Hebrews 11:32-12:2
July 13, 2025
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
Download

Time of Reflection Quotations

“I seek a place that can never be destroyed, one that is pure, and that fadeth not away, and it is laid up in heaven, and safe there, to be given, at the time appointed, to them that seek it with all their heart. Read it so, if you will, in my book.”

~ The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan (1628-31 August 1688), an English writer and preacher

“Now everyone who bears witness to the truth, whether he support it by words or deeds, or in whatever way, may properly be called a martyr; but it has come to be the custom of the brotherhood…to keep the name of martyr more properly for those who have borne witness to the mystery of godliness by shedding their blood for it.”

~ On John’s Gospel (2:28) by Origen of Alexandria (c. 185-c. 253), an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theologian

“They took him [Polycarp] into their carriage, sat down beside him, and addressed him persuasively. ‘Come now’ they said, ‘where is the harm in just saying ‘Caesar is Lord’, and offering the incense, and so forth, when it will save your life?’…The Governor, however, still went on pressing him, ‘Take the oath, and I will let you go’, he told him. ‘Revile your Christ.’ Polycarp’s reply was, ‘Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?’”

~ Polycarp (AD 69-155), Christian bishop of Smyrna, in The Martyrdom of Polycarp

“But the Christians are just and good, and the truth is set before their eyes, and their spirit is long-suffering; and, therefore, though they know the error of these (the Greeks), and are persecuted by them, they bear and endure it; and for the most part they have compassion on them, as men who are destitute of knowledge. And on their side, they offer prayer that these may repent of their error…”

~ Aristides of Athens, a 2nd-century Christian Greek author

Sermon Passage

Hebrews 11:32-12:2

Hebrews 11

³² And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. ³⁶ Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— ³⁸ of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

³⁹ And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Hebrews 12

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.