Hope In Hebrews (Hebrews 11:1-13) Series

Good morning! Please open your Bibles to Hebrews, chapter 11. This is a passage that’s been described as the “hall of faith,” because it’s an extensive list of some of the heroes of the Old Testament, and their example of faith.

You may be thinking, “but today, we lit the Advent candle of Hope, not faith. Why are we talking about faith? Or why are we using a passage about faith to talk about hope? Or are faith and hope really the same thing? In 1 Corinthians 13, which we read yesterday, Paul said that “these three remain—faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.” So they can’t be exactly the same, can they? But if there’s a difference, what is the difference? And if there’s a difference, what is the difference to me? Is this going to be one of those sermons where I might learn more information about some Greek words, but it doesn’t have anything or is this going to impact my life?

Well, whether or not it impacts your life isn’t up to me. But if there was one statement I would get you to write down and hang your hat on, it’s this:

We put our faith in Jesus, who gives us hope for eternity.

Let’s see how this works, in Hebrews 11.

[Read passage]

11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 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. 6 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.

Let’s stop there. Pray with me.

Hebrews 11:1: defines faith as the "assurance of things hoped for.” The word assurance in the Greek is hypostasis (I promise, that’s the only Greek word!). Hypo is the prefix that means “under” or “below” (hypoglycemic = low blood sugar). And then “stasis” is an unchanging state of being. It’s equilibrium. It’s where we get the word stable or stability. And so you put it together, and you have this idea of an underlying reality. A foundational, supporting structure of what is true. And that’s faith.

Faith is rooted in the past. Biblical faith is a confidence that God is a real, personal being Whose character and attributes have been consistent from since before time began. This is why verse 6 says “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.”

He exists—He is a real, actual, being. Verse 3 says that the universe was created by the word of God. He is personal. He has a will, and He has worked His will throughout all history on behalf those who seek Him.

And so the writer of Hebrews (which, by the way, no one knows who wrote the book of Hebrews) spends the rest of chapter 11 recapping the stories we’ve been studying all year long. If this were an episode of a TV show, this would be the voiceover at the beginning of the episode: “Previously, on The Bible…”

Verse 4: Previously, on the Bible, Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Why is that the first example out of the box? Because it reminds us that for a sacrifice to be acceptable, there had to be the shedding of blood.

Verse 5: Previously, on the Bible, God rewarded Enoch by taking him up before he could see death.

Verse 7: Previously, on the Bible, God made a way for Noah to be saved from God’s wrath.

And it goes on from there. The author of Hebrews gives shout outs to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, the children of Israel who crossed the Red Sea, and Rahab, the prostitute who hid the twelve spies.

Then, in verse 32, the writer of Hebrews says, “And that’s just a sample. I don’t even have time to talk about Gideon, or David, or Samuel.” But what all these had in common was an unshakable, foundational assurance that God existed and that He rewards those who seek him.