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Uncaged: Freedom in Faith • Sermon • Submitted
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Freedom in Faith
BACKGROUND/CONTEXT:
About a.d. 150, fierce anti-Christian persecution erupted in Asia Minor. One of the most famous examples of these trials occurred in Smyrna in a.d. 156. The rabble of the city demanded that Christian leaders swear obedience to Caesar by burning incense before his statue and affirming, “Caesar is Lord.” Polycarp served as bishop of Smyrna. His persistent devotion to Christ for decades had made him a highly visible local figure. When an unruly mob looked for Christians to humiliate, they called for Polycarp. A police squad went to get the aged Christian leader. The captain, probably wanting to spare Polycarp from the coming hardship, said, “What harm is there in saying that Caesar is Lord? Swear loyalty to Caesar and save yourself.” Polycarp refused the captain’s request, and they hauled him to the city arena. There the proconsul of Asia renewed the plea and said to him, “Consider your age. Swear by the divinity of Caesar. Just say, ‘Away with the atheists.’ ”Polycarp knew that the true atheists were those who denied the deity of Christ, not those who refused to acknowledge the divinity of Caesar. He waved his hand toward the pagan crowd and exclaimed, “Away with the atheists.” The proconsul still insisted, “Take the oath of loyalty to Caesar, and I will let you go. Revile Christ.”Then Polycarp made a noble confession: “Eighty-six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my Saviour and King?” Further argument with Polycarp proved useless, and they sent him to the stake. Polycarp’s martyrdom did two things. It produced a temporary revulsion against martyrdoms among the pagan population. The pagan crowd had no stomach for burning old men at the stake. It also gave Christians a high level of credibility before their pagan neighbors. If Christianity could produce people like Polycarp, then even pagan people were interested in their source of conviction and commitment.
We’re saved by looking BACK. before Jesus people were saved by looking FORWARD.
EXEGESIS:
10:32–34. An effective way to fortify people against future trials is to remind them of the courage they displayed in past ones. This is precisely what the writer did. His readers knew what it was to stand their ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. (The words “stood your ground” [hypemeinate] render the verb usually translated “persevered,” as in, e.g., v. 36). They knew what it was to be publicly shamed and persecuted, and also to support others who had such experiences (v. 33). They had shown sympathy for brethren who had been imprisoned, and they had suffered property loss with joy because they had an assurance of possessing heavenly wealth (v. 34). They would do well to recall now their steadfastness in the past. Whatever they might now be facing—and the writer suggested it might be something similar—they would be helped if they would remember those earlier days after they had received the light (cf. “received the knowledge” in v. 26 and “enlightened” in 6:4).
10:35–36. This was no time for them, then, to throw away their confidence (parrēsia, cf. 3:6; 4:16; 10:19). As the author’s exposition of the eternal inheritance—the glory of the many sons—had sought to show, that confidence, if retained, will be richly rewarded. What the readers needed, therefore, was just what the writer had often said and implied: to persevere (lit., “you had need of perseverance,” hypomonēs echete chreian) so that by thus doing God’s will (cf. v. 9) they would receive what God had promised. As much as anything, these words express the central exhortation of the Book of Hebrews.
11:1–3. In a brief Prologue the author set forth three fundamental considerations about faith: its basic nature, the honor associated with it, and its way of seeing things. In its essence faith is being sure (hypostasis, rendered “being” in reference to God in 1:3) … and certain (elenchos, from the verb elenchō, “to prove or convince”) about unseen hopes and realities. That this is honorable is seen in the fact that Old Testament worthies, the ancients, were commended for it. Faith is also a way of viewing all experience since it is the way in which believers see the universe (tous aiōnas, lit., “the ages,” also rendered “the universe” in 1:2) for what it is—a creation by God.