The Testimony of the Heroes (Hebrews 11:13-16)

This sermon was preached on 29/9/2013

   

The writer of Hebrews begins a new section in his argument in this chapter because verses 13–16 are the heading that entitles the verses that follow them (it is unlikely that he is summarising the testimony of those he has mentioned previously because his first point is that the ones he has in mind all died, and Enoch did not die).  Each of the people he is going to mention were not satisfied with where they were and instead looked ahead to what God had provided for them, even although they died in different ways and locations.

As far as his original readers were concerned, the author’s point is to show that suffering and opposition were the common experience of God’s people in all ages. The men and women he mentioned were prepared to persevere through these ordeals because they believed that God’s promises about the Messiah, when they would be fulfilled, would more than make up for their pain. This was a rebuke to the original readers because they were about to give up the faith despite the fact that the Messiah had come and fulfilled many of God’s promises. And the fulfilment of some of those promises was a guarantee that the remaining promises would yet be fulfilled. The heroes of the faith say to these readers, ‘Hold on. Don’t give up. It will yet be worth it all.’

These heroes also speak to us in our contemporary situation. Although it may change, persecution and suffering for the Christian faith is not a problem where we live, although it is in many parts of the world. Instead we face distorted priorities, priorities that are found where Christians have adopted the same concerns and ambitions and desires as the societies in which they live. In one way or another, we often live for this world. These heroes say to us, ‘There is another country for which we should live now.’

The constant outlook of their faith (v. 13)

The first detail that the author mentions is that they all died. No matter the length of their lives, the achievements they made, the pleasures they enjoyed, the many varieties of their lives, they all died. Everything came to an end. Of course, if this was all that could be said about them, then their lives were no different from the rest of the human race.

The writer, however, says more because he points out that they died in faith. Their beliefs were suitable for dying as well as for living. The author does not mean that they believed in something when they died, rather he means that they had a specific faith as they drew their last breaths.

What was specific about their faith? The author identifies it as being connected to the promises of God. These promises were about the coming Messiah. The first had been given in Eden when God announced that a Champion would come who would overpower the enemy of the human race (the devil) and rescue the race from his domain. Another promise had been given to Enoch, that this promised Messiah would yet judge the world.  To Abraham and Sarah, more promises were given, that the promised Deliverer would come through their descendants.  These promises were enlarged with regard to Isaac and Jacob.

The writer has described the basis of their faith, which was the promises of God. He also describes the elements of their faith and one of them was not actually meeting the Messiah. Nevertheless they greeted the future with expectancy and delight. These heroes did not live to see the Messiah, although they did look ahead, confident that he would come. Although they did not meet him personally, they had a real faith. What were the elements of their faith? They were persuasion, embracing and confession. Persuasion indicates that faith involves the mind, embracing shows that faith involves the emotions as well as the will, and confessing points out that faith is revealed to others.

As far as their persuasion is concerned, God did something to help them believe the promises were real. For example, he personally gave instructions to some of them, as he did to Abraham and Jacob. God gave them helps that reminded them that he would keep his promises. In addition to these occasional features, they were able to think about the character of God and note that he was marked by faithfulness (fulfilled his threat of judgement), righteousness (Abraham used this when interceding for Sodom) and compassion (the long time between his warning of the flood and its arrival).

Their faith was not only intellectual. The God who had drawn near to them had expressed the desire to be their Friend, their Guide, their Rescuer, their Upholder, their Forgiver. It was impossible to think seriously about this God and not have an emotive involvement. Contact with him cannot be at a detached level. It requires total involvement, passion, and dedication. They loved what they heard, they loved what they saw, and they loved what they anticipated.

Further they could not keep quiet about it. They wanted to speak about him and his promises as they interacted with others. Their message to their contemporaries was that they were strangers (aliens) and pilgrims (travelling through) on the earth. This world was not their home. Abraham told the sons of Heth that he was a stranger and sojourner among them (Gen. 23:4); Jacob told Pharaoh that his life was a pilgrimage (Gen. 47:9). It was the confession of Israel in her praise after she had entered the promised land (Ps. 39:12; 119:19).

The challenging outlooks of their faith

When we apply their example to ourselves, like them we know that we have to die. And when we die, we will die in faith in the sense that we will die believing something. Nobody dies without faith in some person or belief, even if it is the notion that God does not exist. But it is essential that we die in the correct faith, one that will deal with the cause of our death, which is our sins.

As with the heroes, our faith involves our minds, our emotions, our wills and our speech. We have a lot more evidence than these ancient heroes had. They had a few promises from God and several appearances of God on which to build their faith. We have much more – the complete Bible, with its thousands of promises, and the first coming of the Saviour. Our minds can consider the details revealed about the Messiah in the Gospels and come to a clear conclusion about him.

As with the heroes, the response we make involves more than the mind. We discover that the Saviour who addresses us in the Bible is ardent in his affections for us. In all that he says and does, his love overflows. We see his tears as he speaks about the fate of those lost in hell. We watch his sufferings on the cross on behalf of sinners. We hear his warm invitation to come and follow him. He appeals to our emotions as well as to our minds. Some find him very attractive and embrace him lovingly and gladly.

When that happens, a big change takes place in what we speak about. Those who trust in Jesus speak about the things of his kingdom, of their personal interest in it. This is true even of those who cannot see, because of doubts, that they are in the kingdom. Ask yourself concerning your favourite subjects for speaking about. If they are linked to the Saviour’s work and kingdom, it is a sign of faith that you have faith in Jesus. If you find this world to be a weary and disappointing place, and if you long for another world where sin is not, it is a sign that you possess faith in Jesus.

The continual option that they faced (vv. 14-16)

The writer then mentions another feature of their faith, which was that they were seeking a homeland. The term translated ‘country’ does not merely mean that they were looking for a geographical area. A good literal equivalent is fatherland. These pilgrims were looking for the place where their heavenly Father lived. The crowning glory of the heavenly city throughout the Bible is that God is there. Heaven is the Father’s house, where the heavenly family will dwell for ever.

They were always longing for this heavenly country – they earnestly desired it. As they sojourn in a strange country, there are many things that cause them to sigh. The root cause of this sighing is that they are longing for a better country. For example, think of a person from a developed country in the West going to live in undeveloped country. He would encounter many privations that would cause him to express frustration because he knows that these problems don’t exist in his own country. Things in this world that cause a believer to sigh are connected to sin, but he knows that the effects of sin don’t exist in the heavenly country.

Peter has this imagery of exiles in view when he writes: ‘Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia’ (1 Pet. 1:1). But he goes on to speak of them as waiting for ‘an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you’ (1 Pet. 1:4). He also writes in 1 Peter 2:11: ‘Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.’ When we travel to a foreign country, we are advised not to try certain of its products because they will make us ill. Believers, traversing through the foreign country of this world, are instructed not to touch the features of this world that will cause them problems.

One reason they desire heaven is because it is a better country. In what ways is it better? It has secure borders through which no enemy can come. There is no strife among its citizens. There is no sorrow among its experiences. There is no shortages in its supplies. There is no stagnation in its progress. There is no charge for any of its benefits. Truly it is a better country.  

The comforting opinion of their God (v. 16b)

Because of his pleasure in them, God ‘is not ashamed to be called their God’. It is important to note the tense. He does not say that God ‘was not ashamed’, although that was true; he says ‘God is not ashamed’ of them, centuries after they died. A couple of centuries after their deaths, God described himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There is coming a day when all the great people of history, as well as all the unknowns of history, will stand before God. The ones of whom God will not be ashamed are his people, who confessed that they were not ashamed of him. On that day, Jesus will not be ashamed to call them ‘brothers’.

God will never forget what his people did for him and he will show his response in providing for them in the city that he hath prepared. Throughout the endless ages to come, the enjoyments of the heavenly city will be provided by a delighted God who will continually pour into his people’s experiences the fullness of glory. They will be home in the Father’s land.