Wednesday, June 18, 2008, Part 2

"Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Hebrews 11:35).

IDEA: Some Christians have been delivered from death, but the highest victory of active faith is victory over death.

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that in Christ we have a guarantee of a victory over death.

There's a phrase in Hebrews 11:35 that grabs me by the imagination: "Others were tortured to death, not accepting their deliverance, that they should obtain a better resurrection."

This doesn't reflect any specific incident found in the Old Testament. It could refer to an event after the Old Testament was closed and before the New Testament was written.

I. What do you think is behind this reference?

Evidently there were people who were threatened with death unless they renounced their faith in God. If they rejected their faith, they would live. But if they would not reject their faith, they would die.

Christians in the Roman Empire were given that choice. If they would not reject their faith they would be fed to the lions or were made into flaming torches to light the Emperor's garden.

Christians in the 16th century were given that choice or they would be burned at the stake (for example, Hugh Latimer and Bileny).

People in certain Muslim countries today have been beaten and threatened with death if they have become believers.

Some have renounced their faith to stay alive, but many have chosen to go to death.

How could anyone make the choice to die for his or her faith?

II. Christians have prayed that they might be delivered from death, but they lived in the reality that the greatest victory of faith is victory over death.

There are more important things in life than merely living. People who were not Christians have died for their country or for their families.

Christians go to death with the confidence that through faith in Jesus they will have "a better resurrection."