How can I, or anyone, face sufferings and death; betrayals and despairs; defeat and sadness?
Abandonments?
One Easter Sunday Tim Keller taught on ‘a better resurrection.’ He used Hebrews 11 as his text.
The first time I heard Tim teach in person it was in a men’s Bible study on faithful men. He spoke that night to approximately two dozen men in the basement of a Seven Day Adventist Church. One verse, ESV: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
Tim spoke about ‘holy fear,’ and how this type of holiness leads to faith. Tim’s essential point: faith is trusting when in a deep fear.
He took questions after his teaching and I asked, how did you know moving to NYC to plant Redeemer Presbyterian Church was the right move, God’s will. How did he know? Three boys; leaving a tenure teaching profession. How did he know? How did Noah know? NYC is a graveyard for church planters.
Tim replied, I visited NYC; then we came again Kathy and I, without the kids; we prayed with close friends and sort counsel, but, bottom line?
Romans 8. We trusted that all things, all work together for good for those who trust God. We trusted that even if we failed that God had something better for us.
A better resurrection in the midst of failure.
And that is what the Father had in mind for us as his only son passed to death on the cross: a better, eternal resurrection. Hebrews 11,
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, 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, 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.
Together, band – aided together, we are made perfect with Jesus.
We are becoming perfections. How?
By the perfect resurrection of trusting, faithfully trusting, our Father, even as we are being crucified, abandoned.
resurrections are coming.
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