Evidence for Faith

Hebrews: The Supremacy of Christ  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Hebrews 11:1-3
Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For by this our ancestors were approved.
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.
This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
Today’s sermon may feel a little bit different than some of my other sermons. Our passage talks about faith as having reason and proof to hope for something in the future. But what is faith?
In many ways, faith is belief. When you have faith in something, you believe that it is true. But sometimes we don’t go through the exercise of understanding WHY we believe something to be true.
In his book Forensic Faith, former Cold Case Detective and now Christian Apologist, J. Warner Wallace describes three kinds of faith.
Unreasonable Faith - faith in spite of the evidence
This is where we put everyone who believes the earth is flat. Because the evidence that they present for their own case often contradicts their own viewpoint. And yet, they still refuse to believe the earth is flat.
Blind Faith - faith without any evidence
This is saying, “I just believe it!” but you cannot explain why you believe it. Blind faith can accidentally put you in the camp of truth, but it could also put you a camp of deception. If you don’t investigate it, you don’t have reason for your belief.
Forensic Faith - faith because of the evidence
This is a faith that has investigated claims, has considered evidence, and has allowed that evidence to point to a logical conclusion.
Sometimes, we can allow an unanswered question to keep us from stepping forward in faith. Perhaps that unanswered question is the center of the entire thing for you - If God is good, why is there evil in the world? Perhaps that unanswered question is just a distraction from taking the logical step you know you just need to make because the evidence points to an obvious conclusion, whether that unanswered question ever gets answered or not.
J. Warner Wallace says that in court proceedings, the standard for a jury to convict a criminal is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The standard is not “beyond a possible doubt.” The only way for it to be beyond a possible doubt is to be in the room as the crime is committed and watching the person do the crime, which could possibly make you an accessory to the crime. But even then, someone could question your honesty or integrity, casting doubt on your testimony, making it harder for someone else to believe you.
Reasonable doubt will still have unanswered questions. However, the conclusion that you come to, the evidence you examine and assimilate into your opinion can still lead to a reasonable, logical conclusion that you can have faith in.
True faith is a reasoned response to revealed truth in the Bible, and salvation results from an intelligent response, prompted by the Holy Spirit, to that truth.
John F. MacArthur
Big Idea: Everyone lives by faith. What kind of faith do you have?
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
After telling his readers that they need endurance in this life, and that they need to live by faith, the author now tells his readers what faith is. His explanation of faith uses the tool of repetition, saying the same thing in two seemingly different ways in order to bring a fuller understanding. He starts by stating that faith is the reality or assurance of what is hoped for. He then restates his assertion in a slightly different way calling faith the proof of things not seen.
The word we have as “reality” in our text today has been translated in other English Bibles as “assurance.” The Greek word here is:
ὑπόστασις - hypostasis
In philosophy, hypostasis refers to the essential reality beneath appearances. Though it may seem that one thing may be true due to the limited evidence we have, the hypostasis, or the reality, may be different. In theology, the hypostatic union of Jesus is often discussed. We see Jesus as a man, born of flesh. The hypostasis, or the reality, is that he is both fully man and, underneath what we can see, fully God. Misunderstandings and denials of this doctrine of who Christ is have become core tenets of other religions and belief systems in this world.
Jesus is mentioned in the Q’uran more than the prophet Mohammed. He is called a great teacher and messenger of Allah. However, Muslims also claim that Jesus is not God and that he was not resurrected from the dead because he never was crucified in the first place. Jews believe that Jesus lived and died, but that he was never resurrected. Mormons believe that Jesus is divine, but that divinity is from being a “spirit-child” of “Heavenly Father,” who some LDS theologians say was originally a man, but became God later and still has a body of flesh and bone. Jehovah’s Witnesses say that Jesus was created by God, was actually the archangel Michael before coming to earth, and was created as a perfect human being, but not as God in the flesh.
When people claim that all religions are a path to God, that cannot be true. It cannot be the reality because the way that Christianity sees Jesus compared to the 4 religions I just mentioned, which all make truth claims about who Jesus is, they contradict. There is one reality. And yes, I believe that I am leading you and shepherding you toward actual reality. After examining all kinds of evidence, because it would not be possible for me to examine every bit of evidence, I have concluded that Christianity is the truth.
The world struggles to see the reality, or the hypostasis, of this world. In many ways, this world refuses to see what Christians believe and understand to be the reality of this world. This is what Paul told his readers in his letter to the church in Rome.
Romans 1:18-23

For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

Paul says that the evidence is all around us that God exists because God has put the evidence out there for us to see. The invisible attributes of God should be evident to humanity through seeing what God has created. Paul is saying that we have all the evidence we need to know that God is there!
Psalm 19:1

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.

This was the basis of Jesus’ parables. Jesus saying that when a little bit of yeast is introduced into a batch of dough and that yeast will work its way throughout the entire mixture, is an example to us of the reality of how even a little bit of sin corrupts everything. Jesus teaches about how fathers give good gifts to their children shows how our heavenly Father gives good gifts to his people.
The author of Hebrews says that faith is the proof, the evidence, or the conviction of the things we do not see. And so we should see this correlation between the reality of this world, and that reality proving to us what we will eventually see.
Reality/Assurance = Proof/Evidence/Conviction
Reality is a faith based on proof, evidence, and conviction. I have said over and over that faith in not taking a blind leap into the dark; it is based on evidence.
I have previously shared about Christian Apologists who have appeared on secular podcasts, especially the show Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett. In the past year, Bartlett has had Greg Koukl and Wes Huff on his show to talk about topics like how we find meaning in life and the authenticity of the Bible. This last week, he had Oxford mathematician and Christian Apologist John Lennox on his show to dig even further into Christianity, especially as it relates to A.I. The host asked Lennox, “Could you be wrong about Christianity?”
Lennox responds by saying, “Theoretically, yes. But practically, no. It would be like asking me, ‘John, you have been married to Sally for 58 years. Could you be wrong that she loves you?’ Well, theoretically, yes. But actually, the evidence all points in the other direction.”
The belief that your spouse loves you is based on evidence. Christianity is no different. The authors of Scripture, especially of the Gospels, tell us that they wrote down the stories about what Jesus said and did as evidence to prove to their readers that their faith in Jesus has something to back it up.
I have updated our timeline for finishing Hebrews. We will be finished with Hebrews at the end of October and will then go into the gospel of Luke. When Luke opens up his gospel account, he states the reason why he put all of this information together.
Luke 1:1-4

Many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as the original eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us. So it also seemed good to me, since I have carefully investigated everything from the very first, to write to you in an orderly sequence, most honorable Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things about which you have been instructed.

Luke tells Theophilus that the reason he investigated and wrote all of this out was to prove to Theophilus that what he believed was true! Luke wants his reader to have certainty about the things he believes. And I will bet, that the reason that Luke started investigating everything about Jesus from the beginning initially was to gain certainty for himself!
John says the same thing to his readers at the end of chapter 20 of his gospel. We see this story of the disciples telling Thomas that Jesus had been resurrected, but Thomas would not believe it.
John 20:24-29

But Thomas (called “Twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were telling him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in his hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

A week later his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.”

Thomas responded to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

This is not saying that we should have a blind faith. When Jesus says that those who believe even though they have not seen are blessed, that does not mean that their faith will not be based on OTHER evidence. While John tells us that Jesus commends those who believe in him even through they have not seen Jesus themselves, John is still using evidence to point to who Jesus is. We see in the next couple verses that John is not saying that we should have a blind faith, but one backed by evidence.
John 20:30-31

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

But what do these evidences point to? They point to what we are hoping for. The evidence, what we see as the reality of this world, points Christians forward to the hope of being with our Savior. As we just read in John, he gives these accounts as evidence for us so that we can have life in Jesus’s name.
I think it is also important to point out that understanding the reality of this world, that it is corrupted by sin, points forward to the judgment and destruction of all those people and things that are set against God.
The author of Hebrews is telling these Jewish Christian readers that the patient endurance they need to make it through the hardships of this life and not draw back from God (which we talked about last week) comes through a faith that understands the realities of this world, knowing that those realities point forward to the hope we have in Jesus, that one day we will be free of our struggles, hardships, and sin, and be in the presence of our Savior to whom all glory and praise belongs.
Things Hoped for = Things not seen (yet!)
Paul makes this very clear to us in Romans 8:24:
Romans 8:24

Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

We believe that our understanding of this world will point us to something greater in the future.
When we use the word hope, typically we use it to describe a wish or desire that something would take place, something we are not sure will actually happen. That is not the way the word functions in the New Testament. When we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we are born anew to a hope that forms the basis for our confidence in living out the Christian life. The only difference between hope and faith is that faith looks to what has already taken place, and we put our trust in it. Hope is merely faith looking forward.
RC Sproul, in his commentary on Romans 5.
True biblical faith provides the "nautical anchor" for the soul, allowing the believer to remain "firm and secure" even when the fulfillment of God’s promises is not yet visible.
Is your faith anchored? Does your faith give you security in the promises of God to know that one day you will get to see those promises fulfilled?
I pray that we would all have a faith like that.
Hebrews 11:2
For by this our ancestors were approved.
The author of Hebrews contends that Old Testament believers gained God's approval through faith. They did not gain God's approval through their good works. It was their faith that showed them approved. In both Romans and Galatians, Paul tells his readers that Abraham's actions were not what made him righteous. It was Abraham's faith. In both letters he quotes from Genesis 15:6.
Genesis 15:6

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

God showed his approval of Abraham because of Abraham’s faith. Abraham believed what God told him.
The Greek word that is translated in our passage as approved, is the word:
μαρτυρέω - martyreo
The main translation for this word used throughout scripture is: “to bear witness.” You can see by the spelling that this is where we get our modern-day word of martyr. Those who give up their lives for the cause of Christ, being persecuted to the point of death, bear witness to the faith that they have in a God who loves them and will take care of them no matter what happens in this life.
In saying that the Jewish ancestors were approved by God because of their faith, the author is getting ready to share example after example of those who lived by faith in God. The people that he is about to bring up throughout this chapter are not small characters in the Old Testament. Over the next two and a half months, we are going to dig into the stories of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Moses, and more. These names are familiar to a lot of people who do not go to church and do not believe in God. However, for those who are raised in the Christian and Jewish faiths, these are the names of major characters in the Old Testament.
The faith and lives of these people bear witness, even to us today, of how to live by faith, especially when going through trials and tribulations that feel impossible to overcome.
Now, though learning about the faith of these Old Testament people may act as proof of God's existence and faithfulness to the readers of this book, and even to Christians today, it does not usually serve as proof for those who may be outside the faith.
So let’s look at this last verse in our passage to see what it says about faith.
Hebrews 11:3
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.
Let’s just be honest, the claim made by this verse sits at the front of the argument between a lot of Christians and atheists. The author says that it is through faith (and what does he describe as faith? belief based on complied evidence) that we understand God created the whole world through the spoken word. This claim is in stark contrast to what non-believers claim about the beginning of the universe. The materialist, or those who believe there is nothing in this world other than space, time, matter, physics, and chemistry, believe they can explain everything through that framework and that the existence of God is not a necessary condition for the existence of our universe. However, that same materialistic worldview cannot explain what started the universe.
John Lennox is quoted with saying:
Science does not tell us anything...scientists do.
What he is saying is that the data that science collects is simply the data. Nothing more and nothing less. The scientists are the ones who try to interpret that data. And the worldview (or should we say the faith, or belief system) that the scientist adheres to is going to determine how that scientific data is interpreted.
Christianity is not anti-science. It simply interprets the science from a different point of view. I believe that Christianity answers the questions that science is unable to.
We read Scripture and see that God created the universe out of nothing. He created the visible from what is not visible. In Latin this is called:
creating “ex nihilo” - from nothing
The apostle Paul said as much in his letter to the Romans when he describes the God who told Abraham that he would be the father of many nations.
Romans 4:17

As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.

Now, there are people that will use this verse, along with others taken out of context to try and say that humanity can call things into existence with our words. I have heard it said from a preacher on a pulpit as he was calling the congregation to pray.
This is a false teaching. It comes from a teaching called “New Thought.” This is where prosperity preachers have gotten the idea that you shouldn’t say anything negative because that negative energy will follow you. This is why people will say, “I declare that I am not sick,” as they lay on the couch looking green with a fever of 103. “New Thought” is where the “Word of Faith” teachings came from that are taught by Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, and others. New Thought is the same place that Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” and Dale Carnagie’s “How to Make Friends and Influence People” got all of their ideas. If you find that your theology comes from the same place as the teachings of self-help gurus…that should be a warning sign to you.
We cannot create anything, especially with our words. We can impact how other people feel with what we tell them. Scripture tells us that our words have the power of life and death. But our words cannot create from nothing. Saying to myself, “I will become rich” over and over and over again will not create earthly wealth for me.
Only God can create from nothing. the verse said:
Romans 4:17
…the God in whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist.
That means God is THE ONE, or THE ONLY ONE who can give life to the dead. He is the ONLY ONE who calls things into existence that did not exist.
And how did God call the world into existence? With the Word. The spoken word. Jesus is the one described as the Word of God in John. Hebrews 1:2 says
Hebrews 1:2

In these last days, (God) has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him.

Colossians 1:16

For everything was created by (Jesus),

in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities—

all things have been created through him and for him.

God created the world through Jesus. The world was created through the Word of God from nothing.
I can admit that this week I went down a long rabbit hole with an AI search engine about the origins of the universe. I can even admit that I got into an argument with this particular chat. And for those who want to see the full transcript of the conversation, I will have a link in the sermon notes where you can download a PDF copy of my initial question through to the final conclusion made by this AI.
Link to PDF
In dealing with our verse and the creation of the world, I was trying to see what holes there are in the argument from Big Bang theorists and cosmologists about the origins of the universe. And after a long time of rephrasing my questions, the AI spitting out the data, and me filling in the context of my assumptions about the science behind the Big Bang Theory, the chatbot finally came to this conclusion (Now, again, my assumptions about materialists - that everything that exists can be explained by space, time, matter, chemistry, and physics - is that this particular worldview cannot adequately explain the origins of the universe):
Conclusions about The Origins of the Universe:
✓ Materialist worldview dominates evolutionary biology and cosmology
This is absolutely true.
✓ This worldview limits what explanations are considered acceptable
The material worldview cannot explain anything outside of space, time, matter, chemistry, and physics because that is all that can be measured scientifically.
✓ The Big Bang data points to a cause outside space-time-matter
This is true because if space, time, matter, and physical laws only began at the Big Bang, the cause cannot be part of what it created (circular reasoning) (Using the Bible to prove the Bible). Therefore, the cause must be timeless, spaceless, immaterial, uncaused, and powerful.
✓ Materialists cannot accept this conclusion by definition
Again, because that initial cause cannot be measured scientifically. They are stuck with accepting that physics somehow created itself (circular reasoning), accepting that the universe came from "nothing" (violates law of causality), or accepting that we simply don't know (intellectually honest).
✓ Therefore, materialism hinders the search for the true origin
The theist's conclusion—that a transcendent mind caused the universe—is philosophically coherent and fits the data. In other words, The Big Bang needs a big banger.
It feels like secular scientists are a bit like doubting Thomas. “I won’t believe unless I see God himself and watch him create something out of nothing.”
But science cannot answer the biggest question about this universe. The biggest question is not “How was the universe created?” The biggest, most important question is actually, “Why was this universe created?”
The materialist has faith that their conclusions are right based on how they have interpreted the scientific data. And yes, they are trusting by faith from collected evidence, what they believe to be a reasonable conclusion. And if the materialist is right, that there is nothing outside of time, space, and matter that started this universe, that it was just random chance, then there is no meaning to life because there is no “WHY” for our existence. Randomness has no meaning. That’s the definition of random. If there is no meaning, no truth, we cannot judge Hitler, or Mao, or any other genocidal dictator for the atrocities that they have committed upon the human race, because it doesn’t matter. If there is no meaning, there is nothing to hope for.
Science alone cannot answer "why the universe exists"—only philosophy + theology can.
However, if we can know the why, it will give us purpose. It will give us hope.
Do you have hope today? Do you have faith that the God of the Bible loves you enough to send his Son to die for you? Can you see how the many events of your life have led you to being here today, to hear a message of hope, to hear that there is a God who loves you, created you for a purpose, and invites you to have a relationship with him?
If you are starting to connect the dots, you are seeing the evidence fall in line, pointing to a God who loves you, today is the day to give your life to him. Submit to him today and know that you can have hope in a world that has none.
If you are still unsure about God, the evidence that has been provided to you so far is not quite enough yet, I challenge you to ask God to show you the evidence to prove his existence, to prove his love to you.
Are you here today and you realize that you have had more of a blind faith? It is time to start gathering evidence. It is time to start really knowing the mind of God by using the mind that he gave you. Have an evidential faith, a living faith, a reasoned faith. That is the kind of faith that will give you hope in hardship, truth in trial, and peace in persecution.
Let us pray.
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