Love for Sufferers (Hebrews 13:3) | Worship Service

Well, good morning and welcome to Kootenai Church. We're glad you're here today. Would you please stand with us as we begin our worship service this morning from the book of Romans, chapter 8. In Romans 8, 1 to 4, it says,.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did.

Sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light. He is my strength. He is my song. Let's sing.

Together. In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground. Firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What hides of love, what depths of peace.

When fears are still, when striving cease. My comforter, my all in all. Here in the love of Christ I stand. Christ alone who took on flesh. Fullness of God in helpless faith. This gift of love and righteousness.

Stormed by the ones he came to save. Built upon that cross as Jesus died. The wrath that is mine. For every sin on him was laid. In the ground his body lay. Light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth as he stands.

And he is mine. Bought with the precious blood of Christ. This is the power of Christ. Life's first cry. To final breath. Me from his hands. Calls me home. Exiles and me. He taught the Lord. Answered me.

And delivered me. Those who look on never be us. He'll never be ashamed. His form and Christ. And saved me from disdain. He will deliver me to his seat in heaven. Let us bless the Lord. Every day and night.

In praise and praise. I have no announcements this morning to highlight other than just what you have in your bulletin.

There's some things coming up so please pay attention to that. And turn with me now please to 2nd Timothy chapter 1 for the scripture reading. 2nd Timothy chapter 1. Just to remind you this epistle was written when Paul was in his second imprisonment.

You need to keep that in mind as you we read through this chapter. 2nd Timothy chapter 1. Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus. To Timothy my beloved son grace mercy and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day longing to see you even as I recall your tears so that I may be filled with joy.

For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and I'm sure it that it is in you as well. For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands for God has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power and love and discipline.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought life in immortality to light through the gospel for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.

For this reason I also suffer these things but I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you. You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me among whom are figellus and homogenies the Lord grant mercy to the house of amnesiphorus for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

But when he was in Rome he eagerly searched for me and found me the Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day. And you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus. You stand with me as we pray let's bow our heads our father.

We are gathered here together in and under your blessing. We thank you that we have this place this warm place to gather a luxury a convenience and a grace that has not been afforded to so many thousands who gather even now around the globe whose exterior conditions are similar to ours but they don't enjoy the blessing of this kind of warmth and convenience.

And so we are reminded again just how fortunate we are that you have provided this building that you have put us in this land that you have afforded us this freedom the treasure the grace the joy that it is to gather together with your people who name the name of Christ and to worship you and in spirit and in truth.

So we thank you for that. We thank you that we have this luxury and this freedom. And we thank you then for calling us together by your spirit through your word to heed the gospel and then to gather together to worship the God who has given us himself in that gospel.

We thank you for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in securing our salvation in bringing us to the throne of the father in mercy and in grace. We thank you for the work of Christ in atoning for our sin.

The work of the spirit in drawing us to the son and father. We thank you for the grace that was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity by your electing mercy and grace. Thank you our blessed and triune God for the great gift of salvation and for drawing us here today.

We love you and we desire to worship you in truth and in the spirit. We pray that you would strengthen our hearts our minds our souls together as we worship and as we lift our voice to you. We pray that you would give us grace that we might sing as redeemed free men and women who love you receive from us.

We pray this day our worship as a sacrifice and a love offering to you in Christ's name. Amen.

You there is no other true delight is found in you all too deep. Your love exceeds the heaven tree your truth a fount of perfect wisdom my highest good my unending need defend my sword to fight the cruel to see my shield against this hateful law and cross laid on your shoulders in my place.

You suffered blood and you rose.

In lamentations chapter 3 verses 22 to 24 it says the loving kindness of Yahweh indeed never cease for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Yahweh is my portion says my soul therefore I wait for him.

We're going to end our.

Music service this morning and sing together. God moves in a mysterious way mysterious way his wonders to perform steps in the sea and rise upon the Lord's eyes. His song within the man shall bring ignored by feeble sense but trust him for his.

The Call to Remember Prisoners and the Ill-Treated

And we now please turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Actually as we begin reading.

We're going to begin at chapter 12 verse 28. Read through chapter 13 verse 3 12 verse 28. Therefore since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken let us show gratitude by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.

Let love of the brethren continue do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them and those who are ill-treated.

Since you yourselves are in the also in the body let's pray together. My father it is with great love that we come to you and to your word it is our desire to hear you speak to us in the pages of scripture.

We thank you that that you have revealed yourself to us in your word and you have revealed your desire for us your expectations how it is that we can live God honoring and obedient lives. And we pray that you would strengthen us to understand your word that you would open our hearts and our minds and our eyes our spiritual eyes we may know your truth and that your truth would abide deep within us.

We pray this for the glory of Christ amen. There are so many ways for us to express our love for the brethren. Loving those who are inside the family of God is for the believer the natural thing to do.

Since we share a common savior we share a common interest we share a kingdom we share an inheritance we share the same lord we are in the same family bought by the same blood purchased by the same atonement secured by the same resurrection wooed by the same holy spirit elected by the same father we share all of those blessings of salvation.

And so to show love for those who are inside the family of God is a very natural thing for a Christian. And if as I argued a couple weeks ago if that love for the brethren is not there it indicates that something is fundamentally wrong.

Just as in an earthly and natural family when siblings hate one another it is because of sin or alienation something has gone wrong fundamentally somewhere along the line. And by the way if you are at war with a sibling a natural sibling I would encourage you to get that sorted out.

And maybe it has nothing at all to do with you and everything to do with somebody else. But that only goes to make my case that something has gone wrong somewhere that may need to be resolved and addressed.

The various one another's in the new testament are examples of how Christians are to love one another and show the brotherly love that is commanded in chapter 13 verse 1 for instance. And there are more than this.

But here's just a sampling. We are commanded to be devoted to one another. Romans 12 verse 10 to honor one another. Romans 12 verse 10 to build up one another. Romans 14 19 to accept one another. Romans 15 7 to care for one another first.

Corinthians 12 verse 25 to serve one another. Galatians 5 verse 13 to bear one another's burdens. Galatians 6 verse 2 to be kind and compassionate to one another. Ephesians 4 verse 32 to submit to one another.

Ephesians 5 21 to bear with one another. Colossians 3 verse 13 to comfort one another first. Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 18 to exhort one another. Hebrews 3 verse 13 to show hospitality to one another first peter chapter 4 verse 9.

And to pray for one another james 5 verse 16. And it just occurred to me as i was reading that list that whoever was running the live stream if they were trying to put the verses up on the screen you had quite the challenge i apologize for that.

Life together affords us all kinds of opportunities to love one another. And really that boils down to simply considering the interest of other people ahead of our own to put other people first which means that we would then honor them and build them up and accept them and care for them and serve them and bear their burdens and be kind to them and submit to them and and love them and cherish them.

And that type of activity of putting other people ahead of us and considering the interests of others before we are our own. That's philippians chapter 2 which is exactly what jesus christ did. That is something that can be done and lived out everywhere by every christian.

It is something that can be done when you are single when you are married when you are married before you have children when you are married with children when you are married after the children leave when you are retired in the home in the marketplace at the job site in the neighborhood in literally every area of life.

This type of sacrificial and and others centered love can be lived out. And of course it is most frequently and most easily lived out in the church body inside of the congregation. And all of these are expressions of love.

And love is what tops the list of our author's concerns in hebrews chapter 13 as he begins the chapter by imploring us to let love of the brethren continue something that was already going on. And he says let this continue amongst you.

And then he gives us some practical ways of showing that love to remember the strangers verse 2 and to remember the prisoners in verse 3. So there's the general command in verse 1 we are to remember the brethren.

Then we are to remember the strangers and then we are to remember the sufferers. And we have looked at the first two of those commands verse 1 and 2. And yet here is another example in verse 3 of ways that christians can demonstrate their love for one another.

Verse 3 says. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them and those who are ill treated since you yourselves also are in the body. And that is our text for this morning. This reference here reminds us that being in prison for the faith was a ever present reality for new testament christians.

If you lived in the first century in and around judea and the land of israel or places where the gospel had spread to because of paul's missionary journeys. If you lived in any of those areas then you likely knew someone who had been imprisoned at least for a time or was in prison for the sake of righteousness or for the sake of the faith.

It was not uncommon in the first century. It is uncommon in our century in our location. But it was not uncommon in the first century. And it certainly was not uncommon in every place where the gospel had had manifested and been preached.

The new testament is a collection of books that was forged in the midst of suffering and imprisonment. The new testament is a collection of books that was forged in the midst of suffering. Suffering for the faith.

Suffering for the gospel is all the way through the new testament. The the predictions that this would happen are in the new testament. The examples of people to whom it happened are in the new testament.

The warnings about suffering and the trials and temptations that we are prone to in the midst of suffering that is described in the new testament. Five of paul's epistles were written from prison cells.

Four of them were written during his first imprisonment which is recorded at the end of the book of acts that's colossians and philippians and philemon and ephesians. And then paul was released for a brief period of time where he visited the uh the city of ephesus.

And he sent titus to the island of crete to set in order some things that remained there. He wrote a couple other epistles first timothy second timothy. And eventually paul was arrested a second time and put in a prison.

And this time not the rented quarters that you see at the end of book of acts where his friends were allowed to come freely in and out and he was allowed to to teach them and proclaim the kingdom of god.

But that second imprisonment was a the type of imprisonment that is basically you're thrown in a hole and you're left to rot or die or until you're executed. And that was when he wrote the book of second timothy.

So our new testament is forged in the midst of suffering and affliction and imprisonment. It is our situation in america in the we should say the 17th 18th and 19th and 20th centuries and even now into the 21st century that is a historic anomaly to what the church has experienced around the world in every other age for the last two millennia we have enjoyed an anomaly.

And the anomaly is that we have lived in a situation in a circumstance where the christian faith has been allowed to flourish and to prosper and we have lived off of the benefit and the blessing of that.

But i don't know if you have noticed it or not. But that window that environment is is very rapidly changing around us. We have enjoyed an anomaly that christians for 2 000 years have not because for most of church history in most of the locations where the gospel has permeated the church has existed inside of a hostile culture and imprisonment for the cause of christ and for the sake of righteousness was the reality and those who lived freely are the anomaly.

We have enjoyed it and right now we are. I'm not trying to terrify anybody but this is the reality. We are coasting on the fumes of what we have enjoyed for the last two centuries. Our society is right now we're we're coasting on the fumes of that and and that may or may not change i don't know.

You don't have to be a prophet to see that if the current trajectory is not stopped by something a revival a reformation something that we are headed in the very same path and the very same course as the rest of human history that is the ash heap of empires and the reality that we will be facing something that our christian brothers and sisters have faced for 2 000 years.

It was certainly the situation for the hebrew christians that they knew people who were in prison. Thus the command in verse 3 remember the prisoners and i want you to know that the audience themselves some of them had been imprisoned for their faith and that is alluded to or mentioned back in chapter 10.

Turn back there if you will just to chapter 10. Verse 32. I want to show you three examples from this epistle of how the early hebrew christians to whom this letter was written were very familiar with the kind of sufferings that we're talking about.

Hebrews chapter 10 verse 32. But remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated for you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and lasting one notice that the author there says that they had become sharers with people who were so treated they had joined in that affliction.

They had done what paul later said to timothy that we read at the beginning where he was not ashamed of the gospel and joined him in suffering for the sake of the gospel their number in the hebrew congregation who had done that very thing.

You'll notice the reference in verse 34. You showed sympathy to the prisoners. There were some among them who had not only had their property seized and suffered the reproach and the tribulations the conflict of suffering but had for the sake of the gospel been landed in prison and the hebrews had showed sympathy to them and accepted joyfully the seizure of their own property.

Now i want you to fast forward a little bit to hebrews chapter 13 verse 23. I want you to notice there was another example of somebody that they knew well who had been in prison. Hebrews 13 verse 23. Take notice that our brother timothy has been released with whom if he comes soon i will see you.

Timothy himself had been released from prison. I find it interesting that in the chapter that we read earlier in the service 2nd timothy chapter 1 paul tells timothy. Don't be ashamed of my chains or me or the prisoner of the lord but join with me in suffering for the sake of the gospel.

It's very possible that it was timothy's act of going to paul as paul requests him at the end of 2nd timothy chapter 4 when he says. When you come bring my cloak bring my books come to me before winter.

Why. Because paul was sitting in a hole and in in that environment if you didn't have family or friends show up to provide clothing for you and sustenance for you. You sat there with nobody to visit with you in that situation.

It's different than in our current context. In that situation the only thing that the government provided for you was the hole to put you in and after that it was up to somebody else to meet your needs.

So at the end of 2nd timothy chapter 4 paul says. Bring my cloak which i left to troas. Bring my books. The parchments i need those bring my coat and come to me before winter. Because everybody has departed everybody has left me all alone.

Only luke is with me. 2nd timothy chapter 4 he was in dire straits. It's very possible that timothy's arrival there in rome to visit paul and to fulfill the mission that paul had given him landed timothy in prison.

And now timothy was released. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 23. Notice the reference in verse 18 and 19. It's possible that the author himself was imprisoned. Or at least is writing this from less than ideal circumstances.

Verse 18. Pray for us. For we're sure that we have a good conscience desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. And i urge you all the more to do this so that i may be restored to you the sooner.

Very possible that the author himself for some reason was imprisoned in some way was imprisoned. It's odd language to say i will be restored to you. It seems to suggest that he had been forcibly and against his own will taken away from them for some reason.

Maybe persecution. Maybe he himself was in prison when he wrote this. There's the reminder here to continue to remember those who are the prisoners. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them.

Those who are ill-treated since you yourselves also are in the body like brotherly love and like hospitality. This was already happening in the hebrew congregation. We saw that back in chapter 10 you had participated in their sufferings.

You had remembered and shown sympathy to the prisoners and those who had had their property seized. There had already been the expression of love on behalf of these hebrew christians toward those who had been imprisoned and ill-treated.

And the author is not saying look you should start doing this. The author is saying continue to do this. Just like hebrews chapter 13 verse 1 let love of the brethren continue. And in so doing don't neglect these two groups of brethren who are very often neglected.

The stranger whom you don't necessarily want to know. And you and you may suspect that they're a plant or a government agent or somebody who will turn on. You don't neglect them and don't neglect those who have already been imprisoned and ill-treated for the faith.

Those by the way are the two easiest groups of people to neglect because they are out of sight and therefore they are out of mind. And remembering either one of them could be costly it could be dangerous.

And so the author wants them to continue doing what they may be tempted to stop doing. And that is to embrace those people who would cost them and be a danger to them. He wants them to continue doing this.

He says remember them. Which is similar. It's sort of a positive side of the command we get in verse 2 when he says do not neglect remember that word. Neglect means to allow it to pass out of your mind to forget to lose sight of to lose out of your mind.

Don't do that. Instead you should remember. So verse 2 is negative don't neglect this. And verse 3 is positive remember this. It's really the same idea stated two different ways. We could say don't neglect the to show hospitality and don't neglect the prisoners.

Or we could say remember to be hospitable and remember the prisoners. It's the same idea. Paul spoke of himself in this way by the way when he asked others to remember him in his imprisonment. Colossians chapter 4 verse 18.

I paul write this greeting with my own hand. Listen to this. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you. That is such a short simple but loaded phrase remember my imprisonment. Now paul doesn't say. Here are 10 things that i want you to do as you remember my imprisonment.

He just simply says to the colossians don't forget me. I'm in prison. And don't forget that. It's almost as if the apostle could just simply remind them of his circumstances. And the people in colossi would know what to do with that.

They would know exactly how to to handle the apostle paul. So what does this look like to remember the prisoners. What does it look like. Does it simply mean that i put up on my mirror in my on my vanity my bathroom prisoners.

So every morning i wake up and they oh yeah that's right. Prisoners just need to remember that. Remember prisoners. Have i fulfilled my responsibility. What does it look like to remember the prisoners.

Well the new testament gives us some examples. We could look at what was happening then and what others did for the apostle paul. I get some idea of what this would look like when the brethren express love for one another in remembering the prisoners.

So here's a couple of things that we see from paul's own life that others did for him in the book of philippians. The first is there was care and concern from the brethren. Care and concern. A care and concern not karen.

Concern care and concern. Three words paul writes in philippians 4 verse 10. But i rejoiced in the lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me. Indeed you were concerned before but you lacked opportunity.

And later on in the same chapter paul writes this. Nevertheless you have done well listen to this to share with me in my affliction. You yourselves also know philippians that at the first preaching of the gospel after i left macedonia no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone.

For even in thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that i seek the gift itself but i seek for the profit which increases to your account. And i have received everything in full and have an abundance.

I am amply supplied having received from epaphroditus what you have sent a fragrant aroma an acceptable sacrifice well pleasing to god. And my god will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in christ jesus they had expressed their compassion their solidarity with the apostle paul.

They had joined with him in his affliction. They had revived their care for him their concern for him. And that manifested on their behalf in giving a gift to the apostle paul to meet his needs. That's a very tangible real expression of how they showed their brotherly love.

Second is prayer. We see this in philippians or sorry ephesians chapter 6. And by the way i'm quoting here from paul's prison epistles because it is writing to people from prison that we get some idea of what other people were doing from for paul when he was in prison ephesians 6 verse 18.

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view beyond the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and pray on my behalf. That utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which i am an ambassador in chains that in proclaiming it i may speak boldly as i ought to speak now maybe in some situations prayer is all we can do.

But it's certain some certainly something that we can do to pray for those who are in prison. I find it interesting that from prison paul didn't say pray for my release. In fact when he asked them to pray for something specifically paul simply says pray that i will be bold and that i will speak as i ought to speak so that the gospel may be proclaimed.

And then we find out in philippians that the gospel had circulated amongst the entire praetorian guard because they had a soldier chained to paul 24 7. And so they would come in and switch out the soldiers.

And and every time they brought a new soldier in guess what paul saw it as for lack of a better term a mark here's somebody i can share the gospel with. And then those soldiers would leave paul and go back into the praetorian guard.

And news about him and about the gospel had spread throughout the entire praetorian guard. Paul's concern was not that he would be out of the chains so much. Paul's concern was not that he would he would have his needs met.

Paul's concern was just simply this make me bold so that even in chains i will speak as i ought to speak. That's something that we can pray for the prisoners. Third visiting the prisoners. Matthew chapter 25.

This is the words of jesus in verse 34 and 40. Then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world where i was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me and naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And then the righteous will answer him lord when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink.

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or naked and clothe you. When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you. And the king will answer and say to them truly i say to you to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine even to the least of them you did it to me.

See that expression of brotherly love to those who are suffering is a service to christ himself. And he will reward that abundantly and graciously on the final day. And this is why by the way christians in the early church visited each other in prison because of this very command this kind of command knowing that they were serving christ.

In doing that we see examples of that people visiting those in prison. Paul's companions visited him. He says at the end of second timothy which i already mentioned that luke was with him. He encouraged timothy to come to him and to bring the parchments in his coat.

He spent two years in caesarea where he had visitors. And he spent two years in rome where people came to visit him. So visiting prisoners in their imprisonment is certainly a very tangible way of showing brotherly love for them.

We have an example of that in in anise for us. 2nd timothy chapter 1 verses 16 and 18. The lord grant mercy to the house of anise for us. For he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he was in rome he eagerly searched for me and found me.

The lord grant him to find mercy from the lord on that day. For you know very well what services he rendered at ephesus when this amiss. And this first was not ashamed of paul's chains. And then in that same chapter the apostle tells timothy.

2nd timothy 1 verse 8. Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our lord or of me his prisoner but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of god. At that time paul was public enemy number one he had been accused if you follow the the narrative through the book of acts he had been accused at the end of the book of acts of sedition stirring up cities sectarianism and illicit religion and sacrilege defiling the jewish temple.

Those were the three charges that the jewish leadership brought against paul before felix festus and agrippa. And we can presume that they brought those same charges to nero when paul finally landed in rome and stood before him.

Sedition sectarianism and sacrilege that was what he was accused of. And after he was released and he was finally put back in prison. This time it was not to have sort of a courteous presentation before nero and to present his case there as he did during his first imprisonment.

But that second time instead paul was public enemy number one and christianity was on the cusp of becoming an illicit religion. And they were only when 2nd timothy is written. They're only a couple of years away from a government sponsored government funded government orchestrated persecution of the christian church.

They were only a couple of years away from that. The slanders had already started regarding what christians were doing and what they were guilty of. And it looked as if the dark storm clouds were gathering on the horizon and even over top of their heads.

And paul says don't be ashamed of me but join with me in suffering. It would be dangerous to identify with the christian community. It would certainly be dangerous and even at the risk of their own lives for anybody to identify with the apostle paul.

He was their most notable notorious and well-known ringleader. And to attach to hook your wagon to him in any way would make you a target. And onysiphorus got to rome and he eagerly searched out paul so that he could visit paul.

And paul says the lord will remember him and the lord will reward him on that day. It's not just the prisoners that we are to remember but also those who are ill-treated. Look at the second half of the verse.

Those who are ill-treated. Suffering in prison is not the only way that people suffer for the sake of the gospel for the truth. And so compassion should not be restrained just to the prisoner. There are other ways that people suffer for the gospel.

We've seen them in back in hebrews chapter 10. Reproaches and contempt. Having your children taken away suffering financial woes losing your job the seizure of your property your physical destitution occupational or reputational ruin being banished from family and friends.

And from those who should care for you being ostracized from society being falsely accused. Those are all ways that people are ill-treated. And all ways that first century christians were ill-treated.

In fact they are to view themselves as being lumped in with the heroes of faith. Because that other reference to ill-treated is actually back in hebrews chapter 11. Do you remember when he is reciting through the virtues of the heroes of the faith paul the author of hebrews says i've been talking about paul.

I'm not suggesting paul's wrote hebrews. The author of hebrews says in verse 35. Women received back their dead by resurrection and others were tortured not accepting their release. Talking about prisoners so that they might obtain a better resurrection.