Text: Hebrews 11:30–40
Preacher: Pastor Brian Sauvé
A World Not Worthy
For the last three weeks, as we’ve made our way through Hebrews 11, we have learned about faith through the saints who have gone before us. We’ve been looking at their faith so that, by the grace of God, we might walk in that same faith ourselves.
Now God willing, in this final installment from verse 30 through the end of the chapter, we will look one more time at the faith of our forefathers and foremothers and let their faith provoke us to walk after them. Look with me at verse 30. This is the Word of the Living God:
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
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. 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.
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.”
-Hebrews 11:30–40
We’ll break this final section into five parts:
In verse 30, we’ll see how Christian faith conquers civilizations. In verse 31, we’ll see how Christian faith makes sinners into sons and daughters of God.In verses 32–34, we’ll see how Christian faith is the root of all good fruit. In verses 35–38, we’ll see how Christian faith faces trial with steadfastness. And finally, in verses 39–40, we’ll see how Christian faith awaits its coming future glory with all of God’s saints.
Conquering by Faith
Christian faith conquers civilizations. Verse 30:
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.”
-Hebrews 11:30
This verse recalls us to look at the astonishing faith of the generation that invaded the Promised Land after the astonishing failure of their parents.
Remember, God was vexed with the whole generation of Israelites he had freed from slavery in Egypt. Though they had seen with their eyes all that God did in judging the false gods of Egypt, parting the waters and bringing them through, feeding them with bread from heaven—though they saw all of that, theirs was a failure of faith.
They failed to believe that God would bring them into Canaan to dwell. They failed to believe that God could handle the inhabitants of that land and give it to them. What an astonishing failure of faith! Sometimes I think we forget how breathtakingly insulting to God their response was after all he had done for them.
But their children walked in equally astonishing faith at Jericho. Remember how we’ve been saying that faith believes God and so looks tremendously strange? Yeah, Jericho is a case-in-point.
God said, “Ok, go conquer that enormous, fortified city.”
They said, “Ok, great. What’s the plan of attack?”
God: “A ska band. Lots of trumpets.”
Ok, not a ska band. Actually, they waged war through their worship. They were to march around the city each day for six days. Then on the seventh, they would march around the city seven times, and seven priests who marched before the Ark of the Covenant would blow trumpets, and the people would shout, and the walls would fall down.
That was the plan. Can you imagine? But they didn’t waver in their faith, but Joshua led them in doing all God had commanded, however peculiar. By their faith, God brought the city down.
Their parents exhibited an astonishing failure of faith, but their children an astonishing victory by faith. And so the author of Hebrews speaks to a generation of Jewish Christians whose parents had failed spectacularly in the faith—crucifying their Messiah. And he calls them to do as the wilderness generation’s children had: To conquer where their parents had cowered back.
And so just as the faith of Israel at Jericho instructs this generation of Jewish Christians on the brink of invading the globe with the Gospel of Christ, it instructs as as well. It teaches us that when God’s people worship in faith, that when God’s people obey God in faith, however strange, God’s people will succeed in God’s commission.
What did he tell them to do? Conquer Canaan. Did they do it? Yes, by faith they did. By the end of the book, by Joshua 21:43, we read this, “Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there.”
What has he told us to do? Conquer the world. Not by the sword—those armies were a shadow and a whisper of our conquering. No, we conquer by the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. We conquer by grace. We conquer by bringing the gospel like a sharp two-edged sword out of the mouth of God’s people to every tribe, tongue, and nation.
And will God accomplish these things? By his grace and through our faith, emphatically yes! You can see it right there in Revelation 5:9–10, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
Faith conquers civilizations. Number two:
Adopted by Faith
Christian faith makes sinners into sons and daughters of God. Look at verse 31:
“By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.”
-Hebrews 11:31
We have this tendency amongst ourselves of grading on a curve when it comes to our own feelings of religious worth or shame. We tend to try to calculate our spirituality by looking to the left and the right rather than up. We say, “At least I’m not like that guy over there. Look at him! He can’t even keep his pants on.”
But one of the bright glories of the gospel is that grace makes ruin of all of our efforts to grade on a curve. Grace laughs at our left and right looks, at our thank-you-God-that-I’m-not-like-that-tax-collector attempts at self-justification.
God built this into the very fabric of his story of redemption: The whores make it into the kingdom while many priests and pastors gnash their teeth in the outer darkness. God loves to smash up our self-righteousness.
See, Rahab lived in Jericho, right in the walls. And Rahab was a harlot. But Rahab had heard of the wonders of God, of what he had done for his people in bringing them out of Egypt. And so when the Jewish spies came to hide in her house—against all reason—she hid them in the walls, effectively allying herself with the people of God rather than the people with the big walls and strong armies.
And so God adopted her by that faith. He made her one of his own people. So much so that Rahab is listed in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope you can see what the author of Hebrews is doing here. He’s trying to provoke the Jewish Christians. Who does he hold up as a model and a hero of the faith for them? An Ammorite prostitute. “Are you telling me, sons of Abraham, that you can’t hold fast in the faith, but Rahab, the pagan prostitute could? The harlot?” Yes.
And it ought to do two things in our own hearts: First, humble us. None of us are good enough for God. Throw out the curve. Are you perfect? That’s the bar Jesus said you must jump over in the Sermon on the Mount.
Second, comfort us. If God saves harlots, he can save us. If God saves Ammorites, he can save Americans. If God can save Rahab, he can save us.
Fruit by Faith
Thirdly, in verses 32–34, we find that Christian faith is at the root of all fruit. Verse 32:
“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.”
-Hebrews 11:32–34
Time would fail the author of Hebrews—and us—to do this part justice. This is where my commitment to avoid rabbit trails is going to be sorely tested, because the stories of faith represented in these three verses is worth a whole pile of sermons. But instead of preaching a 4-hour sermon to make the Puritans proud, let me quickly summarize each of them, which take us from the time of the Judges through the early years of the monarchy in Israel:
By faith, Gideon and his three hundred faced down an army of Midianites like a horde of locusts—three hundred because the 30,000 he started with might give them the illusion that it was their own strength, rather than the Lord’s, that gave them the victory.
Barak was a military leader in the book of Judges, who joined forces with Deborah and routed the Canaanite armies. It’s a great story, by the way, go read it in Judges 4 later. A Canaanite ruler whose name means “serpent” gets his head crushed by a tent peg from a woman name Jael. Glory.
Samson shows up in Judges 13–16. God gives him supernatural strength, which he uses to crush the Philistines, even bringing their roof down over their head—though he does some really dumb stuff in the story as well.
Jephthah is right before Samson in Judges. In faith, he defies the Ammonite armies and leads the Israelites against them in victory.
Then we have King David, who needs no introduction, as well as the prophet Samuel and the rest of the prophets of Israel.
What we learn through all of these spiritual ancestors is that Christian faith is at the root of all fruit. Faith is at the root of all spiritual fruit.
They “…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” by faith.
Hear that. By faith, meaning—not by abnormal intelligence or great giftedness. Not by human strength or wisdom. Not by great wealth or resources. Not by extraordinary political scheming and power. No, by faith.
At the heart of every inch of ground we will ever take in the fight for holiness and fruitfulness and Christlikeness, you will find faith working. What that means for us is that we don’t need to sit around and complain that we aren’t smart enough, good looking enough, wealthy enough, strong enough, powerful enough—whatever—to be used by God.
God delights to use the weak things of the world to shame the wise. All we need is faith that he is enough and his promises are good. Number four…
Tribulation by Faith
Christian faith faces trial with steadfastness. Look at verse 35:
“Women received back their dead by resurrection. 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.”
-Hebrews 11:35–38
When trial comes, when tribulation comes, when lack and want and hunger and sickness and death and downturn and job loss and natural disaster comes—it will only ever, it can only ever serve God’s people. All it will do is purify and try and prove out the mettle of our faith. Trial cannot sweep away authentic, God-originated faith any more than it can sweep away our salvation. Faith is a gift of God, and none can pry it from us.
In fact, not only can trial not destroy the faith of God’s people, trial is on a leash. God is making it serve us. In all these things, we are more than conquerors, as Paul writes in Romans 8. More than conquerors? Yes. Because a conqueror may throw down and enemy, but one who is more than a conqueror makes his enemies serve him. That is what God is doing with trials for us, his people, and faith is what lays hold of it all.
So when we face these things, in faith, we cling to God and his promises. We preach to our own souls through trial: “Soul, some trust in horses and some in wealth and some in strength, but we trust in Christ.” We tell each other by way of reminder that we have a shelter that can weather death itself—a shelter that has weathered death itself and risen on the other side: The Lord Jesus Christ.
It can do this, faith can do this, because, number five…
Future Glory by Faith
Christian faith awaits its coming future glory with all of God’s saints. Look at verse 39:
“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.”
-Hebrews 11:39–40
All of our ancestors of the faith died before they could see the substance of their hope fulfilled, why? Because we will all be perfected together; we will all inherit together.
This matters, this ought to hearten us, because what it does is it shows us that our lives of faith now are links in the same chain that stretches back to David and Abraham and Adam and forward to the last brother or sister who will be born again before Christ returns.
In other words, this great hall of faith in Hebrews 11 isn’t a dusty, dead, cordoned off room of history past with a sign over it reading “No Vacancy,” but rather a great stadium with seats still empty, waiting for us to finish our race and join.
We are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, we will see in chapter 12, and by faith, we will join that great cloud. We are one. Abraham is my brother. David is my brother. Rahab is my sister. And so are you.
God is bringing us all up his mountain, to live with him forever on the heights.