Unworthy

We are going to start off with a bit of a quiz, a good ole’ game of “see if you can spot the difference”. Except we are going to reverse it and I am going to describe 3 different pairs of things that are polar opposite each other and I want you to firs think of what I’m describing and then try to spot something similar between the two things.

A day where we exchange neatly wrapped gifts vs. a day where we bring a bunch of side dishes and have heaping plates of food. [Christmas and thanksgiving, the similarity is they are holidays.]

I’m thinking of an animal that’s covered in mostly brown feathers except on its head where they are white, and another that is covered in bright blue. [Bald eagle and blue jay, they are both birds.]

There’s a big group that rushes out of a condensed worship service that they probably only came to so they could go to another exciting tailgating party that followed after out on the lawn vs. a small group gathers to study the Bible and worship together in secret in Dhaka, Bangladesh (if you have trouble picturing that, that is literally the caption of this photo from the imb). Did you spot the similarity? [They both call themselves Christians.]

Here’s my objective today. I want to draw our attention to the overwhelming reality that it is all too normal to settle for a completely unbiblical category that is best known as “casual Christianity”. If I can accomplish this main point, I will be satisfied. However, if you’ll hang tight with me I actually want to reach beyond that as well to think through some implications of this main point because I recognize probably for most of us in the room that casual Christianity is a poor description of the faith we actually live out. Not giving you a pass here, it may very well describe you and if it does this message is for you, but because of that assumption that is’s not all of us then I am going to press deeper into a few other ideas I want us to take away and deepen our walk with the Lord where we have yet gone.

Let me illustrate it in this way, since it is Reformation Day after all. Before the Reformation period, Christianity was as casual as it gets. They didn’t need to pay attention during service, especially since the priests didn’t even know more often than not what they were saying as it was in a language they may or may not have been fluent in, and hardly anyone could read along and even if they were literate they didn’t have a Bible printed that they could glance at. They knew the right thing to do was listen to the Pope, the priests, and give their indulgences to pay for their transgressions or for the sins of those poor souls stuck in limbo in pergatory. There was no real sense of personal holiness, of relationship with God, or even of God honoring worship for that matter., certainly not preaching of the Scriptures. Then came men like Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and many others who recognized casual wasn’t worth settling for. They sacrificed everything on the line to get the Bible back into the pulpits and into the hands of the common people, and for many of these preachers and their followers such an act was treason and some even gave the ultimate cost of their life to the cause of Christ. Countless Christian men and women were dragged out into public squares throughout Europe and they were tortured, beheaded, or burned at the stake for all to see. Our text describes such people as “those whom the world is unworthy of”

My argument then, as we will see from Hebrews 11, could be said in this way: Following the Lord is fundementally a paradox of cost and reward - in one sense we get every spiritual blessing, every eternal benefit, more than we could have ever asked for and a heavenly treasure that surpasses all of the worth we could imagine. In another very real sense, it costs us in such a way that we lose out on so many earthly benefits, and in fact it may cost every earthly treasure we possess and it may require more sacrifice we could ever imagine giving up. These two principles sound opposed to each other, but they are actually hand in hand and are very elementary to the Christian faith.

The Overwhelming Cost of Faith:

11:1-2 What is faith?

“Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace.” -Martin Luther

Now that we have a working definition of faith, let’s look at these lives of faith and I want you to pay attention to the cost over the heroism in each example. We often get wrapped up in a super-hero mentality with the hall of faith in Hebews 11, it may as well be called the hall of sufferers and martyrs.

11:4 Abel worshipped God and his offering pleased God and something you may not realize is that he was martyred for his faith by Cain. Evidencing persecution as a problem that has existed since the first years beyond the fall in the Garden.

11:7 Noah obeyed God and built the ark when there had not been rain or flood, and we can theorize that he was ridiculed all those years it took him to follow God’s command. At the least we know that it cost him whatever other kind of job he had before, whatever aspirations of career he had, it was all on hold for some boat. Imagine the suffering he had to go through with his wife during that time, “honey I am going out to work on the boat again today” “Go get a real job, hippie!”

11:8 Abraham followed God and left all the comforts of their familiar life in Ur and as an old man, he uprooted everything at God’s command to go into the wilderness and go to a place they did not even know.

11:17 Abraham submitted to God when he asked for the son of promise to be sacrificed, so expectant that he God could raise the dead and that the cost was worth it to obey the Lord that he was willing to slaughter Isaac at God’s command. Not to mention Isaac’s own willingness that brought him to the altar by faith, that faith nearly costing him his own life at the hands of his father.

11:22 Joseph, though hardly mentioned here, listened to God and endured endless scorn from his brothers, enslaved than in Egypt, thrown into prison though he obeyed all the God wanted him to do and was abandoned and forgotten even when he interpreted dreams as God revealed them. Nevertheless, he held a steadfast faith that cost him more than we could think or imagine.

11:24-26 Moses counted himself as one of God’s people first before Pharoah’s family, and he exchanged the royal “deified” life for that of the enslaved people of his heritage.

The preacher in Hebrews spends considerable time connecting the dots of this Old Testament saint’s experience in Egypt to our Lord Jesus Christ, giving us perspective really on the whole biblical theology of each of these cases.

First, suffering for the faith is a byproduct of refusing to identify with this world and rejecting the pleasures of sin this world has to offer.

Second, suffering for the faith is a corporate activity. We suffer corporately with the people of God, and when one member suffers we all suffer.

Third, suffering for the faith grants an eternal reward that is greater than all the treasures this world could ever contain.

Time prevents us, as it prevented the preacher in Hebrews (11:32), to examine all the faithful acts of these saints of old. However, he spares no detail in laying before us the cost to follow Christ.

Yes these faithful Bible heroes did great things, and yes they are in the hall of faith and we all ought to be like them, but have we considered and counted the cost?

Read 11:35-38

If you identify with Jesus Christ, and you follow Him as these saints have, here is what you lay on the line according to this text:

Your comforts.

Your popularity.

Your friendships and relationships.

Your own body.

Your health.

Your time and even your quality of life.

You risk experiencing your greatest fears.

You risk never seeing your family again. Never experiencing home again.

When we follow Jesus Christ, we risk losing every conceivable earthly thing we hold dear, and most of all we lay our own life on the line.

Now I don’t know about you, but if that’s the norm for following God, there’s no room for casual Christianity. An old mentor of mine whose now passed said it often in this way, “If you are not living on the edge for Christ, then you are taking up too much room.” -Bill Wilting

The Results of Finished Faith

[Marvel moment: the heroes seem to finish everything off and do their thing and the end result is the world is saved]

Here’s what many of us don’t realize or perhaps what we don’t always remember about the result of finished faith: you and I cannot see the end result but it is worth more than seeing this world saved from sudden calamity and ruin. It is surpassing the eternal worth of which the world is not even worthy of.

The world tramples the followers of Christ as if we are a people who could be stomped out of our eternal glory, but with every persecuting act, the glory of God swells to be that much more glorious.

“The world drove them out, thinking them unworthy to live in it, while in truth it was unworthy to have them living in it." -Davidson

It’s difficult for us to understand because we cannot see it, but it is not for more sentiment that the preacher in Hebrews says “the world is not worthy of them”. This is truly precise no matter how ironic it sounds.

If and when the world seizes all of our comforts, the Comforter reveals He is far better and therefore more glorious.

When we lose our popularity because we are unashamed of the Gospel, we share in the very ridicule of Christ and the glorious cross and therefore experience “popularity” with Christ and His people.

If we lose earthly friendships and relationships over a life submitted to the Lord, we deepen our relationship with God and His people and are alleviated earthly ties and therefore experience greater glory than a life lived half in both worlds.

If our own body is delivered over to be broken down by persecutors, we experience the deep joy of being counted worthy to be among those who have done the same and built up the Church, not the least of all being treated like Christ was.

If you were taken away from your family and your home never to be seen again, in that state of bleak earthly hope shouts the glory of the new family to whom you belong in Christ and to the eternal home from which no one could ever take you from that awaits you.

This is the biblical reaity that jumps off the pages of Scripture, though we wish it would be silent and hushed in the background, this principle is that the more we wish to identify with this world, hold dear to it’s pleasures and comforts, and hold fast to what is familiar and what we enjoy about our safety and climb as high as we can to realize the American Dream, the farther and farther we descend from the glory of Christ.

The more we submit ourselves to follow Christ, it holds true that it only becomes more costly, it does not get easier but in fact, it gets harder, we deny more comfort, we are ridiculed and mocked more and more, we lose more of all we’ve collected in this life, and eventually, for some, the cost cuts so deep that they have no earthly thing left to be taken away. According to God’s Word, there is no higher place we could ascend than losing it all for the sake of Christ.

However costly it may seem and it may be, it in no way measures up to the eternal worth we receive for the work of finished faith. We miss this perhaps the most, because I think we are afraid if we lose what we have in this life we lose out on so much but really all you could lose in this life for Christ is like comparing one star in the sky to the full scope of galaxies and constellations of stars, even that imagery cannot adequetely help us fathom the great richest that heaven holds for those who finish the race no matter the cost.

The Motivation of the Cross

As if the results of finished faith is not enough to motivate us to surrender, consider the motivation of living on this side of the cross.

Now here is the part that really got to me.

Read 11:39-40

Abel worshipped God with his offering but didn’t get to see the true and better offering.

Noah obeyed God by building the ark to deliver them from the flood but he didn’t get to see the day when God would send them the better ark for deliverance from God’s eternal wrath.

Abraham followed God to Canaan but never saw the land come to fulfilled promise nor witnessed the better land that was to come.

He submitted to God and instead of sacrificing Isaac he sacrificed the ram in the thicket, but he had yet been able to see God’s own son sacrificed as the true and better lamb.

Moses endured suffering in Egypt and subsequently among God’s own people that grumbled against him all throughout his final years, and he never got to enter the land of promise or see the temple built or even see the better land and better eternal temple in Christ.

This is why this got to me.

All these went through this with faith in what was to come, and God in His divine patience has allowed us to continue to exist in 2021 in order that He provide something better for us and that these promises that these saints give their lives for would be made perfect in our inclusion, and they suffered not even getting to see Jesus come and realize the truth of the gospel. They hoped in it, they looked ahead to it, but they didn’t see it. We have seen it.

How much more then should we consider the reproach of Christ as more motivating and more captivating than that this faith should consume our whole life? This is the reality that resounds today around the world for many Christians.

Cite statistics from Open Doors USA

“Christian persecution is higher today than at any other time in modern history:

309 Million: In the top 50 World Watch List countries alone, 309 million Christians in the world experience high levels of persecution and discrimination for their choice to follow Christ.

1 in 8: Christians worldwide experience high levels of persecution”

*According to Open Doors USA World Watch List report, just in the last year alone:

4,761: Christians killed for faith-related reasons in the top 50 WWL countries.

4,488: Christians detained without trial, arrested, sentenced, and imprisoned in the top 50 WWL countries.

4,277: churches or Christian buildings attacked in the top 50 WWL countries.

These are the ones the world is unworthy of. Surely they would consider themselves unworthy of such an honor, and certainly unworthy of any attention at all, but their glory in Christ this world is truly unworthy to even behold.

Read 12:1-2

We honor those who have suffered for the faith by honoring the Christ of our faith and following Him no matter the cost.

Out of anyone in history, we ought to be those who are among the most unchained, unashamed, unafraid witnesses of the Gospel the likeness of which the face of this world has never seen, and yet some if not all of our neighbors might not even have a clue we are disciples of Christ. Most of our communities are probably not any different and would go on the same if we moved elsewhere. Many of us have never suffered much for following Jesus, and the days are gone when it was because of social norms in America that made for a comfortable religious experience for Christians here. If we are not suffering for the faith even in a small way in the US in 2021, it’s not because Christianity is popular, because I can assure you following Jesus is far from trending right now.

The church in America appears on the surface to at times be more of an underground operation than the underground church in China.

Protestant Christianity has grown at an estimated 58% in China since 2010, while America has steadily shown a decline year after year. If anyone is going underground with their faith it is not the Chinese, it’s us.

Application: what do I do with this? How should we then live?

“Lay aside every hindrance and sin”. There could be something in your life right now that God is pointing out that you need to let go. Maybe it’s ongoing sin. I was grieved to hear that the number one thing preventing missionary-applicants to be sent to the field through the imb is pornography. How can we hope to count the cost and share in the suffering and glory of Christ if we are entangled in the very sins the rest of the world is ensnared in? How can we hope to preach a gospel of freedom and forgiveness for sin when we are just as ensnared by sin as the homeless man under the bridge who doesn’t follow Christ? This exhortation can be summed up in one word, repent.

“Run the race with endurance”. Following Jesus isn’t a sprint, it’s not even a marathon, it’s like the wildest triathlon conceivable. If you’ve ever run a long-distance, or done any physically straining activity for an extended time, you know better than to come out the gate swinging like a maniac. If you're like me you ignored the advice of coaches and tried coming out full steam just and you burnt out in the first lap. Since then if your better than I am, you learned from that and tried to pace yourself and you simply take each step and each breath in stride. If you’re like me though you probably kept doing that over and over again and eventually caught on.

Let me ask you this, what is one step, no matter how small or great, does Jesus want you to take today? Don’t overthink it, don’t hyper-spiritualize this question, just reflect on what God lays on your heart. I challenge you to take that step, and then take a deep breath and take the next, and the next. That’s how you run a race with endurance. The same way you eat an elephant- one bite at a time.

“Keep your eyes on Jesus” explain the Gospel.

Conclusion:

So let’s circle back to the comparing the tailgating church folks with the secret Bible study in Bangladesh for a moment. On the surface there may not be anything bad about the first scenario, God’s word doesn’t condemn church get-togethers of course it all seems good. Here’s what’s bizarre to me, that is so normal to us, so about our business to us, that we don’t even question it. In nearly every other country around the world, Christians look at that and they question it’s validity because groups like this women’s Bible study in this photo may meet week to week or even day to day and for many of these groups and some oftheir members are severely persecuted for it. That seems bizarre to us, and rare and out of place, but it’s normal Christianity to them. I can tell you the world is unworthy of folks like that, Scriptures make that clear, but I can’t tell you the world is unworthy of our casual Christianity.

Consider William Tyndale, and I’ll finish with this. Men like Tyndale should get more attention than a mere mention on Reformation Day, and in many places they don’t even get that, but consider his life and misison and ultimately his execution.

He set out to be the pioneer to translate the Scriptures from the original languages into the the english language, something that had been unheard of in the 16th century.

He succeeded, though he did not get to taste the fruit of his labor in this life, as it was considered heresy in his day to endeavor to do something like this, and it brought him an untimely death.

Read Lawson’s p. 25-26

Maybe sitting in here this morning is the next William Tyndale, the next bold couragious follower of Jesus who changes the course of history for whom casual Christianity was simply not enough, or may that simply become normal for us in the West, that we may we all be willing to give it all for Christ no matter the cost.

Let us pray.