Hebrews: A Journey of Faith. Week 6, Chapter 11

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Good morning Ottawa Family, it is great to be with you today. I pray all of you had a good week in the Lord. This week we are covering what is probably the most well known chapter in the book of Hebrews, and one of the most popular in the entirety of Scripture. Most of us have heard it or read it many times over the years. Today, it’s my hope to pull something fresh out of these well known passages.

PRAY

We have a lot to cover today, so we are going to go ahead and just right in. Most of us have read the book of Hebrews or at least have heart of it. It is known as the “Chapter of Faith” or the “Hall of Hero’s”, as the preacher turns his attention from the superiority of Christ’s sacrifice to the themes of endurance and faith. It is, for sure, still a very important idea for today and one that is central to living for Christ.

Outside of reading the latter part of chapter 10, I am going to break chapter 11 up into 5 sections to help us digest the material a bit better.

Hebrews 11:1-6 : ( What Faith Really Means.)

Hebrews 11:7-12: (Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah.)

Hebrews 11: 13-22: (Faith that Looks Beyond Death.)

Hebrews 11:23-31: (Faith and the Future: Moses and the Exodus.)

Hebrews 11:32-40: (Faith and the Future: The Great Crowd.)

Let’s go ahead and begin by looking at chapter 10: 32-39

Hebrews 10: 32-39

32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” 38 And, “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” 39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

Th preacher is speaking with the audience, admonishing them to remember the days where they were willing to suffer hardship for the cause of Christ. The people had been treated poorly in many different ways, including having their material goods stolen…yet they endured....what made the difference between how they were back then vs how they are right now? Why the change?

It has everything to do with the first century, Jewish Christian mindset or the way they thought about the Messiah. We even see this type of thinking in Jesus’s disciples after Jesus rose from the dead:

Acts 1:6–7

“So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;”

The promise that the Hebrew author is referring to is the belief that the Messiah was going to bring about the restoration of Israel. The people were willing to endure “until the end,” because of God’s promise to restore Israel, once the Messiah comes. Again, if we look at Jesus’s disciples we can find them talking about the restoration of Israel and what it will look like…and even what their roles or positions of authority will be. These early Jewish believers thought that the Messiah was supposed to usher in a new world, one in which Israel would no longer suffer and their enemies would be vanquished. That is the promise they were holding on to. There is one problem though…the Messiah had come, and then left and Israel was still not restored. As the first few decades passed by, after Jesus ascended to Heaven, some of the Jewish believer began to loose heart questing the God’s promise. What happens when we begin to doubt God’s promises? Our tolerance for suffering begins to wain and our faith begins to falter.

The preacher quotes from the book of Habakkuk in order t strengthen his point:

Habakkuk is where the verse…But my righteous one will live by faith originates from. We see this quoted by Paul as well. The preacher’s point is that only those with faith are able to endure…it’s at this point that the author begins chapter 11, which is one long example or illustration of what it looks like to “live by faith.” So, let’s go ahead and go to chapter 11 and go through through the 5 sections I laid out earlier.

1. Hebrews 11:1-6 : ( What Faith Really Means.)

Hebrews 11: 1-6;

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Because we read the latter part of chapter 10, now we have a better understanding of why the preacher begins to talk about faith. If we viewed chapter 11 as a sermon unto itself, verses 1-6 would be the introduction. The preacher is establishing what he meant in chapter 10

39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

What should we have faith in…in their context, faith that God will follow through on His promise to restore Israel…that is exactly what the audience would be thinking. If we can have the faith to believe that God created the world with a mere spoken word, then surely we can have faith that God will keep His promises. Both Able and Enoch are mentioned in this opening section, where the author is defining what it really means to have faith.

When I was in 6th grade my class went to cedar point in Ohio. We lived only a short distance from it. Cedar Point, even to this day is known as the king of the roller coasters. Back then it boasted the highest and tallest roller coaster in the world…the magnum xl 2000. It was the first coaster ever to break 200 feet. Of course, all of my buddies were boasting about going on the ride first thing. Well, the day arrived…we got to the part, but for some strange reason, all of that bravado disappeared…now it was more like…well, let’s have it be the last ride of the day…all of us, except for one kid. This one kid was wanting to head right over the ride the thing. Problem was, our group had to stay together…none of us actually thought he would actually go through with it, so we decided to go over to the Magnum and see what happens. Sure enough, that little guy hopped right on and tamed the beast. All of a sudden, as soon as he got off of the ride, now all of us wanted to go. Our faith was bolstered because one person was willing to face his fears and go on the ride. It inspired us…even though none of us would admit that.

In essence, the preacher is hoping to inspire the audience by reminding them that many have gone on the ride before them.

2. Hebrews 11: 7-12 (Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah.)

Hebrews 11:7-8; 11-12

7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Notice here that the author is still talking about the promise of something in the future. By faith, Noah and Abraham and Sarah kept hold of God’s promises, even though the outcome of each of their situations were unknown. The promise for Noah, Abraham and Sarah was that the God who created the world was also a Covenant making God. All 3 of the individuals in this section believed God in the moment, for something better in the future. They had the faith to believe that the God who created the earth was able to keep His promises, despite every circumstance looking bad at the moment.

Hebrews for Everyone Faith and the Future: Noah, Abraham, Sarah (Hebrews 11:7–12)

‘Faith’ here is not a general religious attitude to life. It’s not simply believing difficult or impossible things for the sake of it, as though simple credulity was itself a virtue. The faith in question, as becomes increasingly clear throughout the chapter, is the faith which hears and believes the promise of God, the assured word from the world’s creator that he is also the world’s redeemer, and that through the strange fortunes of Abraham’s family he is working to build … the city which is to come.

Let’s keep moving, as I want to leave plenty of time to tie it all together and apply it to our lives today.

3. Hebrews 11:13-22 (Faith that Looks Beyond Death.)

This middle section is quite long and can itself be broken up into further sections. Let’s take a look at the first 3 passages.

Hebrews 11: 13-16

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

The preacher now reveals what he has been alluding to since the beginning of the chapter. He says that the people he was just referring to…Noah, Abraham, and Sarah all died without receiving the promise they were given. In other words, they were willing to endure until the end, even though God’s ultimate promise was never fulfilled. In these passages we get into some interesting ideas. These passages can be confusing to us, as we would normally contend that at least Noah and Sarah did receive their promises…God saved Noah and his family and Sarah did bear a child…but the author of Hebrews is saying that all 3 of them were actually looking for God’s ultimate promise of a perfect, heavenly city. In order to understand what the author of Hebrews is doing here, we must take a quick look at how Jews interpreted their scripture…which is different from modern Biblical interpretation.

Midrash:

Midrash (מדרשׁ) is an interpretive act, seeking the answers to religious questions (both practical and theological) by plumbing the meaning of the words of the Torah. (In the Bible, the root d-r-sh [דרשׁ] is used to mean inquiring into any matter, including occasionally to seek out God’s word.) Midrash responds to contemporary problems and crafts new stories, making connections between new Jewish realities and the unchanging biblical text.

Now, that is a very, very condensed idea, as there are different types of Midrash…but the general idea is what I just stated. Think back, and this is why we began in chapter 10…what is the preacher’s audience struggling with: They are struggling with their faith, sure…but more than that, they have begun to let go and disbelieve the promises of God that He will, one day, restore Israel. More than once in Hebrews the author refers to a city being prepared…but not an earthly city…a heavenly city…the author is telling his audience that instead of looking for God to restore Israel here on earth, the true restoration of Israel is in the heavenly city. This is why, in previous chapters where the author is talking about Jesus being the High Priest of a Heavenly Temple…not made with human hands. In other words, the author is trying to tell his audience to get their minds off of the temporal…things on this earth, and put their faith in the eternal…things in heaven. Let’s keep going.

4. Hebrews 11: 23-31 (Faith and the Future: Moses and the Exodus.)

The author now turns his attention to the revered Moses. Notice that the preacher started (in vs. 3) with the very creation of the world, then on to Able, then Enoch, Noah, Abraham…now Moses, he is going in chronological order. The preacher talks about Moses quite a bit in this section, as he was viewed as the most important O.T. figure…even more so than Abraham, as Moses was the one who led the Israelites out of slavery in the promised land. The author uses the midrash style of interpretation in this section as well...

Hebrews 11:24-26

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

One does not have to be a Bible scholar to know that Moses did not choose to be mistreated for the sake of Christ…as Christ did not until 1500 years later. However, one the other hand, it is also true, as Christ and God are one. This is another great example of Midrash…the preacher is not trying to deceive his audience…he is relating an ancient story to his (at the time) contemporary audience. Again, we stay away from this type of interpretation today, as we have the full account of Christ in the New Testament. Moses was special. He could have grown old in the royal palace and had every comfort available to him for that day. Instead, Moses had compassion on his people…even before encountering God in the burning bush, it’s clear that Moses was an extraordinary man. You want to talk about a guy truly standing up for the oppressed…Moses was your man.

The preacher also mentions the story of Jericho and Rahab

Hebrews 11:30-31

By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

Back in chapters 3 and 4 the preacher spoke at length about the Israelites time in the wilderness. It was during this time that the people learned just how patient God could be with Jews. Despite their disobedience, God did not turn His back on them…because of the faith of Moses. The city of Jericho had withstood countless hostile assaults against its walls, but they were strong. But, because of faith, the walls tumbled to the ground.

The preacher decides to include Rahab the prostitute…by faith, she trusted God and hid the Israelite soldiers as they were spying out the land. Rahab had the faith to believe that the God of the Israelites was going to usher in a better promise. If you didn’t know, Rahab is counted among Jesus’s family line in the book of Matthew. Rahab shows that God’s redemptive power knows no bounds and is available to those who put their faith in Christ.

Let’s finish up our passages before we bring it all home.

5. Hebrews 11: 32-40 (Faith and the Future: The Great Crowd.)

As the preacher begins to wrap things up, he asks a rhetorical question of his audience:

32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets

The preacher then goes on to detail the terrible suffering of these great men and women…in essence, going full circle in his argument that started back in chapter 10. Remember, we stared out with the preacher commending his audience for their once great faith…despite the fact that they were suffering injustice and terrible circumstances. Likewise, he says, all of these great men and women also suffered, yet their faith in the promise of something greater remained intact. In other words, the preacher is drawing a direct parallel between the great men and women of the Old Testament to the audiences current situation…encouraging them and admonishing them and reminding them that shrinking back into the lesser promise of the O.T. is not an option.

Hebrews 11: 39-40;

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Once again, we see that the preacher is talking about placing our faith in something much more than any earthly promise of a restored Israel or an earthly sense of peace and security…all of which aren’t bad things. Who doesn’t desire to live in peace and have security? But there is something far greater that the Lord has promised.

It wasn’t until I started studying Hebrews in an in depth manner that I saw the richness of chapter 11. It is about faith, but it’s not about an ignorant, blind faith. It is not about a faith that guarantees us a stress free life…in fact, it’s almost he opposite.

Think back to Abraham for a moment, God commanded Abraham to take his son Issac, tie him up and sacrifice him to the Lord. To the modern reader this seems abhorrent…we can’t image a loving God asking someone to do something like this. The test of Abraham’s faith was commensurate or equal to the promise that God was giving Abraham. In other words, the reason God required such a great sacrifice was because the promise was so great. Abraham had to have extraordinary faith to believe an extraordinary promise. Of course, the Lord did not require Abraham to go through with the sacrifice.

Thankfully, the Lord sent his son to be the ultimate sacrifice, but that does not mean we are free from the burden or the principle of sacrifice. As we’ve seen in the book of Hebrews, sacrifice takes faith…we sacrifice something now, in faith believing that God has something greater for us. For the Israelites in the 1st century that sacrifice was to put away and sacrifice their long held belief that the arrival of the Messiah would immediately usher in an earthly kingdom, which the Israelites would control and be able to live at peace. That did not happen like they expected, and now they were facing persecution…with many of them beginning to shrink back in their faith.

In every generation Christians face opposition that works against lifelong perseverance in following Jesus. Sometimes the “hostility of sinners” is expressed verbally and socially. Sometimes matters escalate to financial hardship, physical harm, imprisonment, and even death. But God gives us strong reasons to run with endurance the race of faith laid out in front of us: the abundant testimony of those who ran ahead of us; the courageous example and loving self-sacrifice of faith’s founder and perfecter, Jesus; and the Father’s encouragement that our present pains as we struggle to hold fast to faith signal his loving acceptance and fit his flawless plan for our eternal well-being. Looking to Jesus and recalling our Father’s encouragement supply the stamina to run the race to the finish line.

Johnson, D. E. (2018). Hebrews. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Hebrews–Revelation: Vol. XII (p. 188). Crossway.

When we experience something that we consider unfair or unjust…from something small like talking behind our back or gossiping about us to something life changing and truly catastrophic we can consider our self in good company…as the Bible is filled with God’s faithful experiencing heartache and disillusion.

The type of faith that Hebrews is talking about is the ability to keep our eyes on the eternal promises of God, even when the world around us seems to be crumbling around us.

Throughout history there have been some amazing stories of human survival and endurance. One such example is a guy named:

Louis Zamperini

For forty-seven days Louis Zamperini drifted idly in the Pacific Ocean.  Armed with a few small tins of drinking water, a flare gun, some fishing line, and a couple of Hershey D-Ration candy bars, Zamperini and two other soldiers struggled to stay alive.  Their struggle was exacerbated by vicious sharks, blistering heat, treacherous swells, and Japanese fighter pilots.  For most people, this experience would undoubtedly be the most challenging of their lives.  For Zamperini, it was not even the most difficult of the war.

Louis Zamperini was always exceptional.  After getting into trouble as a child, Zamperini found an outlet in track and field.  In a time when the four-minute mile was one of the most elusive goals in sports, Zamperini pushed the limits.  Zamperini set the national high school record for the mile in 1934 with a time of 4:21.3.  He was offered a scholarship to the University of Southern California and began training for the 1936 Olympics.  At the Berlin Olympics, Zamperini finished eighth in the 5000-meter race, but ran the fastest final lap of all the competitors in an unprecedented 56 seconds.  His final push even grabbed the attention of Adolf Hitler who personally congratulated Zamperini after the race.  Zamperini turned his attention to the 1940 Olympics.

By early 1940, Zamperini had dropped his mile time to 4:07.9.  Yet as Zamperini came closer to the four-minute mile, the United States came closer to war.  There would be no Olympics in 1940.  Zamperini was forced to forego running for a career in the military.   He joined the Army Air Corps in November 1941 and was trained as a bombardier.   Zamperini flew in B-24s in the Pacific War Theater and went on a number of bombing raids.  In May 1943, Zamperini went out on a mission to search for a missing plane when his plane had trouble of its own.  Zamperini and the crew went down; eight men died on impact, three survived.

Zamperini and the surviving crew members, Francis “Mac” McNamara and Russell Allen “Phil” Phillips, were in dire straits.  They quickly ran out of food and drinkable water.  They passed the time by telling stories and pretending to cook meals.  About thirty-three days into their survival, Mac passed away.  The two surviving crew members faced typhoon sized waves, angry sharks, and were shot at by Japanese pilots.  Their bullet-riddled raft, faded from the blistering sun, barely supported their emaciated bodies.  Finally, on July 15, the two men were picked up by Japanese soldiers.  To say they were saved would be inaccurate.

Zamperini and Phillips were modestly nursed back to health before they were transferred to a prisoner of war camp.  The Japanese POW camps were notoriously cruel.  Over one-third of all allied POWs died in the camps and the Japanese had plans to kill all POWs by the war’s end.  Zamperini was separated from Phillips and transferred to a number of different camps throughout the war.  Always on the brink of starvation, Zamperini was treated especially cruelly because of his running fame.  Zamperini was forced to clean up the latrines, shovel coal, and was beaten relentlessly.  Due to the harsh treatment, cold weather, and severe malnutrition, Zamperini developed beriberi, a deadly disease caused by vitamin deficiency. He was on the brink of death.

On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  Less than a month later Japan surrendered.  Allied planes began dropping food, cigarettes, and news of victory to the famished POWs.  Zamperini gradually regained his health and celebrated with his peers.  He was officially released on September 5, 1945, more than two years after his plane crash.  By that time the United States had declared Zamperini dead and his parents had received his Purple Heart “posthumously.”  Most of his family and friends had long assumed he had died.  The few that held out hope were still amazed to see Zamperini walk through the door on October 5, 1945.

Throughout his life Zamperini physically pushed his body to the limit.  Yet it is truly his passion for life and mental vitality that continues to impress people around the world.  His story is the inspiration for the bestselling book, Unbroken and now a major motion picture by the same name. Later in life, Zamperini gave his heart to Christ and became a successful evangelist. Zamperini passed away in July of 2014; he was 97 years old.

If we were to write a modern day hall of hero’s like Hebrews 11, a guy like Zamperini could easily be included. Talk about endurance....and his accomplishments should definitely be respected. But there is one big difference between the hero’s of Hebrews 11 and a guy like Zamperini…while Zamperini had the faith and endurance to survive the most extreme circumstances, as noble as it is, prior to him receiving the Lord, His faith was all about the human will to survive, the men and women in scripture had to put their faith in something outside of human effort and survival…their faith was based up the eternal promises of God, not upon human survival at all cost. Again, not that guys like Zamperini aren’t amazing, they are…but if all we can hope for is surviving this life, we are all in trouble.

Let’s wrap up by looking at what the author had to say right after wrapping up chapter 11, as he continues his thought in chapter 12, and I think it’s a fine conclusion to our message today.

Hebrews 11:39-12:3

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Even though this was written so long ago to a completely different culture in a completely different situation…the truth of it remains timeless. For the 1st century Jewish Christians, the things that hindered them was a deep misunderstanding of who the Messiah is and why He came to the earth. For us today, we often find ourselves in the exact same spot…with a misunderstanding of what placing our faith in Christ actually means. We put our faith in the temporary comforts of this world…and the more we do that, the less we focus on what really matters, which is the eternal.

Paul talks about living by faith and the temporal vs eternal

2 Cor. 5: 1-5

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight.

Let’s Pray