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HOLY HELP FOR THE HOPELESSWHO DIE IN THE FAITHHebrews 11:17-22INTRODUCTION Several years ago I saw a movie called "Deep Impact." It was one of those end-of- the-world movies. A large meteor is headed for earth. It is large enough to destroy the entire planet. So the U.S. launches a space ship to intercept it. The mission is to land on the surface of the meteor, bore a hole into it and put a nuclear bomb in it to blow it up and thus save the earth. Predictably, the astronauts die while blowing up the meteor, giving their lives to save the earth. However, their mission is only partly successful. While the meteor is broken up there yet remains one large piece that is projected to hit the earth in the Atlantic Ocean. So all the coastal cities surrounding the Atlantic go into a panic and flee inland. The hero of the story played by Elijah Woods desperately seeks to find his girlfriend and her family on his motocross bike. He finds them stuck in a massive traffic jam in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The family is within sight of the safety of higher ground as they see the huge rock plummet through the atmosphere and strike the Atlantic creating an enormous tidal wave. So the mom and dad put their daughter, Elijah’s girlfriend and her younger brother onto the motocross bike and Elijah rides them to safety as the massive tidal wave inundates the lines of cars and people and the mom and the dad perish, within sight of safety. There are many biblical themes in this story but I want to draw attention to just one thing. The mom and dad have fled from danger and are fleeing to safety, to life but death keeps them from arriving at and enjoying the promised safety. This is a very common plot line. Death regularly interferes with hoped for salvation. Whether it’s Ali McGraw dying of cancer as a young wife before she and her new husband, Ryan O’Neal can enjoy the pleasures of a long and happy marriage in the classic movie, “Love Story” or the prisoner of war dying just before the allies liberate his prison camp in “The Longest Day:” death is portrayed as the great nullifier, that barrier that ends all dreams and all hopes for a happy future. This is a very biblical idea. Death is the great enemy of humankind. The entire book of Ecclesiastes is an extended reflection on the futility of life because of the presence of death. Jesus used the fact of death to demonstrate the futility of accumulating wealth in his parable of the rich farmer who built larger barns and grain bins and planned for a long and prosperous retirement but the night of his retirement party God says to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Now who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” Death destroyed all of his plans for a long a prosperous retirement. But the Bible does not only tell us that death is the great extinguisher of human hope and aspirations but tells us what no merely human story can tell us, that death, for those who trust in Christ does not extinguish hope. Death is no barrier to God’s fulfilling his promises to us. Therefore those who live by faith in Christ do not, as William Lane has said, “recognize in death any threat to the fulfillment of the promise” of God. Christians do not fear death because they know that God’s promise of life lived with him in the new heavens and the new earth forever cannot be nullified by death. The reason I am talking about death is because of where we are at in this letter to the Hebrews. If you will look at 11:13 you can see that the author, as he seeks to illustrate what faith is and what faith does by looking at the lives of the OT’s leading characters told us that Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob all died without receiving the promises but they died in faith, full of hope because they knew that God’s promise of numerous descendants and a safe and prosperous place to live was not ultimately referring to life on this planet as it currently exists but a promise of new homeland, a heavenly country. Notice in v. 16 that their longing for that heavenly country where they can live with God is fulfilled by God who has prepared a very real city for all of his people to live in with him forever. This is the place that Jesus told the disciples he was going to prepare for them by his death and resurrection in John 14. Now what the author does in our passage this morning is to show us how four men, faced with death, did not despair but pressed on in the joy and hope that comes from faith in a faithful God who always keeps his promise, for nothing and no one can resist God, not even death. If you'll remember that the people to whom this letter was written were undergoing persecution and were being threatened with death if they did not renounce Christ, you can see why he wants his audience to know that death cannot stop God from fulfilling his promises to us. The author aims to illustrate why we should not recognize in death any threat to the fulfillment of God’s promises to us. Every person who has a true faith in Christ lives fearlessly and courageously and hopefully and productively in spite of death’s certainty because of God’s faithfulness. This is what we are going to see in this passage. MAIN POINT Christians face death in faith, full of hope and without fear because…I. God raises the dead (vv. 17-19) Death is always a great challenge to faith in the goodness and love and power of God. But there are some deaths that challenge trust in the love and power of God more than others. I think of the missionary John Paton who took his pregnant wife to the south Pacific Islands of New Hebrides. His wife died a few days after giving birth to their son and then the infant boy died a week later. This is what he said about these deaths, “Stunned by that dreadful loss, in entering upon this field of labor to which the Lord had himself so evidently led me, my reason seemed for a time almost to give way… But for Jesus, and the fellowship he vouchsafed me there, I must have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave.” I think of Steve Saint, the son of martyred missionary Nate Saint, whose 22-year-old daughter got a headache during her welcome home party from having served on a short term mission trip in Africa and before the night was over was dead from an undetected congenital defect in the blood vessels of her brain. Young deaths are hard to take but when they happen to people who have given themselves in God’s service they are doubly hard. Yet, I do not think that we can conceive of a death, other than the death of Jesus, as more challenging to faith in the goodness and love of God than the death of Isaac as commanded by God. As we heard read for us a bit earlier, while Abraham and Isaac and Sarah are living a peaceful and content life in the land of Canaan, God interrupts their idyllic life by commanding that Abraham take his only son, the one he loves to a mountain that God would show him and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. We are told both here in Hebrews and back in Genesis 22 that God gave this command to Abraham in order to test him. Throughout both the OT and the NT God tests people. God tests people by sending trouble into their lives. He sends the trouble for the eternal welfare of the people to whom he sends it. Listen to one of the numerous places where God’s testing is said to be for our eternal welfare from 1 Peter 1. Peter, after describing the great and glorious salvation that awaits every believer says this, “In this (salvation) you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of testings. These testings have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” God gave the command to Abraham to kill his only son so that, having his faith purified, he would be eternally happy. This is why God sends all the trouble he sends into the lives of believers. There is no record here or in Genesis 22 that Abraham flinched in the smallest degree at this command. There was no rising up against God, no complaining, no questioning of God but he simply did what he was told. P.E. Hughes asks the question that I think everyone of us who reads this story must ask: “Ought Abraham to have asked God to justify so preposterous a command? Was it right for God to test his servant with a trial which involved such anguish?” But as far as we know Abraham does not question God’s right to ask of him this thing, nor does he demand that God explain himself. The author of Hebrews goes right to the heart of the difficulty that this command from God presented to Abraham. He does not reflect on the difficulty of being commanded to kill your own son. Rather he fixes our attention on the very real dilemma that faced Abraham. The command of God contradicts the promise of God. Three times God has promised Abraham that it is through Isaac that He will make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation. One of those times is recorded in Hebrews 11:18, which is a quote from Genesis 21. Yet, God is commanding that the son of promise be killed. Is God a cruel and evil tyrant who delights in tormenting humans by impulsively promising one thing and then nullifying what he promised? Is he a God of contradiction? Abraham knows that this is not what God is like. He knows that the God of the whole earth will do what is right. He is good and just and can be trusted. God has reasons for willing the death of Isaac and God will keep his promise of innumerable descendants through Isaac. Sometime between when God makes his demand and the arrival of Abraham and Isaac and his servants at Mount Moriah Abraham figures out what God is going to do. Verse 19 tells us that Abraham reckoned that God has power to raise the dead. What is impossible for men is possible with God. He has promised that it is through Isaac that Abraham’s offspring will come and so God would keep his promise. By the time that Abraham had reached the mountain, he knew that he was going to see a miracle. He knew that God was going to bring back Isaac from the ashes of the fire. He did not know how, but he knew that God would provide. The God who had brought Isaac forth out of the deadness of his and Sarah’s bodies could just as easily bring back Isaac from the dead. He still must go through the horrifying and terrible execution but he was able to do it because he knew that God was going to fulfill his promises by bringing Isaac back from the dead. Abraham exemplifies the description of faith that we looked at in 11:1. He acts in the present moment as if the promises of life with God forever gained by Christ are absolutely certain. God will bless the whole world through Isaac's descendants, just as God promised, because he will raise Isaac from the dead. Someone might say “That’s a nice story but what does God sparing Isaac from Abraham’s knife by providing a lamb in his place have to do with me. How does that help me face my death and the death of those I love?” I want you to look at the end of v. 19. This isn’t obvious in any of the English translations. But the phrase that is translated “figuratively speaking” in the NIV is used one other time in this letter to the Hebrews. If you’ll flip back to 9:6-10. The author, after describing how only the High Priest could enter into the Most Holy Place once each year says that the HS was showing through this ancient ceremony that the way to live in God’s presence was not yet revealed. Then in v. 9 we are told that this ceremony is an illustration that shows that the OT system of worship did not gain forgiveness of sins or the right to live with God but that something greater was yet to come. That word translated “illustration” is the same word used in 11:19. In other words, the point the author is making is that Isaac being received back from the dead was also an illustration, a parable of a future reality. That reality, of which Isaac’s “resurrection” is an illustration, is the resurrection of Christ, which is followed by the resurrection of all those who belong to Christ. We do not fear death because we know that God raised Christ from the dead and we know that he will raise all who trust in Christ from the dead. We can do whatever God commands us to do, no matter the risk involved, without fear, without complaining, without despair but full of joy and hope because there is a resurrection coming and nothing, not even death can stop God from raising all who trust Christ from the dead and giving them eternal life in the city that he has built. This is the only reason that my family is not swallowed up in despair as we live with our broken son day after day. It is the only reason I am still a Christian and a pastor. Jared is going to be raised from the dead and we are going to be raised from the dead because Christ was raised from the dead and we are united to Christ by grace through faith. This is temporary, just like Abraham knew that Isaac's death would be temporary and just as the death of Jesus was temporary. Christians face death in faith, full of hope and without fear because…
II. God’s favor is not determined by human effort or status but is sovereign and free (vv. 20-21) After this dramatic description of faith we are given the examples of three men who died as old men in relative peace and prosperity. The evidence of their faith is not seen in any deed like Abraham’s obedience to the command to slay his son but simply in words they uttered at the end of their lives. Facing imminent death is what they share in common with Abraham’s experience but their faith is seen in what they say and to whom they speak, not what they do. Isaac and Jacob, father and son (vv. 20-21), belong together because by faith each of them blessed two of their descendants when they were old men and near death. The main point of emphasis is that though they did not receive the promised salvation while living; yet by announcing future blessings on these sons showed they were convinced their death would not prevent God from fulfilling his promises to them. The words they uttered at the end of their lives show that they were trusting God to do what he had promised them even though they knew they were going to die. They died, not in despair but full of joyful hope because they knew God was working out his plan to save his people and that included them. We too can die full of joyful hope and we can face the death of those we love full of joyful hope because, though we do not now see that heavenly city, we know that God has prepared it for us because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. But the author did not choose these incidents from the lives of these two men merely to show that they died hopeful and confident that God was going to fulfill his promises. These two incidents share something else in common that the author wants us to see and to find help from as we face death, both our own and the death of those we love. What they share in common is that when Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau and when Jacob blessed his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, each of them blessed the boys not in accordance with their status or their merit; not according to who they were or what they did. Rather, the boys were blessed in accordance with God’s free and sovereign grace. Let me outline the two stories for you and then help you to see what the author wants us to see. Isaac and his wife Rebecca had twin sons. Esau was the firstborn son and Jacob was the second born son. While Rebecca was still pregnant God told her and she told her husband Isaac that the older son was going to serve the younger son. To say it another way, God told Isaac and Rebecca, before the sons were born or had done anything good or bad, that the younger son was going to be the recipient of all of God’s promises but that the older son would be excluded from the promise. God’s salvation was given to Jacob and not Esau not because of what Jacob had done but because God decided to be gracious to Jacob and to be just to Esau. He decided to treat Jacob contrary to what he deserved but to treat Esau as he deserved. His choice of Jacob over Esau was contrary to Esau’s status as the firstborn son. Exalting the younger son over the older was contrary to human expectation and human desire. Isaac did not like what God said. He preferred his firstborn son Esau over his younger son Jacob, contrary to what God said. He did not, for most of his life, live by faith in God’s word but actually rebelled against it. At the end of his life he called Esau to himself and made a secret plan to give the blessing that God intended for Jacob to Esau. However, God thwarted him through the deception of his wife Rebecca and his son Jacob. So blind Isaac gave the blessing of God to Jacob and not Esau. He did not do this in faith but against his will through trickery. However, after he blessed Jacob, Esau showed up to get the blessing and when Isaac realized what had happened he refused to give Esau God’s blessing. It was at this point that Isaac, for the first time acted in faith. He blessed Jacob with God’s blessing contrary to what Jacob deserved thus demonstrating that God’s salvation is by grace through faith, not by works and not by status. Jacob at the end of his life did the same thing to Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. When Joseph brought the boys to his father to receive the blessing of God he put Manasseh, the oldest son near to Jacob’s right hand and Ephraim, the younger son, next to his left hand. Jacob crossed his hands and gave the blessing of the firstborn to the younger son and so as Genesis 48:20 says, “he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.” This crossing of his hands demonstrated that God’s salvation is not determined by race or status in human society or performance of religious or moral duties. Rather salvation is entirely based upon God’s free grace, his decision to have mercy upon whom he wants to have mercy. Isaac and Jacob demonstrate that they are full of joyful hope in God’s salvation not because of who they are or what they have done but because of who God is and what he is going to do through the “seed of Abraham,” who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you may remember Iris Peterson. She was a charter member of our church. She died of cancer in 2000. I sat with her the day before she died and she was lamenting her sins and her failures in life, especially in her marriage. I reminded her then that her standing with God did not depend upon her performance but upon Christ's performance. She was not condemned by God not because she did not sin but because Christ did not sin. I reminded her that salvation was by grace, not by works. Most people when they come to the end of their lives or when they confront the loss of one dearly loved are full of regret and guilt over what they have not done and what they have done. Death has a way of confronting us with our weakness and our sinfulness and our selfishness and our ingratitude. We feel how we’ve squandered our lives and misused the gifts we’ve been given. Our failures to love God and others loom over us. We often see ourselves for who we truly are when we stand in front of death. This self-revelation can create despair and fear of the highest proportions as we consider facing our creator. However, the gospel comes to us in this hour and assures us that we are not loved by God; we are not forgiven of our sins or promised eternal life because of who we are or what we have done. Rather God loves us and accepts us and will reward us with heaven because of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. "For it is by grace that we have been saved through faith and this not from ourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast." The blessing of God given to the younger sons through Isaac and through Jacob tells us that salvation does not hinge on our performance but on Christ’s performance and so we can be full of joyful hope when death rears its head. Christians face death in faith, full of hope and without fear because…
III. God will bring all his people out of this land of seduction and suffering (v. 22) Joseph is our final illustration of how a person of faith faces death. It is quite remarkable that out of all the things he might have chosen to illustrate Joseph’s faith in God’s promises he chose this simple and seemingly inconsequential incident from the very end of his life. There were fifteen chapters of material to choose from and he chose this, why? There are several reasons but the main one is that he is seeking to show what it means to die in faith. We discover at the end of Joseph’s life that he knows that his death does not threaten God’s promises to save his people and to give them the Land of Promise. Listen to the full text of Joseph’s last words from Genesis 50:24-25, “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, ‘God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.’” Just like Hebrews 11:22 says, he mentioned the Exodus of the Israelites and he gave directions concerning his bones. He did this by faith. What is significant about his statement? I want you to think about Joseph’s situation when he uttered these words. He was taken to Egypt when he was a teenager after having been sold into slavery by his brothers. He is currently 110 years old. That means he has lived in Egypt for almost 100 years. While the first 10 to 15 years of living in Egypt were pretty rotten; for at least 75 years he has been the second most powerful man in the most powerful nation on earth. His wife is an Egyptian and his children were born here. His entire extended family is living in prosperity in this land with him. Yet, he does not view this land as his home. He has not been seduced by the wealth and power and domestic harmony and luxury that he has but his heart remains fixed on God’s Promised Land. His heart is not in Egypt but is fixed upon that city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. This is why he wants his bones carried to Canaan. But also notice what he says twice to his brothers: “The Lord will come to your aid.” That’s a crazy thing to say. The sons of Israel don’t need God’s aid to leave the land of Egypt. When Josephs says this, they are free people and can come and go as they please. They, under the protection of Joseph have also enjoyed a life of comfort and prosperity. Genesis 47:27 says about them, “They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.” There was no danger in the land of Egypt that required God to come to their aid. But that is not how Joseph views Egypt. He recognizes that behind the smiling face of peace and prosperity lurks a barely restrained hostility against the people of God. He sees Egypt for what it is; a place of seduction and a place of suffering. He realizes that no matter how comfortable things might be yet it is not home. He does not want to live in Egypt and he recognizes that God does not want his people to live in Egypt. So by faith he prefers the unseen, eternal city that God has prepared for his people over the seen, temporal city he currently lives in. He recognizes that the only safe place for the people of God is heaven, not earth. As the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3 he knows that his citizenship is in heaven and he is eagerly awaiting a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Exodus that Joseph foresees, which will be led by Moses is here viewed as a symbol of that final exodus when Jesus returns and removes all of his people, including the ones who are already in the grave, those who are just bones, out of this land of seduction and suffering and takes us into that eternal land of promise. God will indeed come to our aid and bring us to our home in the new heavens and the new earth with him forever. What we see in Joseph is how faith rejects the promises of this world and sets its affections on the next so that when we face death and thus the loss of all that matters in this world we do not cower in fear. We say with the apostle Paul that death is gain and not loss because when we die we enter into the Lord’s presence which is infinitely superior to the best conditions you can experience here in this life. So I ask you, are you living for retirement or are you living for heaven? If you die before you get married or have a family, will that be a tragedy or will it be gain? Are you eagerly waiting for a savior to come and take you to heaven or are you eagerly waiting to graduate so you can leave home? Do you view this world and the pleasures it offers as a threat to your faith and your enemy or as your home? People who have a true faith in Christ recognize that this world with all of its pleasures and promises is a fraud and so they live here with their eyes fixed upon that city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. They do not view the loss of earthly pleasure as the worst thing that can happen to them. Death does not loom as the destroyer of all hope, the nullifier of life because true life is only found in Christ's eternal kingdom. Christians face death in faith, full of hope and without fear because…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
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