Faith in the Thrown-ness of Life (Hebrews 11:32-12:3)
This sermon was preached on August 17th, 2025.
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…
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.
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.
Our lives never go the way we expect. One philosopher described existence as being thrown, and I think that’s a pretty much on the money.
Think about it. We don’t choose where we’re born, when we’re born, the family or situation that we’re born into. And when we do begin making significant choices, it’s not an unlimited range of choices—the reasonable choices in front of us are limited by things outside of our choosing. We are thrown into existence, thrown into a life.
Even if you have a life that you really love, how much of it is something that you would have predicted ten or five years ago? How much of your life is something that you specifically chose? For huge chunks of the most important things in our lives, our choices are significant and real, but the options in front of us are limited by any number of things.
Maturity for most of us is not getting to a point where we think freedom in the thrownness is getting to the point of having unlimited choices. We often get that wrong. We think the truly free and happy person is the one that has no restrictions on them.
But our histories keep proving that wrong. How many stories do we know of people who suddenly won the lottery, had more money they ever imagined in their hands, and turned out miserable—because of their choices? How many people who goes through the mid-life crisis, make poor decisions to chase after their every desire, and leave destruction in their wake for them and their families?
No, true maturity is recognizing this thrown-ness of life and meaningfully acting within it, finding that freedom is the newness that God brings to us in the the thrown-ness, that God offers to us a meaning and a purpose that can weave together these seemingly different threads of our lives into a tapestry. When we can step forward in Him and believe that our thrownness need not be random, but taken up by him, the Great Artist, to build something beautiful and good. To find that the “God of grace can redeem even me—this historical creation—can begin again with this history that lives in me, that is me. It’s the body with scars that is resurrected; it’s the me with a history that is redeemed, forgiven, graced, liberated.” (James KA Smith)
I think it points us to a truth, a truth that the people in our passage today discovered and a truth that can help us to let go of that false idea of freedom and lead us into a true freedom. That true freedom is outward looking and Christ-centered, and that true freedom cannot be found alone.
The Different Experiences of Faith
Our passage today mentions a whole bunch of different people who had experienced the same thrown-ness as us in their very different lives. In verse 32-38, there are at least 15 people being referenced here specifically, some by name, some are mentioned by referring to what they experienced. The timeframe spans 1,300 years and spans different places.
Some of them saw incredible things in their lives. They are people who in the face the difficulties they were thrown into placed their faith in God and saw their trust in God vindicated right in front of their faces. It’s the stories that fill our children’s bibles and imaginations. The stories that we often turn to when we are facing difficulties to inspire us.
That’s not the only group of people this passage mentions. The other group is in verses 36-38. No one’s name is given, but background knowledge tells you that these are people for whom faith in God did not seem to work out at all. Their faith led them to great suffering at the hands of others. Times when they trusted and depended on God and the result wasn’t some miracle or deliverance.
The people in these verses at vastly different lives and experiences that they were thrown into. The tie that binds them together in all their diversity is faith in God, but even their experience of trust and dependence on him was vastly different from one another.
They were thrown into ups and downs and what they found is that the one thing that remained steadfast was not a thing at all. It was a Person—God. In their thrownness, they discovered that God is greater than the ups and downs and that freedom came through faith in Him who does not change.
True Freedom is Found in Looking Outward
The common thread that runs between all these different people and their different lives is faith in God. But I don’t want to skip over the fact that, from one perspective, the benefit of that faith can seem random. For some, it meant incredible victories. For others, maybe most, faith didn’t deliver them and in fact led to their suffering and even deaths.
I think that gives us an important angle on what faith is. It isn’t some superpower that we can call into work and suddenly everything is fixed. Faith isn’t a performance enhancing drug that allows us to operate beyond max capacity. Faith is a relational term of what it means to live in relationship with God—trusting and depending on him. In that way, faith is a unique thing in that it is something that points outside of ourselves and our actions.
Faith points us beyond the horizons that we see. It answers the longing that is found in every human heart—a longing for something that none of the riches of this earth can satisfy. Our restless hearts drive us to consider why we are restless, and how we can find rest and satisfaction. As Augustine famously wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.”
We talk a lot about humanity being made in the image and likeness of God here, and we always will. It’s the most fundamental and basic truth about human beings: that we were created to be copies of God. To reflect him like mirrors, in a way that nothing else he has created can.
But it’s more than mirrors. Mirrors have no voice, no personality, no life. The better image is probably children. We are made to copy our Father, walking in his footsteps and joining in his work. To be nurtured and provided for by him, to live in the freedom of our Father’s delight.
The reality of sin in our world, which is the marring of God’s good creation, means that relationship has been broken in tragic ways, and rather than copy our Father in goodness, we are like rebellious children who try to pursue the opposite of everything our Father is.
True wisdom, which is true freedom, in the different circumstances of life is looking outside of ourselves and outside of what our world here can offer to be oriented toward God. To be oriented toward eternity. As CS Lewis wrote: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
That’s what faith in God reaches out toward. A recognition that we were not made for this brokenness, but our hearts cry out for a world renewed from the power and presence of sin.
This is what all the people mentioned in our passage found, in their relationship with God. Not their “best life now,” because even the ones who experienced remarkable victory and miracles eventually died. And the ones who experienced great suffering and death also experienced joy and delight. It’s what all humanity faces in our lives here.
But faith taught them to look beyond the limited time of their earthly lives, to look beyond themselves, to the eternal and living God who offered to them meaning and mission in the thrown-ness of life. Meaning that came from outside themselves, and a mission whose ultimate goals are not decided by us but are decided by God and guaranteed by God.
And in that, they found a freedom that no bondage on earth could take away. A true and lasting freedom that did not come from themselves or anyone against them, but came form the sovereign God. Another word for this freedom is what Jesus called “eternal life”—not just long life, but a depth of life and love that is inexhaustible because in truth is the eternal and living God giving to us himself. And we, broken creations of him, are swept into his overflowing love.
True Freedom Is Found Together in Jesus
Notice that our passage doesn’t consider these individual people as individuals—in isolation. They are considered as part of a whole: a group that includes all of them listed and also includes us. Notice again verse 39-40:
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 they were longing for was something that would come to its fulness in Jesus Christ. When he, the eternal Son of God who became one of us by taking to himself a complete human nature, like ours, and like us in every way except for sin. And through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus God broke the power of Satan and evil, he broke the power of death and sin, and he won for us a sure victory—guaranteeing in his resurrection the vindication of all of those who place their faith in God.
Think how odd it is to imagine what is said in v40. That all these people listed in Hebrews 11—these massive figures of the faith—are said to have, in a way, needed us to complete what they had been promised. That only with us could they find the perfection and completion that God had won for them.
People have often said something like “I can’t wait to get to heaven so I can talk to _________.” But did you know that if what these verses say is true, they are going to be just as eager to meet you. Not because you’re a superhero, but because all of us, because you, are a unique and unrepeatable instance of God’s glory shining in your redemption.
No one has exactly the same sins and exactly the same struggles. And there are unique aspects of the shining light of God’s glory that can only be seen in you and how he heals and saves you. This is one of the reasons why the community of the church is such a crucial part of a fully-formed faith. Because if I only know my own story of redemption, it’s glorious, but truncated. Incomplete.
But when we walk alongside each other and get to see the unique way that God shines in one another, we grow in our knowledge and love for God. And we become for one another pointers that allow us together to fix our eyes on Jesus.
Not a Christian hero. Remember what our passage says in 12:1—all of these big figures of the faith are witnesses, which necessarily point to another. None of them can do anything for us themselves. They certainly can’t help us throw off everything that hinders or the sins that entangle us.
No one you know here in this church can do that either. There is no priest that can hear your confession and forgive you, no holy woman or holy man that can give you the spiritual strength to continue on. But we can be witnesses to and with one another. And we can lock arms and set Jesus before us, in the center of us.
Ever seen a mosaic? It’s made out of all kinds of different pieces of stone, glass, or ceramic. Most of these pieces are shaped differently from one another, and before the artist assembles the mosaic, they would just look like a loose collection of random things.
I know you’re broken. I am too. And when we try to cover over and hide our brokenness, we look like the baby who thinks when they close their eyes they are invisible. Everyone can see.
There are only sinners in this room. There are only sinners in this church, and that’s the way it will always be. Sinners who are righteous by faith and faith alone. Sinners who are being changed, but will not see our full transformation until Jesus returns and makes all things new.
So let’s stop trying to hide. God is building us together to not pretend, but to be a part of a mosaic that is much more that a loose collection of broken pieces. A whole that is greater than its parts. A whole that when others look at it don’t see individual sinners beyond redemption, but see a wonderful masterpiece of God.
So I say, let’s jump in. All the way in. On faith and dependence in Jesus and on relationship with each other. Stop trying to impress. Stop trying to hide. And let us live authentically and truly what we actually are: sinners saved by grace. No pride. No posturing. All Jesus.