strength and power? Of course, but only in accordance to God’s will. Does it promise victory in life? Yes, but not always in the short run. How about comfort and pleasure? We must say the answer is “sometimes, but comfort and ease in life are certainly not guaranteed. As Jesus taught us, “the servant is not great than his Master.” Jesus had no permanent home and owned only the clothes on His back. Does faithful living yield persecution? Always, although not always in the physical sense. Every true believer suffers to some extent by the conflict which results when God’s holiness and our Holy Spirit empowered living intersects this world of sin. We groan when we see injustice, or abuse, or brutality, neglect or suffering. When we see wickedness exalted, we suffer. Jesus promised that all those who would live righteously would suffer persecution to some extent. True faith is based on right Theology, what is true about God. What a person believes about God is the single most important thing about them. True faith is a biblical faith. True faith believes and follows God because we know He can be trusted, even when we cannot understand His ways. He always tells the truth and cannot lie. We trust Him because He always keeps His promises. God cannot do wrong, cannot be defeated, is unsurpassed in power, might and glory. He always acts in love; He never subjects His children to unnecessary pain. He will never leave or forsake His children; He is a very present help in times of trouble. He is firmly in control, even when our limited perspective would tell us otherwise. He has an eternal plan for mankind, and He is working His plan. Faith accepts and believes these things and faithful living has this truth about God as our solid foundation. This is illustrated by the examples of these last 10 verses in Hebrews 11. The purpose of the author in writing the book of Hebrews is to present the superiority of Jesus Christ and the New Covenant He instituted. Written to those of Jewish background, he has repeatedly warned against returning to the obsolete system of Judaism. In this chapter, he demonstrates that all the Old Testament heroes lived by faith, having gained their approval through faith as they were looking to a future fulfillment of God’s promises. As New Testament believers, we now have something better because Jesus, the Messiah has come. After exploring the faith of Able, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses, the text continues chronologically to look as the faith of those who followed Moses, beginning in verse 30 with Joshua and the Israelites at Jericho. Read verses 30-31. We first observe: I. THE FAITH WHICH OVERCOMES FORTRESSES After the crossing of the Red Sea, spoken of in verse 29, the author skips over the next 40 years, for we see these years characterized by unbelief. The Israelites turned back in fear at Kadesh-Barnea and wandered around in circles on a 40-year-long death march. After everyone over 20 years of age had died, they camped at the Jordan River. Moses having died, Joshua now led the nation, and he sent two spies into the city to check it out. After their presence was detected, the spies were hidden by an unlikely ally named Rahab. I say unlikely because she was a Canaanite prostitute, a member of the Amorites, who had been condemned by God for destruction. God chooses to use imperfect people! Rahab reported that the inhabitants of Jericho had heard of the mighty exploits of God in behalf of the Jews and had lived in fear for the last 40 years! This was indeed good news to Joshua. I can imagine their fear was increased as they learned how the waters of the Jordan were parted and Israel crossed over on the dry riverbed! However, the city was heavily fortified and by the standards of the day, impregnable. Now, the accepted method of conquering such a city was to lay siege and starve the inhabitants, or perhaps to build a rock and earthen ramp up to breach the wall. Both methods required months or perhaps years to accomplish. The citizens of Jericho appeared to be safely protected behind their mighty walls. But here is where faith comes in: God gave Joshua a plan that made absolutely no sense from a human perspective. They were to march around the city for six days with the warriors in lead, followed by seven priests blowing ram’s horns. Next came the ark of the covenant, followed by more warriors in a rear guard. But the only sound for the first six days was to be the ram horns blown by the priests, as the warriors were to keep completely silent. On the seventh day, they were to make seven trips around the city, and on the seventh trip at a particular signal, the ram’s horns would sound and all the warriors were to loudly shout—and the walls would fall down. That was the plan. We can imagine how the people were tempted to feel when they first heard the plan! What foolishness! This is no way to conquer a mighty city! However they might have felt, there is no record of complaint or murmuring, unlike in the past, simply obedience. They believed God’s directions, and as they followed them IN FAITH, the mighty walls of Jericho fell! The city was conquered, not by their might or power, but by trusting God’s Words and obeying. Theirs was a conquering faith, and it serves as instruction to us that this same kind of faith can overcome other “Jerichos” both big and small. Paul instructs us that, “The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” Often God’s plan makes little sense from a human perspective, but we are called to trust a mighty God for which nothing is impossible. Rahab’s faith was expressed in her word to the spies: “For Jehovah your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.” She believed that the fall of Jericho was a foregone conclusion and asked that her life and the life of her family be spared. Her faith was rewarded, as she and her family were incorporated into the Jewish community. She married a man named Salmon, who had a son named Boaz who married a widow from Moab named Ruth. They had a son named Obed, who was the father of Jesse, the father of King David, the ancestor of Jesus Christ. God’s saving grace through her faith included this Canaanite Harlot into the lineage of our Savior! Continuing in our text: Consider verses 32-35a… II. FAITH OF THE JUDGES THROUGH THE PROPHETS Verse 32 begins with the author explaining that to give details of all the heroes listed would take too much time and space, but realizing his audience was familiar with all those mentioned, he could just list their names. As one reads their names, their stories would come to mind. First mentioned are four men from the period of the Judges: Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah. Each of these were imperfect men who were called upon to rescue Israel from oppressing opponents possessing armies of vastly superior numbers. Although timidly hiding in a winepress threshing wheat when called, we remember how, with God’s enablement, Gideon and his 300 men armed with torches and pitchers defeated 135,000 Midianites! Gideon faithfully followed God’s incredible plan. Barak led a comparatively small force of 10,000 against a Canaanite force who possessed 900 iron chariots, the “tanks” of that day! God sent a flood which neutralized the chariots and enabled Barak’s ill-equipped troops to win against a superior force. To go against greater numbers in both these examples required great faith. Sampson stands out as one we might not remember for his great faith, but he single-handedly defeated large numbers of Philistines, more in his death than in his life. In the end Sampson realized that his strength was given by God. In considering Sampson, we must remember the low spiritual temperature of the days of the Judges. Whereas we might remember Sampson for his spiritual and emotional weakness, God remembers him for his faith. Sampson serves to remind us that God uses imperfect people to demonstrate His perfect provision of gracious strength to do His will. The same can be said for Jephthah, who made a foolish vow, fulfilled by his daughter. David represents those good kings of Israel who were faithful followers of God and led Israel to believe and worship in truth. After being anointed by Samuel, it was almost 20 years before he became King of Israel. He spent many years fleeing for his life from King Saul. He had to have faith that God really had a bright future during all those years. Samuel was both the last Judge of Israel and the first prophet who challenged Israel to obedience to God. The exploits of the many prophets God sent to Israel through faith—and usually through great opposition to their message—are noted. Such ones as Elijah, Elisha, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and even Jonah are implied. Their faith in standing firm against opposition is noted. There are two women, the widow of Zarephath and the Shunamite mother who each had their dead sons brought back to life through the faith of Elijah and Elisha. Great victories were seen by these men and women of faith. But then there is the other side of faith: III. ENDURING FAITH DEMONSTRATED THROUGH SUFFERING Read vv. 35b-38. The most severe test of faith is when things do not turn out as we had hoped, but when faith leads to suffering. There was plenty of that type of faith through suffering demonstrated by the righteous, especially in the days following the return from Babylon. As the Persians conquered the Babylonians and the Greeks conquered the Persians, and then the Romans conquered the Greeks, the people of Israel saw these cultures imposing their will upon the people. A common practice to subdue conquered people was to force your religious practices and world views upon them. This resulted in great persecution and conflict with those who sought to continue to worship the one true God. It was during the occupation by the Greeks that the Temple was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes as he offered a pig on the Temple altar. This resulted in the Maccabean revolt and great suffering by the faithful. A great tribute is made in the words “men of whom the world was not worthy.” The poet Milton described them with the words, “They shook the powers of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness.” They proved what Paul described when he said, “God’s strength is perfected in my weakness.” Things for the righteous did not much improve with the coming of the Romans, who brutally subdued any uprising, and tried to impose the cult of Emperor worship on the people. It was in one such Jewish rebellion that an Idumian leader sided with the Romans and put down the rebels. Rome rewarded Herod by making him “King of the Jews”. He became known as Herod the Great. The 400 “silent” years between the ministry of Malachi and the beginning of the New Testament period was indeed challenging for the faithful. During this time, the faithful could only wait. Often God’s people are called upon to faithfully and courageously wait through tough times, basing their hope on the bright promises of God. Theirs was an enduring faith. This is the truth of the last two verses of this chapter which brings it to a surprising conclusion. Read vv. 39-40. IV. THEIR WAITING HOPE IS OUR REALIZED HOPE The surprising conclusion of this chapter which demonstrated the faith of the Old Testament saints is that, although they deserve admiration and emulation for their faith, they are below New Testament saints in privilege. We are not perfected through them, but their faith is perfected in us! As believers in Messiah Jesus, we have the complete package of what they only hoped for. There is no reason to wish to continue in their steps of Judaism, for those who might be tempted to do so, for Jesus fulfilled all the ceremonial and sacrificial parts of the Law. Even the moral Law, contained in the 10 commandments is now written on our hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our situation is very much superior to that of those waiting for the fulfillment of their hopes. We know the Messiah Jesus. We understand the mysteries of the church being made of both Jews and Gentiles. We have seen the barrier between those two broken down, and all men have direct access to the Father. The Jewish Temple is now gone. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “A day is coming when men will neither worship here or in Jerusalem but will worship in spirit and in truth.” Through New Testament believers and their realized faith, the faith of Old Testament saints is made whole. They were looking for the coming of the Kingdom of God as are we. But we are part of an invisible Kingdom, a Kingdom of believers in Jesus Christ, a Kingdom for which we await our King, the second coming of the Lord Jesus. He came the first time as the suffering Servant; He will come the second time as our Conquering King and will establish He earthly Kingdom and fulfill all the many kingdom promises of the Bible. We live by faith, believing these promises of a God Who cannot lie. Faith can give us courage to face any sort of obstacle, any fortress raised up against the righteous; this is a promise for we who find ourselves challenged by our present crisis. May God give us strength, protection and courage to endure, having faith that brighter days will come.