Hebrews Template

Introduction: A story has been passed around the PCA of a certain theologian who was asked to preach before a large gathering. Everyone anticipated hearing the insights of the great man, full of years as well as knowledge. Instead of a sermon as such, he simply spent the time reading a list of the affectionate and official Names of God and Jesus Christ revealed in and throughout the scriptures. While this is not the nature of this passage, we do have something similar to that exercise going on. Here we have a list of names which the Apostle notes cannot be expounded at great length. “What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of” all the saints who served the King of Heaven. This will have to suffice as an introduction for today, because we have dozens of names and allusions to the experiences of the Old Covenant prophets, priests and kings who served God before the coming of Jesus Christ.

Development: John Owen captures the spirit of the passage in these words: “In [these] verses, the apostle sums up the remaining testimonies that he might have singled out and used, intimating that there were even more like them that he does not mention.” He goes on to outline two things that confirm the presence of faith in general:

One last point from Owen: before we proceed to consider the brief outline of our text in a little more detail. He notes that in this closing list, very many of the examples were “especially relevant to support his purpose, namely, to encourage the Hebrews in their suffering for the Gospel.”

F.F. Bruce notes that the first six names listed here are not arranged in a specific chronological order. Samuel, especially is listed last as belonging to the long list of the prophets. Up until this point in chapter eleven, the earlier period of Old Testament history was detailed. The remaining verses give only a summary account of the latter days in Israel and Judea. Our first six names span the interval between the conquest of Palestine and the early days of the monarchy.

One of the Judges, Gideon: is at the beginning of our list. The fact of Gideon’s faith is commended as we remember for the defeat of the Bedouin Midianites by a small force of three hundred warriors. Also from the period of the Judges are Barak, Samson and Jephthah.

Barak is to be remembered for the defeat of Sisera, who commanded a coalition of Canaanites. It may seem surprising, Bruce offers – because it was the prophetess Deborah and Jael, a Hebrew wife: who accomplished as much as Barak did. However, even though he was hesitant at first, Barak did go to battle with the hosts of Israel once he was confident that the Lord, being with Deborah was also with himself on the campaign trail. Even more significant is the fact that once he was told the victory would gain him no honor – still he went for the greater glory of God.

Samson also championed the cause of Israel in his own single-handed way. Some may well wonder at just what possessed him. And yet, the reports from Judges indicate that he was deeply conscious of the reality of the invisible God, who gave him his calling and strength.

An even odder choice for listing here is that of Jephthah. It was he who led the Transjordainian tribes against the Ammonites. Certainly, he is remembered more for the rashness of his uninformed vow, which led him to sacrifice his daughter. However, there is solid evidence that he appreciated the Lord’s guidance of Israel’s cause, not only in the past, but also in his day as well.

Coming at the dawn of the Kingdom, David is the only king mentioned by name. And yet, it was always his house that would be associated with the Kingdom for all time, therefore we may consider him representative of that mixed house that led finally to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. David is indeed the most celebrated “man after God’s own heart” in all of the Old Covenant records.

Finally, at the end of verse thirty-two we have mentioned the prophet Samuel. If Israel had ever carved a “Mount Rushmore” memorial of her most preeminent men, Samuel would have been there along side Moses, Joshua and David. Of all the Old Covenant leaders, he is the only one that served an almost three-fold ministry: “prophet, priest and judge.” It was in and through the national revival of his day, that the kingdom became established and David was placed finally upon the throne by the end of Samuel’s life.

But Samuel was only the first of a long line of prophets, men who not only spoke but also acted for God. A short list would include Elijah and Elisha, Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah, to mention the most likely candidates. And what did all of these leaders in Israel and Judea accomplish? The list in verses thirty-three and four includes:

1.        subdued kingdoms,
2.        wrought righteousness,
3.        obtained promises,
4.        stopped the mouths of lions,
5.        quenched the power of fire,
6.        escaped the edge of the sword,
7.        were made strong out of weakness,
8.        became mighty in war,
9.        put foreign armies to flight.

1.        from the wilderness to the empire of David.
2.        Psalm 101 celebrates a righteous rule
3.        Joshua, Gideon and especially David
4.        Daniel in the Lion’s den
5.        Shadrach, Meshack & Abednego
6.        Elijah & Elisha and Jeremiah were rescued
7.        Gideon, Judith & Esther
8.        Warriors from Joshua to the Maccabeans
9.        Barak, Jonathan, Asa, Jeoshaphat and more

In verse thirty-five the women who “received back their dead by resurrection” included the widow of Zarephath and the wealthy woman of Shunem. In the first case, Elijah ministered in the name of the Lord, and in the second case, it was Elisha. Today, we think in terms of resuscitation – but the scriptures will have none of that in these cases as well as in the resurrection of Lazarus in the New Covenant.

Thus far, we have looked over more than a dozen examples of what the Lord accomplishes through faith in Him... And by these John Owen tells us that “the apostle demonstrates what great things had been done through faith, to assure the Hebrews, and us with them, that there is nothing too hard or difficult for faith to effect when it is applied according to the mind of God.”

The list of grand accomplishments in and through faith continues. Verse thirty-five ends with a cryptic statement: ‘Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.” Both Owen and Bruce refer us to the confessional experiences from the time of the Maccabean period. There was Eleazar, as Bruce reports: “who willingly accepted death rather than forswear his loyalty to God.” Owen reports from the intertestamental period that one of the brothers “affirmed specifically that he endured those torments and death itself, since he believed that God would raise him up at the last day.” Owen encourages us to consider this “better resurrection” because it is not to be compared to being allowed to live to a ripe old age, but instead this is a hope that leads us to consider the promise of eternal life in Christ.

1.        mocking & flogging
2.        chains & imprisonment
3.        being stoned
4.        swan in two
5.        killed with the sword

1.        Jeremiah was flogged and put in stocks
2.        Jeremiah was dropped into a cistern
3.        Jeremiah may well have been stoned
4.        Isaiah reportedly was sawn in two
5.        Uriah at the time of Elijah

Of course, even as we read over that short list, we are all too aware that the crown of martyrdom applied equally well to the Apostles and Deacons in the early church. Paul experienced the first three. Stephen died from the third and James the brother of John was cut down by a sword. Peter and others were imprisoned and many others flogged and stoned. The first generation church members certainly knew of those countless experiences and many more were to suffer at the hands of Nero before the Church was finally recognized and left alone in the time of Constantine.

Verses thirty-seven and eight demonstrate the plight of many who escaped martyrdom. “They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated … wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

David hid in the wilderness, as did Elijah and many before and after their times. In the period of the Judges, as well as that of the Maccabeans – there were many who hid in caves and holes in the ground rather than submit to the power and might of oppressors. Even John the Baptist wore the prophetic clothing as he prepared the way of the Lord. Well does F.F. Bruce warn us that “faith in God carries with it no guarantee of comfort in this world; this was no doubt one of the lessons which our author wished his readers to learn.”

Application: Yes, we did skip over a phrase in verse thirty-eight, which we will consider in the context of our last two verses in thirty-nine and forty. Speaking of the saints so afflicted in this life, the Apostle adjudges that is was “of whom the world was not worthy!” Bruce records that it was the saints who “were outlawed as people who were unfit for civilized society; the truth was that civilized society was unfit for them.” The political commentator Cal Thomas, who has also experienced politically incorrect persecution, has written that in polite society, the Sodomites have been liberated from their closets so as to provide a place to shove any Christians. Any Christians, we might add, who might challenge the authority of the secular-humanistic state religion. We are not immune to a worldly desire to be rid of any godly, and especially Christian witness.

Time will tell where this old world is headed in our day and age. But one thing is biblically certain. The God of heaven and earth is in charge, and this soap opera life that we know today is not the end of all things. The Apostle tells us of the saints whom he listed: “And all these, 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.” In other words, heaven is still a blessed hope. And the saints who were commended – even now they are beneath the altar, in the vivid image of the book of Revelation. “How long” they pray until the last convert comes into the kingdom? That we do not know, but like them we can most assuredly pray “Come quickly Lord Jesus, come quickly.” And until He returns, there is much work to do and that work involves proving our faith before a watching world. May we be so empowered and employed. Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES
Brown, John. A Geneva Series Commentary: Hebrews.
Brown, Raymond. The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Hebrews.
Bruce, F.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews.
Owen, John: Commentary on the Book of Hebrews.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.