sermon-archive – Page 39

DANIEL’S HOPE

Daniel 12:1-3, 13 CSB

1 At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress such as never has occurred since nations came into being until that time. But at that time all your people who are found written in the book will escape.
2 Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt.
3 Those who have insight will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

13 But as for you, go on your way to the end; you will rest, and then you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance at the end of the days.”

We have been following God’s progressive revelation in scripture as we have examined two passages from the Old Testament.

When we examined Job’s declaration of his hope, we learned that death is real, and that it will mean returning to the dust. But the good news is that we have a Redeemer who is also real. Our Redeemer is going to stand on our dust and restore us to life, and we will see him with our own eyes. There is going to be a resurrection.

Jesus said the same thing. In our Easter theme verse, John 14:19, Jesus said “Because I live, you will live too.”

Last week, we looked at Isaiah’s declaration of hope in the same resurrection. He told his people “Your dead will live; their bodies will rise” (Isaiah 26:19). His people were discouraged because they did not have victory. They seemed like failures. But Isaiah reminded them that their God does not fail. They could trust in the resurrection because it was something God was going to do for them.

Today’s lesson is from Daniel. God revealed the future to Daniel. He learned of a succession of empires that would rule over the earth in the coming centuries.

• The Babylonian empire under Nebuchadnezzar
• The Medo-Persian empire under Cyrus
• The Macedonian or Grecian empire under Alexander
• The Roman empire under the Caesars

Today’s text comes from the last chapter of Daniel. In it, God gives Daniel a brief glimpse of a future further than ever. He shows Daniel what is going to happen at “the end of the days” (13).

Let’s walk through what Daniel learned.

Daniel learned of a future time of unparalleled distress (1a)

The days of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon will come to an end. The days of Cyrus’ Persia will come to an end. The days of Alexander’s Greece will come to an end. The days of the Caesars’ Rome will come to an end. What will be left will be an age of mixed empires, symbolized in a vision by feet of iron and clay. Then God’s kingdom will come to earth, symbolized in a vision as a stone cut out without hands (Daniel 2:34). The stone will strike the statue and crush it, and then the stone itself will become a mountain and fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:35).

Human history as we know it is going to come to an end, and God’s permanent kingdom is going to begin.

Daniel learned this about that point in the future:

“At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress such as never has occurred since nations came into being until that time.”

Michael is the archangel Michael, and he oversees the people of Israel. He will be waging war with the dragon at the end of time according to Revelation 12:7. It is no stretch to conclude that this battle will result in a time of unparalleled distress on earth.

Next, Daniel learned that some of his people would escape that distress (1b).

God told Daniel that “at that time all your people who are found written in the book will escape.”

Not all of Daniel’s people will escape that worldwide cataclysmic event. But some of them would. Particularly, all of them who are found written in the book will escape.

Now, what book is he talking about? The apostle Paul mentioned some of his fellow missionaries, and he said that their “names are in the book of life” (Philippians 4:3).

The book of Revelation mentions that “book of life” six times. It says that on judgment day, anyone whose name is not found in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire and will experience the second death. But those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will inherit the holy city, new Jerusalem, have the glory of God in their midst, and will never again experience death, mourning, crying or pain.

That is the great escape, and Daniel learned that he would be in that number.

But Daniel also learned that some of his people would not escape, but would have another permanent destiny (2)

“Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt.”

Dr. John Roller wrote that this verse is “one of the most beautiful statements regarding the resurrection of the dead in Scripture” (God Is In Control, 64.). But he did have to explain that the Hebrew word translated “many” in the verse does not imply that some Israelites will not be raised. The word means a large number – lots of people.

Roller explains that “Each one of the billions of people who have ever lived and died (and are now sleeping in the dust of the earth according to Daniel 12:2) will someday awaken – return to conscious life – and be judged.”

The result of the judgment will be that some of Daniel’s people will inherit permanent life. But some of them will not. They will inherit disgrace and permanent contempt. Roller says they “according to hundreds of other passages throughout the Bible, will be completely destroyed – even the memory of them being considered shameful and worthy of contempt throughout all the ages of eternity.”

Daniel learned that he would be raised from the dead at the end of days (13).

By this time, Daniel is starting to sing “Lord, I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in.” And he learns that he will.

• “But as for you, go on your way to the end; you will rest, and then you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance at the end of the days.”

I want you to notice the three R’s in this passage. They are not Readin’ Ritin’ and Rithmatic. But there are three R’s.

Daniel discovers that he is going to rest. His life is going to come to an end, and he’s going to fall asleep in death. He’s not going to get his reward at death. His reward is coming when his Redeemer stands on the dust and calls it back to life. Until then, he waits unconscious in the grave. The most common figure of speech in the Bible for death is sleep.

Then, Daniel discovers that he is going to rise. He’s going to hear the voice of Jesus and wake up from his sleep. The most common figure of speech in the Bible for the resurrection is the word “awake.” When Paul argues for the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, the word he uses is egeirō.

Egeirō means you are not the person God intended you to be, but He can change that. Sin has imprinted itself on your life so that you begin dying the moment you begin breathing. You have an appointment in the cemetery – the sleeping place. But the good news is that our God has promised to wake you up. He will restore you to life again, and a permanent life.
Daniel discovers that once he has risen, there will be a third R. He will receive his allotted inheritance.

That inheritance is eternal life! He’s not going to wake up to fall asleep again. Lazarus did that. Jesus raised him from the dead, but he eventually died again.

But when we wake up, it will be to sleep no more!

“Ain’t no grave gonna keep my body down,
Ain’t no grave gonna keep my body down,
When I hear that trumpet sound,
I’m gonna get up out of the ground,
Ain’t no grave gonna keep my body down.”

Finally, Daniel learned to follow God’s great commission for his life (3)

Here we get the “so what?” of the resurrection. Don’t miss this. There is a reason you are going to be blessed with a resurrection to eternal life.

“Those who have insight will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

We are saved for the purpose of leading others to righteousness.

Jesus said “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).

He commissions those whose names are in the book of life to so live their lives that they draw others into that same destiny.

ISAIAH’S HOPE

Isaiah 26:14-19 CSB

“The dead do not live; departed spirits do not rise up. Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them; you have wiped out all memory of them. You have added to the nation, Lord. You have added to the nation; you are honored. You have expanded all the borders of the land. Lord, they went to you in their distress; they poured out whispered prayers because your discipline fell on them. As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pains, so we were before you, Lord. We became pregnant, we writhed in pain; we gave birth to wind. We have won no victories on earth, and the earth’s inhabitants have not fallen. Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.”

In our preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, we have been looking at some Old Testament witnesses of the hope of resurrection. Last week we listened to wise, patient Job, as he declared his confidence that his Redeemer would one day stand on the dust that Job disintegrates into and raise him from the dead.

This week, we move several centuries into Job’s future to the time of the writing prophets. Isaiah is serving as God’s spokesman to the nation of Judah. The people of Judah are discouraged. Isaiah wants to encourage them, but at the same time, he has to admit that his people are not ready for God to intervene as he has in the past. What do you say in such a time as that?

Isaiah reminds Judah that their former lords are dead (14)

In the previous verse, Isaiah told the LORD that “lords other than you have owned us.” He was talking about the kings of other nations – like the Pharaohs of Egypt, who had dominated God’s people.

So, now Isaiah reminds them that those foreign kings are now dead as door-nails. They are not alive somewhere under the earth. Their spirits are not going to rise up and dominate God’s people again. God has punished and destroyed them. He has even wiped out all memory of them.

Prophets don’t just tell the future. They are also very good at reminding us of the past. This gift is especially helpful when we are depressed about our present circumstances. We need somebody every once in a while to slap us in the face, and remind us of what God has done for us.

Judah needed that. They needed to be reminded that Pharaoh’s oppression and slaughter and slavery is in the past. Sihon and Og are dead. Goliath is dead. There is a long line of enemies who sought to destroy God’s people, and they couldn’t do it. Instead, God punished and destroyed them.

“Where are those other lords today?” Isaiah asked. They are not alive. God has wiped them out.

Isaiah reminds Judah that God miraculously expanded their nation (15).

He turns his eyes to God in heaven, but he keeps writing, because God knows what he is going to say, but Judah needs to hear his prayer:

• “You have added to the nation, Lord. You have added to the nation; you are honored. You have expanded all the borders of the land.”

The people are discouraged and depressed. They come to Isaiah with a long list of things they expect God to do for them. So, Isaiah has his own list. He reminds the people through this prayer that God has already blessed them. In fact, they expanded into a nation because of his miraculous help.

They had forgotten to count their blessings. We sometimes forget to do that. We get so caught up with our list of what we want God to do for us now, that we forget to name our current blessings, one by one.

What Isaiah is trying to do is bring his discouraged and depressed nation back to reality. They need to see how big God is. He is bigger than their problems. He has already shown them in their own history that nothing is too difficult for him.

Isaiah laments the lack of victory that Judah is now experiencing (1-18).

The prophet was not unaware of how bad it has gotten for his people. He talks about how they are pouring out whispered prayers while God seems to be not listening. He adds himself by changing the pronoun to “we.” He says. Lord we have been writhing in pain like a pregnant woman, but all we have given birth to is wind.

• “We have won no victories on earth, and the earth’s inhabitants have not fallen” (18).

Isaiah says that this was not what any of them expected. They knew God was with them. Why haven’t they overcome all their enemies in battle?

“Are we dead Lord? Is that what it is?” Isaiah knows that God is not dead. He doesn’t need a movie to tell him that. But he wonders if his nation has lived its three-score and ten and its time is up.

So, what is God telling Isaiah. What is he revealing to the prophet? Are we dead, God? God says … Yes. But.

Isaiah challenges Judah to expect a resurrection (19).

It is in this context that the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet to declare another amazing prediction of a coming resurrection.

• Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits (19).

God tells Isaiah that his people are dwelling in the dust like they are already dead. But being dead is not a problem if you have a God who can raise the dead.

So Isaiah tells that dead nation of Judah to wake up and sing. The earth is going to bring out its departed spirits. They are covered in dust right now, but they will soon be covered with the morning dew. They are just skeletons right now, but God is going to raise them as whole living bodies.

This sounds very much like the confidence Job expressed. Isaiah was saying, remember when Job said that even after his body died, that his Redeemer would stand on his dust and raise him to life again? Well, Judah, God’s going to do that for you as well.

In his previous chapter, Isaiah had said:

• “When he has swallowed up death once and for all, the Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said, “Look, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he has saved us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him. Let’s rejoice and be glad in his salvation” (25:8-9).

The apostle Paul actually quotes that text in his chapter on the resurrection:

• “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:52-54).

Paul knew that Isaiah was not just talking about a “spiritual revival”. Isaiah predicted an actual revival: the dead coming back to life. And Paul knew who was going to make that happen. God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, it sometimes seems like we are dying every day. It seems like death is swallowing us all up. But we trust you to raise the dead. We believe that you are going to swallow up death itself in your victory. We choose to wake up and sing. Thank you for the hope of the resurrection.

JOB’S HOPE

JOB’S HOPE

Job 19:23-27 (CSB)

“I wish that my words were written down, that they were recorded on a scroll or were inscribed in stone forever by an iron stylus and lead! But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet “I will see God in my flesh”. I will see him myself; my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger. My heart longs within me.”

We are approaching the Easter season, when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the tomb. Jesus told his followers that his resurrection was just the beginning. He said “Because I live, you will live too” (John 14:19 CSB).

Easter is special for us because Jesus was raised from the dead. It is also special because every time we think of his resurrection, we are reminded of the biblical hope of our resurrection.

There are some things in nature that remind us of this hope as well.

Every night, darkness comes, and the world falls asleep in darkness, awaiting the light of dawn and new life in the morning.

Every year, winter comes, with its darkness, dormancy and stillness. Spring wakes the world up to new life again.

But Easter is different. Easter is outside any normal cycle. When we celebrate Easter, we celebrate a miracle. Our Lord was dead in that tomb and then he was brought to life again. The holiday of Easter gives us hope like nothing else. It looks squarely into the chains and darkness of mortality and death and does not deny it. But it gives us hope in another life – a life to come – a permanent life.

For these next few weeks, as we approach our celebration of Easter, I want to look at that promise of resurrection. I will be highlighting the fact that the resurrection hope is not just a New Testament phenomenon. So, we will be looking at the resurrection hope as defined by three Old Testament believers.

Today, I want to focus on the hope of a future resurrection that Job proclaimed.

Earlier in the book, we hear Job lamenting that “anyone born of woman is short of days and full of trouble. He blossoms like a flower, then withers; he flees like a shadow and does not last” (14:1). Job says “There is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its shoots will not die. If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump starts to die in the soil, the scent of water makes it thrive and produce twigs like a sapling. But a person dies and fades away; he breathes his last—where is he?” (14:7-10).

So, Job asks God “If only you would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until your anger passes. If only you would appoint a time for me and then remember me. When a person dies, will he come back to life? If so, I would wait all the days of my struggle until my relief comes. You would call, and I would answer you.
You would long for the work of your hands.” (14:13-15).

Job is a very old book, and there was not yet much solid content about the hope of the resurrection. But Job seems to be pulling that hope from somewhere with these words.

And then we come to today’s text a few chapters later.

Job wanted the world to know what God was doing in his life.

• “Oh, that my words could be recorded. Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument, carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock” (Job 19:23-24 NLT).

Job was a man who was deeply misunderstood. So many bad things had happened to him that he was overwhelmed. He wished that he could make his case, and prove that all his suffering did not mean that he had failed God and was abandoned by him. He wanted to set the record straight, and to preserve the truth that his bad luck was not a judgment from God.

Job got his wish. His words were written down, and in the Bible of all places.

Now we know the rest of the story. We know that Job’s sufferings were not caused by his sin. They were a contest – a way of demonstrating his faith and faithfulness.

Job knew that he was going to die, but trusted God to redeem him from death by resurrection.

• “But I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the end he will stand on the dust. Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet I will see God in my flesh.” (Job 19:25-26 CSB).

Job declared his faith in God with these words. His faith was not in himself. He did not say “I have an immortal soul which will survive the death of my body.” No, he said he had a redeemer who will outlast him.

Job mentions dust (Hebrew ‘afar עָפָר). This is the stuff that God used to create us.

• “Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

Dust is what we are made of, and it is the substance we will decompose into after we die.

• “You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust” (Genesis 3:19).

So, Job was saying that when he died, he would eventually rot and return to dust, but that his redeemer lives, and his redeemer will stand upon that dust at last.

And what is this redeemer going to do then? His redeemer is going to raise him from the dead. Job knew this. His faith was in a future resurrection. His body is going to decay. But then the redeemer is going to come, stand on that dust, and speak to those bones, and they will reconstitute into a living, breathing man again.

In (literally, from) his flesh, Job will see God (verse 26).

This is the hope of the Bible – the hope of a resurrection. It is a hope not of release from a body but of reconstitution of the body. His hope was not that he would go to heaven and see God with his spirit, but that God would come down and give life to his eyes again, so that “I will see him myself; my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger.” (Job 19:27a).

Job longed for the day of his resurrection.

“My heart longs within me.” (Job 19:27b).

Actually, the Hebrew text does not mention Job’s heart. It’s about his kidneys.

What Job literally said was that his kidneys empty out in his lap. In other words, he wets himself! This truth – that he will be raised to life again – is too much to handle. He can’t wait!

Is that your faith? Are you longing for the resurrection above all things?

That was the Apostle Paul’s faith. He said “I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11 CSB).

The biblical hope is a hope in a future resurrection. That was Job’s hope. That was Paul’s hope. That was Jesus’ promise. He said “Because I live, you will live too!”

Thank you Lord, for forgiveness through the blood of Christ, and the hope of a resurrection by the power of Christ. Thank you that we have a Redeemer, and that our Redeemer lives. Thank you that our Redeemer will stand upon the dust of our dead bodies one day, say the word, and we will come to life again. Thank you for the hope of imperishable, immortal, eternal, permanent life.

THE PEOPLE WHO DID NOT RECEIVE

Hebrews 11:13-16; 35b-40 CSB

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

“Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. All these were approved through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.”

Our study of the heroes of faith concludes this morning, and we have saved the best for last. This is indeed a fine list of heroes, but it is a little different that all the other lists. All of the other heroes we looked at had names – famous names. But today’s list does not name a soul. Last week’s list was a who’s who of people who got to see God intervene in their lives with miracles of deliverance. But today’s list features no names, and boasts of no miracles.

After the apostle Thomas looked at the scar on Jesus’ side, he said to Jesus “My Lord and My God.” Then Jesus told Thomas “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” (John 20:28-29).

Our Lord promises a special blessing for those who choose to trust him even if they don’t see miracles and have lots of victory stories. Those are the kind of people the author of Hebrews lists in today’s text.

These people are heroes of faith even though the world did not notice (38-39).

Their names are not written in this text, in fact many of them don’t even show up in the historical records. The author of Hebrews merely calls them “other people”, “others” and “they.”

God knows their names. They were “approved through their faith” (38). We are going to meet these special people at the marriage feast of the Lamb. They will have a special place in that celebration. For many of them, it will be their first celebration ever.

Let us not think that these people were second class citizens in Christ’s coming kingdom. No, God approved them through their faith. They saw the invisible God like Moses did. The fact that they were never rescued from the avenging angel by blood on their doorposts does not make them losers. The fact that they never passed through the parted waters did not make them losers. They were winners who ran the race well. They just have not yet crossed the finish line.

The world did not value these people, but their heavenly Father did. The very hairs on their heads were all numbered. They were more valuable than the sparrows. The author of Hebrews says “the world was not worthy of them” (38).

These people are heroes of faith because they stayed faithful when others gave up (35b-37).

• They stayed faithful to God when the world ridiculed them for believing.
• They stayed faithful when they were taken from their homes, and forced to wander about homeless and destitute.
• They stayed faithful when they were imprisoned because of their obedience to God.
• They stayed faithful when they were afflicted, mistreated, scourged and tortured without relief or release.
• They stayed faithful even when their faith led to their death – by the sword, by stoning, or even by being sawn in two.

Our Lord told us that putting our faith in him might possibly lead to our deaths. He said:

“”Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:34-39 NASB).

We learned from Rahab that faith involves risk. Rahab risked losing her life in order to preserve her life, and that of her family. Her life was on the line, and that line was a thin, red rope.

These heroes of faith will be rewarded at the resurrection (35, 40)

For today’s heroes, that red rope was the resurrection. They lost their lives for Christ’s sake. They did so, “not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection” (35).

The apostle Paul wrote that “if Christ has not been raised … then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost” (1 Corinthians 15:17-18 NIV). If there is no resurrection promised for us “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

These heroes of faith risked their lives for God, trusting that there would be another life in which their faith would be rewarded. They are still waiting for that reward. Jesus says “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me” (Revelation 22:12). The reward he has for us is a permanent life. Martyred missionary Jim Elliot knew about that reward. That was why he could say “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

What these heroes lost was the temporary lives that they could not keep anyway. We all have an appointment with death, and we are going to keep it. But what these heroes gained is a permanent life in the world to come with no pain, no sorrow, no wandering, no suffering, and no more death – ever.

And the best part – the thing that makes that good news for them and also good news for us – is that “God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us” (40).!

Jesus once told a story about a landowner who had a crop to harvest. He went out early and hired some workers, and promised them good wages. But he hired some more workers the third hour, more on the ninth hour, and even more on the eleventh hour. When it came time for him to pay his workers, they all got the same wages. He didn’t cheat anybody. He just decided to be generous and give them all the same reward.

When I think about these heroes of faith that we looked at today, I think it really isn’t fair. They were so much stronger in their faith than I have been. They were tested with so many more trials than I have been. They had to be faithful under the most extreme of circumstances. And I wonder what they will think of me. I feel like an eleventh hour worker. I didn’t suffer like they did. My faith has not been tested like theirs were. But the good news of the gospel is that our generous master is going to welcome them – and me – and you into his eternal joy.

Let us look again at verses 13-16:

In the end, the people who “did not receive” will receive – and so will we.

The author of Hebrews explains how we should apply his “heroes of faith” passage in the first two verses of chapter 12:

• “Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It is commonly taught that the cloud of witnesses is all these dead saints whose spirits are in heaven. They are said to be witnesses of what we do down here on earth.

But that is not what the author of Hebrews is saying. A witness is someone who testifies to something. The cloud of witnesses is the biblical testimony of all these heroes of faith.

What the author of Hebrews is saying is that we should follow their footsteps and run the race with endurance like they did. Jesus is the one we are following to victory. He is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Jesus perfectly demonstrated how to live by faith whether you receive or do not receive. One day he was starving in the desert, the next day he was feeding the 5000. One day he was raising the dead, the next day he was dying on a cross. But every day he was living by faith.

LORD, make us people of faith. Make us runners who keep our eyes of Jesus, and run the race with endurance like he did.

THE PEOPLE WHO RECEIVED

Hebrews 11:32-35a (CSB)

“And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead, raised to life again.”

We have been taking a good look at the heroes of faith that the author of Hebrews mentions in chapter 11 of his epistle. We have discovered that there are lots of people who have lived by faith. We have also discovered that there have been lots of ways of showing that faith.

As he concludes his chapter on faith heroes, the author of Hebrews talks about two different categories of people of faith. Today we are going to look at the first category. These are the people who received. In other words, they found some measure of victory by trusting God. He came through for them.

The people who have experienced victory by faith are diverse (32).

He says that “time is too short” for him to list all the winners he wants to list.

• He had listed Abel, who had only one shot at a life of faith, so he took it.
• He had listed Enoch, who walked with God when everyone else was walking away from him.
• He had listed Noah, who built a boat at God’s command and that boat saved him and his family.
• He had listed Abraham, who learned to trust and obey even the commands that didn’t make sense.
• He had listed Sarah, who learned that her limits are not God’s limits.
• He had listed Isaac, Jacob and Joseph whose faith in God went further than the limits of their own lives. They trusted God to be at work in their future.
• He had listed Moses, who saw the invisible God at work, and that enabled him to receive miracles at his hand, and to lead the Israelites in following his will.
• He had listed Rahab, who risked everything for her new-found faith in the God of the Jews.
• Now he lists Gideon, a coward who at first did not even trust God – he put him to the test. But God proved himself to Gideon, and he became a mighty warrior, and led Israel for 40 years.
• He lists Barak, a commander of armies, who had to put aside his own pride and seek the help of Deborah the prophet. He was both courageous and wise.
• He lists Samson, who failed God many times in his life, but knew that God would not fail him.
• He lists Jephthah, who was chased away from his family and lost his inheritance. But when war came, the elders came for him and he became a deliverer of his people.
• He lists David, of course, the shepherd boy who became the mightiest king of Israel, turning the nation into a superpower.
• He lists Samuel, a mother’s answer to prayer, and just the kind of man the nation needed to transition from the period of judges to that of the kings.
• Finally, he lists the prophets, who spoke the word of God to the people of God, even when they would not listen.

Now, if you are looking for a common denominator in this list, you will find very few. That is the point. Faith manifests itself in a million different ways in a million different people. Faith is a gift of God and he tailor makes each gift for each recipient. We don’t get our faith off the rack.

This tells me that we should not expect one another to be too similar. We have problems with this in today’s church. That is sometimes the cause of great divisiveness. When we want other believers to look like us, talk like us, pray like us, and worship like us.

History tells us that often the most effective and productive in the kingdom of God have been people who did not conform to everybody’s expectations.

Jesus’ disciples had that problem as well. John admitted this to Jesus. He told him that that they had seen someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and they tried to stop him. But Jesus told them not to stop these people because the ones who are not against us are for us (Luke 9:49-50).

Nature shows us that our God has created a world of amazing diversity. He has built diversity in the kingdom of God as well.

The ways of experiencing victory by faith are also diverse (32).

• Patriarchs experienced victory by faith and thus “obtained promises” even when it seemed impossible in the flesh.

• Warriors experienced victory by faith and thus “conquered kingdoms”, “became mighty in battle” and “put foreign armies to flight. This should be no surprise to us. After all, one of God’s titles is Yahveh Tsva’ot – the LORD of Armies.

• God’s people under the oppression of foreign rulers experienced victory by faith and thus “administered justice” and “gained strength in weakness.”

• God’s people being persecuted for their faith experienced victory and so “shut the mouths of lions” and “quenched the raging of fire” and “escaped the edge of the sword.”

• There are even a few examples of those who experienced victory by faith when they “received their dead, raised to life again.”

Yet all of these victories were temporary. Even those who were resurrected eventually died again. Why? The author of Hebrews tells us that even these heroes of faith “all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth” (11:13).

So, even this amazing number of heroes of faith only received a temporary deposit, guaranteeing a greater victory yet to come. The author of Hebrews calls that greater victory “a better resurrection” (11:35b).

The apostle Paul was looking forward to that ultimate victory.

“More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith. My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11 CSB).

Today’s text is an encouragement for all of us. We live in defeat so much that we need reminders from God’s word that victory is possible. We need to stay strong in faith and pray strong in faith. Our God is able. He was faithful to many in the past. He is just as faithful today.