One Hero
We sometimes call Hebrews chapter eleven "The Hall of Faith". I guess we mean it's like a heavenly version of Cooperstown, where spiritual giants are enshrined in God's Holy Word. I want us to re-think our heroes for a moment. In our day and age even mature Christians can succumb to celebrity ism. We "celebrate" the great among us almost to a point dangerously close to "worship". When we do that we tend to rose color our view of them. In the process we can get our focus way out of focus. We can forget what true greatness is and we can forget that there really is only One Hero.
Hebrews 11:31 records the name of one of my favorite "greats", Rahab. James also references her in the New Testament as a prime example of faith. We are first introduced to her in Joshua chapter 2. Within the first four verses about her we find out she is a prostitute and a liar. When our focus gets out of focus, we're tempted to forget about people like Rahab. When we forget her, we're dangerously close to forgetting the only real Hero and what He is all about. She is great for one reason, she threw herself on the mercy of the only truly Great One. Her life tells one central story: God is more amazing, loving, forgiving and gracious than we can fathom.
God had formed Rahab in His image as a precious child of infinite worth and potential. She had desecrated that image of God in her so thoroughly that she sold her body to earn money from immoral men. She was a citizen of a doomed people-group characterized by rank immorality and open rebellion against Yahweh and His people. She was a faded aluminum can thrown on the refuse heap of human history, but . . . she heard about God. She knew He was the true God and she cried out to Him for mercy. Here is where we meet the actual Hero. He heard her cry and saved her. How amazing! What a Champion!
But her life reveals an even deeper Greatness in our Hero, for we find her name in one other New Testament passage, Matthew chapter 1, in the lineage of the Messiah. It turns out that Rahab's son was quite a heroic man, Boaz. You can read his story in the book of Ruth. Rahab's great, great grandson was King David, a murderer/adulterer after God's own heart. Through Rahab, ultimately came Jesus, the Savior.
The Hero is so heroic that He not only is willing to save a prostitute, but He is willing to use her mightily in His eternal kingdom's work. Men, let me recommend two applications for us today:
1. Don't forget it's all God and it's all grace. My old professor used to say, "There are no great men of God, there are only men of the Great God". Don't project a false sense of what's heroic. If we only hold up or reference those who've never stumbled, we'll become greatly hypocritical and we'll have to ignore most of the people in the Bible. Greatness isn't never stumbling. Greatness in only found in the Great God Who lavishes radical grace on wretched sinners, of whom we are all chief.
2. God can and will use you greatly, if you'll let Him. Rahab says so. Because He is so great and heroic, there is hope for you and me. You're not too far gone. Throw yourself fully on His mercy one day at a time and watch Him work.
Hebrews 11:31 records the name of one of my favorite "greats", Rahab. James also references her in the New Testament as a prime example of faith. We are first introduced to her in Joshua chapter 2. Within the first four verses about her we find out she is a prostitute and a liar. When our focus gets out of focus, we're tempted to forget about people like Rahab. When we forget her, we're dangerously close to forgetting the only real Hero and what He is all about. She is great for one reason, she threw herself on the mercy of the only truly Great One. Her life tells one central story: God is more amazing, loving, forgiving and gracious than we can fathom.
God had formed Rahab in His image as a precious child of infinite worth and potential. She had desecrated that image of God in her so thoroughly that she sold her body to earn money from immoral men. She was a citizen of a doomed people-group characterized by rank immorality and open rebellion against Yahweh and His people. She was a faded aluminum can thrown on the refuse heap of human history, but . . . she heard about God. She knew He was the true God and she cried out to Him for mercy. Here is where we meet the actual Hero. He heard her cry and saved her. How amazing! What a Champion!
But her life reveals an even deeper Greatness in our Hero, for we find her name in one other New Testament passage, Matthew chapter 1, in the lineage of the Messiah. It turns out that Rahab's son was quite a heroic man, Boaz. You can read his story in the book of Ruth. Rahab's great, great grandson was King David, a murderer/adulterer after God's own heart. Through Rahab, ultimately came Jesus, the Savior.
The Hero is so heroic that He not only is willing to save a prostitute, but He is willing to use her mightily in His eternal kingdom's work. Men, let me recommend two applications for us today:
1. Don't forget it's all God and it's all grace. My old professor used to say, "There are no great men of God, there are only men of the Great God". Don't project a false sense of what's heroic. If we only hold up or reference those who've never stumbled, we'll become greatly hypocritical and we'll have to ignore most of the people in the Bible. Greatness isn't never stumbling. Greatness in only found in the Great God Who lavishes radical grace on wretched sinners, of whom we are all chief.
2. God can and will use you greatly, if you'll let Him. Rahab says so. Because He is so great and heroic, there is hope for you and me. You're not too far gone. Throw yourself fully on His mercy one day at a time and watch Him work.
What a great reminder. Certainly others need to see the heroic Christ reflected in our lives as men.
Those who, today, are giving their lives around the world, dying because they are Christians, IMHO, are heroes of the first order.
To me, folks like the coaches and teachers in Michigan, who are Christians, that have been fired by the Muslim principal of their school because he doesn't want Christians teaching in his public school are heroes.
But, there are those among our fellow church members who I also think are heroes:
- Those who show up week after week to change diapers in the nursery and care for the littlest ones.
- Those who teach the kids while the rest of us enjoy Sunday school and worship.
- Those who man the prayer room day and night.
- Those who tithe their income, even when it means giving up vacations, better "stuff", and cutting back on food and do so solely out of love for Christ.
- Those who, week after week, spend hours preparing to teach Sunday School.
- The ministerial staff (and their families) who labor, pray, and sacrifice in order to serve Christ through this local church with excellence and exceptionalism.
- The full- and part-time church staff who give their best for a relatively low salary when they could be earning more money elsewhere.
- The music and worship staff that are at the church earlier on Sunday morning than most of us get up.
- All the other folks who truly sacrifice and go beyond the call to serve God where they are because they love Him.
The great Biblical heroes are an example to us. But do we not also have some living examples among us that reflect the heroism of the Biblical greats?
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Tom,
What a great message! We live in such a culture of celebrity, that it pervades almost every aspect of our lives. Thanks for helping us re-focus on the one true Hero.
Rick Burgess
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Thanks Tom for a great reminder of God's forgiveness and his greatness. We all need to be pulled back from the precipice of man-worship and refocused on the great God we serve.
Like you I am encouraged that there is room in the hall of heroes (and heroines) for Rahab the hooker, not based on her goodness but on God's.
It's the only ticket that lets any of us in.
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What a great lesson and reminder of who are "heroes" really should be. In a time where many are more concerned with where Lebron James will end up than anything else, it's important to remember where our faith SHOULD lie and who are heroes SHOULD be.
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