Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for tonight’s proclamation is taken from the Epistle, Hebrews 11:4;
By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
In the name of Jesus dear Christian friends, what makes a hero? Webster’s defines a hero as a person “of distinguished courage, moral or physical; chief character in a play, novel, poem, etc.” One of my wife and I’s favorite movies is “The Prince’s Bride.” One character of the movie, Inigo Montya, fits the definition of hero found in the dictionary. He has distinguished courage, which is physical at the heart. He is a sword fighter who has searched years to find the men who killed his father over the price of a sword. Over the years he has dreamt of what he would say to the man and came up with “Hello. My name is Inigo Montya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Near the end of the movie, he finds and fights the man who killed his father. They fight, and Inigo is winning, so his enemy begins to try to bargain for his own life by offering gold and silver to let him live. Inigo tells him to offer him whatever he asks, and the man replies, “I’ll give you anything you want.” And his request? “Bring back my father.” That was the sacrifice that would have saved this man’s life, but, of course, he could not bring Inigo’s father back to life. Because of his love for his father, Inigo gave up 20 years of his life in the search. That’s a sacrifice. His distinguished physical courage shows Inigo Montya as a hero, but not the hero that we hear of tonight. Abel is not a hero because of physical courage, no. He is a hero because of his distinguished moral courage, something that Inigo lacked. Tonight we look back to the oldest human hero of faith, the short lived Abel whose righteousness, faith and sacrifice live on in the Word of God.
Looking back on the life of Abel, it seems almost non-existent. He’s born in Genesis 4:2, and by 4:8 he’s dead. That’s a short life. Of course, we have no idea how old Abel was when He suffered the first murder on the earth, but what we focus in on is while he lived, he lived a righteous, faithful life in God’s service.
Genesis chapter 4 begins with the first baby on earth God’s promise of a chapter previous, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel. (3:15)" and Adam’s faith, expressed in naming “his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (3:20)” are both seen in 4:1. Eve brought new life into the world, and she thought her child was the promised Seed. “I have gotten a man—the Lord!” is a possible translation.
“Cain” means “acquired” — the baby boy was looked upon as a gift from God. Abel means “vanity, vapor” — it suggests the futility of life apart from God, or perhaps Eve’s disappointment that Cain was not the promised Seed.
Although not thought of as the promised Messiah, Abel shows his worth by tending to sheep for his living. Cain becomes a vegetable farmer. In time, and for unknown reasons, both brothers bring offerings to the Lord. This first recorded worship shows that the earliest family knew a place for and the reasons for worship, for both sons brought offerings to the Lord. This might mean that God taught Adam and his family how to approach Him in worship.
Both brothers knew, most likely by being taught by God, to bring a sacrifice, where to bring the sacrifice, but the last part is the part that sets Cain and Abel apart. Why bring a sacrifice? For Cain it was either only a formality, or the sacrifice he brought was for thanksgiving to God.
For Abel, who brought his sacrifice with faith, his sacrifice was both for thanksgiving, but also a sin offering. The plain state of the case seems to have been this: Cain and Abel both brought offerings to the altar of God. As Cain was a farmer, he brought the fruits of the ground, by which he acknowledged the being and providence of God. At this point, Cain’s sacrifice seems well and good.
Abel, being a shepherd, brought, not only a thanksgiving offering, but also of the produce of his flock as a sin - offering to God, by which he acknowledged his own sinfulness, God’s justice and mercy, as well as his being and providence.
Abel chose choice parts by faith. Cain chose most likely the choice items also. What was the great difference? Just the wide difference that is still between the spiritual worship of faith and the worship of the mind that, on the surface, seems so much the same. The all important element of worship was lacking, that is, the recognition of the fallen state of man and the need for a mediator and atonement for our sins.
Cain was asserting his independence by choosing to worship God in his own way. Isaiah would later describe this way of worship, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. (53:6)” In the same way, there are people today who refuse to worship God through the sacrifice or mediator, Jesus Christ the Lamb of God. It is only through Him that we can come to God.
The attitude of the worshiper is always important when making a sacrifice to God. Isaiah cries out, “Bring no more futile sacrifices. (1:13)” Our text states that Abel’s offering was accepted because it was brought “by faith.”
It is not the case that the offering of the fruits of the ground was not pleasing to God, for such an offering was commanded under the Jewish Law, and was not in itself improper. Both the brothers selected what was to them most obvious; which they had reared with their own hands; which they regarded as most valuable. Cain had cultivated the earth, and he naturally brought what had grown under his care; Abel kept a flock, and he as naturally brought what he had raised.
After the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but not so upon his offering, we find Cain downcast. Why? Of course it is because God looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but Cain also would have been feeling that he did the actions, why was he not also blessed? John explains the reasons in his first Epistle, “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. (3:11b - 12)”
Because of his anger toward his brother, Cain, possibly in a fit of rage, murdered his brother.
So why is Abel a hero? First of all, because of his faith, given to him by God. It was by “faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.” Abel is a hero because of his distinguished moral courage. Abel is a hero because he was a righteous man. He was a hero because he still is thought of, and written about, and spoken about as a hero. Our text states, “by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.”
Abel still speaks today. We learn from Abel that ”The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him. (Prov 15:8)”
Today we still are learning from Abel. We learn that “by faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did.” By faith, we are to offer sacrifices, too. And we are not to offer fattened calves, or our best vegetables. We are to remember that God does “not delight in sacrifice, [God does] not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. (Ps 51:16 - 17)”
The sacrifices we need to bring to God are, by faith, our confession of our sins, and our belief that through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross we are forgiven.
We also learn from Abel to be righteous. Our text tells us of Abel’s righteousness that came by faith, and Paul writes about the same righteousness that faith brings, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Ro 3:22 - 24)” Our righteousness comes through the faith that God has blessed us with.
Finally, we learn from this hero of faith that, as our text tells us, “by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.” Abel’s sacrifice and righteousness still are spoken about, but Abel would have us, and God commands, us not to dwell on the sacrifice of Abel, but, in stead, we tell of the Sacrifice of Christ. “Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, [whose] sprinkled blood ... speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (He 12:24)”
What makes a hero? In the case of Abel, it is truly not his faith guided sacrifice, nor his righteousness, or even that the Bible lists him as the first human hero of faith. What makes him that hero of faith is that his life points us to the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, Abel’s Savior and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Amen.
