Whose Story?
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· 4 viewsTheir Story, Our Story, God's Story
Notes
Transcript
Context
Context
John spoke to us last week from Hebrews 10, and the powerful call to persevere in faith. That chapter finished on verse 39:
39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
Remember that the original letter didn’t have chapters, or verses, so it’s all connected. So now, having really gotten into this theme of perseverance, the writer is moved to really dig into this idea of those who have faith, those that the original readers need to remember they belong to.
Let’s look at THEIR STORY
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
First we have Abel. The murdered brother of Genesis 4. Second-born son of Adam and Eve. We know very little about him. He lived, he honoured God, and then he died at the hands of a jealous brother. And yet here he is commended as one who lived by faith, and who still speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Next we have Enoch. Again, a very short section of Genesis. You can read his story in Genesis 5:21-24. Again, not much is said about him, but in a long list of people who lived and died, Enoch stands out because, at the end of his life, it says:
24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Again, he is commended as a good example to us of faith. Interesting.
Next up is the story of Noah. Even if you didn’t grow up in the church, even if you have never read the Bible, you have probably heard of Noah. And so we’re told that he built a boat, in holy fear. If we read the story, in Genesis 6-10, we read that he started building that ark on dry land, and with no Met Office forecast. A supreme example of faith. And so the writer calls him an heir of righteousness.
7 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.
And then we come to the story of Abraham and Sarah which you can find in Genesis 12 onwards . This one will run and run, so if this is a new plot-line for you, in preparation for next week you might want to go and read his life story, particularly the really tense bit ‘spoiler alert!’ with the sheep in the bush.
And again, we read that Abraham and Sarah, “by faith”, lived and obeyed God and saw the fulfilment of a promise that, at the time, seemed absolutely impossible.
So that’s their story.
The common thread, running through all of these stories, and this isn’t me being a preacher here, this is literally just me reading the words, is faith.
Faith.
The writer of Hebrews wants the readers to look back on these different examples of faith, and there are more to come, but it’s not just as people a long time ago, far, far away.
The writer wants to connect their story to our story.
17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.
Paul writes that the gentiles, which is most of us here, have been grafted into the children of Israel. We become co-inheritors of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. So when we read their stories, we are in a very real sense reading our story.
Their story is our story.
But there’s more.
As we look at and chew over Their Story, I think it’s right and helpful to start to look around and ask, what is Our Story?
In our church family there are some amazing stories of faith. I know there are people who shouldn’t be alive. There are children born to parents who were told they wouldn’t be able to have them. There are children running around whose parents were told that they weren’t viable. There are people who live lives of mental health, and when you know their story it doesn’t make sense any other way than that God supernaturally intervened. There are people who have seen God provide for them miraculously. Homes, jobs, friends, family.
And those of you who know me, and who know our church, know that we are not a place where we pretend that everything is always fine, all the time. We have also lost people in our church family to diseases, far, far sooner than we would have wanted to. Some of us haven’t been able to have children after all. Some people still struggle daily with mental health and other illnesses. Some of our precious family have a constant struggle to have enough money. Some live in homes that are too small.
And yet even in that second category there are amazing stories of faith. Our stories are of joy in times of plenty and times of need. Our stories are stories of grace in sickness and in health. As I’ve been preparing this sermon and reading the stories of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, I’ve been thinking of you lot. Thinking of our stories.
Their story, and our story, is God’s story.
Throughout the Book of Hebrews, the writer is looking back on the story of Israel and God, and showing how all along it pointed forward to Christ. There’s more of that to come. Here in verse 4, Abel speaks, even though he is dead. But later on in this letter we’re going to hear that the blood of Christ speaks a better word.
Enoch didn’t experience death. Christ DID. And in fact, verse 6 which kind of springboards off of Enoch to talk about pleasing God and coming to him, well that takes me back to earlier in Hebrews when we read about how, through Christ, we have access to God.
Noah’s obedience in the face of mockery led to the salvation of his family. How much more does the obedience of Christ, even unto death, save us from the flood?
And of course in looking here at Abraham the writer connects the faith of Abraham with the future promise. Not just the promised land, but the promised future country - the new heavens and the new earth which we know that Christ will inaugurate.
I think the writer is looking at their story for two reasons. Firstly, to encourage the readers to persevere - to hold on in faith like these different people did. But I think it goes deeper than that. The first verse is key.
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
The writer is looking back to look forward. In some ways, each of these characters who is held up as an example fo faith is someone who looked forward. Who saw things that others around them didn’t see. They had their eyes, though dimly, fixed on the things of heaven. Even though Jesus isn’t mentioned by name in this passage, we’re going to see next week how the writer will claim that Moses had his eyes fixed on Christ, who would come thousands of years after him.
I want to say one more thing about faith before we close. Faith is not imagining good things and then believing in them. Don’t get me wrong. There’s definitely an element here of believing in something that others around you might not. But this isn’t generic faith versus atheism. In fact, the very idea of atheism was completely alien to the world at the time. The Jews and early Christians were called atheists because they didn’t bow down to the various pagan Gods. But the idea that people would live and die without believing in any kind of divinity was not on the radar.
My mission is not to make people stop being atheists. Because I don’t think God wants to be believed in, in the same way that people might believe in aliens or the tooth fairy. The story that unfolds in the Bible is of a God who makes himself known. And knowing someone is very different to believing in them. It is the character of God, as He has chosen to make himself known, that gives us the content of our faith. The same was true for those who are commended here.
How can we trust someone we don’t even know?
These people, and the people that I look around at now, they aren’t commended because they made up a thing and then believed in that thing. They are commended because they knew God, and based on the knowledge and assurance of Who He is, they lived accordingly. That’s what faith is.
So how do we know what we can have faith for? I have never seen a burning bush and then had God tell me his previously undisclosed name from it. I haven’t heard a voice tell me to build a boat, or to go to another country. So how do I know who God is? The New Testament teaches us that no-one has ever seen God… until...
18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
God is made knowable to us all in Jesus. As we read the gospels, as we read what He said and did, we come to know God. And more than that, Jesus fills His followers with His Spirit. So we can know God with our minds and hearts as we read the Bible, and with our Spirits as His Spirit in us relates us to the Father heart of God.
To summarise how I think this passage benefits us:
Let’s remember the context - their stories held up to encourage the readers to persevere.
Can we share our stories? Can we encourage one another to persevere by sharing what God has done in our lives? It doesn’t always have to be shiny. The story of Abel isn’t exactly fun. Yet still, somehow, God is made known in it. Even through the awful thing that happened to Abel, God’s grace is shown- his provision for sin.
But ultimately let’s remember that all of this is God’s story. The faith that we are called to isn’t some concept. It isn’t some vague spirituality. It’s the certainty that comes from knowing God, and we do that through Jesus.
The band will come back up now, and I am going to pray for us, that as we reflect on this passage, that our faith would be built. That we would be confident in the one that our hope is in.