Legendary Faith

 

February 13, 2022                     NOTES NOT EDITED
Legendary Faith
Hebrews 11: 32-40

SIS:  Legendary Faith overcomes any obstacles to accomplish tasks that are extraordinary. 

Legendary faith is remarkable faith displayed by ordinary people.

Every generation grows up with their own, “super-heroes.”  Put a handful of toddlers on a playground with some spring clips and bath towels, and it won’t be long before they are “running faster than a speeding bullet, lifting things with more power than a locomotive, and leaping stuff taller than . . . well, just really tall for a youngster.” The world has always had legendary figures that were larger than life—some real, like David who killed the giant, Goliath, and some completely fictional like Superman. 

What superheroes usually have in common are “super powers” like super strength, x-ray vision, or the ability to fly.  But, not all legendary superheroes have super powers.  Hugh Glass for instance is a “legendary super hero.”  Glass was an American frontiersman and hunter Hugh Glass endured a grizzly bear attack and was left for dead after his party concluded he could not survive his wounds. Glass woke up to a broken leg, festering injuries, and deep gashes on his back that exposed his ribs. Mustering up every ounce of strength he had left, Glass let maggots eat his dead flesh to prevent gangrene, set his own broken leg, donned a bear hide, and started crawling toward the American settlement of Fort Kiowa, which was an insane 200 miles away (copied).  Most of us know of Glass because of the blockbuster movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio titled, “The Revenant” for which DiCaprio won an Oscar.

There are also mythical or fictional superheroes without super powers like archeologist Henry Watson Jones, Jr.  He was created by film maker, George Lucas, and we know him as the Legendary Adventurer, Indiana Jones.  The fact that Indiana Jones is very “ordinary” allows the audience to accept him more easily as a “non-hero superhero” and role model for living a courageous life.

Well, today I want to introduce you to some “Legends who were leaders in the Legion of God.”  Some very ordinary people—some named, some unnamed—who exhibited a very “Legendary Faith.”  These “Legendary people of faith” are the real role models for you and I. 

What are the characteristics of a “Legendary Faith that overcomes any obstacles to accomplish tasks that are extraordinary?  Does it require “superpowers like Superman’s x-ray vision or ability to fly?”  Or, is faith itself like a superpower that allowed David, and ordinary shepherd boy to slay a giant?  Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtah, and “some unnamed men” were able to accomplish legendary feats through ordinary faith.  What made their faith, “legendary?”

Legendary faith can be practiced by ANYONE, solve ANY PROBLEM, and accomplish ANYTHING imaginable! 

1.  Legendary Faith:  ANYBODY Can Do it (v32, 36)

Heb 11:32 ^{(CSB) 32} And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, Then verse 36  ³⁶ Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment.

Were it not for their “faith,” that is their obedience to the God of the Bible, nobody would know anything about anybody mentioned in the list.  Then, an even more anonymous group is referred to in vs 36 as simply, “others.”  These people were not only “ordinary,” they were “obscure.”  Their reference in the Eternal Word is due to their “Legendary Faith.”

God uses “ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary feats.”  Gideon was a cowardly farmer.  David was a mere shepherd.  Barak, Samson, Jephthah, and even Samuel were pretty ordinary people. But, at least they had names!  The “others” referred to in verse 36 and following aren’t even given names!

And this is how it has been throughout Christian history.  The Bible is a book ABOUT ordinary people FOR ordinary people.  It is about “you,” and “I.” 

I remember asking my professor in college once why God chose such lousy leaders.  Adam didn’t wear the pants in his family.  Noah was a drunk.  Moses had anger issues.  David was an adulterer and conspired to have a man killed.  Peter was a coward and denied Christ.  I didn’t understand how God chose so many misguided people to be the vessels of his power and plan.  Here’s what my venerable professor replied, “Son, God gets some pretty good licks with some pretty crooked sticks.

Take Gideon for example. Here’s the defining description of Him by an angel from heaven:  Judges 6:12 ^{(CSB) 12} Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, valiant warrior.”

Gideon is declared to be a “valiant warrior!”  However, there is more to the story.  Look what Gideon was doing when the angel found him:

Judges 6:11 ^{(CSB) 11} The angel of the Lord came, and he sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.

Think about those words, “threshing wheat in the winepress in order to hide.”  The winepress was a hollowed-out place in the ground that would have been safer than threshing grain on an open threshing floor.  He was called a “valiant warrior” while acting like a ****** coward!  God’s story of redemption both in the text of the Bible and in the testimony of history shows us that when it comes to having “Legendary Faith”:  anybody can do it!

One of the most “Legendary Christians in modern history” was Billy Graham.  He was known and loved by multiple millions of people on every continent of the world.  It would be hard to find a person who did not recognize the name, Billy Graham.  Billy Graham is the most extraordinary preacher in modern history.  We all know his name.  But, very few people have ever heard of Edward Kimball.  He died 17 years before Billy Graham was born, but without Kimball there would never have been a Billy Graham.  Kimball was a shy dry goods salesman that taught a Sunday School in Boston, Mass.  One of his students (but not a very good one), was a young shoe salesman.  Kimball won this young shoe salesman who became the great evangelist Dwight Moody.  Moody had a great influence on a man by the name Meyer who became an evangelist.  Meyer won a man named Chapman who became an evangelist.  Chapman retired and turned his ministry over to a professional baseball player turned evangelist by the name of Billy Sunday.  Billy Sunday inspired a group of men to hold a revival meeting with the evangelist, Mordecai Ham.  Billy Sunday went to those revival meetings and was saved.  The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

We all know how God used great evangelists like Moody and Billy Graham.  But, it was a shy grocery salesman that nobody knows that started it all.  Legendary Faith can be practiced by ANYBODY.

2.  ANY PROBLEM can be solved (33-38)

Take note of the trouble Legendary Saints faced in our text: Heb11:33–38^{CSB  33} who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶ Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, and mistreated. ³⁸ The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and on mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.

Legendary Saints overcame everything from lions to stoning to being banished in an unforgiving wilderness.  They faced being burned to death, cut in two by swords, and left chained to the walls of a prison to starve to death.  The problems they faced were monumental compared to what most of us face.  But . . . no problem was too big for God to solve.  Notice how the verse begins: 

by faith conquered [they] kingdoms (v33). 

One of my favorite T.V. shows these days is “Paw Patrol.” I actually have two.  One is Peppa Pig that my granddaughter, Mimi watches with me. It is a show based in England, so Mimi helps translate the “Queen’s English” for me.  Paw Patrol is a T.V. show I watch with my grandson, James.  It is a group of “Search and Rescue Puppies” led by a boy named Ryder.  They work together on missions to protect the shoreside community of Adventure Bay and surrounding areas. Each dog has a specific set of skills based on emergency services professions, such as a firefighter, a police officer, and an aviation pilot. They all reside in doghouses that transform into customized vehicles, or "pupmobiles", for their missions. They are also equipped with special hi-tech backpacks called "pup packs" that contain tools relating to the pups' jobs. (Wikipedia).

When trouble strikes in Adventure Bay, Ryder calls together the PAW Patrol.  Then he gives his famous catchphrase:  “No job is too big. No pup is too small!”   This is a great way to describe “Legendary Faith.”  No job is too big, for God.

Those of us here in the U.S. really do not understand how bad life is for devoted followers of Jesus in other countries.  And, I’m not just talking about the torture and threats of death from the godless governments that would like to wash away Christian in a flood of blood.  There are the everyday struggles that persecuted Christians face.  Many of them are denied jobs and must scrape by on scraps.  Their problems is that they lack toilet paper but that they suffer from water born diseases like dysentery and typhoid.  In places like the slums of Guatemala, children must make do with a soccer ball with no air, kicking it with mismatched shoes that are two or three sizes too big.

Yet, what really captured my heart in the slums of Guatemala was that somehow the children still found ways to be happy. Another evidence of Legendary Faith in this community was the church service.  It was held in a sweltering, steaming in a cement block building with a tin roof.  It was packed with people praising God who I really thought had little to nothing to praise God for.  Somehow, their faith in God overcame what appeared to me “overwhelming obstacles.”  Legendary Faith can overcome ANY PROBLEM.  From swords to flesh-tearing scourgings to shackles in a prison, the saints with Legendary Faith, “conquered them all!”

I am not making light of your troubles suggesting you have nothing to fret over or fight with in life.  We all have problems—some seemingly insurmountable.  Some problems may even seem like they are bone-crushing.  All I know to do is to realize that Legendary Faith can solve ANY PROBLEM. 

It comes down to how we “measure” our problems. If we stack up our problems alongside ourselves, they will look menacing and bigger than we could ever overcome.  But—and here’s the measure of Legendary Faith—if we stack up our problems alongside of God, they shrink to the size of insignificance.  “There’s no job too big” for God.

3. ANYTHING is Possible (v40)

Hebrews 11:40^CSB  since God had provided something better for us, so that they would not be made perfect without us.

Sometimes our circumstances are so hard all we can see are the problems of the present and not the possibilities for the future.  We become “nearsighted to the point of blindness.”

Often in the Book of Hebrews there are transitional verses.  This one such verse.  It ties the historical record of Legendary Saints of the past to an exhortation for Legendary Saints of the future—you and I.  Verses 39 and 40 point us to verse 12:1.  Hebrews 12:1–3^CSB  

¹ Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, ² keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.

Underline those words, “so that you won’t grow weary and give up.”

When we stop fixating on problems and focusing on possibilities we have the stamina and perseverance of Legendary Faith to not only face our problems but to “conquer” them.  The Bible is more than a “self-help manual.”  It’s more than a “problem-solving manual.”  The Bible is a “hope chest” containing a “bucket-list of dreams.”  Yes, God’s grace does solve problems, the greatest of which is our sin, but that is the beginning of our faith journey, not the destination.

Having a problem free life is not the same as living a purposeful life but almost the opposite.  We must focus on Jesus and not fixate on our problems and when we do—ANYTHING is Possible!  We can’t let big problems turn us into small thinkers.

As we close consider this, not all legends are dead, like Daniel Boone or Babe Ruth.  Some are still very much alive.  Remember, “legendary” means, “remarkable or spectacular.” Some became legends before they were 20 years old.  One such legend is Bethany Hamilton, the Soul Surfer.  She credits her faith in God for not only helping her stay alive and go on to fulfill her lifelong dream of being a professional surfer.  In fact, she continues to compete to this day.

Bethany Hamilton was a young Hawaiian girl who was on her way to become one of the top professional surfers in the world.  One fateful day in an incident that took about two seconds, a shark bit off her left arm at the shoulder.  It looked like her short life would soon be over.  She lost 60% of her blood.  Certainly, nobody thought she would ever surf again, much less be able to surf as a professional.  Here’s the trailer from the movie made of her life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePFKksD0XkQ

Regardless of how tough life gets—and it can get very, very tough—Legendary Faith always perseveres, always overcomes.  Let the Legendary Saints listed in Hebrews be your model for following Christ in bold, courageous ways, regardless of circumstances.

PERSONAL APPLICATION

1. What famous person from history would you like to meet?  Why?

 

2. Heb. 11:33-38.  When you read of all that the common followers of God endured in these verses, how does it change your perspective of what it means to follow Christ? How are you like the people mentioned in this passage?  How are you different?

 

3.  As you learned in this lesson, Gideon was somewhat of a coward, hiding in a winepress to process his grain.  David’s sins and human failings are well known, including adultery and conspiracy to commit murder.  Yet, they are shown to be examples of Legendary Faith.  What lesson do you see for your life in regard to this? 

 

FOR FURTHER STUDY AND REFLECTION

 

   Is there a      S in I should confess or avoid?
   Is there a      P romise I should claim?
   Is there a      E xample I should follow?
   Is there a      C ommand I should obey?

   Is there         K nowledge gained about Jesus that I should

                            take special note of?

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