Hebrews 11:1-3
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1) INTRODUCTION
1) INTRODUCTION
I want to begin a study in with the focus being faith.
The word “faith” is misunderstood amongst people of faith - We have adopted the world’s thinking of faith by reducing faith to a set of beliefs. Though faith includes a set of beliefs, faith is so much more than a doctrinal statement.
The separation between us and the world is biblical faith - This is why it is so important for us to underdtand faith so that we can present to the world a powerful alternative.
The only way we can please God is through faith:
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
Why do we struggle with living faith?
A man slipped and fell off a cliff while hiking on a mountaintop. Luckily he was able to grab a branch on his way down. Holding on for dear life, he looked down only to see a rock valley some 1500 feet below. When he looked up it was twenty feet to the cliff where he had fallen.
Panicked, he yelled, “Help! Help! Is anybody there? Help!”
A booming voice spoke up. “I am here, and I will save you if you believe in me.”
“I believe! I believe!” yelled back the man.
“If you believe me, let go of the branch and then I will save you.”
The young man, hearing what the voice said, looked down again. Seeing the rock valley below, he quickly looked back up and shouted, ‘Is there anyone else up there.”
We struggle with living faith because faith will have us do irrational things. We have reduced faith to nothing more than sight. And we have condescended God’s thoughts and ways to match humanities.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are my ways higher than your ways,
And my thoughts than your thoughts.
As we launch out into the great deep of faith, my prayer is that we will be challenged and forced to take an inventory on how we are living out the great gift of faith.
Faith is the most prominent word in religion. Often used to describe one's entire religious persuasion, faith can get lost in the shuffle of religious jargon and have little meaning in daily life. One's faith might vaguely refer to his conception of spiritual realities but have nothing to do with the way he lives his life. Not so with our text. Here the writer shows that faith must be more than mental assent to a few religious propositions. Faith lives, breathes, and exercises in dependence upon the living Lord.
2) FAITH
2) FAITH
2). FAITH
2). FAITH
A). Faith is substance
A). Faith is substance
Faith is against the system of the world. In relationship to context, the system of the world is sight.
Faith apprehends as a real fact what is not revealed by the senses.
Faith is substance
The word substance means - Real being, holds up, and foundation, assurance and confidence.
The Greek word for “substance” is used in to other places in the book of Hebrews:
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
As matter is to the seen world, faith is to the unseen world. Faith takes up spiritual space.
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Substance is “confidence” but also “Jesus Christ.”
The Greek word for “substance” is used in to other places in the book of Hebrews:
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Faith takes up spiritual space.
Substance is “confidence” but also “Jesus Christ.”
The word substance means a foundation upon which our hope rest. This foundation is Jesus Christ and is what gives us confidence.
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Faith is not about what we can achieve but what God can do in the Person of Jesus Christ.
In a Greek secular sense the word “substance” has a business connection of a title deed
Hope
Hope
What is built upon the foundation called faith is hope.
What is built upon the foundation called faith is hope.
Hope is expectation.
Hope is expectation.
Adding substance and hope, we can say the meaning of this part of the verse is: “Faith is the title-deed of things hoped for.”
sghhsahjk
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Faith creates hope! - Faith gives substance to unseen realities (John Phillips). “Men know faith as ‘illogical in the occurence of the impossible”’
Satan fear’s a hopeful Christian
Why should we evangelize our communities?
We want to see people saved.
We are commanded to do so.
Faith creates hope.
It is rationally impossible for anyone to be saved.
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Our faith which produces hope is God doing the impossible
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:
It shall not return unto me void,
But it shall accomplish that which I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Consider Abraham
Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
The key is the object of our faith is not the thing hoped for but the foundation - Jesus Christ.
There are so many Christians lacking real hope: not hope in eternity but living a practical life full of hopes.
We need to get back to having our baskets filled with hope!
B). Faith is evidence
B). Faith is evidence
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The word “evidence” means “a proof, that by which, a thing is proved or trusted.
The word “things” means “that which has been done, a deed, an accomplish fact.”
This is not speaking of future hopes but past victories accomplished by faith.
Faith was designed to produce unimaginable victories.
Faith is the power that allows the impossible to happen.
During the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, His disciples struggles with this faith:
The storm:
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
The feeding of the 4000
Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
When was the last time we stepped out and proved our faith.
Notice the requirement - stepping out without being able to rationalize the success of the thing stepping out for.
Many, perhaps most Christians have not lived the aspect of faith out.
Many, perhaps most Christians have not lived the aspect of faith out.
John Piper wrote a book years ago entitled “Don’t Waste Your Life.” Many Christians are wasting their faith.
John Piper wrote a book years ago entitled “Don’t Waste Your Life.” Many Christians are wasting their faith.
Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The more we put our hope to the test the more hope we have.
When missionary John Paton was translating the Scripture for the South Sea islanders (New Hebrides islands), he was unable to find a word in their vocabulary for the concept of believing, trusting, or having faith. He had no idea how he would convey that to them. One day while he was in his hut translating, a native came running up the stairs into Paton's study and flopped in a chair, exhausted after a long jungle hunting excursion. He said to Paton something like this…
“It’s so good to stretch myself out and rest my whole weight in this chair.”
John Paton had his word: Faith is resting your whole weight on God. That word went into the translation of their New Testament and helped bring that civilization of natives to Christ. Believing is putting your whole weight on God. If God said it, then it’s true, and we’re to believe it. By faith, the weary sinner stretches out to rest on Jesus Christ, upheld by His glorious gospel. Substituting Paton's translation, the loose paraphrase would sound something like this…