By Faith, Heroes (Hebrews 11)
Today we’re going to talk about heroes. This week Paul & I had the pleasure of spending time with a lot of heroes up in Johnson City, TN. A humble group of seminary students wrote cards of comfort and hope late Monday night for the 80 teammates of a 20-year-old athlete who was tragically killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver. A cloistered monk played and sang angelically for a beautiful ecumenical worship service called “Adoration” with people praying in unity from many area churches. Two young women provided a place of belonging by opening their home for food and fellowship. Heroes are hidden in plain sight all around us.
Today we’re going to talk about two particular heroes. The first hero is one we’ve met from afar and often seems larger than life. The second hero is much more reluctant most of the time. What is a hero anyway? The definition of hero has changed quite a bit over the years, but is generally someone who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. We are all drawn to heroes, and I think we intuitively know that it’s important to choose well which ones we admire, because we tend to want to emulate them in some way. I constantly read hero stories to my children, from Queen Esther to Jim Elliot, Amy Carmichael to Count Zinzendorf, Corrie ten Boom to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Hero stories can heal our wounded hearts and minds, help us to grow personally, and inspire us to action.
Let’s meet our first hero in today’s Scripture, Hebrews 11:17-19. I’m going to read it one time, then we’ll unpack it a bit, and then we’ll read it a second time. Hebrews 11:17-19 (NLT) – “It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.’ Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”
Let’s start with some context. Three weeks ago, Allen launched us into our look at heroic Abraham in Hebrews 11. As Allen said, we, like Abraham, cannot hope and have faith at the same time as we are fearing. Two weeks ago, Zac reminded us that even though Abraham and Sarah should have been done by worldly standards, God can intervene in the trajectory of any of our lives at any time. Last Sunday, Nancy encouraged us to, like Abraham, break free from those things that tie us up, and eagerly and expectantly watch and wait for God.
The writer of Hebrews in chapters 11 and 12 urges us to consider the faith of many heroes, women and men, who have gone before us. We are invited to imitate their faith in God, in order to participate in the restoration of the already-but-not-yet-fully-arrived Kingdom of God – God’s gift of wholeness, harmony, completeness, prosperity, welfare, and tranquility. The Lord wants us to turn away from whatever disturbs this restoration. The Lord wants us to choose and embrace that which enhances restoration and results in harmonious relationships with Him, with one another, with creation.
As we read today’s Scripture in Hebrews 11 again, let’s pay attention to the verbs that indicate Abraham’s actions.
“It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted’ Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.”
I’m drawn to five main actions of Abraham’s here. Four of them start with “R” so I’m providing a helpful R synonym for the first action.
- Relinquish (Abraham “offered”, “surrendered”, “relinquished” Isaac)
- Receive (Abraham received God’s promises)
- Ready oneself (Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son)
- Reason (Abraham reasoned)
- Receive (in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead)
The first action I noticed is “relinquish.” God called Abraham over and over to relinquish those things that were most precious to him – in this verse, his child. But God also called Abraham to relinquish his home, his family, his relationships, his community, his reputation, his status, his influence, his independence, his safety, his certainty, his confidence, his stability, his future, his legacy. The Scripture tells us that Abraham did what God asked of him, by faith. Abraham cared more about what God wanted than what he wanted.
The next four verbs explain to us how Abraham was able to give up that which was most precious to him. These give us insights into how Abraham put his faith into practice.
He received the promises of God. There’s a world of difference between hearing, reading, or knowing the promises of God, and actually receiving them. It doesn’t do us much good to attend a banquet if we don’t actually eat anything. God instructs us, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.” (Psalm 81:10, NLT). When Abraham received God’s promises, it meant that he opened himself up and allowed those promises to actually change the course of his life.
We’re also told that Abraham was ready to sacrifice that which was incredibly precious to him, even when he didn’t understand. He readied himself to give his all to God. At its essence, to sacrifice is to give up something good now for the sake of something better in the future. How did he become ready? Maybe we have Abraham on a bit of a pedestal. Do we think he got zapped by the Holy Spirit and suddenly, presto change-o, he was ready? Or perhaps he was completely human as we are, and, in order to become ready, he put one foot in front of the other? Abraham readied himself by choosing to trust God one small step at a time, enabling his faith to grow.
Abraham also reasoned – the word used here is the Greek word logízomai, the root of our English words “logic” and “logical”. In his faith journey, he didn’t switch off his mind but took everything into account and thought through all that was involved, before reaching a logical conclusion upon which he based his decision. Pope John Paul II wrote, “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself.” God invites us to engage our whole selves in loving Him, with all that we are – as Deuteronomy 6:5 says, we are commanded to love God with all of our heart (which includes our mind and will), all of our soul (which includes our desires and emotions), and all of our might (which includes our “muchness” and abundance).
For a second time in this passage, we’re told that Abraham received – he made a decision to obey God and to receive whatever God wanted to give him, whether it was what he expected or not. He let go of the controls – we see in his actions a foreshadowing of the words of Christ, “Not my will, but yours be done!”
When God first called Abraham, he was very comfortable, very settled, and very wealthy. God called this one who was comfortable, settled, and wealthy to become heroic, to embark on a life filled with both adventure and sacrifice.
It’s easy for us to read about someone like Abraham and disqualify ourselves as unworthy of such callings. But the reality is that God’s call to become heroic is a call for each and every one of us, because each one of us has been created in the image and likeness of God. That’s right, the second hero we’re talking about today, the often much more reluctant one, is YOU! Jesus told us to “take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Notice that He didn’t say “take up the cross and follow me” but “take up your cross and follow me.” God’s call to you and to me is to take up the very unique crosses of our unique life circumstances – the unique personal responsibilities set before us that require us to embrace suffering. This is the call to become heroic. A hero is one who chooses to be an active participant in the midst of suffering (resisting the temptation to check out, run away, or hide). The good news is that God is love, so He cannot be indifferent to our suffering. Life is hard, but God is good, always. God loves us, always. God is with us, always.
On this hero’s journey, we will face challenges that will stretch us beyond what we can see. We may not be able to predict which challenges we will face, but we can be certain that we will encounter formidable challenges (as John Newton aptly put it in “Amazing Grace” – “many dangers, toils, and snares”). We will at times be engaged in life-and-death battles. At times we will be tempted to give up. But through all the inevitable crises, setbacks, and downturns, always remember that God is with us and for us. None of the problems, obstacles, or challenges we face will even slightly damage or destroy the providence of God to bring good out of evil. Becoming heroic means clinging to God, come what may. God will help us. He is with us.
So, there’s a lot we can learn from Abraham. Let’s take a few moments to reflect on where we’re at personally today and see if we can notice where the Holy Spirit is nudging us. I’m going to ask five reflection questions and leave some space so we can pause, consider, listen. If you need more time to sit with any of this with the Lord, we will have some extended ministry time towards the end of the service.
- What is it that God is asking you to relinquish today? (pause)
- What promise from God do you need to more fully receive or receive for the first time? (pause)
- In what ways can you ready yourself for whatever is coming up next in your life? (pause)
- Where is God directing you to think well and deeply, take everything into account, and make responsible decisions based on sound conclusions? (pause)
- What would help you to hold your hands out to God in complete surrender, to receive whatever God allows to come your way? (pause)
As we draw today’s sermon to a close, let’s peek ahead to what follows the end of the list of heroes in Hebrews 11 that we’re focusing on in this series. If we keep reading the continuation of this passage in chapter 12, we see these precious encouragements: “let us run with endurance . . . keeping our eyes on Jesus . . . don’t become weary and give up . . . take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees . . . mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.”
Brothers and sisters, God is cheering us on. A huge crowd of witnesses is cheering us on. Many voices down through Church History are cheering us on. Echoing Mordecai’s question to Queen Esther in the biblical book of Esther – Who knows? Maybe you were made for just such a time as this. Here and now.
You can be a hero here and now.
Contemporary author Jordan Peterson wrote in his “Biblical Series”: “If you’re aligned with God, and you pay attention to the divine injunction, then you can operate in the midst of chaos, tyranny, and deception, and flourish. You could hardly hope to have a better piece of news than that, given that that’s exactly where you are.“
You can flourish here and now, hero!
A final quote from 19th century theologian John Henry Newman, who wrote in “Meditations and Devotions”: “If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.“
You can flourish here and now, hero – God knows what He is about!
