(All Saints’ Day)
1 November 2015
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Hebrews 11:32-12:2
Hebrews 11:32-40 (NIV)
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell
about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered
justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of
the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in
battle and routed foreign armies.
35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a
better resurrection.
36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were
chained and put in prison.
37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put
to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute,
persecuted and mistreated--
38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in
deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of
them received what had been promised.
40 God had planned something better for us so that only
together with us would they be made perfect.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)
1 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.
2 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.
-- as we
mentioned in our message last week on the true meaning of Halloween – All
Hallows Eve or Hallowed Evening – October 31st was traditionally the
evening before one of the church’s annual holy days – All Saints Day – the day
the church has set aside for the remembrance and celebration of the saints of
the church – especially those saints who have gone before
-- however,
since the original establishment of this holy day in the church in the eighth
century, we have since set aside the first Sunday of November as the day we
officially celebrate All Saints Day, regardless of whether it is the day after
Halloween or not
-- All
Saints Day is not a familiar holiday for many of us in the Protestant Church,
but it is making a comeback -- when we celebrate All Saints Day, we are
recognizing God’s truth that we are all saints in His kingdom -- we celebrate
God’s redeeming grace in our lives and we remember the church universal --
those believers who have gone before us and who established the foundation of
the church -- as well as those believers who currently make up the entire body
of Christ, especially those who are being persecuted for their faith
-- in many
churches, All Saints Day is a day to remember the saints of that particular
congregation who have passed away in the past year
-- so this
morning, I wanted to spend some time talking about saints
II. What is a Saint?
-- What
comes to mind when you hear the word “Saint?” -- when the world hears someone
called “Saint,” most of them think of this -- people sitting on a cloud in
heaven holding a harp -- or they think of Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul II or
Francis of Assisi -- men and women
canonized by the Catholic Church and elevated to the status of “saint”
-- this
concept of a Saint as promulgated by the Catholic Church has become so
predominant in our society that this colors what we think when we hear someone
described as “Saint” -- even though most of us Protestants understand the
biblical definition of a saint, we still tend to use the word in the same way
as the Catholic Church -- we talk about Saint Augustine -- St. Valentine -- St.
Francis -- and while these men were certainly saints, we need to recognize what
a saint really is
-- what
about this person? -- is this a Saint? -- how about this one? -- or this one?
-- or this one?
-- yeah,
these are all saints as defined by the Bible -- so just to make sure we’re all
on the same page, what does the Bible mean when it speaks of the saints of the
church?
-- the
first thing you should know is that the word Saint is never singular in the
Bible -- it is always plural -- there is no such thing in the Bible as Saint
John or Saint Paul or Saint Matthew -- the Greek word that is translated as
saints in our Bibles is Hagio-- it
always occurs in the plural form and it always refers to the true believers in
the church -- in the introduction of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul wrote to
“the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus,” speaking of all the
believers who gathered together in worship in that place
-- Hagio literally means “set apart” or
“holy” -- it refers to someone who has been set apart and sanctified by the
grace of God -- so a saint is a believer of Christ -- someone who has been set
apart from the world and made holy through washing in the blood of the Lamb -- if
you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and trust in Him for your
salvation, you are a saint -- that is the biblical definition of a saint
-- as Scott
Jensen pointed out, “it is not how we live that makes us saints, but how Christ
lived for us, died for us, and rose for us -- your baptism into Christ makes
you a saint -- your eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ makes you
a saint -- your being absolved of your sins makes you a saint.” -- Scott
Jensen, “All Saints Day Sermon” http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/all-saints-day-scott-jensen-sermon-on-apologetics-general-74229.asp?page=0
-- so the
first point I want you to get about the concept of saints is that the Bible
never sets apart singular individuals in a church and calls them “Saint” as a
title or honorific -- when the Bible uses the word saint, it is always plural
and is always used to refer to a group of believers
-- but the
definition of a saint in the Bible doesn’t really stop there -- I believe the
Bible teaches there is more to being a saint than just sitting in a church
service on Sunday morning
-- Hebrews
Chapter 11 has been called the chapter of faith in the Bible -- if you just
skim through this chapter, you’ll see the word faith used over and over again
-- it is in this chapter that we are given the definition of faith in Hebrews
11:1 -- “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not
see” -- and then it goes on to list what we call the “heroes of the faith,”
those men and women who lived out their faith in such a way they were
recognized by both God and man
-- we read
here of the faith of Abel and Enoch -- of Noah and Abraham -- the faith of
Moses -- the faith of the Israelites who went into the Promised Land and
established the nation of Israel as commanded by God -- and we read of the
faith of many unnamed men and women who stood for God in the face of
persecution
-- look
back at Hebrews 11:32 and let’s read that passage again
Hebrews 11:32-40
(NIV)
32 And what more
shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah,
David, Samuel and the prophets,
33 who through faith
conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut
the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the fury
of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to
strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
35 Women received
back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be
released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
36 Some faced jeers
and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
37 They were stoned;
they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in
sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--
38 the world was not
worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes
in the ground.
39 These were all
commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
40 God had planned
something better for us so that only together with us would they be made
perfect.
-- what is the common
denominator of these saints that the writer of Hebrews mentions here? -- it’s
faith -- particularly, the faith that believed even though there was no
physical evidence or sight to prove their faith -- remember the definition of
faith? -- being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”
-- these
men and women trusted in God’s promise even though they never saw the promise
fulfilled -- true faith -- true saints -- live their lives standing on the
promise of God over the realities of their situation
-- look at
Chapter 12
Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)
1 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.
2 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.
-- “therefore,
since you are surrounded by such as great cloud of witnesses” -- there’s two
things this means for us:
-- first, the
writer of Hebrews is referring us back to this roll call of the heroes of faith
-- he is pointing them out to us -- not to exalt them or to lift them up -- but
to make the case that we, as the living saints of the church, are to imitate
them with our lives and our actions and our behaviors
-- just as
they stood up and lived their lives for God, so we, too, are to live our lives
for Christ -- and, to be honest, it should be easier for us to live out our
faith than those men and women the writer mentions in Chapter 11
-- for one
thing, we have seen the Promise -- we have seen the fulfillment of the promise
they longed for -- we have seen the Messiah -- we have been touched by the
living Christ -- although we may not have seen Jesus in the flesh as the early
disciples did, we have seen and felt Jesus in our lives as He has touched us
and ministered to us through His grace
-- and,
also, we have God’s Holy Spirit living within us to help us live out our lives
of faith -- the men and women in Chapter 11 didn’t have the Holy Spirit
indwelling them -- He would come on them and His grace would empower them for
the moment, but they didn’t have His presence with them 24/7 like believers do
now -- we have been empowered and graced with the actual presence of God in our
lives 24/7, and so we should be living out our faith in even greater ways than
the heroes of the faith we read about in this chapter
-- the
second thing this phrase, “since you are surrounded by such a great cloud of
witnesses,” calls to mind is the reference to the church universal -- this gathering
here this morning is not the church -- we are merely part of the church -- part
of the body of Christ as a whole
-- and this
phrase makes the point that the church doesn’t just exist at this moment in
time -- the church is timeless -- it is made up of all the saints -- all the
believers -- of all time -- past, present, and future
-- the
writer of Hebrews is making the point that we are connected to these heroes of
the faith because we are part of one body, sanctified and set apart by God to
be the light bearers in this dark world -- those who have gone before us still
live and still serve God and are still part of His Kingdom, although they may
be physically absent from us -- and what we do as believers of Christ here on
earth reflects on the church as a whole
-- because
of their witness and their example, the writer of Hebrews goes on to tell us to
do as they did -- to throw off anything that is hindering our walk with Christ
-- to cast off the sins that so easily entangle us -- to fix our eyes on Jesus
and to run towards Him
-- that is
why I contend that being a saint is more than just being saved -- to be a saint
means you actually live out your faith -- you actually stand on the foundation
of the church and the promise of God and you live it out daily in your life --
to be a saint is to be different -- to be a saint is to be a witness in this
world of the saving power of Christ
-- I like
what William Barclay said -- “A saint is someone whose life makes it easier to
believe in God” -- we should all be saints like that
III. Closing
-- when I
served at Wright’s Chapel Methodist Church, the first thing that struck me when
I walked into their sanctuary were the stained glass windows that surrounded
the congregation -- the windows showed pictures from Jesus’ life and if you
followed them around the room, you would see the entire story of His life, from
His birth to His resurrection -- but the other thing you would see in these
pictures were the heroes of the faith, the disciples and saints who lived out
their lives in obedience to Christ’s call
-- thinking
about saints in stained glass windows reminds me of the story of a young boy
and his grandfather who were taking a tour of a large cathedral in Europe --
like Wright’s Chapel, this cathedral had expansive stained glass windows
showing the saints of the church -- and, as they walked along, the young boy
asked his grandfather, “Who are the people in these pictures?” -- “They’re
saints” -- “Oh,” the boy said, “Saints are people the light shines through”
-- what a
perfect definition of a true saint -- a person the Light shines through
-- that is
who the heroes of the faith in Chapter 11 were -- and that is who the writer of
Hebrews is calling us to be -- men and women of faith -- true believers --
saints
-- this
morning as we set aside a day to remember and recognize the saints of the
church and our calling to live out our faith as modern day saints, I wanted us
to share together in Holy Communion
-- last
night at the Emmaus Gathering, Bob Ellis made the point that Holy Communion was
a time of remembrance -- a time of remembering who Christ is and what He has
done for us -- a time to remember His death and resurrection -- a time to
remember our experiences with Him
-- but it
is more than that -- it is also a time to affirm who we are as believers -- to
come together as one body and one people -- not separated by time or place --
but joined together through Christ our Lord
-- one with
all of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews Chapter 11
-- one with
all those men and women who have gone before and who lived their lives
faithfully for the gospel
-- one with
all the men and women in this world today who call upon the name of Jesus and
look for His soon return
-- and one
with all those who will believe because of our witness and our testimony in
this world
--
remembering that we are all saints called to be witnesses of His love
--
therefore, as we share in this holy sacrament -- this sacred moment with God --
let us remember and let us cast off anything that is hindering our walk with
Him -- let us put aside our sins -- and fix our eyes on Jesus -- and live our
lives as the saints that we are
-- let us
pray
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