Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Good evening and welcome to Anchor Bible Church!

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Introduction

Turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11 is a famous chapter, and we even sang about it!

Some call it the Hall of Faith or the Heroes of the Faith.

That’s because in it, the author repeats the phrase “by faith” 18 times as he describes some important characters.

I’m going to read the whole chapter and the first three verses of chapter 12, then I’ll pray, introduce Enoch to you, and we’ll dig into verses 5-6 as our text for this evening.

Hebrews 11 says,

Read Hebrews 11.

Pray.

(10 minutes)

Our text for this evening is, as I mentioned, verses 5 and 6.

These two verses highlight Enoch, and they are based on a fascinating entry in the genealogy of Adam from Genesis 5.

You can go ahead and turn to Genesis 5.

As you’re turning there, just know that Enoch is also mentioned in Jude 14-15.

We don’t have time to read that one because our text in Hebrews is based on Genesis 5.

But in it, Jude points out that Enoch was the seventh from Adam, and he quotes a prophecy from Enoch that foretells Jesus’ judgment at His Second Coming.

It is likely that Enoch’s era was characterized by the same kind of global wickedness.

Look with me at Genesis 5 now.

As you are probably aware, genealogies are pretty repetitive.

They’re like ancient databases.

Everything looks the same.

In this case, there is a specific formula used to record entries for each of the 10 men from Adam to Noah, and the formula ends with the phrase, “and he died.”

Starting with Adam, six entries are listed and they all end with “and he died.”

But then we find Enoch.

And the text basically says, “and he did not die.”

Where we would expect the phrase “and he died” at the end of verse 23, we find verse 24 instead:

24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.

— Genesis 5

Remember that Jude introduced Enoch as being in the seventh from Adam.

If you flip back a page to Genesis 4, you can see that Lamech in verse 19 was also part of the same generation.

Enoch was the seventh generation via Seth, and Lamech was his fifth cousin via the line of Cain.

Lamech was a rebel who rejected God’s designs for both marriage and life.

He defied God’s authority.

Lamech was lame.

Enoch, on the other hand, walked with God.

In verse 23, it is interesting that Lamech is so proud of murdering a boy.

It’s not like we’re talking about Goliath or something.

I think his emphasis on Cain in verse 24 indicates that this may have been the first murder since Abel.

In light of how harshly God punished Cain, probably no one else had dared to do it again.

Until Lamech.

In addition, his murder may have been just the second human death.

Adam lived to be 930 years old, and we can calculate with the ages in Genesis 5 to find that Enoch was born when Adam was 622 years old.

They lived at the same time for 308 years.

Perhaps Lamech murdered the boy during this time.

But then Adam grew old, and he died.

These events were monumental.

We don’t know when all the women and other people lived and died, but if they all made it to their 800s, then perhaps there hadn’t been any deaths in 600 years.

Apart from Adam, Eve, and Cain, Maybe no one had ever even seen death before Lamech pulled his stunt!

The whole family must have been shocked.

But now death was a present reality.

The days grew dark and depressing.

God’s curse that man would surely die was coming to pass.

It was one thing to be murdered.

It was another thing entirely to die of old age.

Now death had become a terrible fate they could never escape.

The text says “and he died.”

It was inevitable.

Or was it?

Enter Enoch.

The one bird who managed to fly the coop.

Turn with me back to Hebrews 11, where we will spend our time this evening considering verses 5-6.

In verse 5, the author of Hebrews repeats the highlights of Enoch’s life from Genesis 5:21-24.

Then in verse 6, he draws out some principles of application based on Enoch’s life.

Looking at these two verses, I want to give you an example and an exhortation to please God by faith.

An example and an exhortation to please God by faith.

The Example: Enoch’s Faith Pleased God

As we consider Enoch’s example, three things come to the surface in verse 5. Let me read it again for you,

5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for prior to being taken up, he was approved as being pleasing to God. — Hebrews 11

Here we find that Enoch was taken up, that he could not be found, and that he had been approved.

I want to consider each of these biographical details, and then we will focus our attention on how to be like Enoch.

Enoch Was Taken Up

The first thing we learn about from our text is that Enoch was taken up.

Look at the first clause; it says,

5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death;

This is such a fascinating verse.

The verb for ‘taken up’ also appears in Acts 7:15-16 where Stephen recounts that when the Israelites left Egypt, they "took up” Jacob and Joseph’s bones and carried them to Canaan.

So also Enoch was physically taken up and transported to another location.

The text does not actually say where Enoch went, but it seems safe to assume that he was raptured to heaven—just like how on Wednesday we talked about 1 Thessalonians 4:14, which says “God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”

Enoch was taken up to heaven.

This miraculous teleportation was necessary “so that he would not see death.”

Again we find a very similar use of this phrase in Luke 2:25-26 where Simeon, a righteous and devout man, had learned “that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

These two were like peas in a pod.

Both Enoch and Simeon were righteous and devout men, waiting for the comfort of God’s elect, and both seem to have been given special revelation by the Holy Spirit.

Simeon went on to die after he saw baby Jesus, but Enoch never saw death.

That experience was hidden from him.

This is where our curiosity perks up.

We know he was taken so that he would not see death, but we wonder, “Why shouldn’t Enoch see death?”

We might even point out that just two chapters earlier Hebrews 9:27 says “it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.”

If everyone (including us) is supposed to die, why didn’t Enoch?