1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,760 Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. 2 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:13,680 This week we are wrapping up our sermon series on the heroes of faith with a conversation 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,340 about super sight. 4 00:00:16,340 --> 00:00:21,840 Faith is all about our vision, not being able to see God's answers to our prayers, not 5 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:27,400 being able to see beyond our immediate struggles, especially when things don't go as planned. 6 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:33,160 And so join us as we look at those final heroes of faith and what they have to teach us about 7 00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:40,520 seeing through the eyes of faith. 8 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:46,480 Our reading today is from Hebrews chapter 11 verses 32 to 40. 9 00:00:46,480 --> 00:00:48,640 And what more shall I say? 10 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:56,920 I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, about David and Samuel 11 00:00:56,920 --> 00:01:03,720 and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained 12 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:05,840 what was promised. 13 00:01:05,840 --> 00:01:12,080 Who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of 14 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:20,220 the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed 15 00:01:20,220 --> 00:01:23,240 foreign armies. 16 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,280 Some received back their dead, raised to life again. 17 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:32,480 There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an 18 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,280 even better resurrection. 19 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:41,040 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 20 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:43,540 They were put to death by stoning. 21 00:01:43,540 --> 00:01:45,440 They were sawed in two. 22 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:48,000 They were killed by the sword. 23 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:56,480 They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. 24 00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:59,840 The world was not worthy of them. 25 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:06,360 They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. 26 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:12,520 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 27 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:18,280 since God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they 28 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:20,280 be made perfect. 29 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,880 The word of the Lord. 30 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:28,240 When you think of a Superman, you probably think of his super strength, his super speed. 31 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,840 Maybe you think of his super good looks. 32 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:37,840 But don't forget that Superman also has superpowers of sight. 33 00:02:37,840 --> 00:02:38,840 That is right. 34 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:44,160 There are, I think, at least three different superpowers related to vision that Superman 35 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:45,840 has. 36 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:47,800 On the one hand, he has x-ray vision. 37 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:49,680 He can see through things. 38 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:55,200 On the other hand, he's got heat vision, where he can shoot these laser beams out of his 39 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:56,400 eyes. 40 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:02,440 And the third thing is he has telescopic vision, which you can see great distances. 41 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:07,960 And I just wondered, I just curious, if you could have one of these three types of vision, 42 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:14,240 whether it was x-ray vision, heat vision, or telescopic vision, which would you choose? 43 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:17,600 I'll give you 30 seconds to tell the person sitting beside you which of these you would 44 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:18,600 choose. 45 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:24,640 Okay, I think my favorite would probably be telescopic vision. 46 00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:29,640 That would enable me to look into the audience on a Sunday morning and see who is sleeping 47 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:30,640 through my sermons. 48 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:32,240 I think that would be pretty good. 49 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:37,400 But no, actually, if you read the comic books and in the movies, the telescopic vision of 50 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:39,280 Superman is something pretty incredible. 51 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:44,320 He can scan the whole city just all at once and see any trouble that needs solving. 52 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:50,400 It even says in the comic that he can monitor distant planets with his vision. 53 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,320 He can see that far away. 54 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:57,680 So all of us can see what's right in front of us. 55 00:03:57,680 --> 00:03:59,120 We can all see what's right in front of us. 56 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:04,160 But it takes a special power to see beyond, to see beyond. 57 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:05,840 Well, here we are. 58 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,720 It's been nine weeks and we're now wrapping up our teaching series, which we've been calling 59 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:13,560 Heroes of Faith, which we've been looking at one chapter in the Bible, that is the book 60 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:20,220 of Hebrews chapter 11, at these great heroes of faith and who got to see right in front 61 00:04:20,220 --> 00:04:21,640 of them some pretty amazing things. 62 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:26,760 We've looked at heroes like Enoch and Noah, and we've looked at heroes like Moses and 63 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:30,080 Abraham and Sarah and Rahab. 64 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:34,800 They didn't need telescopic vision, right, to see right in front of them. 65 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:39,080 They got to see rainbows come out after the floods. 66 00:04:39,080 --> 00:04:41,840 They got to see promised children held in their hands. 67 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:45,400 They got to walk in the promised land, just as God had told them they would. 68 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:49,720 They got to see the waters of the Red Sea parted right in front of them. 69 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:51,140 They saw their rescue. 70 00:04:51,140 --> 00:04:52,400 They saw their miracle. 71 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:57,100 They saw their salvation with their own two ordinary eyes. 72 00:04:57,100 --> 00:05:02,600 And Hebrews 11 is filled with all sorts of stories of people who saw, right? 73 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:06,040 And now, as we near the end of the chapter, it's like the author has realized, oh shoot, 74 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:07,560 I didn't ration my time very well. 75 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:08,560 I'm running out of time. 76 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:10,240 There's so many more people I want to tell you about. 77 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:11,320 I'm going to squeeze them all in. 78 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:15,880 And so he starts mentioning a whole bunch of people as he moves to the end of the chapter. 79 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:19,840 So for example, he says, I don't even have time to tell you about Gideon and Barak and 80 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:21,840 Samson and Jephthah. 81 00:05:21,840 --> 00:05:23,320 Let's play a little game here. 82 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,040 And actually, I've given you some sermon notes this morning. 83 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:27,040 A little game here. 84 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:29,120 Let's play Guess the Hero. 85 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:31,480 Where would we find the stories of these heroes? 86 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,320 Does anyone know? 87 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:35,320 That's right. 88 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:36,600 The Book of Judges. 89 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,360 There was a period of time when Israel was ruled by judges. 90 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:45,120 And if you want to find their stories, you turn to the Book of Judges. 91 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:51,000 These guys saw with their own eyes, God accomplished amazing victories and triumphs for them. 92 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:52,120 So let's keep going. 93 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:53,120 All right. 94 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:54,120 Those are the judges. 95 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:55,120 Now, what about these? 96 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,200 He goes on to say, I don't have time to tell you about David. 97 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:00,560 Now, of course, we all know who David was. 98 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:02,240 Who is David? 99 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:03,480 He was a king, right? 100 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:07,680 And so in some ways, maybe David represents all the kings that he doesn't have time to 101 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:08,680 talk about. 102 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:10,920 David, you know, had a hard life for sure. 103 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:15,040 He had some difficulties, but also got to see God work miracles in his own life. 104 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,280 And he ascended to the throne, right? 105 00:06:17,280 --> 00:06:19,040 I don't have time to tell about David. 106 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:23,880 He also says, I don't even have time to tell you about Samuel and the prophets. 107 00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:25,360 Samuel is a figure. 108 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:26,360 We're like, oh, who is Samuel? 109 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:27,360 Who is Samuel? 110 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:28,360 Who is Samuel? 111 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:29,360 Samuel is interesting. 112 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:36,600 He was, some say, the first of the prophets, but also the last of those judges that ruled 113 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:37,600 Israel. 114 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:40,560 And Samuel, so he got to see a lot of stuff go down in Israel. 115 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:45,440 And on top of that, he was the one who got to anoint Israel's first king, Saul, and the 116 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:47,760 great King David as well. 117 00:06:47,760 --> 00:06:52,320 Man, he saw so much right in front of his eyes. 118 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:57,480 Now it gets, he keeps on going and he starts to kind of get a play a little bit of a game 119 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:02,160 with this is, I don't even have time to tell you about those who shot the mouths of lions. 120 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:04,440 Who's he talking about here? 121 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:05,440 That's right. 122 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:06,440 Daniel, right? 123 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:07,760 Of course, Daniel was as good as dead. 124 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:11,960 He was thrown into a den full of lions and he somehow lived. 125 00:07:11,960 --> 00:07:14,240 He got to see the next day. 126 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:18,320 He got to see God deliver him from those trials or he goes on. 127 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:22,900 He says, I don't have time to tell you about those who quenched the fury of the flames. 128 00:07:22,900 --> 00:07:24,880 Now who's he talking about here? 129 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:34,760 Murmurs, but I think what you're saying is he's talking about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. 130 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:39,080 These three fellows who were thrown into a fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar and he 131 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:40,560 jacked up the heat on that furnace. 132 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,460 He wanted to see them burn to death, but they survived. 133 00:07:43,460 --> 00:07:46,400 They lived to see another day. 134 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:50,160 That must have been something to see. 135 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:51,600 Now he goes on to say this. 136 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:56,320 I don't have time to tell you about women who received back their dead, raised to life 137 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:57,720 again. 138 00:07:57,720 --> 00:08:00,040 Who is he talking about here? 139 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:01,040 This one's a little trickier. 140 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:02,040 Who's he? 141 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:03,040 Remember this is Old Testament. 142 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:05,720 This is Old Testament. 143 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,360 The Shulamite woman, yes. 144 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:12,320 And there was another example, the widow of Zarephath, right? 145 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:18,440 Both under Elijah's ministry, their dead sons came back to life. 146 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:24,080 You can read those stories in First Kings and in Second Kings if you get out your Bibles 147 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:25,680 this afternoon and take a look. 148 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:30,520 What a sight to behold, to see your dead children come back to life. 149 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:34,360 Now I want to say many people think that this is what faith is. 150 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:37,240 If you have faith, these are the things you get to see, right? 151 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:40,880 You get to see victories and triumphs and deliverance and rescue and you get to see 152 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:43,620 flames quenched and lion's mouths shut. 153 00:08:43,620 --> 00:08:44,760 You get to see people healed. 154 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:50,200 You even get to see dead people come back to life and we love stories like that. 155 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:53,920 We love the stories where the doctor says you've only got a month to live and then people 156 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:57,960 pray and pray and then a year later he's looking at the charts and he's shaking his head in 157 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:00,480 disbelief and he says it's a miracle. 158 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:01,920 We love those stories. 159 00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:06,800 We love the stories where someone's business is going under and on the verge of bankruptcy 160 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:12,280 and then they pray and their friends pray and suddenly everything turns around and they 161 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:14,960 get to see a victory. 162 00:09:14,960 --> 00:09:18,020 But here is the thing. 163 00:09:18,020 --> 00:09:20,280 We think this is what faith is. 164 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:23,240 Faith is when you get to see the victory, see things turn around. 165 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:27,840 But if that's all that we think faith is, we are missing something important. 166 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:34,400 And what we're missing really is the second half of the reading that Liz read for us this 167 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:35,400 morning. 168 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:41,220 See, from Hebrews 11, one to Hebrews 11, 35, actually the first half of Hebrews 11, 35, 169 00:09:41,220 --> 00:09:42,560 it kind of feels like this. 170 00:09:42,560 --> 00:09:47,060 If you've got faith, if you've even got a little bit of faith, if you trust enough, 171 00:09:47,060 --> 00:09:51,560 if you believe enough, you can overcome anything, right? 172 00:09:51,560 --> 00:09:56,000 But the reality is not everybody gets to see the miracle. 173 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:00,320 Not everybody gets to see the sickness get healed, to see the financial crisis end. 174 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:02,980 They don't get to see the victory, not everyone. 175 00:10:02,980 --> 00:10:08,880 And if we think that faith means that everything is going to work out the way we want and we're 176 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:11,880 setting ourselves up for major disappointment. 177 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:20,720 You know, Joni Erickson, when she was 18 years old, she went for a swim and she dove into 178 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:26,840 the water and she dove right into some rocks and immediately her life was changed. 179 00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:29,180 She was paralyzed from the neck down. 180 00:10:29,180 --> 00:10:33,040 She became a quadriplegic for life in a wheelchair. 181 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:34,040 Just 18 years old, right? 182 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:35,440 Her whole life ahead of her. 183 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:36,440 What a tragedy. 184 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:41,200 Now, she had some very well-meaning friends and those well-meaning friends said, Joni, 185 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:49,200 if you have enough faith that God will heal you and if God doesn't heal you, then it must 186 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:54,320 mean that you did not have enough faith. 187 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:56,360 Now why did they say this? 188 00:10:56,360 --> 00:10:57,360 I don't know. 189 00:10:57,360 --> 00:11:02,120 I mean, maybe they only read Hebrews 11 up to verse 35, right? 190 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:06,400 If to them faith meant you escape the suffering, you overcome the hardship, you, you all 191 00:11:06,400 --> 00:11:08,800 always get the answer to the prayer, you always get the miracle. 192 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:12,120 Now thankfully Joni, Joni didn't buy into that thinking. 193 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:20,120 Instead, what she discovered was a deeper kind of faith, a faith with telescopic vision 194 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:23,940 that could see beyond her current circumstances. 195 00:11:23,940 --> 00:11:27,780 This is the kind of faith that Hebrews 11 is actually calling you and me to. 196 00:11:27,780 --> 00:11:32,240 It's a faith that doesn't end in verse 35, but actually the very next word, the very 197 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:36,720 next word we're going to look at is a turning point in really the whole chapter of Hebrews 198 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:37,720 chapter 11. 199 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:40,680 And that very next word is this word, others. 200 00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:46,060 Yeah, yeah, for some people faith means seeing victory, it means seeing your prayers answer, 201 00:11:46,060 --> 00:11:48,480 but there are others. 202 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:52,280 There are others who never get to see that. 203 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:56,360 Let me just give you an example most of us probably would know about, but you know, you 204 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:57,360 remember Peter? 205 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:02,880 Remember how Peter got sent to prison and so all of his friends prayed for him that 206 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:07,840 he would be miraculously released and Peter was miraculously released to prison. 207 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:10,520 He went back home to his friends, it was amazing. 208 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:15,200 And then you got the story of John the Baptist and John the Baptist also got, he got sent 209 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:19,960 to prison and his disciples and his friends prayed that he might be released, but John 210 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,200 the Baptist got his head cut off. 211 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:25,360 There are others, right? 212 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:37,760 There are others who did not get to see a victory, who did not see their prayers answered. 213 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:42,440 There are others who did not get to see the miracle. 214 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:46,000 There are others, they believed, oh, they believed, yeah, and they had faith and they 215 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:51,900 trusted God, but man, their lives went in a completely different direction. 216 00:12:51,900 --> 00:13:00,560 Everything went wrong and they did not live to see things work out. 217 00:13:00,560 --> 00:13:08,640 It says in Hebrews 11 that there were others who faced jeers and flogging while still others 218 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:10,560 were chained and put in prison. 219 00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:12,420 They were stoned. 220 00:13:12,420 --> 00:13:16,520 They were sawed into, they were put to death by the sword. 221 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:21,960 They were, they went about destitute and persecuted and mistreated. 222 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:29,200 There are others, but perhaps the most interesting of the others is actually mentioned in verse 223 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:31,680 35 itself, halfway through the verse, things kind of change. 224 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:34,640 It says women received back their dead, raised to life again. 225 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:35,640 We already looked at that. 226 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:36,760 We know who that was, right? 227 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:40,720 That was the Shulamite woman and the widow of Zarephath. 228 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:44,960 Others were tortured and refused to be released. 229 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:48,000 Now, who are those? 230 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,000 Who are those others who were tortured and refused to be released? 231 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:52,360 What's the author talking about there? 232 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:56,720 A lot of commentators say just because of the way the sentence works, it must be women, 233 00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:57,880 must be women, right? 234 00:13:57,880 --> 00:14:00,280 Some women received their dead back. 235 00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:02,560 Others were tortured. 236 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:09,040 Any thoughts on, if you look back in your Bible, who are the, who are those other women 237 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:15,360 who were tortured, refused to be released? 238 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:20,040 The reason, the reason why you might not be able to kind of place those women is because 239 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:24,840 actually the writer of Hebrews knew more about the history of Israel than we do. 240 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:29,760 Especially, he would have known really well the time that occurred between the Old Testament 241 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:30,760 and the New Testament. 242 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:36,640 You see, there was 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that 243 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:41,000 stuff is not recorded in our Bibles, what happened in that time. 244 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:45,840 But actually, lots was written during that time. 245 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:52,080 And it's called, some Bibles actually take all those writings that happened in those 246 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:57,120 400 years, which they call the Deuterocanonical writings in this intertestamental period, 247 00:14:57,120 --> 00:14:58,820 and they actually do put them in your Bibles. 248 00:14:58,820 --> 00:15:02,580 If you're a Roman Catholic, you might have that part in your Bible right in the middle. 249 00:15:02,580 --> 00:15:06,520 Or if you're an Orthodox background, you might have that part right in the middle of your 250 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:07,520 Bible. 251 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:10,280 And there's a bunch of books there that tell the story of what happened in between the 252 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:13,180 first and second testaments. 253 00:15:13,180 --> 00:15:18,640 And two of those books are called First and Second Maccabees, right? 254 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:23,200 And they tell the story of something that happened about 150 years before Jesus. 255 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:24,200 That's not in your Bible. 256 00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:25,200 It's not in your Bible. 257 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:32,000 See, during this time, there was a horrible, horrible Syrian king by the name of Antiochus 258 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:33,640 Epiphanes. 259 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:39,620 And he conquered Israel, he desecrated the temple, and he outlawed Jewish practice. 260 00:15:39,620 --> 00:15:43,480 He was a brutal, brutal king. 261 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:48,000 What he used to do is he would take people publicly, often very prominent families, he 262 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:52,760 would take them into the public square, and he would demand that they bow the knee to 263 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:53,760 him. 264 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:55,400 They would demand that they renounce their faith. 265 00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:59,960 They would demand that they do something else, like eat pork or something like that, to prove 266 00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:04,760 that they had renounced their faith in the God of Israel. 267 00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:10,040 And if they would not do it, he would torture them, and he would kill them, and he would 268 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:17,880 do it right there in front of everybody that was watching just to make a lesson of them. 269 00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:25,000 In 2 Maccabees, chapter 7, we read the story of probably the most famous of all these martyrs. 270 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:34,520 And it was a mother who had seven sons, and they were brought out and they were set in 271 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:40,400 front of this horrible king, and they were told to bow the knee, and they would not do 272 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:41,980 it. 273 00:16:41,980 --> 00:16:44,120 And horrible, horrible things happened. 274 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:46,680 You can go home and read 2 Maccabees 7. 275 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:49,120 Horrible things are described there. 276 00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:51,280 Tongues cut out. 277 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:53,480 Limbs lopped off. 278 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:54,480 Right? 279 00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:55,480 They were scalped. 280 00:16:55,480 --> 00:16:56,480 Roasted alive. 281 00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:03,520 And to make it worse, it all happened in front of the other brothers that were watching. 282 00:17:03,520 --> 00:17:09,440 One by one, one by one, these sons were brought forward, tortured in front of their family, 283 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:14,000 and then when they were finally dead, then it was the next one, and then it was the next 284 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:16,400 one, and the next one. 285 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:21,000 I took out some of the gory bits here, but the king gave orders that pans and cauldrons 286 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:22,000 were to be heated. 287 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:26,560 I took out the part about the scalping and the tongues and the limbs, but then when one 288 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:32,740 of the sons was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire and still 289 00:17:32,740 --> 00:17:38,360 breathing to fry him in the pan, and we read that the smoke from the pan spread widely, 290 00:17:38,360 --> 00:17:44,240 but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, the Lord 291 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:49,560 God is watching over us, and in truth has compassion on us. 292 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,520 Now notice what they did not say. 293 00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:58,720 They did not say, just have more faith, and God will rescue you. 294 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:01,740 They didn't see the answer to their prayers. 295 00:18:01,740 --> 00:18:04,960 They didn't see a miracle emerge right in front of them. 296 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:11,280 Instead, they had to have a different kind of faith, a telescopic faith that was able 297 00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:16,760 to see beyond, that was able to look past what they were experiencing. 298 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:19,640 In fact, look at what the third son said. 299 00:18:19,640 --> 00:18:27,480 The third son courageously, he stretched forth his hands and said, go ahead, take them. 300 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:28,480 Right? 301 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:34,680 And he said, I got these from heaven and get this, and from God, I hope to get them back 302 00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:36,720 again. 303 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:38,960 Wow. 304 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:49,000 He is seeing all the way to a future, to a day, when he gets his hands back. 305 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:56,440 And then the mom in all of this says, my child, look, look, where are you looking? 306 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:57,440 What do you see? 307 00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:00,100 Look to the heavens. 308 00:19:00,100 --> 00:19:02,520 Look at the heavens and the earth and see everything that is in them. 309 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:10,360 Do not fear this butcher, accept death so that in God's mercy, I may get you back again, 310 00:19:10,360 --> 00:19:12,320 you and your brothers. 311 00:19:12,320 --> 00:19:17,280 She just saw all of her children tortured and murdered in front of her. 312 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:19,840 No miracle, no intervention, no escape. 313 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,360 But man, her faith is so strong. 314 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:29,240 It's because she had the power to see beyond. 315 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:32,480 She had the ability to telescopically see past what was happening. 316 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:36,040 She even told her son, don't look, no, don't look at this butcher. 317 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:37,360 Don't look at this monster. 318 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:41,080 Look to the heavens, set your eyes on God. 319 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:47,360 This is the story that the author of Hebrews in verse 11, chapter 1135 is talking about. 320 00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:50,240 Now, obviously nothing like this is ever going to happen to you or to me. 321 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:58,200 I mean, there are times in history, parts of the world where this was a very real possibility 322 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,720 for people. 323 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:06,200 And the question is, how do you have faith when this is what you see in front of you? 324 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:10,920 The author of Hebrews tells us, he says, what you got to do is you got to focus on a better 325 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:14,040 resurrection. 326 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:19,280 These people were able to endure because their eyes were set on a, what does this mean? 327 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,840 A better resurrection. 328 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:26,520 They were able to focus and telescope past the suffering to a day when they would get 329 00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:28,840 it all back again. 330 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:30,120 Here's the actual scripture. 331 00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:33,240 It says, others were tortured and refused to be released. 332 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:34,240 Why? 333 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:36,960 So that they might gain a better resurrection. 334 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:38,160 That is super sight. 335 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,200 That is telescopic vision. 336 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:42,320 You see past the suffering to a better resurrection. 337 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:45,160 Now, what do they mean when they say a better resurrection? 338 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:46,160 Right? 339 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:47,720 Here's what they mean. 340 00:20:47,720 --> 00:20:51,440 As good as it is for the widow of Zarephath and for the Shunammite woman to get their 341 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:56,400 boy back, as good as it was for even the New Testament Lazarus to rise from the dead or 342 00:20:56,400 --> 00:21:02,240 for Jairus, the daughter of Jairus to rise from the dead or come back to life. 343 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:04,740 These were not real resurrections. 344 00:21:04,740 --> 00:21:07,520 They were just resuscitations. 345 00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:10,480 Even though these people came back to life, they were still going to suffer again. 346 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:11,480 They could still get sick again. 347 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:12,680 They could still get a disease again. 348 00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:13,760 They were going to die again. 349 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:18,760 All that would really happen is you'd kicked the ball down the road a little bit. 350 00:21:18,760 --> 00:21:25,280 But this mother, she set her sights on something better, on the possibility, not of resuscitation, 351 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:32,020 but on the possibility of not of a miraculous escape, but of a great future resurrection. 352 00:21:32,020 --> 00:21:35,160 That one day death was going to be defeated and reversed. 353 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:39,160 And she knew that one day there would be a new heaven and there would be a new earth. 354 00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:43,540 And one day she was going to get everything back, every hand back, every tongue back, 355 00:21:43,540 --> 00:21:46,120 every son back, every family back. 356 00:21:46,120 --> 00:21:47,880 She would get the love back. 357 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:55,780 She would get the whole world back and not temporarily for good. 358 00:21:55,780 --> 00:22:00,520 And because she telescoped her eyes on that day and because her boys did too, they didn't 359 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:05,740 flinch in the face of suffering. 360 00:22:05,740 --> 00:22:13,140 The late Tim Keller, he says it this way, they focused their eyes on God, not on their 361 00:22:13,140 --> 00:22:14,640 agenda for God. 362 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:19,520 I mean, you've probably heard people say things like this, I trusted God so much. 363 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:20,600 I prayed so much. 364 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,400 I really, really, really believed and God didn't come through. 365 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:29,040 Hebrews 11 might say, well, did you really put your trust in God? 366 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:32,560 Or was your trust in your agenda for God? 367 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:37,240 The plan that you wanted God to enact right in front of you. 368 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:41,680 If that's what you were focused on, if you were focused on God doing this one thing for 369 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:46,480 you in this one moment, then actually you misplaced your faith. 370 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:50,320 The faith we need is not focused on getting what you want. 371 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:55,400 It telescopes past that and focuses just on God. 372 00:22:55,400 --> 00:23:03,000 In other words, the faith where we telescopically focus our eyes, not on the problem that we're 373 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:08,380 facing, but on the promise, on God's great promise, the resurrection, the new creation 374 00:23:08,380 --> 00:23:10,320 promise that is down the road. 375 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:14,840 And when we see that promise in our eyes, man, we draw strength from it. 376 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:18,980 We draw courage from it, hope from that. 377 00:23:18,980 --> 00:23:23,460 Because in the end, what we come to realize is the greatest thing that God can give us 378 00:23:23,460 --> 00:23:28,600 is God himself. 379 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,760 John Piper writes this, it's a good quote. 380 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:35,380 The greatest challenge of the book of Hebrews is to cultivate such a deep and satisfying 381 00:23:35,380 --> 00:23:42,160 relationship with God that we rest in him, whether living or dying, whether comfortable 382 00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:49,160 or miserable, to cultivate this unshakable confidence that God himself is better than 383 00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:53,720 anything life can give us or the death can take away from us. 384 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:57,320 Do you remember how Hebrews chapter 11 started? 385 00:23:57,320 --> 00:23:59,040 It started with this verse. 386 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:04,160 Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 387 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,600 It's all about seeing. 388 00:24:07,600 --> 00:24:11,720 And then of course, right at the end of Hebrews, we come to this, that these were all commended 389 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:14,560 for the faith, yet none of them saw it. 390 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:19,160 None of them got to actually receive it, what had been promised. 391 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:21,800 All the people in this book, you know what makes them great? 392 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,720 It was their superpower of sight. 393 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:28,560 That's what enabled them to hold onto their faith. 394 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,240 Whether there was a miracle or not, whether it was an intervention or not, whether there 395 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:36,560 was an escape or not, whether the relationship worked out or not, whether the job worked 396 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:42,840 out or not, whatever, whether the doctor called and said good news or not, right? 397 00:24:42,840 --> 00:24:44,960 They had this promise. 398 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:49,960 They had this promise they kept their eyes focused on. 399 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:51,080 But here, let's end with this. 400 00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:54,760 Let's end the whole nine weeks with this. 401 00:24:54,760 --> 00:25:02,040 We are told somehow that we have it better than any of them did. 402 00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:04,800 Why would the authors say that it's better for us? 403 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,160 It's better for us. 404 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,040 And here's why. 405 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:15,400 Because we have already gotten a really good look of what they, all those people, all those 406 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:17,320 heroes never got to see. 407 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:21,640 You see, they had to look and hope at something in the future. 408 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:26,000 But Jesus has actually given us a clear picture of what the future looks like. 409 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:31,960 We actually can have faith in a better resurrection because we have already seen the death and 410 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:33,320 resurrection of Jesus. 411 00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,300 That is something that they did not see. 412 00:25:35,300 --> 00:25:40,400 And that is why we should never say to ourselves, oh, I could never be brave like these people 413 00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:41,400 were brave. 414 00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,400 Oh, I could never have faith. 415 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,320 Sawed in two, destitute and mistreated. 416 00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:48,640 I could never have faith like that. 417 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,080 I'm too much of a wimp, we say. 418 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:53,120 Don't you dare say that. 419 00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:57,960 Because our super sight, our super telescopic vision is actually better than theirs. 420 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:02,700 We can see better than they can, which means technically we should be able to live lives 421 00:26:02,700 --> 00:26:04,840 of faith better than they did. 422 00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:08,400 Because 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ was put to death. 423 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,800 And a few days later, people started seeing him again. 424 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:15,520 And then within 40 days, thousands of Jews and Greeks had had an encounter with the risen 425 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:16,600 Jesus Christ. 426 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:18,400 It wasn't a mass hallucination, right? 427 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:20,440 They saw him. 428 00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:23,280 And now they weren't afraid of death anymore. 429 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:24,440 Moses never saw this. 430 00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:25,920 Rahab never saw this. 431 00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:27,440 Abraham, Enoch, right? 432 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:28,720 They never got to see this. 433 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:33,000 The seven sons who were tortured in front of their mother that day never got to see 434 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:34,000 that. 435 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,460 But we have seen that. 436 00:26:36,460 --> 00:26:40,500 We have the superpower of faith to see what God has done. 437 00:26:40,500 --> 00:26:45,460 That gives us even clearer vision of what God will do. 438 00:26:45,460 --> 00:26:48,400 So that's how Hebrews 11 ends. 439 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:53,960 And it's no surprise that in chapter 12, which we're not going to get into, it starts with 440 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:54,960 this. 441 00:26:54,960 --> 00:27:04,160 So let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. 442 00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:07,200 Keep your eyes on Jesus. 443 00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:10,280 Develop telescopic vision. 444 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:14,900 Because through the resurrection of Jesus, every one of your sorrows will fade into the 445 00:27:14,900 --> 00:27:20,360 background and you will see the glory and you will see the joy that awaits you. 446 00:27:20,360 --> 00:27:27,240 That superpower of sight that made these people all great heroes of faith can actually also 447 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,840 make us into heroes of faith as well. 448 00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:31,840 Thanks be to God. 449 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:32,840 Amen. 450 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:37,040 Thank you for listening to Trinity Sermons. 451 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:45,200 This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church, Streetsville on March 2nd, 2025.