Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

In 1961, golf legend Arnold Palmer had a one stroke lead in the Masters tournament. It was one of the most important professional golf championships in the world. Palmer took his driver, approached the teeing ground of the last hole, and drove the ball perfectly down the fairway. The tournament was in the bag. After this, a friend who was watching called him over and congratulated him on his victory. Palmer shook his hand and then addressed his ball. He then hit the ball into a sand trap. Then past the edge of the green. Then he missed his putt and lost the tournament.

It’s never a good idea to get a big head. Arnold Palmer lost that tournament because he assumed he had already won it. In the same way, we need to stay humble. It would be very easy for us to look at our position in Christ and get puffed up. When we trust in Christ, we’re changed by God. God has a huge prize for us in our future. And God has some huge plans for us in our present. But we need to always remember that all this is only by the grace of God.

However, we should rightly remember that God’s grace transforms us. Although we never become worthy of our salvation, we do become holy, set apart for God’s service. So there’s this balance we need to keep in mind, how God is using us, and transforming us, and yet it’s all by His grace and for His glory.

Read Hebrews 11:32-38

Our passage this morning mentions the names of a few more men and women of faith (v. 32). But there are so many more people of faith in the Bible. And many names and circumstances of people of faith didn’t even make it into the Bible. Verse 37 mentions that someone was sawn in two because of their faith. Who was that? The Bible never names anyone who was sawn in two. And verse 35 mentions that someone was tortured and refused to be released. Who was that? While there are a few similar stories in the Bible, such as the stoning of Stephen, or the imprisonment of Peter and Silas, they don’t seem to match this story exactly.

We might learn more about these stories from history. Most likely, the person sawn in two was Isaiah. Both Justin Martyr and Tertullian, who were early Christian apologists, and also early Jewish rabbis all agree that it was Isaiah. So after the events in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah likely continued his prophetic ministry, offended King Manasseh, and was put to death. That’s an interesting bit of history that could have been included here, but it wasn’t, because that’s not really the point of this text.

The point this passage is making is found in a brief clause in verse 38 (v. 37-38a). The world was not worthy of these people. They had faith in God, and everyone was against them because of it. They endured horrible persecution, and yet they continued to have faith. Their godly character was unmatched in the world. They loved the very people who were persecuting them. They gave their lives so that their persecutors might repent and be saved. And sometimes that happened. Sometimes the lost would be found, and those who were dead in their sins would come alive in Christ through faith in Him. But when that didn’t happen, when the world refused the love being shown to them, it wasn’t that Christians had failed, it was that the world was not worthy of them.

We’re going to experience a lot of hardships in this life because of our faith. We’re going to be called names, such as “bigots” or “hypocrites” or worse. We’re going to be laughed at, mocked, or worse. Persecution.org is updated several times per day with stories of persecution happening all over the world. Persecution is a real threat all over the world today. Someone once threatened an evangelist that if he didn’t stop preaching, he would kill him, and the evangelist responded, “You can’t threaten me with heaven.” Our home is not this world. Our citizenship is in Heaven. And because that’s our home, that’s who we are today, and we ought to live as citizens not of this world, but of our eternal home.

If you keep the faith, know this: the world is not worthy of you. The world doesn’t know what they’re missing. They’re discounting what could be their only hope of eternal life. In all of this, we need to have the attitude of Jesus, who when dying on the cross, said, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.”

But if these people were so great and the world was not worthy of them, why doesn’t the Bible go into more detail about them? The Bible is pretty vague when it comes to many people of faith. All we know of Enoch is that he walked with God. All we know of Melchizedek is that Abraham gave him a tithe. As we’ve already seen, the Bible doesn’t even mention many of their names. And even when we do have a lot of information on a particular person, we don’t have their whole stories. We know a lot about Paul’s missionary journeys, but not much about the other apostles. Why doesn’t the Bible make their stories more clear, more full, so we can learn everything we possibly can from these men of faith?

I think it’s because although the world was not worthy of them, we shouldn’t be so impressed with these people themselves. The Bible is not about them! It’s about Christ. All these people didn’t have faith in themselves. They had faith in Jesus. All these people weren’t powerful to do all these awesome things in themselves. The power came from Jesus. Our faith ought to point to Jesus. He’s the One who’s worthy! He’s the One who’s perfect, and gracious, and Savior. The world is unworthy of us only because it’s unworthy of Christ. And the humbling reality is that we’re all unworthy of Christ. The message we proclaim isn’t that we’re worthy, but that Christ is worthy. Christ came to save the unworthy. And then Christ gives us the privilege of sharing this message with the world.

Live in such a way that the world isn’t worthy of you. But don’t make life about you, but about Christ. So show the world the love of Christ, and gladly endure persecution for the sake of Christ, because Christ did that very same thing for you.