07/27/2025
Sermon #636 – The Pioneer (Hebrews 11, 12)
Sunday, July 27, 2025 Pastor Gene McBride
Call To Worship: … let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (Hebrews 12:1b-2a)
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Thank you for entrusting me to be your pastor since June 1, 2011. With this position came the responsibility and privilege to lead our exploration of scriptural truths together. For those of you who have been here throughout the past 170 months, you know that I prefer to let the scriptures direct what we learn each week. I hope my style of preaching has sparked in you a greater appreciation for the Bible and a deeper understanding of its message. But even more than that, I hope our times together have been encounters with our God, and that those encounters have sparked a greater love for Him and a deeper understanding of His love for us.
This occasion of my final sermon as your pastor would seem to provide a good time to remember the past, and yet, we all need a word of encouragement for today and direction for the days of change that are ahead for us all. Only through God’s timing could our next passage in Hebrews be the perfect text for today’s sermon. Hebrews chapter 11 remembers characters and stories of the Old Testament and continues into chapter 12 with the perfect word of encouragement and direction.
Though this is our ninth sermon from Hebrews, the book of Hebrews is a single sermon, or teaching. As such, there is a flow of thought that transcends the chapter divides that have been imposed upon it. As a reminder of last week’s sermon, let us begin with a couple of chapter 10’s ending verses in addition to the first two verses of chapter 11…
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. (Hebrews 10:35-36, 11:1-2, NIV2011)
In addition to teaching us about Jesus, the Preacher has emphasized hope while encouraging the readers to persevere. These verses communicate the call to persevere with a confident hope as clearly as any verses in the Bible, and perseverance requires action. The Preacher is correcting our understanding about our hope in Christ. We often may think of hope as just an inner sense of assurance, or even something more closely aligned with a wish or a dream. Instead, the Preacher began chapter 11 defining confident hope and assurance as faith. By connecting confident hope and assurance to faith, the Preacher gives action to our hope in Christ. In verse 2, the Preacher stated that this actionable faith was evidenced and commended in those known as ‘the ancients’. In the following verses, the Preacher looks back across the Old Testament and recalls many encouraging examples of those who persevered in hope and faith I will let the Preacher do the preaching, as I read the next 36 verses from Hebrews 11.…
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel [Gen. 4:2-10] brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch [Gen. 5:21-24] was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” [Gen. 5:24] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7 By faith Noah [Gen. 6-9], when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8 By faith Abraham [Gen. 12-22], when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah [Gen. 18:11-14], who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” [Gen. 21:12] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau [Gen. 27] in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons [Gen. 48], and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones [Gen. 50:24-26].
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses [Ex. 2:1-10], when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover [Ex. 12] and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned [Ex. 14].
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell [Joshua 6], after the army had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the pr******te Rahab [Joshua 2], because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon [Jdg. 6-8], Barak, [Jdg. 4-5] Samson [Jdg. 13-16] and Jephthah [Jdg. 11-12], about David [1 Sam. 16-31] and Samuel [1 Sam. 1-17] and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions [Dan. 6], 34 quenched the fury of the flames [Dan. 3], 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 [1 Ki. 17:17-24, 2 Ki. 4:18-37], 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. (Hebrews 11:3-38)
The Preacher often quoted from the Old Testament in Hebrews, and chapter 11 contains repeated references to Old Testament characters and their stories of faith. The original readers of Hebrews were facing challenges to persevere in their faith, so the Preacher cited several Old Testament examples of others who successfully persevered through even greater challenges. No reader of Hebrews, through the entire history of Christendom, was ever tasked like Noah to build an ark as a refuge for a rain-induced flood when it previously had never rained. Neither was anyone but Abraham so severely tested as to offer a son of promise as a sacrifice to God. Who else but Joshua was ever asked by God to conquer a city simply by marching around it?
Those are just three of the many examples the Preacher gave, and the Preacher admitted that there were many more whose stories of faith could also be included. The point is that God’s people have always faced times that challenged their faith and hope. These stories of faith that are recorded in the Bible are sources of encouragement and guidance for us.
While chapter 11 was the next text for us to explore in Hebrews, I find a strong connection between these examples of faith and the point of the first sermon I ever preached in Pioneer. Before becoming your pastor, you first invited our family to join you for a worship service followed by a time of food and fellowship. Instead of asking me to “sing for my supper”, you asked me to “preach for my lunch”. My first sermon focused on Jesus’ first public miracle at the wedding in Cana. The point of that sermon was Mary’s instruction to the banquet servants – “Do whatever He (Jesus) tells you” (John 2:5b).
The author George MacDonald, a personal favorite of mine, wrote, “What in the heart we call faith, in the will we call obedience". Those listed in Hebrews 11, are examples of faith because they did whatever God told them to do. In 2011, our family left behind our house, our friends, and our church in Mount Vernon to come to Pioneer, solely because we sensed that was what Jesus was telling us to do. I was a database programmer, not a pastor. I felt ill-equipped and under-qualified to live into God’s calling, but God was leading us here, so we followed Him. Nathan was between his freshman and sophomore years of high school, and, like Marianne, had grown up in Mount Vernon. Just as God called me to pastor, He also called them to follow, and it was clear to all three of us, that God was leading us out of Mount Vernon to Pioneer.
After fourteen years of being your pastor, God is making it clear again that it is time to leave behind our home, our friends, and our church in Pioneer to return to Mount Vernon. Once again I feel ill-equipped and under-qualified to live into God’s new calling, but God is leading us there, so we will follow. Our fourteen years here have taught us how God can strengthen and equip us to do what He calls us to do. So, we are returning to Mount Vernon with a confident hope, not in ourselves, but in our God who faithfully led us here and is faithfully leading us still. Our part is simply to “do whatever He tells [us]”.
So, I guess my message to you today is no different than it was in 2011, except we have experienced together the blessings of God for these fourteen years that we have yielded our will to His will. As Jesus said in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Jesus is not our Lord, unless we “do whatever He tells [us]”. The life of faith is not limited to these Old Testament examples, or to our family. The life of faith, of doing whatever Jesus tells you, is not only possible, but also expected of all who declare, “Jesus is Lord”.
Like the Preacher, ‘I do not have time to tell’ all the ways in which God has guided, guarded, and grown us during these fourteen years. Before coming to Pioneer, God was equipping and teaching me to prepare me to be a pastor. During these years with you, God was equipping and teaching me to prepare me to be a professor, specifically a professor with a pastor’s heart for my students and for my fellow employees.
The Preacher listed so many excellent examples of faith in Hebrews 11, but there is one more superior example in Hebrews 12 to ‘consider’…
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.
12 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. (11:39 - 12:3)
The example of Jesus is the greatest example of faith, perseverance, and obedience. We have the others as inspiring examples, but our eyes are fixed on Jesus. The chapter 11 examples may have all lived before Jesus was born, but Jesus is still ‘the pioneer and perfecter of faith’. Knowing the joy that would be ahead, He ‘endured the cross, scorning its shame’. No punishment and death were more humiliating, and painful, than public crucifixion. And yet, Jesus did not allow His aversion to such humiliation and pain to alter His decision to do exactly what God the Father told Him to do.
I know there are days of challenge and uncertainty ahead, and those might include some sense of shame or humiliation but fix your eyes on Jesus. Let His example inspire and empower you to fulfill completely and wholeheartedly what Jesus would ask you to do. ‘Let us throw off everything that hinders’, including sin, and ‘let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us’, confident that ‘God ha[s] planned something better for us’ all.
Closing Prayer and Benediction:
9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
Amen
27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel (1:27)
Service Order:
Welcome
CTW: Hebrews 12:1b-2a
Hymn #327 – Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
Hymn #468 – I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
R.R. #451 - Faith
Hymn #445 – Rock of Ages
Pastoral Prayer
Parishioner Praise – Songs, Stories, and Testimonies
Parishioner Prayer
Offering
Sermon – The Pioneer
Hymn #437 – Trust and Obey (vv. 1, 3, 4)
Prayer and Benediction – Philippians 1:9-11, 27
