Enoch: By Faith Taken
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 31:19
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· 301 viewsAll those who are in Christ by faith are "taken" to be with the Lord forever.
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For the last several weeks I have been challenging you to be honest with yourselves as to who is your absolute standard of truth. You either have to believe that God’s Word is the absolute standard of truth or man’s word is the absolute standard of truth. There is no middle ground. A good example is your response to the LGBT claims. There is no question what God’s Word teaches, but more and more people within the church today are accepting the LGBT claims because they believe so called “science” is a higher standard of truth than God’s Word.
This is just one among many examples. Biblical faith is radical. Biblical faith is countercultural. Those who commit to Biblical Faith must be willing to stand against the world—contra mundum! Such a commitment demands we ask the tough questions of Scripture. One such tough question is Jesus’ statements about the relationship of the believer to death. For example:
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
or
Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
Now let’s be honest, on the surface it seems as though Jesus is “stretching the truth” if not flat out lying! I officiate an average of 5-10 funerals a year and most of these people are Christians! The Jews certainly thought Jesus was lying or worse was demon possessed:
The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’
Now I realize that many Christians handle such difficult passages by saying that Jesus was using figurative language or that we have to “spiritualize” such language. However, if that is the way we handle difficult passages we are not going to have very good footing if we must stand against the world.
There is a better way—the way of Hebrews 11—By Faith! Turn with me to Hebrews 11:5-6.
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.
The first thing I want you to note from this passage is this:
Enoch is a “Type” Pointing to All Who are in Christ by Faith
Enoch is a “Type” Pointing to All Who are in Christ by Faith
Throughout this series from the book of Hebrews we have been learning about the biblical concept of “types.” A “type” is an institution or person that foreshadows or points to a greater reality, especially the greater reality of Christ. For example, we learned in Hebrews 9 about how the Tabernacle and the Old Covenant priesthood foreshadowed and pointed to Christ. Now in Hebrews 11 we have the Great Hall of Faith with one saint after another listed as an example of faith. This list doesn’t end in chapter 11, but rather extends into the first two verses of chapter 12 where it culminates with Christ. In other words, the Faith Heroes of the past pointed to the Greatest Faith Hero—Jesus!
Because of our union with Christ by faith, these Faith Heroes are more than mere examples for us, they are types pointing to our faith. Just as THEIR STORY becomes HIS STORY (namely Christ’s), the New Testament teaches HIS STORY becomes OUR STORY. For example, Paul teaches us that “we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Rom 8:17) What Paul is teaching is this: Christ’s life provides the template for the Christian life—the Christian life is to be a life of suffering followed by glorification. Consequently, we can say of the Old Covenant Faith Heroes—THEIR STORY becomes OUR STORY. This is nowhere more clearly seen than in the life of Enoch. Again, let us look at Hebrews 11:5:
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.
Do you see the connection to those problem passages I read from earlier? Enoch did not see death, Jesus said those who believe in Him would not see death!
But Jesus makes the connection even stronger:
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
For the Christian the experience of “death” is radically different than that of the unbeliever—the believer is “taken.” Facing the threat of death, Paul would write these words to the Philippians:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
The promise of the resurrection is so sure, so certain, that Paul could write of death as being like a change of address:
For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Now I realize there is a period of time between the First and Second Coming of Christ in which the souls of those who are in Christ will be “unclothed,” but remember a few weeks ago we learned that faith sees the things that are not as if they already are!
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
In fact, the verses immediately preceding 2 Corinthians 5:1 say this:
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
You may say, “What a minute pastor, Enoch didn’t have to wait for his body to be resurrected, he was taken into heaven both body and soul.” True, but Scripture makes it clear that this is no advantage. This Fall we will begin a new teaching series from 1 and 2 Thessalonians. There Paul teaches us about the Rapture, when Christians will be “taken up,” body and soul, to meet the Lord. In verse 15, Paul writes:
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
Verse 15 couldn’t be clearer, those who are “asleep” have priority over those who like Enoch will be taken both body and soul!
So, brothers and sisters, we should not look at the death of those who are in Christ in the same way as we look at the death of those who are not in Christ—every believer is taken as Enoch is taken! It becomes vitally important that we make sure we have faith like Enoch had faith. Let’s turn to Gen 5:22-24:
Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Enoch Was Taken Because He “Walked” with God
Enoch Was Taken Because He “Walked” with God
What does it mean to “walk” with God? To answer that question, we must first turn to Gen 3:8:
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
In that part of the world “the cool of the day” was the evening. So, apparently God made it a habit to walk with Adam and Eve every evening! I chose for us to sing the hymn In the Garden because it is about having intimate fellowship with God. Having intimate fellowship with God is what it means “to walk with God.”
We learn something else from Genesis 3:8, that fellowship was broken. The Serpent had deceived them. First, he placed doubts in their minds as to the goodness of God.
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Then he placed in their minds the idea that God really wasn’t anything special. He wasn’t the Great I AM, the self-existent one. In fact, the Serpent suggest, THEY could be like God!
This brings us back to our text in Hebrews 11. Look at Hebrews 11:6 again:
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.
When the author of Hebrews says we “must believe that [God] exists,” he is saying we must believe that God is self-existing—He is the Great I AM. We know this because the Greek translation of the Old Testament the author of Hebrews is using translates the Hebrew word “I AM” as “exists.” So, the author of Hebrews is saying that Enoch walked with God because he “let God, be God!”
Every time you come across a command in the Bible you have a choice: “Will I let God be my Master and King or will I treat Him as a mere adviser.” If most people are honest, they will have to admit they treat God like an adviser rather than a King.
The second thing the author of Hebrews says about God pleasing faith is that it believes God “rewards those who seek him.” In other words, it believes God is good. In fact, it believes God is so good that He is the greatest “reward.” The Psalmist puts it this way:
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
Is your love and delight in God so great that it is as if no one else in heaven exists? Jesus put it this way:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
This does not mean we may not love other people, nor that we can’t look forward to seeing loved ones in heaven, but it does mean this: God is a jealous God. He will not stand for love and devotion that is due Him be given to anyone else. God alone must be the greatest object of our love and affection. Anything less is NOT “walking with God.”
So, I ask...
Will You Be “Taken” by God?
Will You Be “Taken” by God?
This is the most important question a person can ask themselves. To not be taken is to be left behind.
If we are honest with ourselves none of us are “walking with God” as we should. As I was writing the last point, I was blown away by what a high standard Hebrews 11:6 sets. There was only one person whose “walk with God” merited being taken by God and that person was NOT Enoch! How do I know this? The author of Hebrews tells us:
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
What do we have that they did not have? We have the fulfillment of the Promises in Christ! Jesus, not Enoch, is the one who had a perfect walk with God. Only by being united to Christ by faith was Enoch’s walk made perfect. Only by being united to Christ by faith was Enoch “taken.”
My friends, there is no other way to “believe God exists and that He is a rewarder of those that seek Him” than by first placing your faith in Jesus Christ. Even then, our walk with God will not be “perfect” enough to merit being “taken” by God. Only by placing our faith in the One who merited being taken, namely Jesus Christ, can we have the hope that we will be “taken.”
Let us pray: