Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Hebrews 11:32-12:3
Hebrews 11:32 And what more shall I say? I do not have
time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and 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. There
were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain
an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains
and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two;
they were killed 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, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none
of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something
better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Hebrews 12:1 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 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of
faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured
such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
-- this
weekend marked the official start of the fall holiday season, as cooler weather
welcomed in Halloween celebrations throughout south Georgia – whether you
realize it or not, Halloween is a major holiday here in the U.S. – people spend
a lot of money on Halloween each year, with over $9 billion dollars poured out
annually for candy, decorations, and costumes – probably more this year if you’ve
priced candy lately -- and when it comes to decorations, more people decorate
their homes for Halloween than for any other holiday except Christmas
-- most
people consider Halloween a harmless, fun holiday where we dress up in costumes
and go trick-or-treating and watch scary movies -- but you'll always hear from
a group of people that feel Halloween is evil and should not be celebrated or
promoted by Christians – that’s why a lot of churches don’t have a Halloween
celebration on October 31st, but instead call it “Fall Festival” -- like
changing the name does anything when you’re still encouraging kids to come out
to your church in costume and get candy on Halloween night – but in celebrating
Fall Festivals instead of Halloween, they’re actually neglecting a religious
holiday that has been celebrated in the church for centuries
II. Historical Origins of Halloween and All
Saints Day
-- in case
you’ve been unsure about Halloween and whether it’s okay for Christians to
celebrate and participate in Halloween events on this night, I wanted to take a
few moments to talk about Halloween and, more importantly, the religious
holiday of All Saints Day that follows Halloween on November 1st
-- let’s begin by considering what
the name Halloween means – I really like etymology – studying how words were
derived and how people came up with them, especially town names, because I
think you can learn a lot about things if you know why they are called by this
particular name and not another
-- think for a moment about the
breakdown of the name Halloween – what that word means
– Hallow, of course, means “holy” –
like when we pray in the Lord’s prayer, “hallowed be Thy Name,” meaning “Holy
be Thy Name”
-- “een” is a suffix that is a contraction
meaning “evening” – so, Halloween is technically “Holy Evening” and is
recognized as the night before the Christian holiday of All Saints Day, which
is traditionally celebrated on November 1st
-- before
we get into the history of Halloween and why I believe it is okay for
Christians to recognize it and celebrate it, let’s look first at the religious
holiday, All Saints Day
--
throughout church history, various churches and organizations would set aside
special services to recognize and remember the saints of the church, especially
those who had been persecuted for their faith – these services were informal –
and churches would celebrate the saints on different days and in different ways,
although most of them would do so around Easter or Pentecost
-- in the
800s, the churches in the British Isles formalized the date for recognizing the
saints of the church and all of them began celebrating their version of All
Saints Day on November 1st – the reason the churches in the British
Isles chose this date was because of the ancient Druid celebration of Samhain
[Spell Samhain] – pronounced "Sow-In" or "Sah-win" and not
"Sam-Hane" --
-- Samhain
[Saw-win] was a Gaelic celebration at the end of the harvest season, typically celebrated
from October 31st through November 1st – the timing of this pagan holiday puts
it right in the middle of fall -- half-way between the autumnal equinox and the
winter solstice
-- in Druid
pagan theology, Samhain [Saw-win] was the god of the dead -- and the druids
believed that on October 31st, Samhain [Saw-win] would send the spirits of the
wicked back to earth to torment people as the days began growing shorter and
darkness increased on the earth
-- in order to protect themselves
from these evil spirits, the people would light bonfires on the hills as a
means of bringing light to the darkness and warding off evil spirits – additionally,
they would dress up and put on costumes to disguise themselves to keep the evil
spirits from knowing who they were -- the thought was that if the evil spirits couldn't
recognize them as humans, they would leave them alone
-- as
Christianity spread into Ireland and Scotland in the British Isles, the early
Christian missionaries -- think St. Patick here -- were confronted with this
pagan holiday, which was basically celebrated by everyone, including the newly
converted Christians – it was ingrained in their culture, and everyone
participated in it – which put the church in a quandary -- what could the
church do about this festival? -- how could the church counter this pagan
theology?
-- well,
the answer is they co-opted it -- they took Samhain (Saw-win) over and
Christianized the date and the celebration – they told the Christians to begin celebrating
this night as the evening before the holy holiday of All Saints Day – which all
the churches in the British Isles began recognizing as a holiday on November 1st
– in doing so, the Christian church
took the original pagan influences of this day and turned them into a Christian
observance, nullifying the pagan theology and introducing a Christian understanding
for Samhain [saw-win]
-- as this change took over and
more and more Christians accepted it throughout the British Isle, it naturally
started to spread beyond the British Isles to other churches in Europe – it became
so popular that in the eighth and ninth centuries, Pope Gregory III and Pope
Gregory IV issued decrees moving All Saints Day, an established Christian
holiday, from May 13th to November 1st to align it with the
celebrations established by the churches in the British Isles
-- while doing so, the Catholic
church understood the traditions of people dressing up and disguising
themselves associated with Samhain (saw-win) and now Halloween, so, rather than
fighting against these traditions, Pope Gregory III said that Christians could
continue to dress up and wear disguises, but they should dress up as saints and
not as evil spirits, in keeping with Halloween being the evening before All
Saints Day 1, 2
-- with
these changes and acceptance by the entire Catholic Church, Samhain [Saw-win]
ceased to exist, and Halloween formally came into existence -- so, regardless
of what a lot of people think, Halloween is a Christian holiday -- it is not
the same thing as Samhain [Sow-win] -- it is a distinct Christian celebration
held the night before All Saints Day, the day we recognize and remember the
saints of the church – if it helps, you can think of Halloween as a redeemed
pagan holiday
-- in the
time remaining, I want us to turn our attention to the religious holiday of All
Saints Day – while All Saints Day is officially on November 1st –
the day after Halloween – churches celebrate this day on the first Sunday in
November – so, sometimes it is on November 1st or, as it is this
year, another day
-- All
Saints Day is not a familiar holiday for many of us in the Protestant Church,
but it is making a comeback, although we have a different understanding of what
a saint is than the Catholic Church
-- when we celebrate All Saints
Day, we are recognizing God’s truth that we are all saints in His kingdom – and
on this day, 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
III. What is a Saint?
-- so, 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 about an extremely holy person like Mother
Teresa or Pope John Paul II or Francis of Assisi -- men and women canonized by
the Catholic Church and elevated to their special 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 as someone who is a believer in Christ -- 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 according to
the Bible
-- 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 simply a believer of Christ – a Christian -- 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.”3
-- 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
IV. Scripture
Lesson (Hebrews 11:32-12:2)
-- 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 And what more shall I say? I do not have
time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and 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. There
were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain
an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains
and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two;
they were killed 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, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none
of them received what had been promised, 40 since 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 Christians – these saints that the writer of Hebrews mentions here? --
it’s faith -- particularly, the faith that these individuals had that was so
strong that they believed and trusted in the promises of God even though there
was no physical evidence or sight to prove their faith
-- this lines up with what the
writer of Hebrew says is 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 – what they had was true faith – and I think that this is what
defines whether someone is a true saint or not – do they live their lives
standing on the promise of God over the realities of their situation? – do they
trust and believe in God and His promises even when they can’t see Him?
-- that is
what makes a person a saint – not when the Catholic Church canonizes someone
and says they are a saint – not when someone’s name is merely on a church roll
or they happen to come to church on a regular basis – a person is a saint when
they have true faith and are living their lives for Christ – that is the true
definition of a saint
-- so, what
does it mean to celebrate such saints on All Saints Day? -- look at Hebrews 12:1
Hebrews 12:1 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 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of
faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured
such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
-- “therefore,
since we are surrounded by such as great cloud of witnesses”
-- there are two things I want you
to see there in that phrase
-- first, the
writer of Hebrews is referring us back to Hebrews Chapter 11 – to the list that
he gives of the heroes of faith -- he is pointing them out to us -- not to
exalt them or to lift them up – not to say that they are better than us or more
holy than us -- but to make the case that we, as the living saints of the
church, are to imitate them – that we are to look at how they lived and how they
stood on their faith in God even when times were bad – that we are to live just
like them in our lives and with our actions and our behaviors
-- and, to
be honest, it should be easier for us to live out our faith today than it was
for 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 written about in Hebrews Chapter 11 didn’t have
the Holy Spirit indwelling them – before the Cross, the Holy Spirit did not
indwell believers but would come on them and His grace would empower them for
the moment -- they didn’t have His presence with them 24/7 like believers do
now
-- as Christians on this side of
the cross, 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 we are surrounded by such a great cloud of
witnesses,” calls to mind is the reference to the church universal – what the
Apostles Creed calls “the holy catholic church,” with catholic meaning
universal
-- this phrase reminds us that this
gathering here this morning is not the whole church -- we are merely part of
the church -- part of the body of Christ as a whole – we who are gathered here
today at Naylor Community Christian Church are joined together with believers
across this entire world to make up the entire body of Christ – the church
universal
-- and this
phrase reminds us that the church doesn’t just exist at this moment in time --
the church and the kingdom of God is timeless -- it is made up of all the
saints -- all the believers -- of all time -- past, present, and future – those
who have died and gone on to their heavenly reward – those present on earth
right now – and those who will become Christians at some point in the 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 the witness of the saints listed in Chapter 11 – because of their examples
of faith -- 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 – and to fix our eyes on Jesus and 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
V. 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
-- Holy Communion
is a means of grace – a time when we commune with each other and remember who
Christ is and what He has done for us -- a time when we remember His death and
resurrection -- a time when we remember our experiences with Him
-- but it
is more than that -- it is also a time to affirm who we are as believers -- to stand
up and affirm our faith – to come together as one body and one people -- not
separated by time or place -- but joined together through Christ our Lord
-- as the
body of Christ on earth, we are 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
-- when we
come together to celebrate the sacrament of Holy Communion, we are reminded
that we are all saints called to be witnesses of His love – and to live our
lives in such a way that the light shines through us
--
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 the Bible tells us we are
-- let us
pray
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1 Alan Rudnick, "7 Reasons Why a Christian Should
Celebrate Halloween," http://www.alanrudnick.org/2010/10/28/7-reasons-why-christians-should-celebrate-halloween/
2 Wikipedia articles:
https://en.wikpedia/org/wiki/* -- Samhain; Halloween; Easter; Christmas#Relation_to_concurrent_celebrations
3 Scott Jensen, “All Saints Day Sermon” http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/all-saints-day-scott-jensen-sermon-on-apologetics-general-74229.asp?page=0
