Hall of Faith (Part 1)
Hebrews: Jesus is Greater 2022-2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Faith. What is it? Why does it matter? How does it change us?
We live in what many people call a post-Christian age. A world where many people distance themselves from anything remotely having to do with Christianity or Biblical truth. A world that has abandoned truth and objective reality. But in this crazy world, people still love to talk about faith. If you say that you have faith, your non-Christian neighbor will likely join in and celebrate that with you and talk about what they have faith in. To many, faith is a feeling that something good or bad might happen. In high school, I was on the golf team with several friends and every year we had 1 tournament that we got to play as a team instead of as individuals, so I was partnered with my best friend and each hole we would take our best shot and play from there. I had played golf with this friend for years and I knew his strengths and weaknesses, just like he knew mine. Because of this, I had a lot of faith that we’d do well in this event. In fact, on the second hole, I happened to hit a really good iron shot about 2 feet away from the hole and I had so much faith in my friend that I didn’t even bother bringing my putter to the green because I just knew that he was going to make the putt… because he’s a good putter and it was just a 2 foot putt, there’s no way he would miss that, right? Wrong! He missed the putt and I had to walk back to my bag and grab my putter and I ended up embarrassing my friend even more. I had so much faith, but the object that my faith was in was faulty because my friend was not and is not perfect. See, we can have faith in a person and faith in a team and faith in a group of people and faith in a place, but ultimately our faith will let us down because we live in a broken, fallen world. If faith is only about good feelings and if faith is a blind leap into the dark, we’re hopeless. Everyone loves talking about faith… In fact, sometimes people will talk about being a person of great and sincere faith… The skeptic has faith… The Muslim has faith… The Mormon has faith… what’s the difference?
As Spurgeon once shared, “It is not great faith but true faith that saves.” We have to make sure that we have true faith in the Creator of the Universe. Faith is a big deal and we need to see what the Bible teaches about genuine faith and there is no better place for this study than Hebrews 11 as we come across the “Hall of Faith” as we continue walking through the book of Hebrews together. (page 1067 in pew bibles)
Many ask, how does Hebrews 11 impact us today? We’re going to see 2 things over the next 4 weeks in this study - First, Hebrews 11 is all about Jesus because the entire Bible is all about Jesus. This year we’ve been studying this book and we’ve seen how Hebrews is all about how Jesus is better. He is a better hero. Sacrifice. Priest. Savior. It’s not just about the specific “heroes” - it’s about their faith in God and how Jesus saves those who have genuine faith. Second, Hebrews 11 is for us. Hebrews 11 wasn’t first written to us, it was written for an audience 2,000 years ago… but its message of saving faith is certainly a message we need to hear today. Some read this chapter and get discouraged because they think that these heroes of the faith are perfect and they feel as though they will never measure up. Its easy to look at Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and others and think that God used them because they were amazing and perfect and now its 2023 and God just doesn’t care that much about me. These people were fallen sinners just like you and me. They were not perfect, but they knew and trusted in a perfect God - as we must too! On the other hand, some read this chapter and get out their pen and paper because they’re excited and they want to be just like these heroes of faith. They view this as a “Do” chapter - do the things that these people did… but that response will lead to failure and frustration… and that’s not what these figures would want in the first place. Contrary to popular opinion, you’re not David, your enemy isn’t Goliath, and Daniel doesn’t really want you to dare to be just like him in the first place. Daniel, David, Moses, Abraham, Noah, and all of these Old Testament figures are pointing us ahead to Jesus as Hebrews 12 will tell us next month. The purpose of Hebrews 11 is to point us to Jesus and show us that faith in Him leads to a life of action for Him. As we see these examples, we’ll be reminded of this good Gospel truth: God uses crooked sticks to his straight shots - that’s some good news!
1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
2 For by this our ancestors were approved.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man, because God approved his gifts, and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith.
5 By faith Enoch was taken away, and so he did not experience death. He was not to be found because God took him away. For before he was taken away, he was approved as one who pleased God.
6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
7 By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
What makes these people great is not their works. In fact, these people aren’t that great. What is great is their God in Whom they have faith in and our God creates us for good works - so faith in God leads to works for God. As we prepare our hearts to study this text, ask yourself this question: What am I producing today?
Biblical Faith Makes a Difference (1-3)
Biblical Faith Makes a Difference (1-3)
We all have faith in something…
For us to understand what faith is, we have to understand the words that show up after it - reality and proof. Faith is more than fleeting feeling or positive outlook. Faith is not something found in looking to self, either. Biblical faith is a call to trust in something outside of yourself. We have certainty - not hope or chance or luck… certainty! When God makes a promise, we can be certain that it will come to pass. Think of how that definition of certainty stands out in our world today. Certainty is attacked and seen as an intolerant and arrogant thing. Sure, there are some who are arrogant when they have no basis to be… But whenever the Bible says something, we can be certain that it is right - like when the Bible says in John 14:6
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We can be certain about this. And we can be certain of this too
10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.
These are good things to be certain of - but our world doesn’t like certainty. In fact, former pastor Rob Bell has said the following, “Beware of people who come up to you with Bible verses and certainty.” Even people who grew up going to church and singing the songs and learning about the Bible hate certainty - because certainty is objective. It doesn’t change. In a world that worships feelings, having certainty that doesn’t change makes you stand out remarkably. Consider what Hebrews 11 says about our faith in verse 1
1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
Is this a definition? Maybe, but it’s certainly not a full one. Rather, this is a description of what Biblical faith does. Biblical faith does 2 key things: It looks ahead to what is hoped for in the future and it looks back at the things that are not seen in the past that happened that we weren’t there to see. Faith is confidence in what God has done and what God promises to do - that is Biblical faith - trusting in God to fulfill His promises and walking in obedience after Him. Faith isn’t just something that we have in our brains - some accuse Christians of having a meaningless faith or a mental faith that doesn’t impact our lives… this is false! Adrian Rogers once shared that faith is belief with legs on it - faith does something. Think about this I believe that this pew will hold me up… but I don’t really demonstrate faith in that belief until I do what? Sit down in it! The word belief comes from the older English word, by-live - we can think of belief like this: What we believe in, we live by. If I believe in something, that belief will shape what I do.
In the Greek, we see a unique word come after the word faith and it’s the English word reality but the Greek word Hypostasis - not hypothesis from biology class. What does this word mean? Some translations use the word substance, others use the word evidence, others use the word reality. The word hypostasis shows up 2x in the New Testament and the word for proof (Elenchos) shows up here and here alone. These are significant words that are here for a reason. What is that reason?
Faith is the reality and proof of things that are not yet seen… Biblical faith is not jumping off a skyscraper and believing for a miracle and praying for a breakthrough - that’s called foolishness, not faithfulness. Biblical faith is not a shot in the dark… Biblical faith is confidence in the facts but some of those facts are things that we haven’t seen with our own eyes. We weren’t present whenever Jesus walked the earth. We weren’t present whenever God created the universe. But we believe in those things by faith. Not blind faith, reasonable faith based on evidence and proof found in God’s Word. This is Biblical faith: whenever the bottom drops out in your life, you don’t walk by sight. You walk by faith. You walk with confidence. This doesn’t mean that everything goes your way, but you have faith in the promises of God that He is working all things for your good regardless if they feel good or not. We’ll touch on several examples of faith in the verses to come, but one passage that makes clear the difference that Biblical faith makes in the lives of God’s people is Daniel 3 as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were standing before King Nebuchadnezzar and about to be thrown into the fiery furnace. They were told to bend the knee, but instead they said this:
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question.
17 If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king.
18 But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”
This is faith! Proclaiming in the existence of God. Knowing He can save. But recognizing that even if He doesn’t, they can’t bend the knee - whatever consequences come, let it be. This is Biblical faith and that stands out! We might expect Christians to always have great amounts of faith because of examples like this, but we see in Scripture that God’s people doubt often times, and this is true in our lives as well. We’re prone to wander. It’s easy to take our eyes off of Jesus and His power and onto our present problem. What we have to come to realize is that it is not the strength of our faith that saves, but instead it is the object of our faith that saves. If our salvation was left up to how tightly we hold onto Jesus and how amazing our faith is, we’d be going down the Current River without a paddle and that’s not the best place to be. Instead what saves and what matters is the fact that our faith is IN Christ. He holds onto us. That makes all the difference in the world.
The first example of what faith does is found in verse 3 as faith allows us to understand that God made all things. If you go up to someone on the streets of St. Louis or Kansas City and ask them how the world came into existence, you’ll probably get some different responses. Some will say that it was made by God, others will say the Big Bang, others will say that they don’t know and honestly don’t care. Even though we all have been created and do exist, we don’t all praise God. In fact, our current society is kind of like the story of the piano mice - have you heard that story before? These mice lived in a massive piano - bigger than any piano in operation today - and whenever the piano was being played, it filled their world with beautiful music and this comforted and impressed the mice. They loved the piano and they loved the player of the piano - even though they couldn’t see Him. Over time, the mice started to get a little adventurous and they climbed up the piano and discovered that the cause of the music was grand wires that vibrated across the piano and this meant that they had to change all of their previous beliefs about a grand player - that was outdated and clearly not true because of the existence of these wires. A little while later, a group of mice explored further and discovered that there were hammers that hit the wires and the hammers were in fact the cause of the music in their world. They lived in a mechanical world. A world without an Unseen player where math solved all the problems.
This is our world. We know that in the beginning God spoke the world into existence and the music began to play and its been playing ever since. Sure, there are wires and there are hammers and there are scientific processes playing out, but those processes were put into place by the Creator - not the other way around. Biblical faith makes a difference in the way that we view this world and the way that we engage with others in this world. We believe in what we cannot see, not because it’s random or blind… but because we trust that the Creator of the Universe has revealed Himself to us in His Word and we stand on Scripture. Faith makes all the difference and our faith in the Lord provides us with hope and endurance, regardless of our temporary circumstances.
Biblical Faith Must be Demonstrated (4-7)
Biblical Faith Must be Demonstrated (4-7)
So, if faith makes a difference, how do people know if you have faith or not? The book of James talks about this situation in James 2:14-26 as James shares with us that faith without works is dead. This isn’t to say that we can work and earn our own salvation - that’s impossible. But what it means is that you cannot say that you have faith and not live a changed life as a result. Just knowing about Jesus and having some knowledge about Him isn’t enough. He’s either Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all - as CS Lewis once shared. Throughout Hebrews 11, we see examples of people in the Old Testament having faith in God and that faith leading to action for God. Further, in each example given in Hebrews 11, we see a connection or a typology to Jesus Christ. Look at how the following 3 people demonstrate their faith in God in verses 4-7.
Trusting in God (Abel)
Walking with God (Enoch)
Standing with God (Noah)
We see in Genesis 4 that Cain and Abel both brought offerings to God to worship Him. Cain brought “some” of the produce of the land and Abel brought the firstborn of his livestock. Some have argued that the reason that Abel brought a better sacrifice was because it was an animal and Cain only brought vegetables - I think there’s some wisdom in there somewhere that steak is better than tomatoes but that’s not the point we see in Genesis and it’s not the point made here in Hebrews. Why was Abel’s sacrifice better? Because it was offered in faith. Abel offered to God his very best because he trusted in the Lord and submitted to Him in worship. He obeyed because he trusted. Similarly, Cain disobeyed because he failed to trust in God. As you reflect on your life today, would you say that your life is characterized by obedience and trust in the Lord? This is what the New Testament calls upon Christians to do
1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Why do we do this? Why do we give of our time, talent, and treasure for the Lord? Because that’s how we worship Him. That’s how we demonstrate that we trust in Him and walk by faith and not by sight. Look at the end of verse 4 with me. Because of Abel’s faith, he was approved and even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith. Everything in this life will fade away one day. Either you will be gone and unable to enjoy it or it will falter at some point during your life. Abel was the first person to die - yet his life still speaks because of his faith. Consider your life today… What is your life’s legacy? Or phrased differently: If you were to pass away today, what would be said at your funeral? Everyone wants to leave something behind for others whether it be money, land, titles, stocks, or houses… But those things will fade. They don’t last. They’re here one minute and gone the next. There is a better legacy to leave behind than that of wealth or wisdom and that is a legacy of faith in Jesus Christ because that legacy reverberates throughout the generations and still speaks far after we’re gone. Abel was the first person to pass away, yet His blood still speaks today. But consider what his blood says - Genesis 4:10 tells us that his blood cries out for condemnation. How does the blood of Abel point us to Jesus? Hebrews 12:24 tells us that the blood of Jesus says better things than the blood of Abel. The blood of Jesus in Luke 23:34 (Father, forgive them) cries out for our forgiveness and pardon. The blood of Jesus, the greater Abel, says that there is no condemnation for the one who has faith in Him as Romans 8:1 tells us.
The second example we see is that of Enoch. We see that Enoch walked with God and that God took him from the earth. His faith led him to follow after the Lord and to live a life that pleased God. That’s quite a lofty statement, isn’t it? To be one who pleased God? How is that even possible? Psalm 1 showed us earlier this summer that there are 2 paths in life: The Way of the World and the Way of the Word - Enoch walked down the Way of the Word and submitted to God’s plan daily - as Proverbs 3:5-6 instructs us to do. Why did Enoch do this? Hebrews 11:5 tells us that it was because of his faith. He walked after God. He trusted in God. He lived, not a perfect life, but a life that was pleasing to God because of his faith in God. We aren’t told much about Enoch other than he walked with the Lord and he was taken by the Lord… do you see the connection to Jesus Christ here? The One who obeyed and walked with the Father perfectly and was taken up by the Father at His ascension? Yet another connection to Jesus Christ.
The second thing we see is in regards to faith in Hebrews 11:6
6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
This is a big deal! The faith that pleases God is twofold: First, we believe that God exists and, second, that He rewards those who seek after Him. Why do you think the early Christians willingly suffered like they did for Christ? Because of their faith - they knew God existed and they believed that God rewards those who seek after Him. Without that faith, it’s impossible to please God. Without demonstrating that faith through action, it is impossible to please God. We don’t like the word impossible in our world because that sounds too harsh, but there are some things that are simply impossible. It’s impossible for the equation 2 + 2 to equal anything other than 4. It’s impossible for God to sin. It’s impossible for our works to save ourselves. Likewise, it is impossible for someone to please God apart from faith in Jesus. It’s impossible to get to God apart from Jesus Christ as John 14:6 tells us that He is the only way! This is black and white and we live in a world of gray - may we heed this stern warning in Hebrews 11!
The third example is that of Noah. Why did Noah build the Ark? Was it because the meteorologist issued a severe flood warning and Noah was just taking an extra safety precaution? Not at all. Noah built the Ark because he had faith in God, even though he didn’t fully understand with his own eyes what was coming. Noah was told the severity of the flood that was to come as it would wipe out the world because it the wickedness of humanity and this led him to have godly fear and awe of God’s holiness - so he obeys God’s instruction and builds an ark that took him 120 years to complete. If you’ve been to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky or if you’ve seen pictures of it online, you know just how massive the Ark was, especially thousands of years ago! This thing is huge - and he certainly would have had his fair share of naysayers making fun of him along the way… but he continued to build because He knew God’s judgment was coming. I ask you this: How does Noah point us to Jesus? Think of the Ark. How was Noah and his family saved through the flood? By getting on the Ark. It wasn’t because they were perfect - they deserved to be destroyed, but the Ark was strong enough to endure the flood. Likewise, if you are a Christian, Christ has become your Ark. You are in Christ. Christ see’s you through the judgment of God because He Himself drank the cup of God’s wrath on the cross. Noah points us to Jesus and he had faith in the Lord. He inherited righteousness from God and this is what happens whenever we place our faith in Jesus as 2 Cor 5:21 tells us
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Noah inherited this righteousness, how? Through faith. Faith leads to salvation. We demonstrate our faith in God through action for God.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
4 Look, his ego is inflated; he is without integrity. But the righteous one will live by his faith.
It is not enough to claim to have faith… we must live by faith - this means that our faith in God is demonstrated through action! This is what we see throughout this chapter as the word faith shows up chronologically throughout the Old Testament 28 times starting with creation in Genesis 1, and in every example given by our preacher, faith is demonstrated.
By Faith we understand (3)
By Faith Abel offered (4)
By Faith Enoch pleased God (5)
By Faith Noah built an Ark (7)
By Faith Abraham obeyed (8)
By Faith Sarah considered God to be faithful (11)
By Faith Abraham offered up Isaac (17)
By Faith Isaac blessed Jacob (20)
By Faith Jacob blessed his grandsons (21)
By Faith Joseph gave instruction (22)
By Faith Moses chose to suffer (25)
By Faith the Israelites crossed the Red Sea (29)
By Faith the Israelites marched around Jericho (30)
By Faith Rahab welcomed the spies (31)
By Faith numerous others trusted in God and obeyed Him (39)
Biblical faith must be demonstrated - it’s not enough to say that we’re good and we believe in God… even the demons know about God. They believe in His existence. They acknowledge that He’s real and powerful. They even know Bible stories and Bible verses! But they aren’t saved. What, then, is saving faith? Here’s a working definition, “Biblical faith is confidence in the promises of God that leads ordinary people to action and results in various earthly outcomes but always results in the applause of our Father in heaven.” Get this, as you demonstrate your faith in God, you’re not promised that things will go your way - see this chapter as an example! But you are promised this if you live a life of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, on the last day you will hear these words that will drown out a million scoffs and bickerers, “Well done good and faithful one.” The applause of heaven is our compass in this thing called life. This isn’t to say that you’re perfect as a Christian - far from it, but it means that you look different from non-Christians around you. We talk differently, we think differently, we act differently. We demonstrate our faith through how we live day in and day out.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We live in a confusing and hopeless world that is struggling to find something worth putting our faith in. People let us down. Promises are broken. Change is normal and genuine community is a foreign concept. In a world like this what we need is an anchor and a group of people to encourage us and support us in this fight. This is what Hebrews has been sharing to this point. Jesus is our anchor. He holds us fast. He seeks, saves, and satisfies us. He saves us into His body and we gather together to encourage one another to continue looking to Him in all that we do. The goal of Christianity isn’t to become a better person - you can do that through the Salvation Army or through a fitness program and become better… the goal of Christianity is for you and I to become a new person and the only way that can happen is through faith in Jesus Christ. Regardless of your past, here’s what you must see today from Hebrews 11
Faith is Found in Christ
You and I are separated from God because of our sinfulness. Because of this, we can’t just come to God on our own terms however and whenever we want to. God is holy and we are separated from Him - we are in need of saving! The only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ, His Son. Hebrews 4 tells us that through Jesus, we can come to God with boldness and confidence. We can have full confidence and faith in God, but it’s not through our good works… it’s through the finished work of Jesus and what He did for us on the cross! Hebrews 11, as the whole book of Hebrews does, points us to Jesus and our desperate need for Him.
Faith is Foundational to Obedience
We look to Jesus and we place our faith in Him and His work on the cross and in triumphing over the grave! As we place our faith in Jesus and trust in Him, we see in Scripture that we now are called to live as a new creation. We see in Hebrews 11 that faith in God results in obeying God. Some get a little confused here and think that if they obey God’s laws then they deserve good things from God on the basis of their obedience. That’s not how it works, though! The reason that we obey God is not because our obedience saves us, instead it is because we have been saved. We have faith in what Christ has done for us! Because of this faith, we have a new heart that desires to serve and obey God! In other words, the reason that you and I obey God is not in order to potentially be saved, but because we have been saved! Look at these examples in this chapter and you see people who obey and the basis for their obedience was their faith in God.
Faith Flourishes in the Fire
Some ask, how long do I have to obey for? What about when things don’t go my way? What about whenever the bottom drops out? What about whenever the flames feel like they’re about to consume me? If you’re not a follower of Jesus Christ today, maybe you think that there are limits to this thing called faith - maybe you think that you’ll have faith in God as long as it makes your life more comfortable but the minute things look bad, you’re going to run for the hills… That’s not saving faith. There were people in Hebrews who felt the same way and the preacher of Hebrews has repeatedly called them out. Genuine Biblical faith flourishes in the fires of life where the present isn’t known but the future is secured. Understand this, Christian, your future is held securely in the hands of your crucified and risen Savior. The battle is won. The victory is assured. You can walk each day by faith in this truth and as you do you will stand out from those around you, just as these individuals mentioned this morning did in their time. Is your faith flourishing or is it floundering? In the fire are you tempted to throw in the towel or are you ready to trust in the Lord all the more?
Friend, if you are searching today, search no more! Come home to God through faith in Jesus Christ.