Acting in Faith Speaks and Saves

Big idea: acting in faith speaks and saves

intro me

Who’s heard of preppers? Preppers is this term describing people who have gone to huge lengths to prepare for a coming catastrophe. Converting a missile silo into an underground home, storing up food and water - and guns of course. Ready for the zombie apocalypse - or the next pandemic! People have laughed at preppers plenty - but over the last few months I’m sure they’ve been feeling pretty clever.

We’re working our way through a book in the bible called Hebrews - because we think it was written for some Hebrews. We’re diving into just one chapter of that, book, chapter 11, a famous chapter encouraging us to persevere in faith, not give up. And this chapter does its work by pointing us to example after example of people who persevered in faith down through history. Today we come to the bible’s #1 prepper, Noah.

picture the scene with me: Our location is most likely what today we’d call Iraq: pretty dry land, nice warm climate. There you are, soaking up the sun + living the life! And then some crazy guy starts chopping down every tree he can find, sawing and hammering, and it’s clear he’s building something epic. Wonder what it’s going to be? A temple? A palace? But over time (some serious time - days, weeks, months, maybe even years go by) it becomes clear it’s a boat - an absolutely VAST boat.

I’m no genius but that looks like a bit of an epic error

like the bridge which missed the river

or the spreadsheet with covid test results which runs out of columns

a boat - a huge boat - that’s not in the water- and there’s absolutely no possible way of getting something that large to the water either. This is dead in the water - or dead out of the water, if you’d rather.

They really must have laughed at Noah. But here he is, in our hall of fame for faith - and what he did there on dry land, that’s why. Do you ever feel a bit like Noah? Like people are laughing at you, you crazy prepper? Hopefully just behind your back! Or is your response the absolute opposite? Are you appalled by the idea you might have to be someone like that, longing just not to be so weird?

Let’s hear today’s bible passage and then a little of the original story before we try and think our way through this together. Rachel’s going to be reading for us this morning.

Hebrews 11:7 NIV

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

Genesis 6:9–22 NIV

This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

Thanks Rachel

Top prepper, right? But Noah preps not based on a hunch that the weather is going to turn, or in anticipation of a crisis he could see coming, or in fear of a world going haywire (though his world was going haywire - the earth was filled with violence, we just read). Noah preps because God warned him, revealing what was coming, something no-one could have predicted but God. Something God can predict just fine because he’s the one who is going to act. In our Hebrews verse, Heb 11:7, see where this starts: Noah was “warned about things not yet seen”

God warns Noah - warns him that God is not disinterested in his world, not absent or just absent-minded; warns him that God will not just stand by as violence and corruption grow and grow in the world; warns him that God is not powerless to do something about it. Instead, as Peter, one of the other writers in the bible tells us, God waited patiently while Noah built - 1 Pet 3:20 - but He was waiting to act, biding his time.

So God warns Noah that judgement is coming - but he also tells him how to respond, how to prepare. He is to build an ark - a place of safety from the coming storm.

Now who here has taken on a serious construction project? Who’s built something substantial? If you’re watching the livestream, type into the chat the biggest thing you’ve ever built. If you’re here in the building, hands up: who’s built something impressive? Lego star destroyer? matchstick tower of London? what have you built?

This [photo] is probably my biggest construction project ever: a chicken run. Slightly slanty, yes, I admit it. And the door, obviously, doesn’t quiet open right - because homemade doors are always like that. But it’s mine. I did it - with my family. How long do you reckon it took to put something like this together? Two loooooong days. And that’s with nice modern tools, and just a wee bit of wood and a little sawing - mostly empty space if I’m honest! How long would it take to build a house? You know, an American one where it’s all wood all the time? A while, right?

Ok, now imagine you’re building a boat, a 125m x 23m x 14m boat. For some perspective, that’s about the size of a small oiltanker. And you need to go soup-to-nuts, end-to-end. Imagine you need to start by eyeing up trees. Doing your lumberjack business, and then dragging them back to the construction site - because you’re going to need so many trees, you’ll have chopped down everything that’s anywhere nearby already. Imagine sawing those into planks, lifting them, joining them. Imagine the vast quantities of oily pitch you’re going to need to seal that boat - because it would really stink to make it through that first moment of flooding only to find your ark leaks! Imagine finding all that pitch, digging it out of the ground, lugging the gloopy sludge back to the construction site, and then plastering it on everything.

This is a HUGE, VAST, EPIC project God has given Noah. Come on, God, do we really need to take the elephants, he must be thinking.

If you were with us last week, on the surface this feels like it’s pretty much the absolute other end of the spectrum to mild mannered Enoch who, as far as we can tell, lived a pretty ordinary life of faith: he just walked with God day after day is all we’re told. Noah walked with God too - Gen 6:9 tells us exactly that - but for Noah, that walk of faith looked very different. In Noah’s case, it’s go-big-or-go-home - but it’s important we grasp it’s fundamentally the same root, the cause behind things: faith. Faith that what God says, happens; Faith that acts now in response. Noah is so sure about what he does not yet see - what God has warned him about - so sure that he acts.

Ok, so, a cool story about faith, a big project, warning and deliverance - but what’s it got to do with us? Perhaps you’ll remember from this whole chapter of the bible that the author’s focus is on faith - so what do we learn about faith from Noah that’s relevant for us today, here in our modern world?

Well I have to start by saying there are some serious parallels between this ancient story and where we stand right now. God has given us his warning: Judgement is coming.

This world has gone wrong. You don’t need a genius or an expert to tell you that - just watch the news - or think of the stories of people you know. This world is filled with violence and corruption, just like Noah’s world was. And God is the same God, one who isn’t just absent, unmoved by it all, one who isn’t overwhelmed and unable to do anything about it, but one who will, one day, call time and deal with it.

You might be thinking “well sure, the world’s a mess but me, I’m not so bad. When God calls time, I’ll be alright ‘cause he’s a nice chap. Yeah perhaps I’ll have to say sorry for this and that and get a slap on the wrists but I’m not the real problem here so I’ll be ok.” But remember how it was with Noah - not just a few bad apples going to a watery grave, but a whole world destroyed in judgement - one family alone saved - and even they were messed up, saved only by grace.

Perhaps no-one has ever told you this before but I have to level with you and warn you that you are not ok with God, not alright on balance. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: without Jesus, the bible says, you stand condemned already. John 3:16’s the famous verse - God so loved the world - but here’s John 3:18, right after it - same Jesus:

John 3:18 NIV

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

This is your warning, like Noah’s warning, that judgement is coming. God has spoken to us clearly about this through Jesus and through the bible. You don’t have to look hard to find this message in the pages of your bible - it’s not hidden behind a code or just hinted at in the margins. It’s plainly announced, again and again. You have been warned.

But that’s not the end of the parallel between Noah’s story and ours. Just like for Noah, God has provided a way for you to be kept safe through the coming judgement, an ark for our times - and the wonderful thing is you don’t have to build it! There’s no epic project required to be safe; years of carpentry aren’t required - because Jesus has done it all for you. You can be saved from judgement in him. Your ark is here, ready, waiting for you - you just need to step in.

The bible tells us we are saved through repentance and faith - through believing that Jesus has made this way for us to come safely through judgement, by dying in our place, absorbing this judgement instead of us, and through choosing to change in the light of that, to stop going the way we were going, and to set out in a new direction, choosing to say “yes” to God and his ways for our life.

And maybe today is the day you are ready to do that? If you are hearing God speaking to you today, don’t put it off - act! Don’t be like the people watching Noah build his boat, but just carrying on with their ordinary lives. Because judgement is coming - so can I invite you, right now, to respond to God?

If you’re watching the livestream, in the chat window, you’ll see an opportunity to raise your hand, virtually, and to take that first step of faith, reaching out to God, entering into salvation in Jesus. You don’t have to understand everything to start the journey - you can click that button as a first step of faith, and then, if you like, you can ask our team to pray with you and help you get connected with God.

If you’re here in the building and you want to respond, the bar is a bit higher. I’m going to ask you to raise your hand physically. Yes it’s scary - but so is God’s judgement. Take that step now - and I would love to have an opportunity to connect with you and pray after our gathering.

God has spoken - judgement is coming - are you ready to respond? ...

If you have questions, if you still need to know more, or if you’re watching a recording and you want to respond, just email me and let’s chat. Take a step today. [e-mail]

Thank you. [I see that hand]

So, there are big parallels between Noah’s story and ours: a warning of judgement, a way of salvation, and faith is the bridge. That’s where this passage we’re studying this morning ends: “by his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” If you’ve already put your faith in Jesus, if you already have secured that salvation from the coming judgement, this end to the verse is about you just as it is about Noah.

When our passage talks about Noah condemning the world, don’t misunderstand that: God is judge, not Noah - or you; it’s not saying Noah looked down on everyone else, condemned them, and decided they should go - in fact, one of the surprises in the flood story in Genesis is that at that final moment, as the rain begins to fall, God shuts the door, not Noah. Gen 7:16. God is judge.

Noah condemns the world by his contrast, by his actions. Today’s passage certainly isn’t an invitation to condemn others, to judge people you don’t think measure up to God’s standards, to wag the finger at people you see as doing wrong. This is an invitation to practice your faith out loud - to hear God’s warning to you, and let your actions in response speak. And the focus here is particularly on action, on an obedient response - while Noah is called a “preacher of righteousness” in 2 Peter 2:5, here in Hebrews, and in Genesis, the focus is all on Noah’s building of the ark.

And like it or not, when you live out your faith, when you act now in view of future certainty, you are condemning this world, a world that stands under God’s judgement still. By responding in faith, acting in faith, you are speaking to the world around you - just as Noah’s work-in-progress ark must have spoken to the world around him, day after day, week after week.

But let’s apply this a bit closer: does your life speak - speak at all? Would anyone watching you see a contrast? Or do you just blend in?

And of course it’s not just contrast for the sake of it - we must ask how our lives should look different? And it’s not ark-building or an epic beard that’s called for here - in fact, like we already spoke about, we’re not going to be building anything because Jesus has already done that for us. Jesus is our true and better Noah.

But we are still called to respond, in faith. We all still have the call from Jesus: “follow me”. And make no mistake, that should see us living differently from the world. Responding with grace not wrath when we’re wronged - just as we have received grace, not wrath from God. Welcoming the outsider - just as we outsiders have been welcomed by God. Serving the poor, the weak, those who are small in the world’s eyes - just as we, poor, weak, and insignificant, are served by God. Touching the brokenness in our world, seeking to make it whole - just as God touched his broken world and made it whole in Jesus. There was no-one more different from the world than Jesus - by faith, be his followers.

And as his followers, through faith, the second half of this verse is true of us too: we, too, become “heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” When we think about heirs and inheritance, we’re thinking about stuff moving on to the next generation when people die, right? But that’s now how this term works in the bible. In the Jewish mind, inheritance is tied up with the promised land. When they talk about being an heir, or having an inheritance, they’re meaning they have a share in the land, a part which is theirs. They belong. That’s the sense of heir here - so by faith, we become sharers in the righteousness which is according to faith, the righteousness of obedience - Christ’s obedience, his perfect 10, his perfect record. That’s what defines us now, not all our failures and brokenness - they’re eclipsed, left behind.

The big point the author of Hebrews is making, what he wants to achieve, through this whole chapter, his whole letter, is to see us persevere in faith. We have to close with this again today. Faith for Noah meant building a giant boat - on dry land. He had to persevere in faith through a backbreaking, epic project - but it was worth it: safe through a judgement flood, stepping out of the ark into a renewed world. This is the author’s big point to his original audience, and to you me: persevere in faith - it’s worth it. Yes, your friends might think you are crazy - I’m sure they thought Noah was. Yes, you might be waiting a long time, working at following Jesus in faith. Noah waited and worked a long time. But it is worth it. Because judgement - and renewal - are coming.

Picture with me what it was like for Noah, after a year at sea, shut in, to step out of the ark and onto dry land. No more heckling crowds, violent and evil. No more claustrophobic cabin. No more watery chaos. No more animal cacophony. A world renewed. It was worth it.

Now picture that day when Jesus invites you to step out into his new world. When judgement is done, and evil is finished; when sorrow is past, and brokenness is mended; when finally, finally everything is right. Persevere in faith - it’s worth it.

Sixty seconds to reflect, and then I’ll pray.