Tuesday Teaching: Hebrews

Series: The Art of Being Unordinary
Sermon: Hebrews (7.28.24)

Happy Tuesday, all.

What is faith? That’s the question the book of Hebrews addresses both explicitly by providing us a definition, and then by giving us a bunch of examples of heroes of the faith we should learn from and be like (at least in some ways!).

First, the definition, from Hebrews 11:1-3:

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Our culture and our world uses the word “faith” to mean a lot of different things, so often it can be misunderstood when we’re talking about the Christian faith. I think it’s important to see this clearly: faith is not the hope that grows to certainty; faith is the reality, or the certainty, that inspires the hope.

In other words, as one pastor put it: “It’s not that we have a wish that we cherish and burnish like bronze until it really shines and then call that our hope and put our faith in it. Nor is faith something we build like biceps. These are some of the misconceptions today’s secular society has about faith. No, what the author of Hebrews is talking about here is perceiving and believing in the reality of something you cannot yet see. The faith we have which gives us hope, then, is hope in something real.”

The declarations of our faith can be argued and defended using apologetics and philosophy and logic and history, and these tools are valuable for supporting the claims Christianity makes about our world, but when it comes down to it, much about our faith really does require…faith.

We can study the reasons and the rationale, but at the end of the day we’re going to have to choose whether we believe all this stuff or not, and consider the implications of that choice.

Ask yourself: is this true? If so, so what? What does that mean for my life? If this stuff is hogwash, it means nothing. If it’s true, it means everything.

What it cannot be is true and meaningless.

Having made clear what the definition of faith is, the writer of Hebrews provides an extensive list of “heroes of the faith” in Hebrews chapter 11.

“By faith” Abel…”by faith” Enoch…”by faith” Noah…Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel.

I love that this list is included in Hebrews because it tells me two things: one, God keeps his promises forever.

These names span generations and witnessed world-changing historical events - empires rising and falling, natural disasters, famine, war, always war - and still God was who he said he was and did what he said he was going to do.

Two, these people were so, so flawed. They lied, they cheated, they stole.

Our failures, our flaws, and our sins are no barrier to persevering in the faith. We have a God who forgives, and we are forgiven when we repent and turn to him.

And Hebrews tells us why we should view these men and women as examples to follow despite their flaws:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth…they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. - Hebrews 11:16

Those of us in the faith will be rewarded, but our reward is not meant for this life.

Our reward is eternal, and while that might be harder for us to accept in the short-term, what awaits us according to the book of Revelation is streets of gold, gates of pearl, walls made of precious stone, a flowing river of crystal clear water, and no need for sunlight or moonlight because the light of God’s glory illuminates the entire place.

Hebrews calls the place of our reward for a lifetime of faithfulness “a heavenly city.” How glorious it will be!

Know Him and make Him known!
- Pastor Brady

Read for this coming Sunday: 1 Timothy

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