Hebrews Part 13
Notes
Transcript
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1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
2 For by it the people of old received their commendation.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
So, to recap last week’s lesson,
We dove very deep into the biblical definition of faith
and contrasted that with our current societies definition of faith.
And we must understand,
that even in our own lifetime
words have changed meanings.
So, of course words have change a lot since the 1500s
However, when we look at the biblical evidence
We don’t have to guess what “faith” means.
The writer of Hebrews and James
Give us dozens of real life examples
I believe God did this on purpose
To protect the true meaning of faith.
So, when someone today says:
Faith is simply believing that Jesus’s died and rose again
We can point to example after example
of what Faith really is
And it is obedience to God.
Lucifer was not expelled from Heaven for lack of belief
Lucifer is not an atheist
He full well knows who God is
And it was lack of obedience that got him sent down to earth
Not lack of belief.
Adam and Eve knew God
Adam walked with God
He certainly believed in God
And it wasn’t lack of belief that expelled him from Eden
It was lack of obedience to God’s will.
And, in Hebrew’s Chapter 11 and James Chapter 2
We see example after example of true faith
And the example of saving faith is obedience.
So, while Post Reformation theologians and translators may argue
about what “faith” is.
And while they might try to soften the meaning to some abstract mental “assurance or confidence”
Their mistake is exposed when we read Heb 11.1 in context.
Remember, chapter 10 ended with the argument that having faith is “not shrinking back”, but instead enduring.
And so, Chapter 11 begins with a capstone of that argument
Not saying that faith is a thing of the mind
but that it is something concrete
Something you can see
Something you can witness in another person.
And that is exactly what the rest of Chapter 11 says.
Show me your faith without works,
and James said, I’ll show you my faith BY my works.
We covered the first example last week.
Vs 4 - Abel offered - that is faith
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
Vs - 5 By faith Enoch was taken up.
The faith wasn’t the taking up.
The faith was the reason he was taken up.
And the reason he was taken up it says…
Before he was taken, he pleased God.
So, the pleasing of God was his faith
and the taking up was actually his hope.
But, here we see the writer pause to inject the importance of pleasing God.
We hit on this verse last week,
but let me repeat it for those that missed it
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
So, you’ve got to please God
and you cannot please God without faith
So the writer is arguing that if Enoch please God
Then he must have had faith
and though we don’t know much about Enoch
We can be certain that he did the following 3 things
Because these 3 things are required if we want to please God.
Draw near - this requires action on your part, not God’s
Believe that he exits - believe it or not, this requires action on your part too, and is while some Calvinist even preach now that believing in God is too much, but that God saves you before you believe because belief is human work too.
Finally, you must seek him - This is the part many people avoid. They draw near when they are in trouble, they believe God will save them, but when God says, I’ve got plans for you, and I have a will for you, and I have a calling for you, they hide their eyes and stop seeking God because that last part requires us to stop seeking ourself and what pleases us.
Now, we begin a long list of more examples.
Notice the thing you can see
and the thing you cannot see
and based on the context
you can deduce that verse number one was never meant to translated as “mental assurance or confidence”
It makes no sense to say that the invisible hope can be seen by the invisible faith.
But, the writer is arguing that the “unseen things” the “hope that we can’t see”
is proven by the “faith that we can see”.
Not in our minds, thoughts, or beliefs
but in our actions.
7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
this example makes it super clear.
What is “unseen”?
The rain.
What can you see?
Noah building an ark?
What was the result?
His family was saved.
And this is an example of faith.
Let’s assume that the modern theologians inserted their Post reformation definition of faith.
If faith is assuance, or confidence
Which are things you cannot see
because they are abstract things in the mind of a person
Then in this example
Faith would be all in Noah’s mind
And not in his actions.
And then, it wouldn’t be the building of the ark that saved them
It would be Noah’s thoughts.
That makes this example absurd.
If the writer was trying to make the point that Faith was all in the mind.
He would have used another example
Or he would have said…
Noah had assurance in his mind that God would save him
and then God built an ark
and God picked up Noah and his family and put them on the ark
And Noah and his family didn’t need to do anything to be saved
expect have confidence in their minds.
But we know that isn’t what was said.
The example is showing us that it is through obedience
To the will of God
That we are saved.
God gave Noah every single detail about how to be saved
and Noah didn’t just believe it when he heard it…
22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
And it was that obedience that saved him.
and that obedience is what the writer of Hebrews calls “Faith”.
Obedience entails doing “all that God commands”.
If Noah believed God about the rain, but didn’t build the ark
Noah is not saved.
If Noah believed God about the rain, but Noah built an umbrella
Noah is not saved.
If Noah grabs a raincoat because he is certain God is not lying about the rain, Noah drowns with all the rest of the people.
So, it is not that we simply believe God, but that we obey God.
God Gave Noah exact specifications about how to build that ark
and Gen 6.22 says, Noah did all that God commanded him.
And that is why Noah was saved.
Through obedience.
Speaking of obedience…
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
We see Abraham mentioned more than once in this chapter.
In this verse, how was his faith recognized?
He obeyed!
And, what was the unseen thing?
Remember, faith is seen, hope is unseen according to verse 1
The unseen things is “where he was going”.
The promised land, and the promised child.
Those were the unseen things Abram hoped for
but his faith was seen through his obedience
And his obedience was seen through his actions.
Here, he “went out” after he was “called out”.
Some are called out, but never went out
and they think they are saved by simply hearing the call of God
but if you don’t answer that call… you don’t have faith.
Because faith is obedience.
Vs 9 continues the same example.
9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
Here, his faith is demonstrated by “he went to live”
as opposed to staying where he was
And not only that, but he “lived in tents”
These are verbs that demonstrate his faith.
He was told he would be given land - his hope
and even when he didn’t own the land - hence living in tents
He didn’t give up his faith and go home.
He lived in temporary shelters in a land that was promised to be his
And this is exactly what we are doing
Paul said we live in jars of clay
Or, as the King James says it — earthen vessels
That is our temporary shelter
while we wait for the promised land.
This example continues into the next verse
talking about that same promise
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
This is the ‘thing hoped for”, the “Unseen things”
And the evidence that Abraham was going to make it to this unseen place
was his faith
Are you seeing the picture?
Faith is action
Hope is waiting for a promise that you know is coming
Faith is the evidence that you know that promise is coming.
11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
Here, Sarah puts her faith on display
How?
First, she considers something
and then second, she receives something.
This is what we do when we obey Acts 2:38
Repentance is a change of mind
and then we receive the power of the Holy Spirit.
to be born again even though we were dead in our sins.
And I believe this is the word picture being painted here
based on the very next birth…
12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
From a man, “As good as dead”, comes new birth.
And this comes by Faith
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
This short monologue here from v13-16
is talking about Abraham and his immediate family.
They died before the land became theirs
But they were longing for that land
and he makes the point that the land was, quote:
“Not the land from which they had gone out”
This is tying into his overall message in this book.
Hold fast - don’t fall away
It took faith to stay in a land that God promised you
Knowing that you would never get that promise during your lifetime
but that it would come centuries later through your children
And speaking of children…
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,
This is a profoundly powerful act of faith.
He was promised two things
Land and children
The land didn’t come for over and 440 years after his death
And he only had one child
So, when God asked him to lay down his only piece of the promise
the very thing he left his home, his father’s house, and his kindred for
You can imagine just how hard that was to do
But Abraham did DO it.
And it is the “doing” here that was required to obey
and again… it is obedience that is a core component of faith.
Another core component of faith is trust
Abraham had to trust in God’s promises so much
that he knew that if he obeyed God is this command
That God was going to still somehow come through on his promises.
So,
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,
18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
So, first Abraham obeyed
then he trusted God
How?
19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
This is trust right here
First he obeyed
Then he trusted
So many times people stop at belief
and they do not obey
but other times people will obey
but they do not trust
And this is important
You can’t just obey God out of obligation
Well you can, but that isn’t faith
You’ve got to obey God
and TRUST him.
and there is a difference.
Next we start some rapid fire examples of faith
that seem somewhat disjointed from the faith of Abraham
at least at first glance…
20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.
21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
So, by faith Issac blessed Jacob,
then by faith Jacob bless Joseph’s sons
and then Joseph said.. take my bones back to Isreal
What we are seeing here
is that the faith of Abraham
we passed down from son to son
He ispired his own son, grandson, and great grandson
to have the same kind of faith as he did
and that was faith that God was going to come through
and give them the land that they were promised
And the culmination of this example
is seen when Joseph says
When you leave Egypt
Take my bones with you
Not, If you leave Egypt
but WHEN you leave Egypt
Because Joseph was still holding onto the faith of his GreatGrandfather
This kind of faith has transcended generations
and the author of Hebrews is telling us
We need to keep that kind of faith going
Pass it down to your children
Teach them about the promises of God
Show them that you believe by your actions
Our kids are watching our every move
And if we tell them to do what we say and not what we do
it never works
But if you faithfully show up to church every Sunday
If you faithfully show up to church every Tuesday night
If you faithfully show up to prayer meeting
If you faithfully pray before every meal at night
If you faithfully teach them the Bible
If you do these things all your life
You child will have you as an example of faith
And that kind of faithfullness will last generations
The author is urging his contemporary audience
To hold fast, and not fall away
and what better way to demonstrate that
than to show them how Joseph still had faith
in a promise his Greatgrandfather hoped for.
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
Sometimes faith means standing up against evil
Moses’ parents defied the king to save their child
And that was also an example of faith
The author then takes a little more time to talk about Moses
I’ll read it all, and then we will highlight some key points
for the sake of time.
24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
So, Moses had faith because he identified with his people
as opposed to the Egyptians
This is a type and shadow of the church vs the world
And we can see a parallel between identifying with Christ today
versus identify with worldly culture
In fact, the author says in verse 26 that Moses chose the reproach of Christ
over the wealth and treasures of Egypt.
Obviously Moses didn’t know Jesus
So, the author speaking figuratively
and drawing that parallel for his audience
in that in the same way Moses left Pharaohs house
We should also leave behind the world
Even if it means we have to give up somethings that we treasure
This is faith.
Moses went from being a prince to being a shepherd in the wilderness
So, giving up things for God is a sign of faithfulness too.
28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
On that Passover night,
Imagine if they simply believed the word of God
and didn’t take action to put blood on the doorpost?
Would they have saved their firstborn child?
of course not.
Faith is action, but not just any action, it is obedient action.
and we see proof of that in the next verse…
29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
The same Red Sea crossing saved God’s people
but killed the Egyptians
So, it is not just the action
it is the obedience
Going to church doesn’t save you in and of itself
it isn’t the action, it is the obedience
There are those who will go to church their whole lives
and never be saved
The same Red Sea crossing saved lives and took lives
Think about that until you understand it.
Action prompted by obligation and
without obedience will never save you.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
Here is another example of action that was a result of obedeince and trust
God said exactly how many days and times they needed to march around the walls
and they did it faithfully while trusting that God was faithful.
31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
Here we see the point being hammered home.
There is no translation or theological bias that can weed out all these examples
the author is making sure this message will stand the test of time
and the changes in language.
Who was saved in this verse? Rahab
Why was Rahab saved?
She took action.
Who was not saved?
The disobedient perished.
He makes is super clear here.
Obedience is major component of faith
Disobedience is not faith.
here is a very rapid fire ending…
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.
36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Look at all those verbs
Action words
Not just indiscriminate action
but faithful obedience and trust in God’s word.
We also see highlighted that many of these faithful witnesses
suffered in a major way
They died, they were tortured, they were put in prison
The author is really building up the fact that these OT saints
Were faithful despite it being difficult
And perhaps the original audience was worried about the persecution happening to Christians
and that may very well be the reason they are “falling away”
They are worried that societal pressures will continue unless they go back to being a good devout Jew
Instead of a follower of Christ
So, they went through all of these hard times,
and still held to their faith
and then he says...
39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,
40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Here is the punch line.
The list of faithful people we just read about
went through more things than you
and they held onto the faith
and they did it without something that you have
A promise that you got
and they didn’t get
What is that?
The gift of the Holy Spirit
If they made it without the HG
and you don’t make it with the HG
what will you say on judgement day?
We will find out in the next chapter.
