November 4, 2001 Hebrews 11:1-3,6
“The trial of the ages…opening arguments”
INTRODUCTION
During the latter weeks of August and early September, the news headlines were very different then they are today. Back then, the focus of the news reporters was on two little baby girls who had been adopted twice – once by a couple in California and once by a couple in Britain. Now, the children that we focus on are the children of the firemen and policemen who died in New York, the children of soldiers who are fighting for our interests as a nation, and the children of Afgan parents who are running for their lives. The greatest fear of those weeks was not Anthrax but sharks –something which seems so miniscule now. People were staying out of the water; now, they stay out of planes. And the biggest villain of the day was not Osama bin Laden. It was Gary Condit. Do you remember him? He’s the guy that was accused of killing Chandra Levy. And he’s the guy that media and most of us had crucified with very little evidence. All that we had was a lot of suspicions and lots of unanswered questions. One of the results of the events of 9/11 is that Gary Condit and his troubles have faded into obscurity. Unless major new evidence comes out, there will probably never be a trial. His case reminds me of another one which was very similar. Only in this one, the defendant wasn’t so fortunate as to have a major world event shift attention away from him.
Almost three years ago, in a courtroom in Boston, a group of 12 people were asked to exercise a great deal of faith. They were the members of the jury at the Anne Marie Fahee trial. If you don’t remember that case, Miss Fahee was supposedly murdered in 1993 by her lover – a prominent lawyer in town. The reason that I say that she was supposedly murdered is because no one can prove that she was actually dead. There was no body, no murder weapon, and no witnesses to this crime that prosecutors say happened. All that they knew for sure was that Anne Marie was missing. Yet, in spite of the absence of evidence, the jury was asked to convict the defendant and sentence him to spend the rest of his life in jail. In my way of thinking, that would be a huge leap of faith. They were asked to call him “guilty beyond all reasonable doubt” even though they could not be sure beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed.
We, as believers in Jesus Christ, are called to live a life of faith. In Hebrews 10:38, the writer says that “the just [that’s all people who have Jesus Christ as Savior] shall live by faith”. Does that mean that we are supposed to take the same leap in the dark that these jurors were being asked to make, or does it mean something else? Beginning this morning, and continuing for the next several weeks, we will be looking at Hebrews 11. This chapter of the Bible is called the Faith Hall of Fame. It tells how God’s people since the beginning of time have exercised faith in God regardless of the consequences because they believed that God had proved Himself worthy of their trust. The writer uses the experiences and the witness of these mean and women almost like a defense attorney would use witnesses and evidence to prove his case. And that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to argue a case. We’re going to bring witnesses tot he stand, and they will testify about their experiences. Our goal in this case is stated on your note sheet:
GOAL: to prove beyond doubt through the testimony of many witnesses that we can keep on living obedient lives in difficult times through our faith in God.
That’s not an enviable task for any lawyer. This is a case that Johnny Cochran would not touch. But it is a case that we can win. We have a great God, and some very influencial witnesses – witnesses that God never failed. By the time we get done with out case, we will be able to draw the same conclusions that the author of Hebrews does in chapter 12. After he brought all his witnesses and allowed them to tell their story, he came to this conclusion in 12:1, 12-13 [read it] But before we get there, we’ve got a lot of testimony to hear. You be the jury. You come to the verdict. But be aware that the verdict that you come to will not determine God’s fate. It will determine your fate. As a Christian, it will determine whether or not you live a life of miracles or a life of mediocrity. As a non-Christian, it will determine whether you spend eternity in heaven or in hell. The stakes are high.
So pay attention. Listen to the evidence. Don’t fall asleep. Make sure that you are here for every session of the court. You won’t want to miss anything that happens in the trial of all time.
This morning, we will begin our case with the opening statements found in Hebrews 11:1-3, 6. We will learn about the faith that enabled these people to live for God in difficult times. We will see many things about the kind of faith that they had. And we will see that this same faith can be lived out in our lives today.
1. The definition of faith is seeing the unseen. (vs. 1)
— Relate the story of the emperor’s new clothes
— Michigan is the “show me” state; seeing is believing
— Rick and Mick’s song – “Seeing is Believing” (read off words)
— I can’t prove that God exists; I can’t prove that I exist. Someone once tried to prove their own existence through the axiom, “I think; therefore, I am”. Where does that leave those of us who don’t think?!
— I operate on faith every day. I watch the weatherman and prepare accordingly even though he is wrong more often than he is right.
— I have faith that gravity will still be working tomorrow. Otherwise, I’d have to tie down my car and my house every night. I have faith that when I flip a light switch, I will be able to see. I can’t see gravity, and I can’t see the electricity that flows through wires in the walls of my home. But I rely on them every day. Faith enables me to act on the belief that they are there even though I cannot see them.
— In the same way, faith enables me to act on the commands and promises of God even though there may be little or no empirical evidence and no logical reason for me to do so.
— Peter walking on the water took faith. He had nothing to support him. There was no substance to that water capable of holding him up. The only thing that held him up was the voice of Jesus when he said, “Come”.
— Each time that I stand before you, I have faith that God is going to take His Word and bring about change in his people. I hope that change is happening, but sometimes, there is no evidence. No one walks the aisle. No one gets saved. But I believe that God has called me to be a pastor, and I believe that He has called me to this church, and I know that His Word is sharper than a double-edged sword. So I preach! Even when I don’t see things happening, I preach, because that is what God has said for me to do. And in faith, I see the miracles that He is doing in people’s lives even though I don’t see them walking the aisle.
— One thing that I must point out though, and this will become more evident as we look at the rest of the chapter. Faith is acting on what God has said or commanded not just on what I think.
— If I jump off a cliff expecting that God will hold me up, that’s not faith; that’s stupidity! I will go spat! God didn’t tell me to do it.
— No matter how much you believe that you will get to heaven by being good, loving your neighbor or giving away your finances, it still won’t come true. That’s not faith. It’s wishful thinking. God hasn’t said it. Don’t believe it. Don’t base your eternity on it.
— A man was lost out in the woods one starless night when he suddenly fell over a cliff. As he was sliding on the cliff, his outstretched arms grabbed hold of a branch that was sticking out of the cliff wall. After he had caught his breath, he cried out, “HELP!! Is anyone out there?” And in the darkness of the night, he heard a voice say, “This is God. Let go of the branch.” The man thought about it for a minute. Then he cried out, “Is anyone else out there?” Sounds like us sometimes. We fall, we ask for help, God tells us what to do, and then we look for another solution other than the one He gives us. If we would just do what God says to do and let go, we would discover like that dangling man did that the solid ground is only 6 inches below us.
— Faith is acting on God’s commands and promises when we are afraid, unsure, alone and when we cannot see.
2. The result of faith is seeing God act. (vs. 2)
— They obtained a good testimony.
— Was the testimony or good report about them or about God? A little bit of both actually.
— They received a good report about themselves that they were people of faith. Their names were recorded as a part of the Bible for the rest of eternity.
— The singing group “For Him” recorded a song that said, “I want to be a man that you would write about a 1000 years from now” in the Bible. These people got that privilege. All Christians since the recording of Scripture who have access to the Bible have heard the stories of Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And since the Bible will last into eternity, so will their stories. What a privilege and opportunity for them!
— But it also gave them opportunity to point to how great a God they served and what God was able to do because of their faith.
— God always acts based on the faith of His people. Jairus’ daughter was healed because he had faith that Jesus could do it. The blind man received his sight as a result of his faith in God.
— Henry Blackaby, in the “Experiencing God” workbook, tells the story of what God did in their association. “When the world’s fair was coming to Vancouver, our association of churches was convinced that God wanted us to try to reach the 22 million people that would come to the fair. We had about 2000 members in our association’s churches in greater Vancouver. How in the world could 2000 people make a great impact on such a mass of tourists from all over the world?
Two years before the fair we began to set our plans in motion. The total income for our whole association was $9000. The following year our income was about $16000. The year of the World’s Fair we set a budget for $202,000. We had commitments that would probably provide 35% of that budget. 65% of that budget was dependent on prayer. Can you operate a budget on prayer? Yes. But when you do that you are attempting something only God can do…
As an association of churches, we decided that God had definitely led us to the work that would cost $202,000. That became our operating budget. All of our people began praying for God to provide and do everything we believed He had led us to do during the World’s Fair. At the end of the year, I asked our treasurer how much money we had received. From Canada, the United States, and other parts of the world we had received $264,000…During the course of the fair, we became a catalyst to see almost 20,000 people come to know Jesus Christ.…Only God could have done that.”
— When you choose to act on faith, it gives God a chance to work miracles. And it gives you stories that you can share with the world of how God works in the lives of His people. When you choose to live by faith, God gets the glory.
3. The example of faith is seeing God’s creation. (vs. 3)
— Three things that I want to say about this issue of creation.
— First, when God spoke, creation immediately responded.
— There was no deliberation.
— “I can’t come into existence; I’m not even here! How can I respond to God’s command? That doesn’t make any sense.
— Our response to God’s commands should be just as immediate and decisive.
— Second, one of the most important tests of your faith is what you believe about creation.
— The world’s greatest attacks on Christianity come on our teaching of creation.
— Genesis says that God created the world in six 24-hour days. It says that Adam was formed from the dust of the ground not from a monkey.
— Your textbooks in school lied to you. There is more scientific evidence to support creation as Genesis records it than there is to support evolution.
— What’s the big deal of whether we were created or evolved? The big deal is that God says it happened in 6 days and that it happened as a result of His word not as a result of a big bang.
— If you can’t have faith enough to believe God for how it all began, how can you believe him for how it all will end?
— Third, the text says that faith enables us to “understand” about creation. Not that we understand about creation and how something could come into being out of nothingness simply by the power of God’s spoken word, but that we understand that it happened just the way that God said it did.
— "What did you learn in Sunday School this morning?" a father asked his son. The son explained: "We learned about how Moses went behind enemy lines to rescue the Jews from the Egyptians. Moses ordered the engineers to build a pontoon bridge. Then, after the people crossed, he sent bombers back to blow up the bridge and the Egyptian tanks that were following them. And then..." The father interrupted: "Did your teacher REALLY tell it like that?" "No," said his son, "but if I told you what he really said you would never BELIEVE it!"
— Faith brings understanding – not only to creation but also to life. It allows us to accept what seems impossible.
— Abraham didn’t understand why he had to wait 25 years from the original promise of God to him for a son before he actually held Isaac in his arms. Moses’ mother didn’t understand why her innocent son was in danger of losing his life. But in faith, she understood that God would take care of her son even as she placed him in the water. Moses didn’t understand why God would pick a shepherd from the backside of the desert to lead His people out of captivity. But God said for him to go to Pharoah. So, in faith, he understood that being Israel’s deliverer was his role in life.
— There are many things that happen in my life that I do not understand. I do not see how everything fits together. But in faith, I accept that the One who by His word created the universe will also by His word guide me to where I need to go and create in me hope and joy and peace even when the world around me is changing with each passing moment.
4. The necessity of faith is seeing God’s pleasure. (vs. 6a)
— Faith leads to obedience.
— Give examples of those who in faith did exactly as God said for them to do. [i.e. Noah building the ark, Israelites walking around Jericho, Gideon leading an army of 300 against an army of thousands,]
— God has more pleasure in obedience than He has in sacrifice. (1 Sam 15:22)
5. The basis of faith is seeing God’s character. (vs. 6b)
— As we travel through the history that is covered in this chapter of the Bible over the next several weeks, it will be easy to get our eyes focused on the people that are spoken of here. But that is not our goal. We are not basing our faith on the character of these people. Some of them were not from the greatest background. Rahab was a prostitute. Moses was a murderer. Abraham was a liar. Samson was a man controlled by his passions. Not very good people. We’re not here to focus on the witnesses. We’re here to focus on the God that turned their lives around. We’re here to focus on what God did in their lives during those times that they chose to live by faith and see God work miracles.
— It is the character of God that is the focus of our faith.
— I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know the character of the God who holds the future. I know that He is without sin, that He is wise, the He knows everything and that He loves me. Being that He is that kind of God, I can have faith in what He says for me to do. He’s not going to lie to me because He is truth. He’s not going to tell me to do something which will destroy me because He loves me.
— When I can’t see the pathway, I can continue on in faith because I trust the character of the one who is leading me.
— The disciples fished on the other side of the boat because Jesus said so. (Luke 5:5)
— The person who comes to God for His blessing and for His acceptance has got to, in faith, believe a couple of things about Him.
— One, that person must believe that God exists.
— Before we can act on God’s Word, we must believe that He is real. That in itself is an act of faith. As we have already discussed, it is difficult to believe in something that you cannot see. But millions of children all around the world believe in a Santa Claus that they have never seen because they see the evidence of presents under the tree on Christmas morning. We too can believe in a person that we cannot see because He sent us a present on Christmas morning. In the Gospel of John 1:18, it says, “No one has ever seen God…”. But just a few verses earlier in verse 14, it says, “The word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…”. Jesus came down from heaven to earth to show us the Father that we might believe that God exists.
— Showing us that God exists was not His only goal. He also wanted to show us that God is good.
— That’s the second thing that a person who comes to God must believe about Him – that He is good. He rewards seekers by giving them the object of their search.
— I used to hate the game of keep-away. Some of you who are not vertically challenged like I am probably never had to endure the torture of this game. I used to think how evil these children were for keeping from me that thing that I wanted more than anything else in my life at that moment. They knew how much I wanted it. They knew how much pleasure it would bring me. And so they exercised the power of tallness to keep it away from me.
— Folks, God is a lot taller than we are. And He could have lots of fun with us by playing keep-away. In fact, that’s probably what many of you have thought God was doing at some point in your life, maybe even right now. He was keeping away from you that very thing that you wanted more than anything else. That thing that would stop your crying. That thing that would give you comfort. That’s why you think that God is an evil God and that He doesn’t really love you. But what God is doing is keeping back from you those things that you are seeking after in order that you might understand that the thing you need to seek after more than anything else is Himself.
— You’re looking for love and laughter in all the wrong places. When you finally realize that what you are really seeking is God, then He will give you the object of your search. He will give you Himself.
CONCLUSION
We’ve begun a journey this morning. It’s an exciting journey. We have charged God as one who is worthy of our faith and trust. By the time that we finish our journey, my desire is that each and every one of us will be able to come to the same conclusion – that we will be unanimous in our decision that God is guilty as charged and that we will place our complete faith in Him.
Our court case is a little bit different than most court cases. You don’t have to wait until all the evidence is in before you make your decision to place your faith in God the Father and in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. You can decide today to live your life in faith – to live a life of miracles instead of a life of mediocrity. You’ve been living your life by sight. What you see in your checkbook, what you see in your neighborhood, what you see at your job, what you see in yourself and your own abilities. God wants you to live by faith so that you can see things from His perspective. He wants you to see the unseen.
Or maybe you have finally understood this morning that all those things that you have been seeking after aren’t really what you needed after all. What you need is Jesus. He has convicted your heart. He did not bring you here to judge you. He brought you here to set you free. If you would like to know how you can be forgiven of your sins this morning, then you come.
