Live Confident

Big Idea: live confident of the future

I love skiing. When my wife introduced me to it over twenty years ago, I was determined not to get into it- a posho-rich thing, I thought. Not for me. I was right about one thing: it sure is expensive - but also, it turns out, I love it. Outdoors, mountains, speed, danger, beauty, action, and the right to eat masses of food after a serious day.

I would really, really like to go skiing this winter. I’ve been examining ski maps, looking at places to stay, figuring out travel, pricing up flights. But every time we’ve gotten pretty close to the edge, gotten a workable plan together, assembled all the parts, the uncertainty has pulled us back: What’s it going to be like by next year? Will the queues be epic because of socially distancing? Will it be one person per gondola? Will there be quarantine when I arrive? Or when I get back? Will there be planes flying? Will any airlines still be in business? Will I be allowed to leave my home??

It’d take guts to act, to lay out some serious money now for the hope - the slim possibility - of a ski trip in 2021. If I was certain planes would fly, hotels would open, and ski lifts would run, they’d already have my money - but I just don’t have a lot of confidence about the way things will go - so I haven’t acted. Yet, at least.

How I view the future, how I think things will pan out, shapes my actions in the present. And how you view the future drives many of your actions too. Some of you are heading off to uni shortly - I hope you’re doing that at least in part with a view to your plans for the future, how you think that might work out. Some of you are saving up for things. Some of you are practising, learning. Some of you are exercising, training. All with an eye to the future.

What I want us to think about this morning is how confidence about the future connects to our actions today. This is what’s right at the heart of our next teaching series. As we begin working through a famous chapter of a book in the bible called Hebrews, chapter 11, we’ll see example after example of living by faith - of people acting in the present because of their confidence about the future. And that’s going make us ask ourselves some big questions: what are we confident of in the future? how do we find or grow that confidence? what sort of actions should flow out of it?

There are plenty of unknowns when it comes to the book called Hebrews: who it was written for, who wrote it, when it was written, what specific situation it was written to address, what form it originally took (it doesn’t look much like the letter to the Thessalonians we were looking at before - it doesn’t have the standard letter-type stuff at the beginning, just dives right in). But for all that’s unclear, plenty is clear: it’s been treated as inspired Scripture from the very earliest days of the church; it gives us unique insight into the connections between the old and new testament; and it has powerful things to teach us about what it means to have faith.

It’s written to a church who are struggling to hold onto their faith in a time of trouble - and perhaps that’s just where you find yourself this morning. If so, I’m so glad you’re here. Others have been there before - and there’s encouragement and comfort for you in this letter. Perhaps you’re just exploring faith? I’m so glad you’re here too - this is a great way to explore what faith means to Christians, how it could look for you. Perhaps you would say your faith is doing fine just now. This book is still powerful - it calls you to deepen your roots, and prepare for the storm - so you can endure to the end.

So let’s dive into Hebrews chapter 11: I’ll pray, and then Al’s going to read Hebrews 11:1-2.

[pray]

Hebrews 11:1–2 NIV

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

What do you think of when you hear the word “faith”? What does it mean to you?

Some people think faith is believing something without evidence, or even in opposition to the evidence. Faith is for people who can’t cope with real life - it’s for the weak, they’d say. At bottom, faith is just wishful thinking. It says things like “This crisis will be over by Christmas.” or “we’re going to win the cup this year” or “he’s gone to a better place. he’s up there now, smiling down on you.”

That’s one way to view faith - and it’s not just a modern way, flowing out of the rise of science in our era: way back when this book of Hebrews was written, in that culture, the educated viewed faith like that too. It was the way the uneducated masses lived - people who believed something just because they heard it somewhere, not based on reason or evidence.

That’s not the sort of faith these Hebrews being challenged to hold on to - faith without evidence, faith in opposition to evidence - as we’re going to see as we keep going through this chapter. Instead they’re being called to exercise faith in the same way the farmer does when he plants seed. Pretty confident the rain will come, the sun will shine, and it will do the wonder that is producing our food out of mud, air and sun based on a tiny string of chemical instructions. Like the pilot does when he gets on a plane. Pretty confident the fuel will burn, the plane will rise, and thread itself through the sky without hitting anything or the wings falling off. Like I do when I book a holiday (or don’t book a holiday): faith is acting now in keeping with our confidence about the future.

Here’s that definition from Hebrews again:

Hebrews 11:1 NIV

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

You could read these two lines as that wishful thinking kind of faith: confident of whatever our arbitrary hope might be - a ski holiday, or winning the cup; sure invisible things are real - like the tooth fairy. But that’s not what it actually means.

The way “hope” is used here, it’s not a dream I just made up for myself, a personal vision of my preferred future, it means the God-revealed future for the world - that’s their hope. “What we do not see” here isn’t about the material vs. the supernatural - it’s about things to come, things in the future, which we don’t see yet - the author is going to bash that into our heads through the list of examples he’s about to reel off.

Faith, bible faith, is acting now on the basis of confidence about the future. That’s what these Hebrews are struggling with, and are being challenged to persevere in.

Before we can think about what this means for us, we need to get our heads around what it meant for them, though. What future were they confident of? I think there are three big chunks to that you’d see reflected as you read through this whole book.

First, they are confident that there will be a day of judgement for everyone, that Jesus will one day return to judge the living and the dead. It’s here in the background throughout the letter, stated as an assumption, with confidence:

Hebrews 9:27 NIV

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,

one life, one shot, and then a day of reckoning. And on that day we will face Jesus as judge:

Hebrews 10:37 NIV

For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”

And this is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild we’ll be facing - not a baby in a manger, or a teacher on a mountain, or bloodied body on a cruel cross - but Jesus king of glory, awesome and holy, with all power and authority, irresistible and supreme. The one to whom every knee will bow, to whom every human will answer for every thought and act of their entire lives, no stone left un-turned. If you think that sounds a bit scary, if you think a holy perfect God poking around in every dark corner of your life might find things he objects to, you’re right. That’s the first chunk of the future they were confident of.

But along with that, they were confident they had been saved through Christ, made right with God; that all the muck in every one of those dark corners had been washed away through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, once for all.

Hebrews 10:10 NIV

And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:22 NIV

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

So they had no need to fear this coming judgement - instead, the final chunk of their future confidence - because of Jesus - was that on that day, rather than facing judgement and wrath, they would finally find rest, safe home with God, just as he had promised:

Hebrews 10:36 NIV

You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

After their long and difficult journey through this world, through this life, their confident future was based on God keeping his promise: they would be with him forever. These Hebrews knew that they were looking forwards to what’s described as a “kingdom” or a “city” to come:

Hebrews 12:28 NIV

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,

Hebrews 13:14 NIV

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

An unshakeable kingdom, peace and security at last. A heavenly city, finally together with God.

So that’s their future confidence: a day of judgement - but salvation for them, having been cleansed - then finally home.

But how did they arrive at that confidence? How incris this not just wishful thinking, an imagined ideal, “blind faith”? There was no way they themselves could verify this future, beyond their world, beyond their time. How was their picture of this future so solid, certain and sure?

Their confidence is based on the simple truth that God spoke.

We can’t see the future. It is not possible for us . We can observe what’s happening, build models, make inferences about what is likely. Will there be a covid second wave - or vaccine? Will Trump win? Will Meghan become queen? Will the glaciers melt? Will Elon Musk get to Mars? Will you live long and prosper? We can’t answer any of these questions with absolute, 100% certainty. We can’t know the future. It’s impossible for us. We don’t have access to it.

As it turns out, the past is like that too. We can’t know it with 100% certainty either. Even your own experience. You think you remember that conversation you had yesterday - but are you sure you remember it right, precisely right? That your brain isn’t doing any funny business? We read old manuscripts, we examine ruins, we dig up bones, we test rocks, we measure starlight. But we cannot even access the past with 100% certainty - from within this world. Far less the future.

That’s why it is only God, speaking in from outside, it is only the creator, entering into his creation, that can with certainty reveal the future to us.

And God does.

Hebrews 1:1–2 NIV

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

God speaks into our world from outside - and most profoundly, God speaks into our world through his Son, Jesus. What does God say to us in Jesus? These same three critical building blocks that were the Hebrew’s certain hope, their firm future, yet to unfold:

In Jesus, God speaks judgement. Jesus himself tells us God has appointed him as judge in John 5:22. Acts 10:42 tells us Jesus commands his apostles to “testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead”. Acts 17:31 tells us Jesus’ resurrection is proof that he is the one God has appointed to judge the world.

In Jesus, God speaks salvation. John 3:16, justly famous, tells us God so loved the world that he sent his son into it - and Jesus’ mission for which he was sent, the mission he obediently carried out was to die, taking the punishment that should have been ours, so we could be cleansed.

In Jesus, God speaks rest, as Jesus rises from death, never to die again, and ascends to be with God the Father in his heavenly home.

All well and good, but what’s that got to do with us?

I guess the key question for us all is what are we confident of in the future? What is our faith sure about?

Sometimes it’s hard to put our finger on what we really believe, hard to see inside ourselves and know what’s really going on. But when it comes to this sort of faith we’ve been talking about there is actually a way to shine a light on what we really believe - and that’s through our actions. As we carry on down through this chapter, as we’ll be pointed to story after story of people living by faith, we’ll see their actions show what their faith had really grasped, what was certain and sure in their future.

So what do my actions show I am certain of in the future? What do your actions show you are certain of in the future?

[pause]

Thinking like that can be a bit discouraging - but turn it around and try this as a thought exercise instead. Imagine for a minute that you had zero confidence or assurance about the future, this God-spoken future of judgement, salvation and rest. Absolutely none. That the future was a closed book to you. How different would your life be? You wouldn’t be here, today, at church, I guess. Would you spend your time differently? Spend your money differently? Would your relationships look different? Your family?

Perhaps your faith does have some certainty, some assurance about the future after all. But I bet this certain future could shape our present life more. We all have room to grow in faith.

what does it mean to live confident of judgement? There will be justice, no evil gotten away with, no wrong un-righted. What would utter certainty of that do to your day to day life?

what does it mean to live confident of salvation? Nothing can keep you from God. No matter what, you can be restored through repentance and faith in Christ . What would utter certainty of that do to your day to day life?

what does it mean to live confident of rest? Jesus, for the joy set before him endured the cross. Joy ahead - better than anything this world can offer, worth going through everything this world can throw at you. What would utter certainty of that do to your day to day life?

That’s the challenge of Christian faith.

[reflect]

[pray]