Text: Heb 11:1-3, Title: What Are You Standing On? Date/Place: NRBC, 10.22.11, PM
A. Opening illustration: Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams that He will not stand by us.” — Oswald Chambers, "Is this really, THE water jug of THE prophet Joel from the Bible?"
B. Background to passage: Remember the context of this whole book is the intense persecution that the Hebrew Christians are experiencing that is causing many to defect back to Judaism. So the writer has spent 10 chapters arguing for the superiority of Christ and the new covenant, complete with four warnings for those who neglect or turn back from the faith. He is trying to show them theologically that they should stay with Christ. Now he changes gears, and deals with the other pressing issue in the lives of his hearers (remember it is a sermon): overcoming suffering. And he begins to go back to the OT and bolster his conviction that by faith in Christ we can not only be granted righteousness, forgiveness, and eternal life, but we can also be given the strength to face any trial, even death, through the abundant life and joy Christ provides. Therefore, tonight we will look at him laying the ground work of faith, looking forward to the examples.
C. Main thought: Three descriptions of faith
A. Faith is our rock (v. 1)
1. Definition of substance, also translated “assurance, confidence, or sureness,” the ground of confidence, assurance, or the guarantee that something else was going to happen. It comes from two words: “hupo” which means under, and “stasis” which means stand; therefore it means what stands under you. Faith is the rock we stand on! The author here had been speaking about the promises, the rest of, and priest-mediator role of God. And so he deals with the doubt in the minds of his hearers that these promises of God might fail, or that the God of these promises might fail. He wants them to believe God, and be confidence in Him. He wants them to let Him be the rock upon which they place their trust and hope, and the thing upon which they fall during intense trials.
2. Matt 5:18, 1 Kings 8:56, Josh 21:45, Lam 3:21-24, James 1:2-3, Job 13:15, Mar 9:24,
3. Illustration: these are the things that I will read in your ear if I am by your bedside, “God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing.” –Luther,
4. When we are struggling through trials and pain, the precious promises of God are the things that get us through. However, it’s during those same times that Satan’s fiery dart of doubt comes and calls all those things into question. That is one of the reasons that James 1:2-3 equates trials and testing of your faith. But you must maintain your confidence in Him. You must believe that God is who He says He is, and will do what He says He will do. We must call to our mind the promises, rebuke the doubt, and stand firm, clinging with all of our might to Him. We must keep looking for the answers to prayer, for the way of escape, for the Red Sea to part, for the sun to stand still, for the 185,000 Assyrians to wake up dead, for the rain to come, or for the demon to leave. Pray for the Lord to strengthen your faith, and help your unbelief. Know the promises of God in His word. Memorize some.
B. Faith is our motivation (v. 1)
1. Biblical writers are often fond of saying the same thing twice. So the author here uses some very similar language, but with some interesting extensions of his original meaning. He uses a word here that means conviction or persuasion based on evidence. But the word also carries the connotation of a response based on certainty. It means an outward manifestation of an inward conviction. This is encouraging them to act on the faith that they have. It means for them to go and do what they are supposed to even if they believe that it will or could worsen their situation. It means that they are convinced that God will be sufficient to the point that they leap over the cliff knowing that God will build a bridge or put up a net even though they can’t see it. This is a picture of authentic, overcoming faith. And this is what the Hebrews needed. They needed the power to act in the face of certain suffering.
2. 2 Cor 5:7, 4:18, Rom 8:24-25,
3. Illustration: “Where are we?” The took one more look around and answered, “Oh, about two hundred yards farther than last year.”
4. And this is what we all need. We need a faith that will cause us to so rely on what we hope or know to be true even when we can’t see it, that we will move ahead with plans or actions. We must train our minds to the truth that things are much deeper than they seem, and God is much realer than our eyes and hands tell us. We must take small steps of faith based on the conviction that God will do as He says. That will grow our ability to trust Him more. We must being willing to defy logic, popular opinion, safety, self-reliance, common sense, and expert advice if need be to do what we believe God would have us do. Be willing to leap off the rock you are standing on and grab it and take it with you. Read the stories of faith in the scripture; mediate on them during times of struggle or needed faith. We need some examples of this kind of faith at NRBC! We need some of you to take on God-sized tasks that only He can do. We need some more of you to tackle cancer, sickness, loss, heartache, depression, family struggles, hurt feelings, financial hardship in an open and vulnerable way that demonstrates God’s sufficiency. And it will be a daily battle to keep stepping out in faith when the fog is so thick that you can see the ground under you. But you have an unshakable conviction that God will be a faithful, loving, sustaining provider for you.
C. Faith is our testimony (v. 2)
1. This verse is translated a lot of different ways after “by it the elders” received commendation, received approval, were praised for, gained a good report, were pleasing to God, were spoken well of, won approval. The idea behind the text is that God approved of or commended those who had gone before and had faith and lived by it to accomplish great things. This is basically the heading to what is to come beginning in verse 4. God testifies on behalf of those who exhibit faith by blessing, strengthening, overcoming, being glorified, and being pleased. He speaks over them approval as He did Job, bragging on those who weather the storms well.
2. Job 2:3, Matt 25:21, 2 Cor 5:9, 10:18, Acts 5:41,
3. Illustration: this is what has been such a blessing with Shorty’s cancer, God’s approval has been upon Him because he has kept the faith—good days, bad days, by faith he has overcome in Christ.
4. Your reward will come. God always rewards those who diligently seek Him by faith. We all live for the approval of our earthly fathers when we were small children, now we are to live for the approval of our heavenly Father. May it be so with you that God testifies on your behalf that your faith endured because of the joy that you found in Christ was greater than any other joy! And normally God’s favor comes through blessing and abundance, but sometimes it comes through suffering, sorrow, and pain. And we will see that in this chapter, for some stopped the mouths of lions and turned armies to flight, but some where stoned, sawn into, and slain with the sword. But those of us who persevere in a godly fashion, shall be rewarded with God’s testimony on our behalf.
A. Closing illustration: read some of the precious promises of God from the promise book
B. Hebrews 11:6 is a good summary statement that we may deal with in a little more detail later: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Two men had gone moose hunting up in Canada for a week. Their week of hunting was over, and a pilot had flown in to pick them up, as arranged ahead of time. The pilot taxied the plane down the grass landing strip to where the hunters stood with all of their equipment and the two moose they had shot. The pilot got out of the plane and looked over the men’s equipment and the two moose. He then said, “I am sorry men, but we cannot take both moose back with us. There will be too much weight, and the plane will never get off the ground.”
The two hunters looked at each other for a moment, and then one of them said, “We think it will be all right. Last year we came up here with the same equipment and shot two moose about the same size as these. The pilot who picked us up had a plane about the size of yours, and we got off the ground just fine.”
The hunter thought for a moment, and then said, “Well, if you think it can be done, we will try it.” So they loaded up all the equipment and the two moose, climbed aboard, and the pilot taxied as far back on the grass strip as he could. He headed down the strip as fast as he could and began to pull the plane up. The plane bounced a couple of times, and then finally lifted off the ground, flew a short ways, and crashed.
About fifteen minutes later, one of the two hunters regained consciousness. Soon the other hunter regained consciousness. They looked around for a moment, and then one of them said to the other, “Where are we?” The took one more look around and answered, “Oh, about two hundred yards farther than last year.”
• So, I’m walking through the Museum of Biblical Archeology in Jerusalem, and I’m walking through an area with various kinds of pottery on display, and there in front of me is this absolutely perfectly preserved water jug.
It stopped me cold.
Now understand, as far as ancient pottery goes, it is quite unusual to find any kind of pottery in good shape. Usually, the pottery is chipped and has several pieces missing. But, this water jug was perfect so it caught my eye. It was a simple clay water jug that looked like it could hold about three gallons of water and etched in Hebrew near the mouth of the jar was the name "Joel."
The little placard next to the water jar said simply, "The water jug of the prophet Joel."
Wow.
I guess I had stepped a little to close to the pottery because a security guard appeared out of nowhere and was now standing next to me. So I asked him. "Is this really, THE water jug of THE prophet Joel from the Bible?"
"Yes," he said, "Without a doubt, this is THE actual water jug from THE prophet Joel. It has been verified as authentic...Please don’t touch it."
I don’t know, but for some reason I was taken back. I had seen thousands of various objects: Jewelry, weapons, royal seals, and so on, but for me, this simple water jug brought it all home. Maybe it was the fact that Joel had etched his name on the jug or maybe it was the fact that it was an everyday item. Whatever the reason, from that day onward the prophet Joel was no longer just a name to me - he was now a real person. I had seen many places and artifacts in Israel, but for me, for me, it was the water jug of the prophet Joel that brought me once again that these people we read about are very real.
Look, I had read about the prophet Joel, I had studied in Seminary about the prophet Joel even had seen copies of ancient manuscripts from the book of Joel, intellectually I knew the prophet Joel was historically real, I knew that the what the prophet Joel wrote in the Scriptures was authentic - but what made Joel real to me was a simple clay water jug that the prophet had etched his name on. Joel.
