September 1, 2002 Hebrews 11
¡§What makes a hero?¡¨
INTRODUCTION
My son, Benjamin, being the extremely active boy that he is, will often fall and get cuts and bruises. When he does that, he¡¦ll come to Tammy or me for us to take the pain away. Knowing that we cannot take the pain away, we¡¦ll do the best that we can to prevent further pain. We¡¦ll wash it, put a band-aid on it ¡V and then we¡¦ll tell him to do one more thing ¡V LEAVE IT ALONE! We know that when you remove a bandage, when you pick a scab, when you mess with a wound that is in the process of healing, you can do further damage. Generally speaking, it is unwise to re-open old wounds.
But that is what we are getting ready to do. We are getting ready to re-open the wounds that were inflicted on us one year ago ¡V September 11, 2001. Why? In some respects, it would be easier to just let the past be the past. Let¡¦s build our memorials, say our good-bye¡¦s and get on with life. Why deal with it all again, and why deal with it here ¡V in the church? There are several reasons. First, some of those wounds haven¡¦t healed yet, or at least not properly. You may have hidden them under a lot of bandage and a lot of scar tissue, but the damage is still there. We need to expose it in order for it to heal correctly. Second, if we don¡¦t deal with the past, we will never learn from it, and we are destined to repeat it. There are many lessons that we can learn about life in general from the events of last September. We will examine some of them. Third, you will be hearing about all these things from the media. It will be the subject of talk shows, newscasts, specials, magazines and radio. Each one will add his own spin and his own interpretation of those events. We, as a church and as Christians, need to examine these things from God¡¦s perspective so that we can recognize untruth when we hear it. God is the only one who knows the end from the beginning. He is the only one who can give us the answers that we are looking for and can then provide healing for us. One final reason for this study. This series is not just about 9/11. It is about pain and suffering. It is about where pain and suffering come from, where God is in our pain, and it is about how we react to and deal with that pain. Though 9/11 will eventually fade into the background, pain and suffering will be a part of the human experience until God sets up His eternal kingdom. So the things that we say here will have application for the rest of your life. Pay attention. You might learn something.
We are going to approach this examination through the eyes of faith. And by faith, we accept that God makes good come out of evil. A good thing that came out of the evil was that we discovered that there are heroes all around us.
In the hours following the attacks, we began to hear stories ¡V stories of heroic actions by ordinary people. Firemen who raced up the stairs to get into the WTC even as employees raced down the stairs to get away from the WTC. Port Authority Policemen who became trapped by falling rubble as they were trying to help coordinate rescue and evacuation efforts. Stock brokers who slowed their escape from impending doom in order to help others make it out safely and ended up losing their own lives. Most of the heroes of 9/11 remain nameless to us, but we know the names of 4 airline passengers who took matters into their own hands and thwarted the efforts of hi-jackers to crash United Flight 93 into the Capitol building or the White House. They were Jeffery Glick, 31, a sales manager for a technology firm, Thomas Burnett Jr., 38, a California businessman, Mark Bingham, 31, a former college rugby player from California and Todd Beamer, 32, a sales rep., Christian, loving husband and the father of 3. They were heroes in the real sense of the word.
And that leads us to our question for today. What makes a hero? In the book of Hebrews and the eleventh chapter, God records for us the names of some men and women who God would regard as human heroes. And recorded in the stories of these men and women are many character traits that help us to define a true hero. We are going to look at 8 of those characteristics of heroes this morning. We won¡¦t be able to look at all of them in depth, but I want to at least mention them. This is not an exhaustive list, but I believe it is an accurate one. As we look, I want you to ask yourself this question: ¡§Am I a hero?¡¨ And if the answer is no, then follow it up with this question: ¡§What do I need God to change in my life in order for me to be a hero?¡¨ Let¡¦s take a look at these characterisitics.
A hero is someone who¡K
1. ¡Kdoes.
First, a hero does something. He doesn¡¦t sit by and watch things happen around them. He gets involved. On a plane recently from Miami, there were 65 psychiatrists traveling home from a convention. During the flight a woman became ill and mentally upset, yet none of the doctors offered to help. The plane had to put down in Nashville so they could take the woman to the hospital. - C. Ray Dobbins, Editor of Cumberland Presbyterian These psychiatrists could have been heroes, but they chose to sit by and watch the situation unfold rather than taking action.
As we read through Hebrews 11 a little while ago, did you notice that every person who was mentioned was a person of action?
Vs. 4 ¡V Abel offered
Vs. 5 ¡V Enoch walked
Vs. 7 ¡V Noah built
Vs. 8 ¡V Abraham went
Vs. 17 ¡V Abraham sacrificed
Vs. 20 ¡V Isaac blessed
Vs. 21 ¡V Jacob worshipped
Vs. 24 ¡V Moses refused, chose and left
Vs. 29 ¡V The Israelites passed through
Vs. 30 ¡V The people marched
Heroes become heroes because of the actions that they take.
Todd Beamer was a man of action. He was a sales representative for his company, and he was good at what he did. He was so good that he earned a trip to Italy for he and his wife as a bonus. They got back from that trip on the evening of September 10. At 6:15am on September 11, Todd left his home for another business trip, intending to fly home that night so that he could spend time with his family.
Soon into his flight, the airplane was hijacked. Todd, and several other men were moved to the back of the plane while the remaining passengers were moved to the front. Through cell-phone conversations, the 4 men realized that their plane was part of a larger terrorist attack and that they were headed somewhere to be used as a weapon to kill more people.
Todd used the phone at his seat to make a call to a GTE operator who just happened to share the name of his wife - Lisa. Let me read a little of the transcript of that conversation.
"I don’t think we’re going to get out of this thing. I’m going to have to go out on faith." Lisa tried to comfort him. "Todd," she said, "you don’t know that." Beamer asked her to promise to call his wife if he didn’t make it home. He told her about his little boys and the new baby on the way. Then he said that the passengers were going to try to jump the hijackers. "Are you sure that’s what you want to do, Todd?" asked Lisa. "It’s what we have to do," he answered. He asked her to pray with him. Beamer kept a Lord’s Prayer bookmark in his Tom Clancy novel, but he didn’t need any prompting. He began to recite the litany, and she joined him:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Todd ended the prayer with the words, "Jesus help me".
Those four men had a choice to make. Sit by and watch it happen, or take action. You all know what choice they made. After Todd had recited the 23rd Psalm and asked if the other guys were ready, they headed into action with the words, ¡§Let¡¦s roll!¡¨
Jesus had the same choice to make. He saw that the world that He had created had been hijacked by sin and Satan. He knew that the world was hurtling toward utter destruction. He could have sat by and watched it happen. But instead, He chose to act. He left heaven behind and was born as a little child. His life was filled with action ¡V healing the sick, righting what was wrong and bringing people back into right relationship with God. Jesus was a person of action.
2. ¡Kdoes what is right.
If you want to be a hero, it is not enough just to be a person who does something. You have to choose to do what is right.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched a movie called ¡§John Q¡¨. It¡¦s about a little boy who needs a heart transplant and the frustration of his parents to find funding in order for that to happen. One morning, after weeks of getting the run around and finding no one to help while they watched as their son got weaker and weaker, the mother angrily said to her husband, ¡§Just do something!¡¨ He did. He found the chief of heart surgery, forced him to the emergency room of the hospital and took everyone there hostage. He did something, but he did not do what was right.
Every biographical account in Hebrews 11 begins with the same two words ¡V ¡§by faith¡¨. That means that whatever it was that they did, they did it because that was what God told them to do. They did what was right.
Almost a year ago now, some men did something. They took control of 4 planes and plowed them into the WTC, the Pentagon and the soil of Pennsylvania. They did something, but they did not do what was right. To someone out there, they are heroes. To a group of people out there, Osama bin Laden is a hero. But they are wrong. These men were men of action, yes. But they chose not to do what was right. They chose to take the lives of innocent civilians.
Jesus always chose to do what was right. The Bible records that Jesus was tempted in all the same ways that we have been tempted, yet without sin. Jesus had every right to destroy mankind, but instead, He chose to act in such a way to bring about the salvation of all who will put their trust in Him.
A hero takes action to do what is right.
3. ¡Kdoes what is right when everyone else is doing wrong. ¡§Noah¡¨ (vs. 7)
With all of the wonderful stories that came out of the events of 9/11, there were some stories of greed and opportunism that came out too. ¡§In one of the largest fraud cases resulting from the terrorist attacks, thousands of people are accused of using ATM¡¦s to steal $15 million from a municipal employee¡¦s credit union whose computer security system was damaged on Sept. 11. ¡K District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the suspects found a way to repeatedly withdraw up to $500 a day from ATM¡¦s ¡V even if their accounts at the Municipal Credit Union couldn¡¦t cover it. ¡KHe said as many as 4000 people manipulated the system to overdraw their bank accounts by at least $1000. ¡K According to authorities, a 54-year-old nurse made 54 cash withdrawals from Sept. 18 to the end of October, leaving her with a negative balance of $18,111.¡¨ ¡V CNN.com (Aug. 6, 2002) We¡¦ve heard the stories of people claiming to have lost loved ones in order to receive some of the monies that were supposed to go to the families of the victims. I heard of one man who wanted to disappear because of some bad debts and a bad marriage that he wanted to get out of, so he just walked away from everything thinking that he would be listed among those who were presumed dead but never recovered. I heard of others who had pictures of the bombing of the WTC and were selling them at their street corner booths within just a few days of the crash. There are plenty of people out there who are bent on doing wrong.
It sounds like Noah¡¦s day. Genesis 6 tells us that in that day, every thought of man¡¦s heart was evil continually. But in a society like that, Noah stood out as the one man in all the earth who was righteous in the eyes of God. One man stood up and said, ¡§I will not cave in to the pressure. I will do what is right regardless if I have to stand alone.¡¨ Noah listened to the warning of God, and he built an ark. There are many people who are alive today because of the heroics of NYC police and firemen. They owe their lives to these men and women. But do you understand that none of us would be here today without the heroic actions of Noah? Had he not been willing to stand alone, the human race would have ceased to exist.
On the night of his arrest, Jesus and His disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemanae. He prayed, they fell asleep. When his accusers came to arrest Him, Jesus stayed, and they ran away. Jesus stood alone against all the forces of evil because He was a real hero.
Heroes do. Heroes do what is right. Heroes do what is right when no one else is doing what is right.
4. ¡Kdoes what is right when doing right is costly. ¡§Moses¡¨ (vs. 24-26)
5. ¡Kdoes what is right without thought of earthly reward. ¡§Abraham¡¨ (vs. 8-10)
6. ¡Kdoes what is right without making excuses. ¡§Joseph¡¨ (vs. 22)
In Phoenix, AZ. a 26-year-old mother stared down at her son who was dying of terminal cancer. She took her son¡¦s hand and asked, "Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?" Mommy, I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up." Mom smiled back and said, "Let¡¦s see if we can make your wish come true."
Later that day she went to her local fire department in Phoenix, Arizona, where she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Phoenix. She explained her son¡¦s final wish and asked if it might be possible to give her six-year-old son a ride around the block on a fire engine. Fireman Bob said, "Look, we can do better than that. If you¡¦ll have your son ready at seven o¡¦clock Wednesday morning, we¡¦ll make him an honorary fireman for the whole day. He can come down to the fire station, eat with us, go out all the fire calls, the whole nine yards! And if you¡¦ll give us his sizes, we¡¦ll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat-not a toy one-with the emblem of the Phoenix Fire Department on it, a yellow slicker like we wear and rubber boots.¡¨
Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Billy, dressed him in his fire uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed to the waiting hook and ladder truck. Billy got to sit on the back of the truck and help steer it back to the fire station. He was in heaven. There were three fire calls in Phoenix that day and Billy got to go out on all three calls. He rode in the different fire engines, the paramedic¡¦s van, the fire chief¡¦s car and even got to ride in a police car
Having his dream come true, with all the love and attention that was lavished upon him, so deeply touched Billy that he lived three months longer than any doctor thought possible. One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse began to call the family members to the hospital.
Then she remembered the day Billy had spent as a fireman, so she called the Fire Chief and asked if it would be possible to send a fireman in uniform to the hospital to be with Billy as he made his transition. The chief replied, "We can do better than that.¡¨
About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at the hospital and extended its ladder up to Billy¡¦s third floor open window. Sixteen firefighters climbed up the ladder into Billy¡¦s room. With his mother¡¦s permission, they hugged him and held him and told him how much they loved him.
With his dying breath, Billy looked up at the fire chief and said, ¡§Chief, am I really a fireman now?" Billy, you are, and the Head Chief, Jesus, is holding your hand," the chief said. With those words, Billy smiled and said, "I know, He¡¦s been holding my hand all day, and the angels have been singing." And Billy closed his eyes one last time.
Those firemen could have made all kinds of excuses for why they could not have done those things for little Billy. Todd Beamer could have made all kinds of excuses for why he should not be the one to fight off the terrorists. ¡§It wasn’t Todd Beamer’s job to fight terrorists. He was just a passenger who along with several others did what he didn’t have to do but foiled a terrible evil that might have been done to his country.¡¨
Jesus could have made excuses for why He shouldn¡¦t come to earth. He knew that we would reject Him. He knew that with all that He had done for mankind since the beginning of creation, they had rebelled against Him. He knew that the situation that we found ourselves in ¡V sinful and headed for destruction ¡V was a situation of our own making. He knew that no matter how many miracles He did, how many prayers He answered and how many lives He changed He was still going to have to suffer on cross. Yet with all those potential excuses, He still came. Why? Because heroes don¡¦t make excuses. Heroes find ways to love people.
7. ¡Kdoes what is right when doing right doesn¡¦t make sense. (vs. 32-38)
Todd Beamer¡¦s wife, Lisa, along with several other people has set up the Todd Beamer foundation. Their web sight lists this as their mission statement: To equip children experiencing family trauma to make heroic choices every day.
Mrs. Beamer was on ¡§Larry King Live¡¨ on the 23rd of this month. I want to read to you a portion of the transcript of their conversation.
KING: Getting through this year, every time you’ve been on with us, and we’ve been many times -- and I’ll never forget the first one, I guess it was right after the president introduced you -- your faith. What, what kept you through that? Why did you keep your faith?
BEAMER: You know, as I think back on what happened on September 11 and certainly what’s happened since then, so many elements of my life have changed. And you know, if I think of myself as a multi- layered person, all the things on the outside are different and they are not what I wanted them to be. But the thing that hasn’t changed is the core. And that is what Todd and I built our lives upon well before September 11.
And that’s just faith in a God who we know loves us and a God who we know is in charge of our lives and in charge of the course of events in history. And a God that doesn’t change no matter what changes around us. And certainly of being able to go back and in the middle of a difficult time or difficult day, being able to go back and gain that perspective and just communicate with God in a very real way has been invaluable in facing what I’ve had to deal with this year.
KING: No anger with God? BEAMER: No.
KING: Your husband is gone.
BEAMER: ¡Kin the book I relate an experience that I had growing up when my father passed away at the age of -- I was 15 at the time. And I did go through a long period of anger then and sort of resentment and it’s not fair, and bitterness. And you know, through the course of that experience and just seeing how God stayed with me through that whole thing and really taught me that, you know, I’m not here necessarily to get what I deserve or what I think that I should have, but just to love God and walk with Him. And He’s going to provide me whatever I need along the way. And seeing that experience be true in an earlier time in my life has made it this time around much easier to just accept the circumstances.
KING: So you feel Todd is somewhere now?
BEAMER: Absolutely. Todd is still alive. He is alive in a much different scenario than he was last year at this time, but...
KING: Watching you and the babies?
BEAMER: I don’t know how much influence he has or knowledge he has of what goes on here. The Bible doesn’t give us really a complete picture of the connection between Heaven and Earth. But I do know that he’s experiencing the presence of God. And he is more alive now than he was before. And I’ll join him some day. ¡V Larry King Live, August 23, 2002
Lisa Beamer had the option of allowing her circumstances to turn her into a victim. But she chose instead to be a victor over her circumstances and become a hero.
You know, Todd Beamer¡¦s actions would have made a lot more sense if they had been able to land the plane safely. That¡¦s what was supposed to happen, isn¡¦t it? The good guys win, and they go home to their families to celebrate? It doesn¡¦t always happen that way. Read the stories of those recorded in verses 32-38. [read it] We like to hear the part about victories being won and people being raised back to life. But then, it gets a little uncomfortable around vs. 35. Things start turning out badly. It doesn¡¦t make sense anymore. But heroes do what is right even when it doesn¡¦t make sense. They realize that they are part of a bigger picture and there are bigger issues at stake. They understand that they don¡¦t have all the pieces of the puzzle. And in trust toward God, they leave the unanswered questions in the hands of God.
That becomes especially hard when a hero has to embrace the final characteristic.
8. ¡Kdoes what is right when doing right requires sacrificing yourself. ¡§Jesus¡¨ (12:1-3)
A mother of a 9 year old boy, Mark, received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon. It was the teacher from her son¡¦s school. "Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son¡¦s third grade class. Your son did something that surprised me so much that I thought you should know about it immediately. I have been teaching for many years and nothing like this has happened until now. This morning I was teaching a lesson on creative writing. And as I always do, I tell the story of the ant and the grasshopper.
The ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work. Then winter comes. The grasshopper begins to starve because he has no food. So he hops to the ant¡¦s house and begins to beg. ¡¦Please Mr. Ant, you have much food please let me eat, too.¡¦ Now boys and girls your job is to write the ending to the story.
Your son, Mark, raised his hand. "Teacher, may I draw a picture?" "Well, yes, Mark, if you like, you may draw a picture. But first you must write the ending to the story." The papers came in.
As in all the years past, most of the students said that the ant shared his food through the winter and both the ant and the grasshopper lived. As always, a few children refused the grasshopper¡¦s request saying that he should have worked in the summer and not played. In those stories, the ant lived and the grasshopper died.
But your son ended the story in a way different from any other child, ever. He wrote, "So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper; the grasshopper lived through the winter. But the ant died." And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses [and written these words:] "Jesus gave us everything so that we might live; but Jesus died."
Jesus said, ¡§Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down His life for His friends.¡¨ (John 15:13) That¡¦s what Todd Beamer did on September 11, 2001. He laid down his life for his friends. That¡¦s what Jesus did for you and for me almost 2000 years ago. [read Hebrews 12:1-3]
CONCLUSION
There are only two thoughts that I want you to take with you today.
1. Find a hero
„X Heroes give us the assurance that there is a tomorrow. They give us courage and hope. They help us to see what we can become even when life is not always what we had hoped it would be.
„X Make sure that it is the right kind. The Bible is full of heroes.
„X Can I suggest Jesus as the hero that you are searching for.
2. Be a hero
„X Heroes do ¡V they get involved. They don¡¦t sit back and soak. They don¡¦t curse the world as it goes to hell. They find a way to change the world.
„X Heroes do what is right. They bring their kids to church. They teach in Sunday School. They don¡¦t lie or cheat to get ahead at school or work. They don¡¦t allow their circumstances to turn them into victims. They allow God¡¦s power to flow through them so that they become victors.
„X How can I be a hero? I¡¦m just an ordinary person. Todd Beamer would have said the same thing. Moses gave that same excuse when God called him to be a hero. But what you have to realize is that heroes are ordinary people that allow God to use them in extraordinary ways.
„X If you¡¦re not a hero now, confess that to God. He already knows it anyway. And then, allow Him to teach you and change you so that you can be all that God would have you to be.-
