SIMPLY JESUS
FAITH IN JESUS
HEBREWS 11:1-40
WHAT IS FAITH?
-The whole book of Hebrews has been building a case that we can be confident in the faith we’ve put in Jesus.
-Our author has gone to great lengths to show that Jesus offers us a better covenant.
-That Jesus is the better priest for that covenant, that he himself made the better sacrifice for sins, and that there is no better option than Jesus.
-To the Hebrew Christians who were waffling and thinking about going back…this letter says “keep your faith in Jesus!”
-Amen? But exactly is what is faith? We just “amened” it but do we even know what it is?
-This is the premier passage in Scripture on the subject of faith
-Some even call this chapter “the heroes of the faith!”
-There are a few teachings that are central in Christianity.
-One of those core beliefs is that we receive salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
-You are not saved by works, not by baptism, not by good deeds, not by giving, serving, or coming to church on Sundays.
-We are only saved by God’s grace through faith…but what exactly is faith? How would you describe it to someone without it?
Hebrews 11:1 starts this way: Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen;
A. CONFIDENCE IN WHAT WE HOPE FOR. (VS 1A)
-What are we hoping for? All kinds of things.
-We have a confident hope that Jesus Christ coming back.
-We have a confident hope that when he returns there is going to be a great day of reckoning.
-We have a confident hope that Satan will be finally defeated, and God’s people will have the final victory.
-We have a confident hope that God is going to destroy everything and recreate a new heaven and a new earth.
-There is going to be a do-over!
-We have a confident hope that the God who created us will bring us into his presence and there will be no more sin, suffering, pain, death or sorrow in that eternal Kingdom of our Lord!
-Whew…I get excited just talking about it!!!
-Because of our faith…we have a confident hope that we’re going to be reunited with all the Christians who have gone before us.
-In heaven, I have the confident hope of meeting the apostle Paul and the lesser known disciple Arthur Hulse…my great-grandfather
-I have the confident hope that all the things I’ve given up, that all the hours I sacrificed for Jesus…is going to pay dividends one day.
-We have these hopes because of our faith in Jesus.
-What is faith? Its confidence in all the things we hope for.
-But look at the second half of vs 1.
it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation. 3 By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.
B. ASSURANCE OF WHAT WE CAN’T SEE. (VS 1B-3)
-Part of the reason that faith is necessary, is that there are things we can’t see.
-We can’t prove that God created the heavens and the earth.
-We can’t prove beyond a shadow of doubt that there is life after death. We can’t prove the existence of angels.
-We can’t point out the Holy Spirit in a line up.
-We can’t even tell people what Jesus looked like.
-And yet we have the assurance of those unseen things…how?
-Through our faith.
-This is a major objection for some people. They want to see.
-They say I can’t see God, touch God, hear God, so I can’t believe in God. There is no empirical data to support the existence of God
-The apostle Thomas said something like that.
-And when Jesus reappeared to Thomas he told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” (Jn 20:29)
-Why has God made faith the lynch pin for everything we believe and stand for?
-Why didn’t he make hard facts, and visible proof the basis of our beliefs?
-If we only accepted God with physical evidence we’d end up trusting our evidence not our God.
-People say if God would prove to me that he exists, then I’ll have faith! But that would mean we were accepting him on our terms.
-And though God is loving, though He is kind, though He is compassionate…he is still the Lord of all.
-And you will not dictate terms to him. When you come to salvation you do it his way…on his terms.
-And the way we come to saving faith in Jesus a puts all the
emphasis on Him, and that’s the way he designed it.
-Faith is confidence in what we hope for. Faith is assurance of what we can’t see. But I want you to also see faith as…
C. BELIEFS THAT LEAD US TO ACTION. (VS 4-12)
-This section is a run down of OT history that highlights the faith of key Israelite people.
-I’m going to read through theses examples & skip around a bit
4 It was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did. Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his example of faith.
5 It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. 6 And it is impossible to please God without faith.
7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.
8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents.
11 It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep his promise.
-Those are great examples of faith. Those are the heroes of Israel and just some of what they did by faith.
-But sometimes we need modern day examples, people that we know and have seen. People we can relate to.
-And we have examples even in our own church family.
-It was by faith Stacey Weeks left her career as a tax collector to work for the Lord at Adventure Christian Church.
-It was by faith that Vicki Freeman has gone to Rwanda…twice!
-It was by faith that Justin and Tali Werber came to here to work with our teenagers knowing we could only pay them peanuts.
-It was by faith Dianne and Brian, and Rob and Kim, and Jae and Victory agreed to help start a church in McMinnville, OR.
-It was by faith that Jeri and Christine Moore decided to be a host
home for a life2life group, and their group branched and now there are two groups.
-It was by faith, and with some coercion from me, that Dave Mendenhall started a Celebrate Recovery ministry at this church.
-It was by faith, and some coercion from Dave that CJ and Linda Mesner joined him…and how many people have been blessed…
-It was by faith that many of you walked back one Sunday morning and accepted Christ as your Savior.
-It is by faith that many of you get out of bed each day to face your job, your health conditions, your family, your life.
-The faith we have in Jesus gives us confidence for what we hope for. It’s not wishful thinking
-Faith is assurance of what we can’t see. Not cross my fingers and hope for the best…our faith compels us to act!
WHAT DOES FAITH DO FOR US?
A. FAITH HELPS US FACE DEATH WITH CONFIDENCE.
13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
-I’ve got to tell you that one of my favorite people at this church for the last 10 years has been Fred Ringer.
-Fred is almost 96 years old and last summer at his 95th birthday party he told us he was still mowing his own yard!
-But this past week I visited Fred and he isn’t doing so well.
-In fact we decided to sit down and plan out his funeral.
-When we started, I was trying to be gentle so I said, now Fred we’re just doing this to have it planned and I hope you go on living for a long time! And without one seconds pause he said, “I hope I go home tomorrow.”
-That is the faith that Hebrews 11 is talking about.
-All of those heroes of the faith died without ever seeing the things God had promised.
-Abraham & Sarah never saw the multitude of their descendants
-The people of Israel never got to see the blessing that came from them to all the nations…Jesus Christ!
-They never even heard the name of the one who died for their
sins because they were looking forward to Jesus Christ’s death while we look back on it.
-But they knew what it amounted to…heaven. They had faith that what God promised would come to pass.
-People in our land are so busy trying to extend their lives because they’re scared to death about dying.
-Be healthy, live clean, exercise all you want…but heaven is our goal and faith in Jesus is the only ticket that will bring us life.
-Faith allows us to look death straight in the eye and not blink.
B. FAITH GIVES US COURAGE.
17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him.
20 It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau.
21 It was by faith that Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in worship as he leaned on his staff.
22 It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt.
23 It was by faith that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born.
24 It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.25 He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.
29 It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all drowned.
30 It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.
31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey God.
-People have done many courageous things by faith.
-I think of Elisabeth Elliot. Her husband was a missionary killed by the tribe he was trying to reach.
-Elisabeth went back to those same people and led them to Jesus.
-But those examples are exceptional…we see normal examples every day…all around.
-Faith in Jesus Christ has given people in this church, the courage to stay in a marriage even when things were difficult.
-People in this church have had the courage to step into leadership, step into service, step into to help someone else in trouble, because they had faith in Jesus.
-People have had the courage to write tithe checks when $ is tight, and they’ve endured ridicule for sharing their faith.
-People in this church refused to back down from what they know is right because of the courage they have from their faith in Jesus. -It’s not just OT heroes who find power in their faith!
-It’s regular people like you and me.
C. FAITH ALLOWS US TO FACE HARDSHIP. (32-40)
-This last section pretty much speaks for itself, I’ll read it all to you
32 How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to
recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. 35 Women received their loved ones back again from death.
But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. How did they do it? By faith.
36 Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37 Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. 39 All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.
-Throughout the centuries regular people have endured tremendous hardships because of their faith.
-Unexceptional people have done incredible things because of their deep faith in Jesus Christ.
-I think of Polycarp who was a first century Christian.
-He refused to worship the Roman Emperor and they threatened him with death. His reply was this:
¬-"Eighty and six years I have served him, and He has done me no
wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? Bring forth
what you will."
-When you strip away all of our money, our belongings, our education, our health.
-When you take away beauty, and success, and fame.
-When skin color, and ethnicity, and language is set aside.
-When all of us are stripped down to our naked souls, & we stand at the brink of eternity…the only thing that matters is our faith.
-That’s all that separates us from those who will perish.
-I have faith that Jesus Christ is God’s one and only Son, that he was born of a virgin, that he lived a sinless life, that he died on the cross Friday afternoon, and burst out of the tomb Sunday morning.
-I believe that he is seated at the right hand of my father, and that’s he coming back one day to take me home to heaven.
-And I cannot prove one part of that beyond all doubt.
-I have accepted all of it through faith. I have no backup plan.
-I have nowhere else to turn. I’m putting all my eggs in one basket
-And if the atheists are right then I’ll just end up as fertilizer.
-But by faith I believe that Jesus is right…and that one day I’m going to live forever with him. Whose going with me?
DO I HAVE FAITH? HOW AM I ACTING ON MY FAITH?
