A few weeks ago, on Confirmation Sunday, we heard a message
entitled, “Our Foundation.” The text was
Hebrews 11:1-13 where the preacher of Hebrews defined what true faith is. You may remember the four points – faith is Rational
(verses 1 & 2), it’s Personal (verse 6), it’s Foundational (verse 8), and
it’s Graceful (verse 13). Here again, in
the same chapter he highlights faith (Hebrews 11:32-40). This time instead of redefining faith for his
listing listeners, he applies it. And
it’s this application of faith that we will examine this Easter Sunday morning
in a message entitled “Our Resurrection.”
In 1970 my
father took a job with the Christian Broadcasting Network in Tidewater,
Virginia. From the time that my family
and I arrived in Virginia we began seeing things that we had never seen
before. I’ve shared some of these
stories over the years like the woman who was healed in Detroit, Michigan
months after the Lord had spoken through Pat Robertson on a broadcast in
Virginia, that he had healed her. We saw
people healed of various diseases. We
saw some delivered from demons. We saw
dramatic interventions of God in nearly every area of life from financial
provisions to the restoration of relationships.
Those were halcyon days. The
conclusion was clear - the only thing standing between God’s action and human
need was the right amount of faith. A
favorite passage at the time Matthew 18:19, “Again I say to you, if two of you
agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father
in heaven.” Therefore, agree and ask and
it will be done just the way you desire it.
But then it
happened! Not everyone was healed. Not every agreed upon request was
answered. So what was the problem? Was there an insufficiency of faith? Was there a lack of agreement? These were difficult questions that defied
easy answers. And they still do.
Interestingly,
these are the same questions those first century Jewish Christians are
asking. As we have noted nearly every
week of this series, “Full Disclosure”, the Book of Hebrews is one, long,
extended piece of pastoral counseling.
And what the preacher does in Hebrews 11:32-40 is to drill down into the
proper and necessary application of true faith. What he says, in brief, is this: “Your
faith must be in the Lord not your desired outcome.” Of all the messages of this preacher, none is
more needed today than what he lays out in Sunday’s text. There’s much here and amazingly it all
revolves around the resurrection.
In
preparation for Sunday’s message, you may wish to consider the following:
1.
What do you think of this statement: “The only reason for religion is death”?
2.
How important is the resurrection of Jesus
Christ to your faith?
3.
Why are happy endings today, in our culture,
seen as a sign of inferior art?
4.
Why does J.R.R. Tolkien say that happy endings
speak to the true inner longings of the human soul?
5.
What does the list in verses 32-35(a) tell us
about faith?
6.
What does the list in verses 35(b)-38 tell us
about faith?
7.
Why the dramatic difference?
8.
Verse 35 in Greek is literally: “Women received their dead by resurrection;
but others were beaten to death, not accepting deliverance, that they might
obtain a better resurrection.” What is
the “better resurrection”?
9.
Why does the preacher describe the members of
the second list as ones “of whom the world was not worthy”?
10. How
are we in a much better position in the midst of our suffering than those in
both lists?
He is Risen
Indeed! See you Sunday.
