Deo Gloria
Sermon for November 2, 2025
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Hebrews 11:32-40
Theme: By Faith, You Can Too!
How many of you have been to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY? I hope to some day. I’ve heard it’s a pretty cool place. There you can read articles and watch video clips and see memorabilia from the greatest players in the history of baseball; people like Babe Ruth and Micky Mantle, Cy Young and Sandy Koufax, Rod Carew and Joe Mauer. Of course, the purpose of the hall of fame is not just to remember great players and their accomplishments. It also is to inspire the next generation, to inspire little league players today to become the next Babe Ruth or the next Sandy Koufax or the next Joe Mauer, the next one to hit over 500 home runs, slug over 4,000 hits, drive in over 2,000 runs, or throw a perfect game.
The same is true of God’s hall of fame, or his hall of faith, as we like to call it, recorded here in Hebrews ch. 11. The author takes us on a walk down memory lane, reminding us of some of the outstanding people in the history of the Bible, some of the heroes of faith, people who demonstrated tremendous faith in God and his promises and often accomplished amazing things. In the previous verses the author tells us about people like Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Joseph and Moses and the people of Israel. Who can forget Noah and his faith in building an ark at the time of the flood? Who can forget Abraham and the faith he demonstrated in God’s promises, who finally had a son when he was 100 years old and then was even willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, because God asked him to? Who can forget Moses and the 10 plagues or the Children of Israel and their walking through the Red Sea on dry land?
And there’s so many more he could tell us about, if only there were time: people like Gideon who defeated the Midianites with a mere 300 men; Barak, who defeated Sisera and his army with its 900 iron chariots; Samson, who tore the gates off the city of Gaza and carried them almost 40 miles away; Jephthah, who defeated the Ammonites; David, who killed Goliath and defeated the Philistines; and Samuel, who served as Israel’s very first prophet. Then there are other people like Daniel, who shut the mouths of the lions; Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, who escaped the flames in the fiery furnace; Elijah, who called down fire from heaven; the widow of Zarephath, whose dead son was raised back to life; Jeremiah, who was arrested for proclaiming the message of God’s Word and thrown into a cistern full of mud and left to die; and Isaiah, who penned those beautiful Messianic prophecies that the children often recite at Christmas time and according to tradition was sawn in two under King Manasseh. And he could go on and on, so many people who demonstrated great faith in God and his promises, who accomplished great things, amazing things for God and his people, people who often were persecuted and mistreated and suffered tremendous things but refused to compromise, refused to deny their faith or turn their backs on God.
So how could they do such things? How could they conquer armies and defeat giants and survive in a fiery furnace and call down fire from heaven and bring the dead back to life and maintain their faith in God in the face of torture and persecution? How could they do that? By faith. That’s what the author tells us in v. 33, right? In fact, that’s the theme that runs all throughout ch. 11. By faith Enoch was taken from this life to heaven. By faith Noah built an ark. By faith Abraham had a son when he was 100 years old. By faith Moses kept the Passover and delivered God’s people from slavery in Egypt. By faith the people of Israel walked through the Red Sea on dry land. By faith Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David and Samuel…. It wasn’t because they were so amazing. It wasn’t because they were such perfect people who never did anything wrong, or people who by their own strength and their own sheer force and determination accomplished these incredible things. No, it was all by faith. They trusted in God and his amazing power to help them. They trusted in God’s promises, that he would do exactly what he said, even when it didn’t seem possible. They relied on God’s promises and his strength. They clung to God’s promises and his strength even in the face of overwhelming opposition. And with his power God enabled them to accomplish the incredible. They did it all through faith.
And they did it all even though they never saw God’s greatest promise fulfilled. This is the point the author is making in verses 39+40. Let’s look at those two verses again:
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.
All these people were commended for their faith. They were commended or approved by God through their faith in God and his promises, especially his promise to send a Savior. But they never saw that promise come true. Oh sure, they saw other promises of God come true, but not that one, not the better promise, not greatest promise of all, the promise of a Savior, someone to crush the serpent’s head and free them from his power, someone to rescue them from sin and death and give them forgiveness and eternal life. They trusted in that promise. And they looked forward to the day when that promise would come true, when the Savior finally would come, but they never saw it happen.
But we have. That better promise that God had planned for his people we have seen fulfilled. We know God kept that promise and sent a Savior to deliver his people because it has been recorded for us on the pages of the Bible. We know when God kept that promise and sent a Savior. We know whom he sent: his own Son, Jesus Christ. We know what he did to deliver us from sin and Satan and death: how he gave his life on Calvary’s cross to pay the penalty for all of our sins and rose again in triumph on Easter morning. And we know what has happened as a result: We, together with all those saints, all those heroes of faith from the Old Testament—we have been made perfect. Through faith in Jesus, the promised Savior, our sins have been washed away. And we stand before God as his holy, precious, perfect people, saints who enjoy God’s love and blessing already in this life and who will enjoy eternal life with God and all the saints and angels in heaven.
So how about you? What great and amazing things might you accomplish for God and for his kingdom? “O Pastor Bentz, I could never do that. I could never do something as amazing as Noah did, or Abraham or Gideon or Samson or David or Daniel.” Whoa. Now wait a second. Don’t you have faith in God and his promises? “Well yeah, but….” And don’t you believe in a gracious and mighty God, a God who can still storms and move mountains and raise the dead? “Well yeah, but….” So what’s causing you to doubt? It isn’t your sins, is it, your failures in the past, the times you didn’t stand strong in your faith, the times you waffled and shwaffelled and fumbled and fell? I know. They bother me sometimes too and make me wonder if I could ever do anything great and awesome for God.
But don’t forget, God does not judge you based on your past. He has forgiven your past—all your sins, all your failures, all the times you just plain blew it. He has taken all those sins away through the Savior he promised and sent and now has made you one of his holy, blameless, perfect, precious children. And as one of his children, he promises to be with you. And he promises to hear and answer your prayers. And he promises to help you and be your refuge and strength in every time of trouble. So don’t be afraid, and don’t be discouraged or doubtful. Be confident. Be courageous. Be strong in your faith. Just like God’s people in the past you too can accomplish great things for God and endure great things for God and suffer great things, because you have a mighty God who will strengthen you and help you too.
Now maybe you will never part the waters of the Red Sea or defeat a giant or rout some foreign army or shut the mouths of lions. Maybe the great thing you will accomplish is loving your spouse and staying married to him or her for 40 or 50 years. In our world today that is a pretty amazing accomplishment. Or maybe the amazing thing you will do is teach the children in our day school or our Sunday School for 40 years. Or maybe the great thing you will do is stand up in the face of ridicule and rejection from your classmates and your biology professor and boldly confess that you believe in the Bible and that God created the world. Or maybe you will be that honest, hard-working employee who always does his best, always respects his boss, always treats his co-workers with respect as well, who works hard to provide for his family and does his best to raise his children in the fear and love of the Lord. Or maybe the great thing you will do is care for your mom or your dad in their old age. Or maybe the amazing thing you will do is help serve two funeral meals and a meal for a college choir, all in the same week. Or maybe the amazing thing you will do is befriend a neighbor or a classmate at school. And through your love and kindness and your witness to them about Jesus, they too will come to faith in Jesus Christ and one day spend eternity in heaven too. Don’t discount things like that. Don’t dismiss things like that as if they aren’t very wonderful or great in the eyes of God. In God’s eyes they all are good things. In God’s eyes they all are great things. Everything a Christian does out of faith and love for his Savior is good and pleasing and great!
So don’t be embarrassed, as if you somehow don’t measure up. And don’t be discouraged or doubtful, as if you can’t do great things like these heroes of faith from the past. Through faith in Jesus your Savior, you do measure up. And through faith in Jesus your mighty Lord, you can accomplish great things too. By faith, you can too! Amen.