Fellow Workers

Priscilla and Aquila are part of the great cloud of witnesses that surround us (Read their story here ... and here).  

So, what can we learn from how they walked the Way?  Priscilla and Aquila were two regular people called by God to work together in life and ministry, in the midst of darkness, so that the Gospel would win. 

First of all, Priscilla and Aquila were two regular people.  We don’t know much about their background.  We know that they were tentmakers or leatherworkers and so they were people who worked for a living.  We know that they moved around a lot (from Pontus to Rome to Corinth to Ephesus back to Rome).  We know that they knew Scripture, for they taught Apollos, who himself was well-versed in Scripture.  But nothing is said that sets them up as being extraordinary.  They appear to have been regular, working-class people who had received the Gospel and were called to follow Jesus. 

That is important for us to notice at a time when many churches are going professional with lots of professional staff, big budgets and big business.  It’s also important for us to notice because often we think that we can’t really or fully serve the Lord unless we’ve been seminary trained or ordained or have some kind of title.  Priscilla and Aquila show us that God calls regular people and uses them powerfully.

Now, I am a big fan of education - I loved seminary and I’m a firm believer in training and equipping people to serve, however the ministry of the Gospel is not relegated to seminary graduates.  God uses regular people.  And ultimately we’re all “regular people”.  We are all sinners saved by grace and used by God in various ways.  At the same time, none of us is simply a regular person, for we have been filled with the Holy Spirit and are being conformed to the likeness of Christ.  And so  don’t limit yourself (or God, for that matter) by thinking, “I could never do this or that” (teach a class, be a youth leader, lead a small group, share the Gospel effectively with someone, become a missionary).  God uses regular people – like you and me – to accomplish His purposes in the world.  So trust God and start serving!

Secondly, Priscilla and Aquila worked together in life and ministry.  They were never mentioned apart from one another.  They were a team.  They worked together as tentmakers and they ministered together.  Paul calls them his “fellow workers”.  Priscilla and Aquila came alongside of Paul to help in his mission to preach and teach the Gospel.

I’m struck at how often in the Gospels and Acts Christian ministry is generally done in pairs and as a team.  Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs.  Paul and Barnabus worked together and when they split, Barnabus took Mark and Paul took Silas and they often added others to their team.  Here Priscilla and Aquila likewise work as a team.  For ministry is not a lone ranger enterprise.  We are in this together.

But often we are so steeped in American individualism that we often feel guilty or like a failure if we cannot do everything on our own (from reading Scripture to evangelism).  We feel like we need to be able to pull the Christian life off on our own.  We can’t and we’re not expected to.  God has saved a people for Himself – a community, a family, a Body.  Discipleship, whether growing personally or making disciples of others, happens in and through community with other people.  Deacons and elders are to work together; husbands and wives are to work together; brothers and sisters in Christ are to work together for the sake of the Gospel.  We are the Body of Christ and each of us is an important part of it.

Thirdly, Priscilla and Aquila worked together in the midst of darkness.  Every city they were in was an important one in the Roman Empire – from the regional capitals of Corinth and Ephesus to the capital of the empire in Rome. Those cities, though important centers of commerce were places filled with immorality and paganism.  Priscilla and Aquila were surrounded by darkness.  But into that darkness they brought the light.  We too are surrounded by darkness as we live in a dark time. 

I was sitting in the parking lot of a local church yesterday (as Carrie and I were helping with a ministry) and there was a kid there waiting for his mom, sitting on the bumper of their minivan with the doors open and the radio blaring.  The lyrics to the songs (if they could be called songs) were utterly obscene.  They were vile.  They made me angry; they made me feel sick; they made me sad - sad for that boy and sad for the world and what we have become.  Our kids are being fed a steady diet of poison – of violence and hatred; of pornography, promiscuity and ugly, loveless, exploitative sexuality; of disrespect, abuse, drunkenness and inanity.  They are being infected by it through the radio, on TV, at the movies and on the internet. 

We live in Corinth.  Though the actual site, in Greece, is rubble, its spirit lives on and it is an evil spirit.  We can’t avoid it for we live in it and it reaches into our communities and homes and families.  The darkness is tangible.  The question is:  Will we be light in it?  Will we fight against it?  Will we bring light to where it is dark – in the cities; in our local communities; in people’s lives?  The darkness may not welcome you (that boy didn’t really want to talk with me when I began talking with him) but will you go and be light?

And finally, Priscilla and Aquila worked together in the midst of darkness so that the Gospel would win.  We read in Romans 16:3 that Priscilla and Aquila risked their lives for Paul.  Paul wrote: “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house.”

We don’t know when it took place, but we know that Priscilla and Aquila were willing to risk their lives for Paul and for the sake of the Gospel.  They expended themselves for the Church.  That is why Paul states that all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.  It seems that, like Paul, Priscilla and Aquila were committed to the inclusion of the Gentiles in the Church and t/f, like Paul, they must have faced opposition and persecution. 

And not only did they risk their lives, they lived their lives so that the Gospel would win.  They took people in – like Apollos; they hosted the Church in their home; they gave of themselves financially and personally to support the ministry of the Church.  They were fellow workers with Paul, fellow workers of the Church and fellow workers of Jesus Christ.  They wanted the Gospel to win, so they dedicated their lives to that end.  They still went to work each day and made a living and had a house and neighbors, but their primary goal – their heart’s desire – was to see the Gospel win.

Is that your goal?  Is that your desire?  If it is, are you willing to dedicate your life to it?  Will you make it your priority?  Will you live and work for the sake of the Gospel?  Will you fight for it?  Will you live, as pastor Tullian Tchividjian puts it, “against the world for the world”.  Will you, when necessary live against your children for your children – against your co-workers for your co-workers - against your friends for your friends?  Will you fight the good fight – fight for your children and your family and your marriage and your church and your community so that the Gospel will win in you and them?  Will you be, as pastor Mark Driscoll puts it, a person who does Gospel things in Gospel ways for Gospel reasons because you want the Gospel to win?

That is the example of Priscilla and Aquila.  It is an example we need to follow.

Responding to the Gospel

Discipleship is a continual response to the Gospel.  It is how we daily, moment by moment, respond to the claims and call of the Gospel.  And so, discipleship is development.  Discipleship is a process over time.  Our faith, as we grow in it, deepens and expands.  Our relationship to God develops as we live in Christ.  Therefore, our experiences in discipleship change.  We see this in our passage: Acts 16:6-40.  We see it in the experiences of new disciples, the three converts in Philippi (Lydia, the slave girl and the jailer).  We also see the experiences of mature disciples in the apostle Paul and his ministry partner Silas.

On his second missionary journey, Paul, Silas and Timothy traveled across what is now Turkey to the coastal city of Troas.  There. Paul received a vision and the call to go to Macedonia.  And so, Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke (who apparently joined them at Troas) went to Philippi and there they shared the good news of the Gospel which was, as it usually is, met with both receptivity and hostility.

The first person to receive the Good News in Philippi (and consequently the first recorded convert in Europe) was a woman by the name of Lydia.  Lydia was a businesswoman from Thyatira, who was a seller of purple cloth (an expensive commodity in that day).  Evidently Philippi did not have the quorum of 10 men necessary to establish a synagogue and so Lydia, along with other women, gathered at the River to pray and worship the Lord.  That Sabbath day, Paul joined them and told them about Jesus and Lydia responded to the message with faith.  The text focuses on her heart.  It says that, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”  And so we see that Lydia had an open heart.

Ü She had a heart for God.  She was a God-fearer; a worshiper of the Lord.  She sought the Lord in worship and prayer.

Ü And she had a God-opened heart.  Ultimately we do not choose God, He chooses us.  He calls us and unless god opens our hearts they will remain closed.  In an act of grace, God opened Lydia’s heart so that she could receive the Good News of Jesus Christ and be saved.

Ü Lydia’s heart was transformed by Jesus and therefore she gained a heart for others.  Salvation was not an individualistic, private transaction for her.  Rather, she and her entire household were baptized.  And notice that Lydia’s heart for others went past her own household.  She immediately showed hospitality and invited Paul and his companions to stay at her house.  And so Lydia became the first recorded convert and church-planter in Europe, as the church at Philippi began to meet in her house. 

The next convert in Philippi was an unnamed slave girl who was possessed by an evil spirit.  Through this spirit, the girl could predict the future and so she made a lot of money for her owners by being a fortune teller.  For some reason, this girl would follow after Paul and his companions on their way to the place of prayer, shouting day after day, “These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved!”  And her repetition of this statement was distracting and annoying.  And so finally Paul turned toward her and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!”  And at that moment, the spirit left her.  She was delivered from bondage.  Though still a slave, she had been freed from a greater slavery to evil and sin.  We do not know what became of her, but from similar stories of deliverance, we can infer that her life was transformed.  Most likely she was among those believers who met at Lydia’s house.

The owners of the girl were not particularly pleased by turn of events since it took away her fortune-telling abilities and their money making scheme.  So they dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates who ordered Paul and Silas to be stripped and publically beaten.  They were then thrown in prison with their feet placed in stocks.  However, in prison, Paul and Silas would meet the third convert – the very jailer who was guarding them. 

At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing when a violent earthquake shook the prison and the prison doors were opened and everyone’s chains came lose.  The jailer, thinking they had all escaped was about to kill himself when Paul stopped him: “Don’t harm yourself we are all here!”  The jailer ran to Paul and Silas, brought them out and asked them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  Perhaps he had heard what the slave girl had shouted and seen what had happened to her; perhaps he heard Paul and Silas’ singing and praying; he most certainly felt the earthquake and saw the miraculous deliverance provided for them.  And so, like Lydia, his heart was opened and what we see in him is faith, repentance and joy.  He showed faith by believing in the Lord and being baptized with his whole family.  He showed repentance in that he took Paul and Silas to his house, washed their wounds and fed them.  He showed joy in that he was filled with the joy of the Lord. He had found the way of salvation.  The jailer had been set free.

Those were the experiences of the three converts in Philippi as they came into contact with the Gospel.  But there is one more example of responding to the Gospel – that of Paul and Silas.  We see their response in three ways.

Ü First of all, the Gospel called them to be guided by the Holy Spirit (read vv. 6-8).  Paul and Silas had their plans of what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go, but the Holy Spirit changed their plans.  In response, they didn’t kick and scream or pout, rather, they kept in step with the Spirit, discerning His leading. 

Ü Secondly, the Gospel called them to rejoice in suffering.  Paul could write in his letter to the Romans about rejoicing in suffering because he had done it.  Having been unjustly accused, beaten and imprisoned, Paul and Silas could have complained, been angry and felt sorry for themselves, but instead they prayed and sang hymns and witnessed to the other prisoners and the jailer.  They were willing to suffer – they rejoiced in suffering - because they believed that Jesus was worth it.

Ü Thirdly, the Gospel called them to stand up for what is right.  When the magistrates, knowing they were wrong, tried to quietly get Paul and Silas out of town, Paul called them on it.  What they did was wrong and illegal and though Paul was willing to undergo wrong doing, he nonetheless stood up for what is right.  Because he was willing to suffer didn’t make him a doormat.  He did not shy away from facing persecution, but he also refused to ignore injustice.  He stood for what is right.

Discipleship is a continual response to the Gospel.  It is that initial response at conversion and it is our ongoing, moment-by-moment, situation-by situation response throughout life.  We’ve seen Lydia’s open heart to the Lord and toward others; we’ve seen the slave girl’s deliverance from bondage; we’ve seen the jailer’s faith, repentance and joy; and we’ve seen Paul and Silas’ willingness to be guided by the Holy Spirit, to rejoice in suffering and to stand up for what is right.

What is your response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Ü Is God working on your heart so that it is opened to Him and opened to others?  Have you received the grace of God offered in Jesus Christ?  Are you sharing that grace with those around you?

Ü Has God delivered you from bondage or is He currently in the process of setting you free from that which binds you (an addiction, a begrudging attitude, selfishness, pride, doubt, hatred, lust, greed – sin)?

Ü Have you turned to the Lord in faith and with repentance so as to experience the joy of the lord in your life?

Ü Are you following the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life or are you fighting for your own way – your own agenda?

Ü Are you able to rejoice in suffering – to see, as Paul writes, that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us?  Can you sing in the midst of suffering?  Can you turn hurts and discomforts and disappointments into prayer and praise?  Are you a witness to others, even in the midst of suffering, of the hope that you have?

Ü Are you willing to suffer while at the same time be courageous enough to stand up for what is right?  Do you ignore injustice and sidestep conflict and wrongdoing or do you stand for truth?

Our lives are a continual response to the claims and calling of the Gospel.  Are we people, as Mark Driscoll (pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle) puts it, who do “Gospel things in Gospel ways for Gospel reasons because we want the Gospel to win” or are we people who do “unGospel things in unGospel ways for unGospel reasons because WE want to win”?  If we live that way we will lose.  The only way of life is the way of discipleship – the way of following Jesus.

The cloud of witnesses surrounds us.  May we, with our eyes fixed on Jesus, follow their examples.  May we, like them, respond to the Gospel by placing our lives, our hopes and dreams, our families and future in the hands of Jesus.  May we be people who do Gospel things in Gospel ways for Gospel reasons because we want, with all of our heart, for the Gospel to win!

Honoring God

Timothy is one of the more important NT figures that we focus very little attention on, but his story is an amazing one – one that shows the power of the Gospel.  Timothy was man who lived out the meaning of his name.  For Timotheos means “honoring God”. 

Timothy was the son of a mixed marriage. His mother was Jewish, but his father was a Greek.  His mother must have been part of the Jewish dispersion, since they lived in the town of Lystra in the region of Galatia in what is now modern day Turkey.

Though raised to know the Scriptures, it appears that Timothy first heard the Gospel through the witness of Paul and Barnabus during Paul’s first missionary journey (see: Acts 13:5-23).  Timothy would have heard the truth of the Gospel, seen the power of the Gospel, and witnessed the cost of proclaiming and living the Gospel.  And by the time Paul returned on his second missionary journey, this time with Silas, Timothy was ready to join him (see: Acts 16:1-3).   

We know that Timothy was young.  Years after joining Paul and Silas, Paul would write to him, “don’t let anyone look down upon you because you are young,” so he must have been quite young when he joined them.  We also know that Timothy was responsible and was trusted to be Paul’s representative; that he faced some difficult pastoral situations and that he was a man who was concerned about others.  Paul describes him, in his letter to the Philippians (2:19-22), by stating, “I have no one else like him [Timothy], who takes a genuine interest in your welfare. For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.”  Though we don’t have any recorded words of Timothy, several of Paul’s letters include Timothy in the greeting.  For example, we read, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi.”  So, perhaps we can hear Timothy’s voice in some of Paul’s letters.

But we don’t have a complete biography of Timothy, so how can we look to him as an example?   Well, I think we can see his example by looking at some of the instructions Paul gave him in his letters and recognizing that Timothy must have lived out those instructions since Paul again and again refers to him as: “my fellow worker” and “my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord.”  So, let’s consider some of those instructions Paul gave to Timothy, recognizing that they can be encouragements to us as well.

The first encouragement is to train yourself to be godly.  The image that Paul uses is that of the gymnasium (the word “train” is gymnazo).  Paul tells Timothy that he is not to get caught up in false teaching (godless myths and old wive’s tales), but rather he is to train and discipline himself to be godly.  “Godly” refers to a manner of life characterized by reverence toward God. It is a God-ward life; a life honoring God by obeying Him, following Him, serving Him, loving Him.  Just as an athelete goes into training in order to compete, so Timothy is encouraged to train himself as a disciple.  As Paul explains, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 

The next encouragement is to take your faith and calling seriously.  Too often believers don’t take their faith and calling seriously.  We claim to follow after Christ, but we live like the rest of the world.  We may attend church on Sunday, but the rest of the week, we push God to the margins and so called “real life” takes center stage.  Well, either the God-ward life is real life (and therefore deserves our time, attention and the shaping of our lives in it) or it is nothing.  Paul instructed Timothy to take his faith and calling seriously.

      ÄTo put his hope in the living God.  Timothy was told to trust God completely – in everything and for everything.

      ÄAnd Timothy was to command and teach these things.  Our hope in Christ is not private property.  Our hope is to be commanded and taught among God’s people and shared with the rest of the world.  We are to guard the hope that we have, impress it upon our children and encourage each other in it.

      ÄTimothy was also told to set an example by the hope he had.  “Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”  What we say and how we speak is to honor God.  The way we live and treat other people is to be characterized by love.  We are to exhibit faith in all things and in all circumstances.  And we are to be holy.  Purity is a requirement for God’s people.  We can’t excuse ourselves with statements like, “Well, we’re only human!”  That’s true.  But we are human beings created in the image of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ and filled with His Holy Spirit.  And so we must set an example in speech, life, love and purity.

      ÄAnd therefore, we are to be diligent.  Timothy was told, “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.  Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.”  We are to be diligently making progress in our walk with the Lord.  For if you never go anywhere, can you really call it a walk?

We are to take our faith and calling seriously, and therefore Timothy received the encouragement: watch your life and doctrine closely.  We live in a climate in the church when doctrine is being dismissed as a secondary issue.  Many people cry “deeds not creeds,” suggesting that it is only the way you live that matters, not necessarily what you believe.  But Paul tells Timothy to watch both his life and his doctrine.  Why?  Because we are not saved by works but by faith in Christ and because that faith in Christ issues forth in good works.  So we guard what we believe and how we live.    

We must, as Paul says, persevere in them.  In the midst of false teaching, conflict, struggles and suffering  Timothy was called to persevere; to not give up; to hold fast; to stand strong; to remain faithful and true.  And he did so, not only for his own sake, but for the sake of others.  As Paul wrote, “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Timothy honored God by walking the Way.  He trained himself to be godly; he took his faith and calling seriously; he watched his life and doctrine closely and persevered in them.  We are called to do the same.  Timothy is a part of the great cloud of witnesses that surround us.  He has set an example – not as a perfect man who always had it together, but as a man saved by the grace of God and who gave his life to follow Jesus faithfully.  He has finished the race. Now it is our turn; we must run it.  May we do so with our eyes fixed on Jesus and our feet following the example of our brother Timothy.

Following Footsteps

As we consider those who walked the way, we begin with Abraham.  Though Abraham lived before Jesus’ earthly ministry, he looked ahead and lived ahead to Christ.  As Jesus told the Pharisees, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."  Abraham looked ahead to Jesus and followed the Promise, therefore, Abraham is called our father (see Romans 4:11-16).  Therefore, we ought to look back at the footsteps of faith that our father Abraham had.  To do this, read: Hebrews 11:8-19.

Hebrews 11 reveals the faith of Abraham – a faith characterized by footsteps that followed – that walked the Way.  And so, I want us to look at Abraham in terms of discipleship and through the six areas of focus from our last series.  When we do so, we find that Abraham showed the priority of his calling, fervency in obedience, vulnerability in belief and that he was characterized by honest prayer, mission-mindedness and sacrificial living.

First of all, Abraham showed the priority of his calling. God’s calling on Abraham’s life was Abraham’s priority.  It was the purpose and pursuit of his life.  We read in our passage (v8), “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going”.  Abraham’s calling was not very specific.  When God calls a person, He rarely provides all of the details.  We’d like to have an orderly itinerary from God, but He seems to rarely work that way.  More often than not, our calling is like that of Abraham – “Go and I will show you.”  But to Abraham, the itinerary was evidently not essential.  Rather, God’s calling was the priority.  And so, Abraham obeyed and went.  He left family, friends and land; he left the familiar and the comfortable and followed the LORD, even though he did not know where he was going. The LORD was Abraham’s priority and the LORD promise was the only thing he had to hold onto.  The Lord basically said (as our Lord Jesus said), “Follow me” - not follow this or that - but follow me.  Abraham did.

Next, we see, in Abraham, a fervency in obedience.  We read in our Hebrews passage, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.  Abraham’s was not some sort of half-hearted obedience, it was all-out.  Abraham left what he had known and went where he knew nothing.  He did not obey because God’s plan sounded like a good deal or made logical sense, he obeyed because he believed – because he trusted in the LORD.  I’ve mentioned previously that when priority is diminished, fervency is diminished.  The opposite logically is true: when something or someone becomes a priority, fervency regarding that thing or person increases.  Abraham exhibited radical obedience because the LORD had exploded into his life, becoming his ultimate priority.  Is the Lord such a priority in our lives that we are likewise fervent in our obedience?  Are we willing to go past our self-appointed boundaries of comfort and safety in order to follow Jesus?  Because Abraham believed and trusted the LORD, he was fervent in obedience.

We also see, in Abraham, a vulnerability in belief.  Often we are afraid to follow because we calculate the impossibilities, but Abraham believed in spite of all of the impossibilities.  We read in Hebrews 11:11-12, “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age - and Sarah herself was barren - was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.”  In spite of Sarah’s barrenness and his own good-as-deadness, Abraham believed the promise – he considered the promise-Giver to be faithful and so trusted Him.

Paul put it this way in Romans 4:18-21, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about a hundred years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”  Amazing!   Abraham was not naïve.  He clearly saw the barrenness, the deadness and the impossibility of it all, and yet his faith did not weaken; he did not waver through unbelief, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised!  Faith requires vulnerability – trusting that “barrenness” (as Walter Breuggemann puts it so well) “is the area of God’s life-giving action.”

Because of Abraham’s priority of calling, fervency in obedience and vulnerability in belief, he was characterized by honest prayer.  One of the first things that Abraham did in the Promised Land was to build an altar to the LORD and call on the name of the LORD.  Abraham not only worshiped formally with sacrifice, he cried out to the Lord from his need, his fear, his confusion.  Abraham prayed to the LORD about his childlessness; he pleaded for the people of Sodom; He prayed for the healing of Abimelech and his household.  Abraham was even referred to as a prophet.  Abraham had a relationship with the Lord, one maintained through prayer.  His footsteps must have also included the impression of his knees on the ground as he called out to the Lord. 

And Abraham was characterized by mission-mindedness. He was aware that God’s calling and God’s purposes for the world were his mission.  He recognized that his obedience to the Lord would affect the coming generations.   The LORD had promised Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you … and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”  Abraham was blessed in order to be a blessing.  He was told that through him all peoples on earth would be blessed.  And so, Abraham lived to carry out that mission.  He obeyed the Lord and kept His covenant.  Even when the mission appeared to be in jeopardy with the near-sacrifice of Isaac, still Abraham clung to faith in order that God’s plan for the world – His mission – would be carried out.

And finally, Abraham was characterized by sacrificial living.  Abraham was willing to sacrifice – to leave his country, his people and his father’s household to follow the LORD.  He was willing to let his nephew Lot choose what appeared to be the better part of the land in order to keep peace.  He was willing to live like an alien and stranger in the very land that God had promised to give him.  And most famously, he was willing to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac.  We read in our passage vv. 17-19, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death”.  How did Abraham face such a difficult trial?  By faith.  He trusted the Lord and therefore he was willing to give up everything for Him.  When the Lord stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, He said, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”  This illustrates what Jesus said:  “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  Abraham lived that way.  He lived sacrificially.

But that’s Abraham, we might argue.  What does he have to do with us?  A lot.  Look at the final two verses in Hebrews 11: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”  Abraham’s footsteps of faith led him to Christ, for it is only through Christ that anyone is saved, whether they be you or me or Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob or Moses.  Their faith, like ours, must rest in Jesus Christ.  And so Abraham is not separate from us, rather he is an example for us.

And so, when we reach Hebrews 12, we read: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.”  We are surrounded by those faithful followers who have gone before us and who show us, as one writer suggests, “that faith is worth it.”  And so, as the writer of Hebrews proclaims: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

As we run the race; as we walk the Way, we keep our eyes on Jesus, but also recognize the great cloud of witnesses that surround us.  With eyes fixed on Jesus, we walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had, trusting the Almighty, the LORD, the “God,” as Paul writes, “who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

With faith, like Abraham, we trust God’s promises; we follow in spite of the impossibilities; we run the race with perseverance, for we are fully persuaded that God has power to do what He has promised!