Heroes Who Endured by Faith: The Patriarchs – Hebrews 11:17-22

1. Pray & Intro: Veterans, we thank you for your sacrificial service.
   1. Our veterans know a lot about… sacrifice (separation from family, risking lives, a sacrificial willingness to take the life of another)… and submission (serving under the orders of someone with a higher plan)
   2. Today we read of someone, and those who follow after him, who most definitely came to understand living in true submission and sacrifice to God. – READ
2. Two parts to our text today: The Pinnacle of Faith and Finishing Faith
   1. Abraham – what greater demonstration of sacrifice and submission than Abe’s faith? (the Pinnacle (highest point) of faith)
   2. The subsequent generations do not have flawless faith (neither did Abe), but the Patriarchs do demonstrate Finishing Faith (They finished well, each one counting on God’s future fulfillment of his promises – submitting theirs wills and plans for the future into the hands of God.)
   3. The connective tissue between the depiction of Abraham’s greatest test of faith to the finishing faith of the remaining patriarchs is death and future. If we pull the lessons together, we learn: [list]

• By faith we submit to God our dearest treasures, knowing that…
  1. God tests our faith for our good and for His glory. (v. 17)
     1. By faith Abraham, when he was tested – third point on Abe from our author (obeyed God’s call to go out to a land God would show him; believed God’s power to do the inexplicable and give them a son in their old age; and now passing the test of faith by withholding NOT even his son from God.)
     2. God tested Abraham.
        1. Why would God test our faith? – GOD’S PURPOSE IN TESTING OUR FAITH IS NOT TO MAKE IT FAIL, BUT TO REVEAL THE QUALITY OF OUR FAITH AND TO HELP US TO GROW. (Steve Cole) – 1 Peter 1:6-7
        2. It’s a test you can pass. 1 Cor. 10:13
        3. How do we pass? With prompt obedience and joyful surrender of whatever we are tempted to hold more closely than our allegiance to him. God calls us to surrender to him even the things we hold most dear. (Are they better off in our hands or in his hands?) We trust in his goodness and count on him to keep his promises. – James 1:2-4 & 1 Pet 1:7
     3. What did Abraham do when he was tested? He demonstrated a proven faith (v. 17) – he offered up Isaac (to bring or present to God as a sacrificial offering – you get that such was the whole point of offerings – to give our best, sacrificially – as an illustration of our complete trusting allegiance to God) – The author wants us to notice that he was completely obedient, he was in the very act of sacrificing his son when the angel stopped him and provided a substitute ram.
     4. And this was his only son in the sense of being his unique son, of whom it was said that the promise of abundant offspring and blessing all nations would come through who? Well Isaac. (v. 18) – We have no recording anywhere that Abraham questioned or complained at God. (Nothing?... that’s amazing! – We might have a million questions…) And by my estimation, I can think of at least two reasons God’s command really didn’t make sense (seemed contradictory):
        1. God gives children into our care to love and protect.
        2. It would seem to contradict God’s promise.
     5. But rather than wavering, Abraham seems to have concluded that it was God’s problem to resolve the complication. Rom. 4:20-21 – It was for God, not for Abraham, to reconcile the promise and the command. In areas where your finite mind can’t fathom how God is working for our good and his glory, by faith we let God reconcile his promises with his commands. (examples:)
        1. (Christ’s promise.) My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. … All that the Father gives me will come to me. (Christ’s command) I am the way the truth and the life… believe in me.
        2. Abide in me. … apart from me you can do nothing. – Live by the Spirit and not the flesh. Strive with all his energy that he powerfully works in me. Do not conform to this world but be transformed by renewing your mind.
        3. Here’s my point: Faith obeys, trusting God to reconcile how it works out for our good and His glory. – We obey in faithfulness and love and humility and we let God take care of the power and impact. We focus on faithfulness and let God take care of the fruit. We focus on depth in our discipleship with others and let God take care of breadth of influence. (Abe could have been like, but God, where are all the people you promised?) [repeat faith obeys]
     6. Thinking biblically, then, Abraham’s faith makes me stop and realize: You can count on God keeping his promise, but you must also count the cost of following his command. (so that you will find your sufficiency in him to endure in faith)
        1. (Jesus said: Whoever would come after me must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.) How hard is it to live by faith? Does it ever seem like it just costs too much? Do God’s commands or the circumstances of life ever seem to contradict what we believe God promises? – What do we give up in this life to live by faith in God and live for a future blessing?
        2. So sometimes, following God in faith is hard and complicated and may even seem contradictory, but God is worthy of our trust…. He can be trusted…. Others have followed him in faith…. What will you do?
     7. What comes next continues the idea of the height of Abe’s faith as the author of Hebrews comments on what must have been running through Abraham’s mind.
  2. Not even death can impede God’s program. (v. 19)
     1. Our author concludes that Abraham likely reasoned that he would go through with the sacrifice because God could even raise Isaac from the dead to keep his promise! – The author probably takes this from hints like the fact that Abraham told the young men who accompanied them (on this 2-3 trek just to get there) to the hills in Moriah where he was to sacrifice Isaac… He told them “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come to you again.” (Gen. 22:5)
     2. [image] Symbolically, he did receive Isaac back from the dead. – That symbolism reminds us that Jesus literally arose. “Death cannot keep his prey; Jesus my Savior” (Christ Arose, Robert Lowry)
     3. For the remaining Patriarchs listed, it was their own death that they faced, believing that [repeat Not even death…]
  3. While these patriarchs did not live lives of flawless faith (especially Jacob), the point made here is that they had finishing faith, knowing that… The future is in God’s caring and capable hands. (v. 20)
     1. When we think of Isaac, we remember not only his near-death experience at the hands of his dad (sounds crazy, doesn’t it?), but also Abraham’s faith to send a servant to find for him a suitable wife from among their kindred. – The result was Rebekah, whom Isaac loved dearly.
     2. I also think of Isaac’s troubles from the twins Rebekah bore him—Esau the hairy beast and Jacob the little cheater. (Esau sold his birthright to his conniving little brother.)
        1. By faith Isaac (when he “was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see” – Gen. 27:1) – Doesn’t say he was dying yet, bc he lived substantially longer after giving the firstborn blessing to Jacob (remember, that was a scheme cooked up [pun intended] by Rebekah and Jake the heal-grabber.
        2. So all Isaac had left to give as a blessing to Esau was something like, “You’ll do fine, but you’ll be servant to your brother.” Esau was pretty steamed.
     3. Esau’s anger catapulted Jacob’s life into a series of exciting episodes. He leaves home to go live with uncle Laban (on his mom’s side), but on the way Jacob has his ladder dream and sets up a pillar of remembrance and names the place Bethel (house of God). With Laban, Jacob works for one daughter to become his wife only to be given another, Leah. Then has to work another seven years to actually get the one he wanted, Rachel, which I’m sure made Leah feel really special and didn’t cause ANY problems within the family. Oh wait, they started a kid-production competition that led to Jacob having kids from their maidservants as well as from them. Family problems abound. Then Jacob has prosperity problems too bc he’s getting too rich for uncle Laban’s blood and he eventually has to take his family and run. But the only place he has to run to is back to Canaan, where he has to face his fear of Esau. But just before he can deal with Esau, he wrestles with the angel of the Lord one night and receives a permanent limp in the hip for his efforts and a name-change to Israel (meaning he strives with God). Next he is reunited with Esau, who behaves like the bigger man (which he probably was), and forgives his brother and welcomes him back. Finally, God blesses Jacob again (with the renewed promise that was given to Abe, then to Isaac, and now to him) and re-confirms his new name to be Israel. (v. 21)
     4. Before we get to Jacob blessing Joseph’s sons, I remind you that Jacob ends up having a lot of boys—12 of them. But Rachel dies giving birth to Jacob’s final son, Benjamin, and Isaac dies at 180 years old. – I want to pause here briefly to make sure we don’t miss that this was a family line. (We are a church with a lot of families, and a bazillion children. J) Within our discipleship focus at BBC of multiplying mature disciples, we must see the priority of passing on to our children (subsequent generations) the grace we have received by faith:
        1. While we entrust our children’s hearts fully into God’s care, we instruct them with utmost diligence of God’s faithfulness to all generations. (sing of the mercies of the Lord forever)
        2. To live by faith is the best instruction to our children that, in his goodness and for his glory, God desires to pour out his grace on them. But they too must trust him with full surrender, complete trust. And what he commands they must do with prompt obedience to reveal enduring faith.
        3. The greatest blessing I can give my daughters is to live and die by faith in the supremacy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, holding high the grace and glory and goodness of God.
     5. Now of Jacob’s 12 sons, the 2^nd to last son’s name is Joseph, and his dad’s love for him and special treatment creates some jealousy with his brothers. Joseph makes it worse by sharing his dreams about them bowing down to him. So they nearly kill him but instead sell him into slavery (They deceive Jacob into thinking he’s dead). Joseph lives a much greater life of faith in God than his father Jacob, trusting in God as he is elevated in Potiphar’s house, then wrongfully imprisoned (for YEARS), then ultimately elevated to 2^nd in the kingdom under Pharaoh. Joseph orchestrates the storing up of grain because of the coming famine, and the famine is so severe that it leads to his brothers coming to Egypt. Their reuniting is a fantastic testimony to Joseph’s faith in God, for he says to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Gen 50:20 NIV) Joseph brings his family to live under his protection in Egypt, where they remain until the great Exodus some 400+ years later (with Jacobs descendants in the millions).
        1. By faith Jacob, when dying… gave Joseph a double portion by adopting his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh and blessing them with his own sons. (I think Joseph’s boys are mentioned specifically to carry the thread of thought here, bc Joseph is next.)
        2. The reference to bowing in worship symbolizes his reverence before God and over the head of his staff simply that he was very old and near death.
     6. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life… (v. 22) – What the author speaks of at the close of Joseph’s life (exodus and his bones) is found in Gen. 50:24-25.
     7. (Joseph trusted that) The future is in God’s caring and capable hands. (even when circumstances seem contradictory) – So finish life with a flourish of faith. (Isaac and Jacob had plenty of problems with faith during their lives, but it’s interesting to note that they finished well. – I can think of some really glaring examples of the opposite, like Solomon and Gideon.) Finish with a flourish of faith.
  4. (I want to conclude with this reminder about how our text today relates to this whole letter to the Hebrews.) Is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob out of reach? Is the faith of Abraham and Joseph too high to emulate?
     1. Of course God’s law came about in the time of Moses and reveals to us that in his holiness God would be far out of our reach bc we fail the letter and the spirit of the law. But the promise to Abraham, the ultimate purpose of the law, and God’s covenant with David all lead to a culminating fulfillment—Jesus the Christ, God in the flesh.
        1. Jesus passed the test of perfect obedience to the Father’s will, and he sacrificially died for our sin to secure the redemption of those who put their faith in him to be restored to God!
        2. Christ’s death certainly didn’t impede God’s program because it WAS God’s program. So too on the third day Christ arose from the grave, conquering sin and death, and vindicating his deity and his power to forgive sins and restore people to God.
        3. So Jesus prepared his people for a future in the caring and capable hands of God. He gives us His indwelling Spirit; he gives us his community, the church…
     2. Do Abraham and Joseph have too big of shoes for us to fill? – That depends, who are you trusting to fill them—yourself, or Christ at work in you?
        1. By the power Christ in us, we can pass the tests of this life, knowing they are for our good and for God’s glory.
        2. We can rest in God and endure in faith, knowing that not even death can impede God’s program and that the future is in His caring and capable hands.
        3. So we submit wholly to God and sacrifice willingly for God because we know he can be trusted to keep his promise—for our good and for his glory.