The Face of Faith
0 Amens
The Face of Faith
Hebrews 11:1
May 18, 2008
Series 3 Sermon 45
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Introduction
The biblical command is clear. God has called His people to live and to walk by faith.
Hebrews 10:38 echoes Romans 1:17 which echoes Habakkuk 2:4, “The just or the righteous shall live by faith. Last week we looked at the biblical fact that apart from faith no person can be or will be justified. This transaction of faith for the righteousness of Christ is an act by which we are justified. To be justified is to be brought into right relationship with God and to have had the Lord Jesus Christ pay the penalty for your sins. This is why the Bible proclaims in Galatians 3:6…
6 Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
And then Paul writes in Galatians 3:10-14:
10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM." 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, " THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 12 However , the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, "HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM." 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE "— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Not only are we justified by faith in Christ but as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we are called to live by faith. Listen to Galatians 2:20…
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
So the command is clear. We as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are called to not walk by sight but by faith. How do we do this? How can we really walk by faith and not by sight when we have these eyes stuck right here in the front of our heads? And we can even go to the optometrist and get them corrected so that we could see better. We are saved by faith and we are called to live by faith. What has got to happen to us to get us there?
How do we know that Christ indeed rose from the dead? How do we know that what the biblical writers have recorded is actually the truth?
Apologists have wrestled with these questions for ages. One of the greatest proofs of the reality of the Christian faith is in the lives of those who claim Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. Think about the lives of the first disciples. At the Lord’s arrest only one stayed near to him. The rest scattered. The leader of the group, Peter, was forced by a slave girl around a fire to deny the Lord Jesus Christ three times. He then left in shame. What about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus? They were downtrodden and gloomy and convinced that the messianic hopes they had in this Jesus of Nazareth were gone for good. Sure they all witnessed the miraculous in the ministry of Jesus but in their minds death trumped the miraculous.
But something more miraculous happened to the disciples and that changed everything. The whole world was shaken by 11 men who were dramatically different from one minute to the next. One minute they were scattered and fearful and the next they were as bold as lions standing up and proclaiming the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation to the same people who had just earlier crucified Him.
What happened to them? What happened to Saul of Tarsus who was the great persecutor of the church and had now become the Apostle Paul ultimately to be beheaded for the faith? How does some one make such a radical turnaround?
What happened to the countless martyrs of church history who were killed for not denying their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
What happened to the disciples, what happened to Saul of Tarsus, what happened to the innumerable Christian martyrs, and hopefully what has happened to you is that you like them have had a radical encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ that has altered your life dramatically.
The greatest evidence for the Christian faith is the fact that all of these people were and are willing to die instead of denying the Lord Jesus Christ. The encounter with the risen Lord has been so personal and real that no matter what this world brings our way, with God’s strength we would die before we deny the master who bought us.
So where is this power to change the human heart in such a way that the person who was once an atheist or agnostic or heathen or even a persecutor of the church now becomes someone willing to die before they would deny the faith?
Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5:
1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Paul told these Corinthians that he wanted them to be true people of faith that he refused to acquiesce to the culture and use persuasive words of wisdom. And then in verses 4 & 5 he tells them where there faith would not rest and where it should rest.
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
So the power to save is not in the one who brings the message but in the Holy Spirit who draws men and women and children to faith in Christ enabling them to believe to the salvation of their souls.
Throughout this letter of Hebrews the writer has been vocalizing the Christian faith. Beginning with the exaltation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, above angels, prophets, Moses, and the High Priesthood of Aaron. The writer has skillfully taught us that the best days of the Mosaic Covenant pale in comparison to the New Covenant fulfilled in Christ where all God’s people will know Him from the least to the greatest.
The very first step in coming to know God the way Hebrews 8 tells us we will is in the miracle of conversion. God takes a wretched sinner only deserving of judgment and Hell, and as the Apostle Paul says in Colossians 1, He rescues us “from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son..” We are brought into the New Covenant where we are given the blessings of sonship and citizenship in Heaven belonging to the oikos or family of God. We are made new and as friends of God we have become enemies of the world and our lives bring the wrath of the flesh, the devil, and the world upon us.
We have seen previously in chapter 10 how these first century believers were persecuted because of their faith and how they had to endure an early struggle just to survive. We saw how they visited the prisoners who were there because of their witness for Christ and how by that visiting they placed themselves in danger. What they came to understand is that life, especially the Christian life, is difficult. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress found out, the path to the
So to walk through this life as a pilgrim, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as a member of the New Covenant community in Christ we must have a different perspective than the world. The world’s perspective is this. If you can’t see it you should not believe it. If things start getting rough get on a different path. No reason in staying the course if the course is causing you problems.
But as Christians we are called to walk through even the most difficult time by faith and not by sight. This is evidence of true conversion. That is what Hebrews 10:38 says. “My righteous one (or the one justified by faith) shall live by faith.
So what does this look like? How do we put flesh on this so that we know exactly what God is requiring of us? What does faithful living look like?
Sure, there have been those who establish hard and fast rules about what faithful living looks like. They say, “Faithful people don’t…” and then say things like; see certain movies, listen to certain music, drink certain beverages. All of these fit into a very neat category and allows us to easily not do these things and then say because we have shunned that part of our culture then we are walking by faith. This may be part of walking by faith but it certainly is not all of what it means to walk by faith.
Let me give you a working definition of faith. Faith comes from the Greek word pistis and its bare bones meaning is trust. So to have faith means that you trust in something or someone. I have a faithful wife therefore my heart trusts in her.
The writer of Hebrews has told us that we must trust in Christ for salvation and entrance into the New Covenant. But to remain in that covenant we must live by faith and not shrink back. Now in the rest of the Epistle, the writer of Hebrews is going to tell us what true saving faith looks like. In verse 1 the writer explains to us what faith looks like. Keep in mind that Hebrews 11:1 is not a definition of faith but an exemplification of faith. It is the demonstration of that saving faith that the writer will give us in Hebrews 11:2 through the end of the Epistle.
PNP
So from our passage this morning, Hebrews 11:1, the writer gives us two ways that biblical saving faith is demonstrated.
1. Saving Faith is demonstrated by a steadfast assurance that God is faithful.
2. Saving Faith is demonstrated by an unshakeable conviction that God is faithful.
Purpose
My purpose in preaching this passage is so that we all will understand what it means to live by faith. If we are going to follow the biblical command to live by faith and also to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith then we need desperately to know what living by faith looks like.
At my job, the management wants you to do things a certain way. So during training they put you beside someone who knows how to do what is expected of them and you watch and learn what they do and how they do it.
This is what the writer of Hebrews is going to do for us.
RPNP
So look with me at these two ways that biblical saving faith is demonstrated.
1. Saving Faith is demonstrated by a steadfast assurance that God is faithful.
I want you to listen to Hebrews 11:1 again.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
There are two problems here that the world would see immediately. The first one in the verse is the phrase “hoped for.” The other phrase is “things not seen.”
Then the two words describing faith are the words assurance and conviction. By faith we have the assurance of things hoped for and then the writer strengthens his statement by saying that by faith we have the conviction of things not seen.
The word for assurance is the Greek word hypostasis. It is translated different ways. Your translation may say substance, being sure. One translation catches the first century usage of the word and translates it title-deed. The reason for the varying translations is because it is difficult to bring over the idea that this word hypostasis is giving us in regards to our faith. Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for. Well since you obviously have that understood lets move on. I’m just kidding.
It is very interesting that this word hypostasis is used two other times in Hebrews. The first usage is in chapter 1:3. Turn back there with me. Speaking of Christ the writer of Hebrews says, “3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…” Here in verse 3 of chapter 1 the Lord Jesus us the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of God’s hypostasis. The translators here struggled as well. It is translated by some as nature, or person. So whatever God is, Christ is the radiance of God and the exact imprint of His nature.
This is what the Apostle John said about the Lord Jesus Christ in John 1:16-18.
16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. 17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
The word for has explained is the word exegeomai where we get our word exegete from. When I am studying the Scriptures to preach I am exegeting (or looking at what the text says) and delivering that to you in a way that hopefully is understandable. Likewise, Christ exegeted the invisible God to us in a way that we can understand and comprehend but that understanding and comprehending comes only by faith. So Christ is the embodiment of God.
Besides Hebrews 11:1 and Hebrews 1:3, hypostasis is used in the Epistle to the Hebrews one other time. Look at Hebrews 3:14.
14 For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
Here hypostasis is translated as original confidence. This is the trust of faith that readers had in Christ at the very beginning of their faith. And by this faith we are sharers in Christ if in reality we hold our hypostasis.
So let’s try to put it all together. Hopefully we can do that. Hypostasis in Hebrews 11:1 is the confidence, the assurance, the very nature of faith. Look at the verse again.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for…
Let me ask you this morning, in the context of Hebrews what are we hoping for? The fulfillment of all things in Christ is this New and better covenant that is already here but not yet. We are at present experiencing a taste or a glimpse of the New Covenant in Christ. We have the assurance of the promises of God in that covenant.
Turn back to Hebrews 8:10-12.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Let me ask you this morning, are you experiencing the fullness of this New Covenant yet? Do you have the Law of God written so completely on your mind and heart that you no longer have to battle the flesh, the world, and the devil? We know we belong to God by faith in Christ but have we fully experienced the joy in the presence of our Heavenly Father? No. We get some glimpses here and there. What about the fulfillment of not having to teach your neighbor or your brother to know the Lord? How many of you have decided that because we live in the new covenant that we know longer need to be taught?
I have a good friend who is a doctor and he jokes that when we get to heaven the two people who are going to be out of job the fastest is the preacher and the physician. Everyone will know the Lord from the least to the greatest and no one will ever get sick or die.
Verse 12 is certainly a here and now reality in that God has chosen to forgive our sins by laying the punishment for those sins on Christ.
But we have some things to hope for don’t we. We have some eternal realities that we have yet to experience that we indeed will experience as we conclude this life lived by faith.
So faith is full trust in the promises of God and a willingness to endure in spite of outward circumstances looking forward to those things promised by God. It is in essence a fixation on the promises of God. Faith is an other worldly, supernatural thing that in spite of everything, remains firmly fixed on what is hoped for. What is hoped for in Hebrews? Endurance to the end to remain in the New Covenant….
Faith exemplified or demonstrated is a steadfast assurance that God is faithful. Second this morning I want you to see that:
2. Saving Faith is demonstrated by an unshakeable conviction that God is faithful.
There is a second phrase in verse 1. Look at it with me.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Notice the move from assurance to conviction. This conviction is wrought in the heart of the person of faith that even though the promises of God are at this point hoped for and not seen they are coming. It is more certain than the sun setting in the west this evening.
Conviction is a strong word. As a matter of fact this is shunned in modern society as it was in ancient society. In Greek society to believe something without reason that can be demonstrated was a sign of being uneducated. After all the educated are the intelligent ones right? In our day the so called educated believe that this whole universe accidentally came into existence. In the ancient world the educated believed in pagan gods of their own imaginations.
Being convinced of something means that whatever it is that you are convinced of you are going to appropriate the correct lifestyle in order to make that a reality.
When I was in 7th grade I met a boxer. This young man was convinced that he would one day be the world champion. He said that people would make fun of him because he ran and would shadow box as he ran. He spent hours in the gym training. He was in tip top physical shape and went to the Florida Golden Gloves event and won. All those people that teased him and told him he could never make it were stunned when he won the Florida Golden Gloves in his division with a first round knockout.
The people of the first century were stunned when these early Christians were willing to die for what they could not see. Look at verse one again.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Here is where I think we have as 21st Century Americans the most difficulty. And I will confess to you this morning that this has been one of the most difficult sermon preparation times I have ever had. Part of the reason is like you, I really don’t understand fully what it means to live by faith.
We say that we live by faith but much of what we do is by our own sheer God given ability. Oh sure, when we are looking for a job or we have a health crisis we start living by faith pretty quickly but in everyday life how often are we in reality living by the hand of God?
Let me demonstrate this to you by the prayer that we pray congregationally every week; the Lord’s Prayer.
“Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.” We are good through that part I think. We want to live in such a way that God is glorified in all things. Let’s move on.
“Thy Kingdom come.”
Really? IS this something that we truly long for or is life so good that we can wait? This is supposed to be a desperate cry out to God for Him to move Heaven and Earth in order to save us from this wicked age but somehow in 21st Century American Christianity the coming of the
Augustine prayed the prayer, “Save me oh God, but not yet.” What he was saying is that there were still some things he wanted to do and experience before he became a Christian. I think that is the way we pray the Lord’s prayer. “Thy Kingdom come…” but not yet. There are kingdoms for me to build first. There are things I want to accomplish. I want to finish preaching through Hebrews. The conviction of things hoped for is the conviction that God’s kingdom is coming and the sooner it gets here the better off we will be. But we are too comfortable. Let’s move on.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Really? What if God’s will for you is to suffer? What if God’s will for you is to die at an early age? Or be single? Or to be a missionary far away from friends and family? Or to be ostracized from family because of your faith in Christ? Or to have illnesses and to suffer pain the rest of your life? What if God’s will for you is totally contrary to what you desire for your own life? The life of faith says, “As you will Lord, let it be.”
See the church is got this all wrong today. Most people think God’s will for them is for them to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. How does that jive with, “We are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter?” “Suffer as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” The life of faith, the one that is assured of things hoped for and has the conviction that things unseen will come to pass can pray “Thy will be done..” and mean it because they are convinced that God is good and has our ultimate good and His glory in mind.
This is counter cultural and sadly it is counter cultural to the church today as well. This is why the church is so weak. We live for ourselves so often and not for the will of God.
What about this one?
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
The challenge for us as Christians living in the most affluent culture in the history of the world is to live and walk by faith in spite of our ability to be ultimately self sufficient. And I am not sure I know how to do that. Sure I know how to pray, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” I get that. I desperately need that one and so do you and I think all of you would readily admit that.
But how many of us have ever, even one time, prayer sincerely because we had not one thing to eat and no money to go get it with, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
And by the way, this is the type of faith that we should be exemplifying. God has blessed all of us in so many ways even to the point that our greatest trials as American Christians is to not get caught up in the decadence of and the decay of our culture.
Even though we have plenty… even though we truly do not understand everything about living by faith…the great news is we are going to learn. We are going to see faith exemplified for us. The good news is there are people of faith in all economic and social circumstances. We have the task of learning to lean on God when we have so many other things to lean on.
Let’s pray.
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