About this sermon
The Christian life can look like a string of trade-offs, but faith sees it as trading a penny for a thousand-dollar bill. The believers addressed in Hebrews joyfully accepted the plundering of their property, because they knew they had a better and abiding possession. Hebrews shows Christ as better than all that came before, with a better covenant, a better sacrifice, and a better hope. God himself is the reward of those who endure, and those who live by faith will not be disappointed.
Sermon transcript
Well, our scripture text this evening is taken from the book of Hebrews. This evening we’re looking at Hebrews chapter 10. And we’re looking at verses 32 through 39. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 32 through 39. This is the word of God. But recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated, for you had compassion on those in prison. And you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, but you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. for yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.
But my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. Amen. Let’s pray. Lord God in heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we ask that you who have spoken this word, you have written it down for our instruction, you have preserved it for us, this God-breathed word, we ask that you would come now and you would be present, that your people might hear your word, they might hear the word of God and they might believe it. As for your spirit, we need your spirit to help us hear it. We need your spirit in the proclaiming. We ask that you would do this for the sake of Jesus Christ.
In his name we pray, amen. You may be seated. What do you see? We call people visionaries who are able to look beyond their natural eyes with their mind’s eye to see things that others are oblivious to. Leaders need vision. It’s not that they need good eyesight with their physical eyes, but they need to be able to see beyond what their physical eyes can tell them. They need to see with their mind a path, a direction, a way to go before they can even see it with their physical eyes. And this evening we’re talking about a sight that goes beyond eyesight. There are some people who can see a more ultimate reality than what their physical eyes can see. These people have faith. Not a blind faith. A clear-eyed faith that can see what others miss completely.
Now the phrase, the best of both worlds, which is the title of the message this evening, refers to a situation in which there are no trade-offs. A trade-off, of course, means having to give up something of what you want most. Having to settle for something less than perfect. To the unbeliever, the Christian life looks like a big trade-off. Yes, you supposedly get eternal life in the end, but look at everything that you have to give up. Christians are often called to lives of difficulty and sacrifice. But when one has eyes of faith, it no longer looks like a trade-off. Faith opens our eyes to see the reality that the Christian life is not a trade-off. It is truly the best of both worlds. With eyes of faith, to live now is fellowship with Christ and to die is even better.
In other words, gain. Jesus did tell his followers to count the cost because it does involve a certain trade, a certain transaction. But the trade is comparable to a person trading a penny for a $1,000 bill. On the one level, you do give up the penny. But in terms of actual money, it is impossible to categorize it as a loss or as sacrifice. And the essence of faith is being able to look beyond the sacrifice of the penny and observe the monetary transaction, which equals 100,000 times the value. When one has eyes of faith, it becomes clear that the apparent sacrifice of the penny is purely gain. It is this perspective, these eyes, this mindset that gives rise to steadfast endurance and stable confidence despite difficulties. And in our passage this evening, we’re going to look at number one, what faith sees, what faith does, because of number two, what faith sees. which results in number three, what faith receives.
Number one, what faith does. Verse 32, but recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. The author of Hebrews is calling for a quick trip down memory lane. He’s telling his readers to think back to when they first became Christians, when they were first regenerated. This is what he means by enlightened. This is not a technical term for conversion and it doesn’t get used very often in the New Testament. But the context makes it clear that this is a reference to their conversion. It calls them to think back on when their lives were first changed by the Holy Spirit’s regenerating work in their hearts, making them alive, giving them faith. And when that first happened, things were not easy. He says, you endured a hard struggle. This is one of the most significant characteristics of faith.
The writer of Hebrews has been clear throughout his letter that endurance in confidence is his foremost concern for his readers. And in verse 36, he states very plainly, you have need of endurance. Now, there are differences between confidence, endurance, and faith. In this passage, the author is using them largely synonymously. He says, don’t throw away your confidence, for you have need of endurance. and proceeds to talk about having faith. Confidence and endurance are character qualities of faith. Faith is confident and it endures. So when the new believers were first enlightened, they exhibited the quality of endurance. Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or pressure. The author reminds his audience that when they were first enlightened, they endured a hard struggle. He’s reminding them of this because he’s about to call them to maintain that endurance in verse 36.
Endurance is not an optional aspect of faith. It is an integral characteristic. Faith, by its nature, endures through difficulty. Faith is not a one-off deal. It’s not an on-again, off-again, whenever it’s convenient. Faith is a conviction about what’s true, regardless of whether it is convenient or comfortable. It’s a belief in, trust in, loyalty to God, especially and despite difficulty. Someone who identifies with Christianity when it’s easy, accepted, and immediately advantageous, but disavows the faith when threatened or challenged, is not considered to have faith. Professed faith without endurance of difficulty calls into question the reality of faith. It is through that endurance that faith is demonstrated to be genuine. The Apostle Peter highlights this in 1 Peter 1, verses 6-7. Peter says, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, though it perishes, though it is tested by fire, your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Faith is found to be genuine through its staying power, its ability to endure difficulties. Faith does not skirt around or avoid difficulties. It endures through difficulties. In Acts 14, verse 22, Paul and Barnabas visited new believers in their church plants. And it says, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith. and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. These new believers had endured through hardship. Discipleship 101 in Christianity for Paul was that faith endures through trials, as we see in our passage. Trials and difficulties for faith come in all shapes and sizes. They come from within ourselves as well as from without. In Hebrews chapter 2, the writer speaks of drifting away, of neglecting, which might result in, as he mentions in our passage, throwing away your confidence, verse 35, or shrinking back, verse 39.
Faith can atrophy like a muscle when it is not exercised, but the exercise of faith is always in the context of challenges to that faith. Faith is not exercised where there’s no threat to its existence. Satan leveled both barrels at Job. He started by destroying everything that Job owned, followed by his beloved children, and capped off by destroying Job’s health, bringing him to the very edge of death. Satan knew that losing his livelihood, his children, and his health would put great pressure on Job’s faith. Job’s friends weren’t very helpful in supporting his faith either, and they said that his primary problem was a lack of humble repentance for sin. And yet, despite his misery, Job clung onto his confidence in God. Counterfeit faith gives up when the going gets hard. Satan was betting that Job’s faith would be fake, that it would fail.
But God preserved Job’s faith and it was proved to be the genuine article. But internal despair within our heads is not Satan’s only weapon against faith. Jesus warned Peter at the Last Supper that Satan had demanded to sift Peter like wheat. But he also said that he had prayed for Peter so that his faith would not fail and that he would be restored. Peter, of course, faced the fearful prospect of identification with the imprisoned and interrogated Jesus and he vehemently denied Christ multiple times. He crumpled under the pressure initially, but instead of permanently renouncing Christ, he was moved to tears of repentance at what he had done in that moment. And despite the momentary lapse, Jesus had told Peter that his prayers for him would ensure his ultimate restoration and his ultimate endurance. Now it seems as though the audience of the letter to Hebrews was facing some similar temptations to renounce their allegiance to Christ.
And so the author begins by reminding them what they had already endured by their faith. Verse 32 and 33, But recall the former days, when after you were enlightened you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction. and sometimes being partners with those so treated. Along with the hard struggle, they also experienced sufferings, by which he means that they were persecuted for both their own profession and for their association with those who were persecuted. Now although Christian persecution in the first century did often involve physical harm and even death, Many commentators think that the audience of the book of Hebrews had not yet been physically harmed or killed based on Hebrews chapter 12 verse 4. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
They take Hebrews 12 verse 4 as an indication that in this case the persecution had not reached personal harm. However, we see that in verse 34 the persecution had clearly involved having their property stolen or destroyed. For you had compassion on those imprisoned, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. What we have described here in verse 34 is truly extraordinary. Now, there was a group of Greek philosophers that aspired and prized self-control over one’s own emotions. And they were called the Stoics, which comes from the Greek word for porch, which is where they gathered to discuss their ideas. In English, the word Stoic has come to mean someone who is, like the Greek philosophers aspired to, unaffected by any emotion, remains constantly calm no matter what comes.
And some people, when they hear the word endurance, might think that that’s what faith is aspiring to. Just to be unaffected by sadness or hardship or difficulty. But that’s not what the author of Hebrews has in view at all. You don’t need Christian faith to become a Stoic. You can do that without faith. The believers in verse 34 did something absolutely extraordinary. They got happy when they were stolen from. The endurance of faith is not mere grit your teeth and don’t show any expression. Faith goes beyond a stoic indifference to difficulty and persecution. It genuinely gets happy, joyful, in the face of being wronged against for the sake of the gospel. This is not natural. This only comes supernaturally. And it comes for one reason. It comes because of number two, what faith sees. We looked at what faith does.
It endures despite difficulties. And this is because of what faith sees. When we look at verse 34, we see that the endurance of hardship, the radical rejoicing at the plundering of their property, was possible because they knew something. Their endurance was rooted in knowledge. They could see something by their faith, and that’s what gave them the ability to radically rejoice. Joy doesn’t come from sheer grit and determination. You can’t just grit your teeth, buckle down, and muster up some joy. It comes from experiencing, from seeing and loving beauty. Webster Dictionary says, joy is the emotion evoked by well-being, success, by the prospect of possessing what one desires. That is why it’s so strange for the believers in Hebrews chapter 10 to joyfully accept the plundering of their property. Joy seems very out of place in this instance.
This apparently out of place joy comes from their perspective of faith. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Now in the Greek, there’s actually a play on words in this verse. The Greek words for property and possession come from the same root word. The root word when it’s a verb means to begin or to possess or to exist. And it turns out in Greek philosophical writings, the word which we translate possession often gets used metaphorically to talk about human being or human existence. And so while clearly referring to a literal possession, which believers have in verse 34, there’s a secondary connotation that the readers of the Greek might have noticed as well.
They might have picked up on the double meaning of possession, which goes along with the theme of true existence or true reality. This is a theme that we’ve seen a lot in the book of Hebrews. The authors talked about how the tabernacle, the priests, and the sacrifices were only shadows or sketches pointing to the true being, the true reality of Christ. And now in verse 34 the author is saying these believers rightly considered their lost property merely earthly property. Shadows of the reality. Because they knew that their heavenly possession is the ultimate reality. It could not compare. Paul talks about the contrast of faith versus sight in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7. There is a reality that we can see with our eyes and there’s a reality that we can see with our minds when we understand and believe God and take him at his word.
When we see with our eyes in the present does not currently match what believers know will be the case. The contrast of faith versus sight. The believers in verse 34 were faced with a situation. If we show compassion, the same Greek word, sympathy, by the way, that Jesus had in Hebrews chapter four, verse 15, that he has for us. If these believers, if they show compassion and visit the other believers in prison, then the enemies will know that they are Christians too. They might try to hurt us or steal our stuff. With natural eyes, it looked like an obvious choice. Stay home. Why would you risk getting your car stolen, your home broken into, your computer smashed, your wallet taken? It’s not worth it. Stay home and stay safe. Sacrifice safety and security for a belief in God?
You’re crazy. But with the eyes of faith, they saw something different. They compared their property, their car, their house, their bank account, their phone, their computer, everything else that they have with what they have in Christ. And when they did that, there was no question. They could see that they had a better and an abiding possession. Cars don’t last, especially in Pennsylvania winters. Houses don’t last. Computers, even bank accounts don’t last. But what they had in Christ is both better, and it lasts. It abides. The enduring power of faith doesn’t come from sheer grit. It comes from a supernatural gaze. When you look with the eyes of faith at the so-called sacrifices and trade-offs that you’re called to make, they don’t look like sacrifices. If I were to ask a four-year-old to trade me his bright, shiny penny, or even a brand new gold dollar coin for a $1,000 bill that I was offering him, he might refuse, or at least hesitate.
A piece of paper for a solid, shiny gold coin? It might not seem like a good trade. But for someone who understands the money that these two objects represent, the choice is obvious. It hardly even feels like a trade. It’s a net gain, and so it’s hard to call it a sacrifice. And this is the perspective of faith. This is what Jesus is getting at in Matthew chapter 19, verses 27 through 30, in a conversation with Peter. Jesus in Matthew 19 verses 27 and 30 has just asked the rich young man to sell his possessions, give to the poor and follow Jesus. Verse 27, then Peter said in reply, see, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first. Peter eagerly reminds Jesus of what he and the disciples have given up, sacrificed to follow him. Jesus doesn’t commend him for his austerity. He reminds him of the real trade. If Peter had in view the gain that following Jesus provided, he wouldn’t have bothered to mention all the things that they had left to follow Jesus. And yet just to make sure that Peter doesn’t see it as an austerity contest, He says, but many who are first will be last and the last first. Don’t think you can manipulate the system and try to purposely live destitutely as a way to earn heavenly rewards.
The point is that when you look with faith on what the real trade is, you won’t be counting the pennies you traded for $1,000 bills. When you have eyes of faith, you count your possessions in this life as less important Economic loss in this life, which might have sapped the joy of someone living by sight, couldn’t dampen the joy of these believers who were living by faith. Faith doesn’t endure the loss of possessions like the fighter who says, hit me again, I can take it. It looks at what it possesses in Christ. Forgiveness of sins, clothed in His righteousness. Bold access into the very presence of God. Eternity as God’s adopted child. Fellowship with the triune God. Not to mention a remade creation and all the rest. And it says, I would be insane to let my earthly possessions impede me in any way on my way to glory.
Paul puts the concept succinctly in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 17 to 18. He says, for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory, beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. I hope by now that you can see that the battle of faith is fundamentally a battle to see what is ultimate as ultimate, to see our possession in Christ as better, to see it for what it is. One commentator pulls together the better things that we see in Hebrews this way. He says with two qualifiers that are favorites of the author, the reward is said to be better and lasting. Jesus is greater than the angels, chapter one, verse four.
His priesthood entails the introduction of a better hope, chapter seven, 19, and a better covenant, 722 and 86, enacted on better promises, And he offers a better sacrifice, 9.23, as his blood speaks better than that of Abel. Chapter 12, verse 24. And accordingly, the reward he offers is better than earthly possessions, secured in a better home. Chapter 11, verse 16, to be entered following a better resurrection. Chapter 11, verse 35. As we’ll see in chapter 11, Moses is an example of this perspective that the believers had in our passage. Chapter 11, verse 26, looking ahead, Moses, he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking to the reward. The gaze of faith which empowers endurance is a gaze upon the promises of God. What faith does is endure because of what faith sees, which leads to what faith receives.
Number three, what faith receives. As faith looks, it endures and as a result, it receives the promise. The promise of God. Confidence and endurance are two elements of faith. Not only does endurance prove the genuineness of faith, but it is the only way to secure the promise. The biblical concept of faith always involves a perseverance. It is an ongoing reality. Faith is not something you did or had only previously. Faith is an ongoing perseverance because it is largely waiting on things still to come. Salvation received by faith involves a twofold reality, which is both already and not yet. We are free from the power of sin, but not free from the presence of sin. While there is much about our salvation that we receive in this life, there is much more that we still await.
Verses 35 and 36. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. Now when the writer throws in the phrase, having done the will of God, have they just changed the requirement? Is obeying God’s commands suddenly an additional prerequisite? Besides or even instead of faith? No, what he has in mind is what he’s been saying all along. In chapter six, he explained how Abraham received the promise. Chapter six, verse 15, and thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. And here we have, when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. Abraham’s task, like ours, to obtain God’s reward, the promise was to be patient, to trust God, to do it on his timetable.
Faith is God’s chosen instrument for us to receive his gracious salvation. That is why every time that Protestant Christians talk about the various means of grace, we’re talking about things that involve our understanding. The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace, not based on its physical properties or magical infusions. We receive the benefits by faith. There are not inherent benefits to simply eating that bread or drinking that particular wine. The benefits come by faith, which means we have to understand it. For it to be a means of grace, we need to interact with it intelligently. intelligibly, we must partake of the sacrament with an understanding of our daily need for Christ to be living in us and the sacrifice that he made for us so willingly. Then we are assured of his love for us now and in the future.
It strengthens our faith. And God uses other means of grace like prayer, Bible reading, worship, fellowship, to strengthen our faith. But grace doesn’t flow like a magical substance in spite of our understanding. There are times when God helps us beyond what we can understand and intervenes in the world and in our lives in supernatural ways. But biblical faith is not blind faith. It’s not a leap in the dark. It’s an apprehension, an understanding, an embracing of the mercy of God in Christ, who he is and what he has promised. Faith is not irrational optimism or advanced speculation. It’s having your eyes finally opened to see reality. Unbelievers can’t see Christ as he is. To them, he looks foolish, worthless, pitiful, not worth their time, certainly not worth endangering physical life or endangering earthly possessions. Missionaries who leave their own culture to try and learn a new language, to try to learn an entire culture with thousands of misunderstandings, to leave family and friends behind for the sake of the gospel, look insane.
Without the eyes of faith, it looks like a terrible deal. Paul the Apostle agrees in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 19. 1 Corinthians 15, 19, he says, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, We are of all people most to be pitied. For Paul, if the Christian faith is a fool’s hope, if there’s nothing still to come in the next life, then Christians are the most pitiful of all people. We might have expected Paul to say that, well, if God’s promises don’t come true in the next life, being a Christian is still a pretty good deal. Paul says no. If there’s nothing coming, if this life is all there is, the sacrifice is totally bonkers. Faith sees reality. It sees the reward, and it also sees, but it also sees the looming reality of the judgment.
Verses 37 through 39. For yet a little while in the coming, one will come and will not delay. For my righteous one will live by faith, And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. The writer of Hebrews quotes from Habakkuk, which we read earlier in our service. God tells the prophet Habakkuk that the only way for a person to endure the coming judgment executed by the Babylonians will be by faith. Paul also famously quotes Habakkuk in Romans 117 in describing the Gospel, which is, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written from Habakkuk, quote, the righteous shall live by faith.
Habakkuk begins his book distressed by the evil around him in Judah, but then gets even more upset at God’s revelation of his coming judgment upon Judah. God tells Habakkuk that faith is required to survive what’s coming. And by the end of the book, we find Habakkuk saying, I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us. And he essentially says, even if there is disaster all around me, I’ve still got God. And it will be OK. He’s exhibiting faith. He sees the situation differently. He can see a God, who God is. And that enables him to patiently wait. To trade temporary suffering for eternal bliss. Faith is banking on a future reward. It’s not looking to have everything in the here and now. It’s looking ahead. It’s not going to settle for having everything now in this life.
Delayed gratification is something this world advocates. The secular culture understands the importance of delayed gratification and learning to avoid instant gratification, to put off immediate urges. For the sake of longer term, more ultimate rewards is one of the most important ingredients of a successful life in this life. And the secular culture understands this. But the delayed gratification this world advocates looks like instant gratification compared to the Christian faith. Because the Christian faith doesn’t settle for fame and riches and grandeur in this life. It’s got its eyes on something far better. Why settle for being a billionaire in this life when you could live in the New Jerusalem paved with gold? When you start to have that perspective, you start to live differently. Christians don’t give up comfort in this life just to be uncomfortable. They don’t have an upside down preference for pain.
We call people who enjoy pain masochists. But that’s not what faith does at all. Faith simply understands that some things in this life simply don’t matter when they’re compared with what is to come. since you knew that you had a better possession and an abiding one. Christians give up comfort in this life because who cares if you’re comfortable for 70, 80, 90, if you’re uncomfortable for 70, 80, 90, or 100 years when it means that you can be with God forever. fellowship with the triune God, the maker of all things, the galvanizer of galaxies, the inventor of pleasure, the author of joy himself, the generator of grandeur, the designer of delight without end. This is what awaits the one who keeps the faith, who endures. Keep your eyes on the prize. which is God himself, and you will not be disappointed.
Amen. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank you that you have given us your word to remind us of what is real. We ask that you would give us eyes of faith. We know that faith is a gift from you. We ask that you would give us faith that we might see what is real we might see that what we have in this life is not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed the weight of glory which awaits us in your presence fellowship with you now and forever we pray that you would give us these eyes of faith in Jesus name amen
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