Defined Faith

Welcome: Welcome to week one of Resilient Faith. For the next four weeks, we're going to be back in the book of Hebrews — and like the last time, this time we're going verse by verse through one of the most famous chapters in the whole Bible: Hebrews 11. We are talking about defining faith in this first message. 

Illustration: Before we get there, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever seen a black hole?  

You've probably seen this picture —

[PIC black-hole]

It’s a famous orange ring of light with the dark center, released a few years ago. But here's the thing: that's not a photograph. No telescope on Earth or in space has ever captured a direct image of a black hole because, by definition, no light escapes it to be captured. What you saw was a composite — years of radio-telescope data, mathematically reconstructed into an image. Scientists are more certain that black holes exist than almost anything else in astrophysics. And not one of them has ever seen one. 

Here is another one—gravity. You've never seen gravity. You've never touched it, held it, put it under a microscope. What you've seen — what all of us experience every day— is the effect of gravity. An apple falls. A planet orbits. Ink pours down instead of up. No one has ever seen it, though. 

Or the wind. You've felt it. You've seen a flag snap or a tree bend. But you have never once seen wind itself — only the trail it leaves behind. 

Here's my point: nobody accuses a scientist of “blind faith” for trusting gravity, or a physicist of wishful thinking for believing in something they've never directly seen. We trust unseen realities all the time — as long as the evidence is strong enough to justify it. 

So here's the question I want to put to you this morning: why is it that when a Christian says the same thing, the world calls that blind faith? 

“I trust a reality I cannot see, because the evidence for it is substantial” 

Introduction: That question isn't new. It's actually the exact question sitting underneath our passage today. Right before Hebrews 11 begins, the author writes this in Hebrews 10:39 

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. 

Shrink back — that's a real phrase for a real temptation. The people receiving this letter were under pressure. Pressure from their old religious community. Pressure to walk away from Christ and back to something that wouldn't cost them anything. And the author's answer to that pressure isn't “suck it up, buttercup! Serve through it.” It's “have faith.” 

So Hebrews 11 isn't a random list of Bible heroes for us to admire from a distance. It's the author's answer to one specific question: what does it actually look like to not shrink back? 

That's the question we'll answer over the next four weeks—starting today, with how the Bible defines faith in the first place. Because before we can talk about resilient faith, we need to know what faith even is.  

Here's where we're headed today:  Faith isn't wishful thinking. It's substantive trust in what God says is real — and it's the only way we relate to and please Him.

Let’s look at our passage: Hebrews 11:1-7

Hebrews 11:1–7 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Transition: Today, I’m going to do something that isn’t my normal way of presenting a sermon. I will present each verse as an intertwining truth to our main idea of defining faith. 

Verse 1 - Faith has substance 

Let’s look at Hebrews 11:1

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Explanation: Have you ever had someone dismiss your belief in Jesus as wishful thinking, as if thinking hard enough that it’s true will make it be? This verse rebuts that claim. 

The word behind “assurance” is hypostasis. It's a rich word — it can mean substance, foundation, title deed, or confidence. This same author uses it again in chapter 3: 

“we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the hypostasis — the confidence — firm to the end.” 

This isn't a feeling or wishful thinking. It has real weight. 

And “conviction” — elegchos — is a courtroom word. It's the kind of evidence that wins a case. Not "I have a hunch this is true." More like: "I have been presented with sufficient reason to stake my life on this.”  

So when we put those together, we get something like this: 

faith is not the absence of evidence. Faith is confidence that has substance, built on the kind of proof that would hold up under cross-examination — even though the thing itself is still unseen. 

Argument: That distinction matters right now, more than maybe any other moment in our lifetime. We are surrounded by contradictory claims about reality, and they cannot all be true at once. Somebody's wrong. And the world will tell you that means nobody can be sure of anything — that faith is just picking your preferred story. Verse 1 says otherwise. Faith isn't the weakest form of knowing. It's a category of its own — substantive trust, aimed at what God has actually said is real and given real evidence for.  

Faith has substance; it’s more than a wish. 

Transition: So faith has real weight to it. But here's the next question: where does that weight come from? Did we build it ourselves — or did we receive it?

Verse 2 - Faith isn’t self-made

Look at Hebrews 11:2

Hebrews 11:2 ESV

For by it the people of old received their commendation.

Explanation: Faith originates with God. The Old Testament saints were commended by faith. There are just two outcomes in life: commendation or condemnation. Commendation is by faith in Jesus Christ, while condemnation is without faith in Jesus. 

Hebrews 12:2 says that “Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith.” 

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Look at Romans 12:3 .”  

Romans 12:3 ESV

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Transition: If faith isn't something we manufacture, that raises another question — where's the evidence for it supposed to come from? Verse 3 gives us the very first place to look: creation itself.

Verse 3 - Faith substantiated by creation

Let’s look at the next verse Hebrew 11:3

Hebrews 11:3 ESV

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.

Explanation: The universe we live in is substantial evidence of a Creator. Faith in God becomes real as we take the time to see and study the beauty and complexity of life. 

Illustration: Here’s one small example. Physicists have discovered that the universe runs on a set of fixed numbers — the strength of gravity, the strength of the force holding atoms together, the exact ratio of matter to antimatter at the beginning of the universe. And these numbers aren't just “whatever they happen to be.” If gravity were fractionally stronger or weaker, stars couldn't form. If the nuclear force were off by a tiny margin, atoms heavier than hydrogen — the building blocks of chemistry, of planets, of you — could never exist. Some physicists have called this “fine-tuning,” and it's precise on a scale that's hard to overstate — the kind of precision that would be like hitting a target the width of a single atom from across the observable universe. Even scientists who don't believe in God have called this one of the strangest and most important open questions in physics. 

Quote: The very attempt to explain the universe, or our own being and nature, apart from God is a fool’s effort. These things we understand only by faith in the revealed Word of Scripture. —John MacArthur, Hebrews. Chicago: Moody Press, 1983.

Transition: Creation shows us a Creator who's there. But faith doesn't stop at understanding — it moves us to respond to him. And the very first response to God recorded in Scripture wasn't a happy one.

Verse 4 - Faith Worships Rightly

Look at Hebrews 11:4

Hebrews 11:4 ESV

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.

Explanation: Genesis never actually tells us why God accepted Abel's offering and rejected Cain's. It just tells us that he did. Hebrews gives us the missing answer: faith. Abel offered in faith. Cain, apparently, did not — whatever he brought, he brought it without that same trust in God. 

Notice the word “commended” — it's the same word from verse 2, martyreō, which means God testifying about someone. It’s one of seven times this word appears in Hebrews. God responds to faith with praise.  

And here's what should grab our attention: Genesis 4 is the first time in the entire Bible that someone dies. Abel is the first death recorded in Scripture — and he's also the first person praised for faith. Genesis 4 says his blood cried out from the ground. Hebrews says he “still speaks.” Abel’s faith outlived him.   

Argument: This connects straight back to what we said in the introduction. Two opposite realities cannot be true at the same time. Cain and Abel could not both be right — one offering was accepted, one wasn't, and the difference wasn't the material on the altar; it was the faith behind it. Two people, two offerings, two realities — and they could not both please God. Faith determines right worship.  

Faith Worships Rightly; God commends faith. 

Transition: Abel's faith showed up in a single moment — one offering, one act of worship. But faith doesn't always look like a moment. Sometimes it looks like a lifetime with nothing dramatic to point to at all.  

Verse 5 - Faith walks daily  

Look at Hebrews 11:5

Hebrews 11:5 ESV

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.

Explanation: Enoch’s life is summed up in two short sentences. He pleased God by walking with Him daily by faith; therefore, God uniquely took him without the normal means of death. 

Notice that word again: “commended” — martyreō. Third time in this chapter. God testified about Enoch, as He did about the elders in verse 2 and Abel in verse 4. And notice the phrase “pleased God” — euaresteō. Hold onto that word. It's about to become the hinge of this entire passage in the very next verse.  

Here's what we must understand: Enoch didn't do anything remarkable that got written down. He just walked with God, day after day, for years. And that ordinary faithfulness is treated by Scripture with exactly the same weight as Abel's worship or Noah’s ark. 

Argument: Have you ever felt like your faith doesn't “count?” Perhaps, because your life doesn't look dramatic. You haven’t rescued a nation, no ark-sized project — Enoch is in our Bibles on purpose.  Most faithfulness looks like mundane days of walking with Jesus by faith. 

Quote: “Faith honors God and God honors faith. Enoch is the prime example of this reality.” —Albert Mohler. Exalting Jesus in Hebrews. 

Faith walks daily and honors God. 

Transition: We've moved through five verses now — substance, commendation, creation, worship, walking. All of them have been helping us define faith. This next verse is the hinge of the whole passage. 

Verse 6 - Faith is the only way

Our next verse Hebrews 11:6 says,

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

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.

Explanation: Consider that word impossible. It is impossible to please God without faith. 

Not hard or unlikely but impossible. 

The Greek word Adynatos means powerless, unable, no other option available. God isn't saying faith is the best way to relate to Him, or the preferred way. He's saying it's the only way.

Then the verse gives us the actual content of faith — not vague spirituality, but two specific claims, and we need both: 

The God who has spoken, who created by his word in verse 3, who commended Abel and walked with Enoch. Real. Actual. Present.First: he exists.Not “a god” in some generic sense   

This is the only place in the New Testament where this word for "rewarder"——appears. God isn't neutral toward us. He isn't distant or indifferent. He responds to those who come looking for him. Second: he rewards those who seek him.misthapodotēs 

Here's why both parts matter: James tells us the demons believe God exists — and it does them no good at all (James 2:19). Believing God is real, by itself, isn't faith. It's just correct information. 

Real faith believes he's real and moves toward him because of it. Belief that doesn't seek isn't the faith this chapter is describing.  

Illustration: Now here's where I want to bring us back to where we started. We opened this morning talking about black holes and gravity and wind — realities nobody has directly seen, trusted anyway, because the evidence for them is overwhelming. Verse 6 applies the same category to God, except with far more at stake. 

This verse draws a hard line: there is a real God, and there is a real way to relate to him, and it doesn't bend to fit whatever version of reality happens to be popular.  

Argument: We live in a time with no shortage of confident, competing claims about what's ultimately real and what ultimately matters. They cannot all be true. Some of them flatly contradict each other. And our culture's answer to that problem is usually: pick whichever one feels most true to you, and don't ask too many hard questions about the others. 

Verse 6 will not let us do that. It says plainly: there is one reality that pleases God — not several, not “whichever works for you.” 

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.”

The world isn’t comforted by preaching that sentence. But comfort was never the goal. Truth is the goal. And the author of Hebrews is telling a pressured, tempted, tired congregation: don't shrink back from this. This is the one reality worth staking your life on.

Faith is the only way, even when unpopular. 

Transition: So faith is the only way to please God, and faith believes he's real and that he rewards those who seek him. But what does that actually look like when the reward isn't visible yet…

Verse 7 - Faith acts before it sees

Our final verse is Hebrews 11:7

Hebrews 11:7 ESV

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.

Explanation: Noah didn't see a raindrop before he started cutting wood. It had never rained before. God warned him about something “as yet unseen” — and Noah built anyway. Not for a weekend project. Scholars estimate this ark took decades to build. That's not a moment of faith. That's a sustained faith, decades-long refusal to shrink back, in front of neighbors who almost certainly thought he'd lost his mind. 

Notice “reverent fear” — this means Noah taking God's word seriously enough to reorder his entire life around it.  

And notice the last phrase: Noah “became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” He didn't earn it by building the ark. He received it because he believed God before he had any proof beyond God's own word.   

Argument: Here's what ties this whole passage together. Noah's ark didn't just save his family — Scripture says it “condemned the world.” His faith stood in stark contrast to everyone around him who didn't believe. That's what faith does. It doesn't just save the one who has it. It exposes the alternative realities. 

Faith acts before it sees the outcome — and it's willing to look foolish doing it.

Transition: Let’s close with this.

Conclusion: We started this morning with black holes, gravity, and wind — realities nobody has seen directly, trusted completely because the evidence is overwhelming. And we asked: why does the world call that "science," but call the same kind of trust in God "blind"?

Here's the answer this passage gives us. 

Faith has substance (v.1). 

It isn't self-made — it's given (v.2). 

It's substantiated by creation itself (v.3). 

It shows up in how we worship (v.4) 

and how we walk, day after ordinary day (v.5). 

It's the only way to please God — not one option among many (v.6). 

And it acts before it ever sees the outcome (v.7).

That's what it looks like to not shrink back. 

Not perfect certainty. 

Not the absence of risk. 

Substantive trust in what God has said is real — based on evidence, aimed at a God who responds to those who seek him.

The question in front of all of us this morning is the same one posed to Noah, Enoch, and Abel: Are you willing to take the next step of faith? Are you willing to trust what God has said is real, even before you see it play out? That's resilient faith. And it starts today.

Next Steps: What is your next step of faith today? salvation: John 1:12

John 1:12 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

baptism:

Membership:

By faith seek the Lord in the Word daily.

By faith prayer

small group

regen

prayer group

commit to church weekly

By faith begin to tithe

By faith keep praying for your just one mores