[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Hebrews chapter 11, starting in verse 1: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. 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” (ESV).

       Our beginning is with the famous verse, one of the most famous from The Epistle to the Hebrews, regarding the concept of faith, and what faith actually entails. Indeed, it is a chosen favorite by many, for within it appears to be underlying hope of that which is to be, that which is to come. The author had concluded our last chapter, chapter 10, but saying, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (39, ESV). That’s where we want to be, as Christians. That’s where the author wanted his fellow Hebrew Christians to be—the place to be. To have faith for what is to come in the future—to have faith in those things which are unseen. Interestingly, the second verse about the creation is actually a reminder and an argument for his readers and listeners to consider. What he is telling them is that as Jewish persons they already have ‘faith’ in the past. Faith is already present within them that God created the world and everything in it that is. To be a Jew, one believed that God simply spoke the world into existence. In the beginning, he said this and he said that, and things appeared, and the whole world as we see it appeared. It’s was a simple process (perhaps), and yet it demonstrated God’s tremendous power and ability. It set him apart as God. The life-giver and source of all things. Backing up from that, another argument made is that the people in the Old Testament “received their commendation” by faith. That is, by believing in what God said—for those who did—God gave his seal of approval. And God put their souls in the waiting place until the proper time, when sin could ultimately be dealt with.

       Thus, coming back to the definition of faith, we understand that faith leads to two things—“assurance” and “conviction.” “[A]ssurance and conviction.” [A]ssurance and conviction toward what? Well, it’s toward the future, toward “things hoped for” and “things… not seen.” That’s what he’s talking about. And this is in light of the hard times—the persecutions that are either being currently faced or that will likely be faced in the future due to surrounding hostilities. There were Jews who didn’t like that these particular Jews had become Christian, had ‘Christian-ized’ their Jewish faith, if you will. To be a Jewish person who accepted Jesus’ teachings and accomplishment was a problem for some. Even governmental hostility could be involved. Therefore, there was need for endurance. Endurance. For us today, in twenty-first century United States, perhaps the challenge isn’t so much physical persecution, but rather it’s more related to intellectual arguments against our faith or even temptations to sin. Of course, there are those who are intellectually opposed to our faith, and may argue with us as pertains to this or that, and these arguments usually revolve around moral issues. Most obviously, we see it in the political realm, right? No bringing up-to-speed is necessary in regard to that. But there is also temptation to become like the world, to forsake the Christian part of our belief in God because the world is pressuring us to be like them, to be hip and cool and fit in. To not cause any waves at any time. To go along with immorality—to go along with whatever the latest cultural trend or fad is. Yet if we know Jesus, if we are waiting on what we aren’t currently seeing, that is, if we are waiting on the new world to come, we aren’t so much concerned about these things.

       Moving back to the very essence of faith, someone might to asking themselves of what faith actually is. That is, faith itself. What is a good definition of faith? Actually, the end result of faith gives us a clue as to it’s definition. In really stopping and thinking about it, it should remind us of what James has stated in his epistle. Remember, he said, back there in chapter 2, and let’s jump around a little, beginning in verse 14: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”… Verse 17: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”… Verse 26: “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (ESV). A trend is apparent in these sayings, these verses. James brings up two examples of Abraham and Rahab. He shows that each of these individual’s actions demonstrated the faith they had on the inside. So, what was on the inside of them lead to what they did on the outside. It influenced their actions. This is why “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” For a Christian who says “I believe” but doesn’t ever do anything to back that up, that’s a cause of concern. That which is good on the inside of us will undoubtedly spill out in some way, shape, or form to the outside. Jesus noted it was out of a person’s heart that evil comes, and so it is that out the Christian’s heart the good will come.

       For our purposes today in covering the first half of this chapter, the author is going to work through five people from Jewish history, five patriarchs if you will in this discussion about faith. The list shows those of old who had faith, and how this faith pleased God. We start near the beginning with Abel. Verse 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” (ESV).

       Our start is with the very early account, the story of Cain and Abel. Curiously, Cain and Abel were offering sacrifices to God for an unknown reason. No record exists of God telling them to offer an animal sacrifice to him. It appears it was either something they saw others doing (some pagan neighbors), or something they came up with in their own minds. Perhaps they were full of guilt over their sins and felt they needed to appease the Deity. Regardless, Cain’s sacrifice in someway wasn’t up to standard. It appears he didn’t give his best to God as Abel had done. God told Cain he needed to deal with his sin problem—that he was allowing sin to rule over him. For sure, we are aware that Cain didn’t listen—he didn’t take that guidance. But Abel thought to honor God with his best, even though God had not commanded it. He didn’t even know if God would accept the offering, but he did. It pleased God. A spirit of love in faith was demonstrated by Abel. And God commended the righteousness found in the action. To us nowadays, the whole practice of animal sacrifices is a foreign one, and probably even seems barbaric. Yet, God met the people back then where they were. He dealt with them in such ways that they understood. Regardless, we know how the story went. Cain kills Abel, letting that sin in his heart overtake him, and push him to do something evil. Nevertheless, Abel’s righteousness still speaks to this day—that God wants us to have a perfect heart.

       Verse 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” (ESV).

       In the next chapter over, from Genesis chapter 5, Enoch becomes the focus of our attention. It is recorded in Genesis 5:24, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (ESV). Thus, like Abel, Enoch was pleasing to God and lived by faith. Pausing and thinking on this for a moment, we recall there were two men actually taken up into Heaven by God in the Old Testament. Of course, the other man we are thinking of is Elijah. That account is found in 2 Kings chapter 2. It has been stated in the past that really these actions in the Old Testament seems to display a preliminary Rapture—like a foreshadowing to The Rapture of the Church to come in the current Church Age. Enoch was the first person to take part in that, and that was because of his faith in God. Another idea that could be a possibility, which is also an aside, is that both Enoch and Elijah may in fact be the two witnesses on the earth during the time of the antichrist during the Tribulation Period in The Book of the Revelation. Since these two men apparently didn’t die, they could be the ones who are on the earth during that time who end up dying. That’s actually a possibility. Nonetheless, it is important of us to remember that The Rapture of the Church can happen at any time. Our desire is for our hearts to be right with God so that we get to take part in that event and escape The Tribulation that is to come. All of us who know Jesus as our Lord and Savior will (if it happens during our lifetime) get to experience this Rapture like Enoch did. For us, there will be more to it but one has to have that faith in God to begin with.

       Now for the general assessment from the author of Hebrews. Verse 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” (ESV).

       It appears obvious, but it’s something we need to talk about. It’s true that one has to have faith in God to be pleasing to God in his sight. That’s basic, that’s easy to understand. If a person doesn’t believe in God to begin with, there is no way one can be pleasing to him. The truth is, it seems most individuals believe in God in our world. That is, they believe in a high power, one that watches over things and that perhaps makes circumstances to happen in certain ways to certain degrees. Surely, people identify this power with different names and under different religions. Remember, when the Apostle Paul was in Athens, we have a vivid example of this very thing. In Acts 17, it is recorded, “So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (ESV). That’s the common experience, and it’s our job from time to time, and our desire, to do what Paul did—to make truth clear for people. We have the privilege of knowing the True God; we have come into personal relationship with the Creator. No specialness in us led to this decision, but it’s simply because someone told us the truth, and we believed. So, when we made that choice to believe, or make that choice today, we have faith that what we were told is the truth. That conclusion can be arrived at in various ways, and in the West it is often through rigorous research for the skeptic at heart.

       The second part of the whole thing, or the second part of the equation, is that of believing God rewards those of us who seek him. Admittedly, the way the verse is phrased appears to be denoting our current life. For the writer says, “rewards those who seek him.” “[Those] who seek him” sounds like something we are doing, and then receiving the reward in our current life. That’s one way to look at it. Experientially, it seems we find that that is true. We find God giving us good things in our lives, whether that be material goods, finances, persons in our lives—whatever it is. This being said, we don’t have to understand the verse as pertains to this life. It would seem that Jesus in his earthly ministry didn’t focus as much on the ‘this life’ part of it. His focused seemed to be on what happens after we leave this life. We know he told us to store up things—treasures—for the next life versus storing them up for this life. That’s because this life is temporary—perhaps 70 to 80 years, and even more if we are lucky (if you want to call yourself lucky for living longer). Once that time is up, all our possessions and assets are given back to the world and someone else gets them. Yet, those things we have accumulated in Heaven will be there waiting on us. Most importantly, the friends we have will be there at one point or another. That’s a tremendous thing—friends for eternity. Not to mention those we didn’t know of other times—but that’s getting off track. The point in all of this is that our faith should be ‘outside of this life’ focused to some degree. If we are only focusing on this life—God says that’s not pleasing to him in his sight. In that case, we’ve become shallow, perhaps even selfish.

       Verse 7: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (ESV).

       Thus, the author moves to the perfect example of someone who displayed their faith by their action. Again, probably ringing in our minds is what James spoke, when he noted, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (ESV). Back at the time, back at the time of Noah, during the first phrase of the world, the people of the world had become incredibly hardened in their hearts. Moses penned, in Genesis 6, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (5, ESV). Yet, he also noted, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (8, ESV). Indeed, Noah and his family were apparently the only people living on the earth who acted in righteous ways. Everyone else had become so depraved that they couldn’t even do good, and so the Lord likely had no choice but to destroy them all. It was a very sad thing which bothered God in his heart. Yet, God seeing the people’s actions, told Noah to build the ark because he knew what was going to have to happen. Noah’s obedience to God in the whole process of building the ark pleased God, but it also demonstrated to the world that they were not righteous, and that impending doom was approaching. Yet, it was likely too late for anyone to make a change. Nevertheless, the whole thing showed Noah’s righteousness through his faith in doing something that would have been considered unheard of at the time—since it didn’t rain on the earth during it’s first phrase and it likely seemed absurd to the individuals living that it would.

       Verse 8: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (ESV).

       We remember the story of Abraham, how God told him where to go, back in Genesis chapter 12. Most of us, in our day, don’t have the same type of experience. We don’t see any appearing of anything, or any audible voice. Some persons feel guided by God to do this or that, and some have the desire to do something based on a need and they go do it. There is no one formula for how things should go; to say otherwise would be to over-simplify things. In Abraham’s case, God told him to go to a certain land—that he was going to make a great amount of people from his linage. Surely, God was formulating from his seed a chosen people for himself, who would later be called the Israelites. To Abraham, the land was initially foreign, and he lived there not in a house with a foundation but rather in tents. He knew one day there would be a great city, but that was to come later. All of this was the design of God. It took faith on Abraham’s part. Of course, having the one on one exchange with God probably made things easier at least initially. But as time progressed, he had to keep in mind what the plan of God was—what God had told him in Genesis 12. He said, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2, ESV). Some individuals are the forerunners to something greater, and some persons are those who get to work out what the forerunners have established. We remember people in this second group, for Jesus said this is what his disciples were doing. Jesus said in John 4, “I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor” (38, ESV). In the instance with Abraham, God had bigger things at work for the future.

       Now moving to Sarah. Verse 11: “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore” (ESV).

       Interestingly, God performs a miracle way back in these early days of time. We see that Sarah was advanced in years. Actually, we understand that Sarah was 90 years old when she became pregnant (see Genesis 17:17). This was post-flood, when persons lived more in line to the age like we do nowadays. It wasn’t pre-flood where individuals would live for hundreds of years. If it had been pre-flood, it wouldn’t seem that impressive. Genesis 23:1 tells us that Sarah ended up living to being 127. If we say that our current average for a woman’s life expectancy is 80 years old, let’s go ahead and adjust to she how old she would be in today’s terminology (assuming she lived a full life). So, if we take 80 years old and divide it by 127, we get about .6. If we take .6 and multiply it by 90, we get about 56.6. In today’s terminology, then, Sarah would have been about 56 or so when she became pregnant. So, that’s significantly past the normal time when the average woman can give birth. Of course, God had promised he would bring about a child from Abraham’s seed, though, he did not mention Sarah back in Genesis 12. That may be one reason Abraham supposed he would use Hagar to be sure the promise was fulfilled. But it is as if God said, “No, I don’t need to do it that way. I can do it a better way” and that’s what God did. Thus, God created a whole nation and race of people as his own from Abraham and Sarah. And it should be pointed out, quickly, that we are not Abraham and Sarah. That’s simply stated to prevent us from gaining an unrealistic hope of something, in our current dispensation of time, as to obtaining something. God still does promise things and still does miracles, but he does not guarantee us anything most of the time.

       Our final section for today. Verse 13: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (ESV).

       The truth that has been presented in Hebrews 11 is not what we are used to in our current time. We are used to hearing messages that speak of how we can get what we want in this current life—how are dreams of life can be fulfilled. This chapter speaks contrary to that, and it can be a wake up call for some of us. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah didn’t get a perfect world in this life. We can see from each of their stories that there were problems, and what they were doing would benefit others later in time, after they were gone from the earth. That’s probably not something we want to hear. Abraham and Sarah didn’t get to see their innumerable descendants, nor the riches of the land that God had promised. We understand the same was true of the prophets within the Old Testament who prophesied the Christ to come. They didn’t see him in their lifetimes. Yet, all these people looked forward to what was to come. The writer of Hebrews tells us they didn’t look back—looking back at the land from where they had come. Rather, they fixed their eyes on what was still yet to come. Really, this is what we are all supposed to be doing to some degree. Even Jesus made this point when he said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62, ESV). This underlies the writer’s whole argument stemming from chapter 10. He’s telling the Hebrew Christians that they ought not to look back from where they came, from Judaism, and look to be going back. Life wasn’t there, and to think that it was is an illusion. This goes for anyone today who’s thinking about leaving Christianity and going back to their old religion, or going back to the world. Think, and recall, life wasn’t there back then. It is with God that we truly experience real life, and by him we will inherit our salvation and the good things that come along with that, namely, Heaven.

- Daniel Litton