Faith brings triumph as well as trial
Think with me about your Christian faith. How has God been at work in you?
How has God used your Christian faith for his purposes? Would you say your faith has been one of triumph, with victories for God? Or one of trial, with hardships and challenges?
Well, the original readers of Hebrews would have answered that last question very quickly. They’d have said their faith was one full of trials.
They were suffering for their faith. And they were so worn down and lethargic as Christians that some of them were tempted to pack it in altogether. I guess with us, at best we’d say that our experience of faith was mixed. Maybe you can think of triumphs where God has used your faith, for his glory and the good of others. Maybe you’ve led someone to Christ, or you’ve been faithfully plugged into a ministry that God is using to bear fruit for him. But also, some trials of faith where being a Christian has been hard. And, if you’re honest, you think life would be easier for you if you didn’t follow Jesus. And that’s why we need these verses in Hebrews 11, because they show us that we should expect both triumphs and trials in our faith but that there is something far greater to bank on, beyond our present circumstances. And it’s that greater reward that puts both the trials and triumphs in their proper place, and helps us remember that though the Christian faith is harder, it is ultimately, better. So, we need God to help us. Let’s pray:
Father, we pray this evening that you would help understand the triumphs and trials of the life of faith – but also to see beyond them, to the final reward you promise us. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
1. The triumphs of faith (Hebrews 11.32-35a)
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. Women received back their dead by resurrection…
So, the sense here is that the author of Hebrews could have continued and listed many other examples of faithful men and women of God. So, four of the Judges are mentioned, they conquered kingdoms, delivered God’s people from oppressors and restored God’s faithless people back to him. King David unified the people and defeated the enemies of God. And it’s to David and his descendants that God promises the once and for all King – the Lord Jesus. Stopping lions and quenching fire (maybe that’s Daniel and his friends?), and women being brought back from the dead (maybe the miracles of Elijah and Elisha?) Spectacular things, but as with the whole chapter, the author is saying it’s God who is behind them. So, the people here aren’t some sort of spiritual elite. And that’s reinforced by the fact that these examples are far from perfect people e.g. David who was an adulterer and murder, Samson’s life was a catalogue of disasters, Jephthah made an idiotic vow that cost his own daughter her life. But that’s the point – sin is not ok but God still uses idiotic people. Like you, and like me. And these verses aren’t primarily about people. They’re about faith in God. And what faith in God can make possible.
So, like we’ve said, the original readers of Hebrews were fed up and some of them wanted to pack in being Christians altogether. And one danger when you feel like that is that you become a bit of a spiritual Eeyore. So, I’d imagine that the Hebrews had become cynical and forgotten that God could use them and their faith, even with its suffering for his good and for God’s glory. Of course, they couldn’t bank on God using them in any particular way. There’s no promise that says, “suffer like this, and I’ll do this through you”. But that doesn’t mean that God can’t and won’t use ordinary faith in weak and flawed people to do extraordinary things, but we often forget that.
So, a while ago, one of us was plugging away in sharing the gospel with a friend, and this friend eventually became interested enough to come to church. But they walked out during the service and later said, “I don’t like this message, I’m never coming back and I don’t want to talk about it ever again”. But they did talk about it again and there were difficult, hostile, conversations with that friend then the whole group of friends. So, one minute you’re thanking God a friend has come to church, and the next you’re fielding hostile objections to the gospel. And when we face hostility like that, the danger is that we shrink back, we become demotivated. We think “I won’t invite anyone to church, because they won’t come and even if they do, sooner or later, they won’t want to know” When, in God’s sovereignty, they might come, and they might respond positively. Or we think, “What’s the point in inviting someone to Christianity Explored? They won’t really become a Christian” When it might be God’s plan they give it a go and come to trust in him.
So, the writer to the Hebrews is reminded thoroughly worn down, discouraged, suffering Christians that God can use their faith for his good purposes. That’s why we’ve got these positive examples – to show what God can do through the faith of this people. Of course, the Hebrews couldn’t bank on it because faith doesn’t guarantee triumph, or any form of success. It doesn’t guarantee victory for us in this life. But God, through the ages, has always used flawed people for His good purposes, and he can with us. And perhaps we need this reminder at the minute, when Covid has been so discouraging for church life. And, despite all that’s good, perhaps we feel like our witness, and we feel like our ministry here, seems weak and ineffective. God is doing great things among us. That person I mentioned kept going and later down the line, brought different friends to church. People are coming to faith (we celebrated that at our baptism service a few weeks ago). Some of us are looking into the message of Jesus for the first time (and if you are doing that you’re so welcome, and you’re welcome to do that in your time, on your terms. We’re here to help you).God has led us to plant two churches in just over 10 years. So many of us keep going in loving and serving each other in significant ways. I could go on. God is powerfully at work and he can do more among us, through us, in us. He can do more than we ask, or think, among us (Ephesians 3.20). So, as the missionary William Carey famously said:
Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.
That’s the life of faith. It won’t be easy. And though we can’t bank on it, God can use us to do great things for him. The question is, are we prepared for him to do that? But, secondly, we see:
2. The trials of faith (Hebrews 11.35b-38)
Because, from the middle of Hebrews 11.35, almost mid-breath there’s a shift in tone (Hebrews 11.35b-38):
…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.
That’s a horrible list of suffering for following God. From prison to flogging, to torture through to horrible death. So, it’s hard to know the exact people that the writer has in mind here – and it obviously doesn’t really matter, or he’d have told us. But I traced these themes through the Old Testament and I came across the story of the prophet Uriah. He was around after King David and gave a warning of judgement to the people of Israel, who had faithlessly moved away from God. And the response? He was killed by the sword of the evil king Jehoiakim. Obedience and faith for him led to a terrifying death. Whereas, someone like King David experienced great spiritual triumphs like ruling over God’s people in God’s promised land. So, what’s the difference between David’s faith and the faith of prophet Uriah? Nothing. Because the writer’s point is, there isn’t any difference between the faith of those in Hebrews 11.32-34, or those listed from the middle of Hebrews 11.35.
God was equally faithful to David as he was to Uriah. God was equally faithful to Gideon as he was to the prophet Isaiah, who tradition says was sawn in two. God was equally faith to all of them. Hebrews 11.39 shows us that all were commended for their faith, and all will experience the rewards of faith. It’s just that their experiences of the life of faith were very different. So, the Hebrews, had been crushed by their trials and suffering. And they were thinking, “We’ve been faithful to God, but look what he’s allowed to happen to us”. And the writer was saying, “look you can’t expect that taking a stand for God will always result in triumph. There won’t always be victory for you” because that simply isn’t something that God promises. And we need to remember that too. This is why the prosperity gospel message of, “follow God, give to God and your life will be happy and successful”, is so wrong, so dangerous. Because it’s not what God promises. It’s not what Christians in the past experienced. And it’s not what Christians in the present experience.
So, if the intense suffering of Hebrews 11.35-38 feel a little bit hard for us to relate to, we need to wake up to the fact that they’re a reality for some of our brothers and sisters around the world. Like a lady called Shanti I was reading about recently. She lives in India and became a Christian in her fifties, and soon her whole family began to follow Jesus. She was rejected by her extended family, as soon as she came to faith. She moved village but persecution followed, until one day the family was attacked and beaten up by Hindu extremists. And they were later wrongly arrested for forcibly converting people in the village. The police refused to listen to their story and, shockingly, beat them even further. Listen to some of Shanti’s response after being released from prison:
I have experienced the love and peace of Christ in my life…I have been to temples…[But] all Christ wanted was my heart…My family and I can never leave Christ for the mere pressures of humans…When Christ himself was rejected by His own, what are we? The Bible warns us we will face persecution, so we are prepared for any situation. Worse may happen to us…(Opendoors.org)
Shanti’s faith in Jesus sounds vibrant and inspiring doesn’t it? But it’s a faith that knows that persecution can be expected for following Jesus. So, when we share the gospel, and we get a negative reaction so when we try to be faithful to Jesus, only to feel like our lifestyle is viewed as odd and awkward, rather than attractive and distinctive, or when we take a stand for Jesus in the workplace, or with friends, only to find it’s seemingly made no difference at all and has only brought us further trouble, when we face far worse we’ll be prepared. We’ll know it’s to be expected. Because faith in God doesn’t guarantee a life free from suffering and trial. The Bible is realistic. It tells us what to expect, and to be blunt, it’s telling us here just how bad it can get. So, instead of being caught off guard, and instead of wallowing in self-pity, like Shanti, we’ll look to the God behind our present circumstances. And, above all, we’ll look beyond our present circumstances to an entirely different eternal future:
3. The promise of faith (Hebrews 11.39-40)
And all these [that’s the previous people and examples of faith], 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.
So, these verses are saying that none of these people (whether they had a life of faith that consisted of amazing triumphs, or one that consisted of terrible trials), none of them received in their lives all that faith really promised. What God ultimately promised was complete restoration to him. He promised that the penalty of sin would be defeated forever and that the barrier it created between us and God would be destroyed by the Lord Jesus, who died for us on the cross. And so, if you believe that (and that’s what you need to believe if you’re to call yourself a Christian) God promises that one day you’ll be with him in a perfect world, free from sin and all that sin spoils. So, every believer, throughout the ages, will enjoy heaven together, and Jesus will rule perfectly and unopposed. And this is what the life of faith is all about. This is the ultimate end-point of the promise for us. If we trust in Jesus – one day, we’ll live with Jesus forever. So, that’s why in Hebrews 11.35 those who were tortured, refused to accept release. They did not give up on their faith, because they knew that trusting in God meant rising again after death to a better life, with God, in heaven. And that’s a game-changer because it puts the life of faith (with its ups and downs) into the perspective not just of the here and the now, but of the great over-arching promise of heaven at the end of this life if we trust in the Lord Jesus.
So, King David, with God in heaven, will look back to his rule at the high point of the nation of Israel sat on the throne in splendour, and say, “that wasn’t so great. It doesn’t compare to this”. Because, what in this life (even the great triumphs of faith) could ever compare to being surrounded by God’s people, and enjoying God’s rule, presence and love forever? And the prophet Uriah, or Shanti, or any one of us who has suffered for our faith, with God in heaven, will look back to trials (even terrible trials and say, “that wasn’t so bad. It doesn’t compare to this”, because suffering for God will make perfect sense when we see face to face just how powerful, and righteous and loving he is. Then there will be no doubt that it was worth it. So, why would you give up following him (even if you faced terrible suffering) if you knew that what was promised was something far, far, far better for you? Something beyond compare.
You see friends, it’s only when we look to the world to come that we’ll really learn not to be too buoyed by the highs of this life – even the triumphs of faith, like leading a friend to Jesus, or running a flourishing small group, or whatever spiritual “success” looks like for you, or whether it’s success at work, or the gift of family, or whatever it might be. We can be joyous and thankful for all that God has given us, but we must remember, one day it won’t compare. And only when we look to the world to come, will we find we’re not too crushed by the lows that life now throws at us, even the particularly hard lows that being a Christian may bring because one day, they won’t compare.
I don’t know about you, but I’m so thankful God has given me this life of faith. triumph. And, yes, it brings with it tough trials but even though the Christian life is harder, in the life of faith the end-point is the promise of heaven. That’s what we’re banking on in the here and now. And, as it says in Hebrews 11..40, that really will be better for us. Let’s pray:
Father, among us this evening will be both those who have experienced great triumphs in faith, and those who have experienced great trials – perhaps they’re experiencing those right now. For most of us, our experience of the life of faith is, perhaps at best, a mixture of trials and triumphs. But we rejoice in the fact that there is something better for us. That the Christian life promises a greater reward – when we’re with you forever in your Kingdom of glory. And we ask this evening, that through your Spirit, you would fix our eyes on that. That we would know better where we’re going, and that would sharpen and change our perspective on our trials and triumphs in the here and the now.For Jesus’ sake. Amen.