The power of faith
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 24:37
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· 58 viewsIn the final section of Hebrews, the preacher argues that, even recognising the supremacy of Christ and the deadliness of turning away from him, we still need to work hard to build our faith as persecution approaches. "Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see," he says. As our world takes a turn for the worse, we too need to press into our faith. Can we trust Jesus no matter what? The video early in the sermon is: https://youtu.be/r8p0QW3cyog
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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. 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.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.
When all you have to do is believe
When all you have to do is believe
Today we’re looking at the final appeal made by the preacher of the sermon of Hebrews. But before we unpack that, I want to look at another type of appeal that you’re probably familiar with.
Take a look at this, I’m sure you’ll recognise it.
[Play Vanish Ad]
What is this ad is asking you to do?
[Believe that Vanish can clean stains, buy Vanish to clean your stains]
What does this ad assume about your life?
[You have stained clothes you want to reuse]
What evidence does it present to support their pitch?
[A sort-of demo and testimony]
What faith do you need?
[Only need to believe that they’re telling the truth — Vanish either works or it doesn’t, also Vanish is just asking for a bit of money and trust that it won’t destroy your clothes, not an entire life commitment]
What difference will it make to your life?
[You’ll be able to reuse stained clothes]
When you need faith
When you need faith
So now, let’s contrast the appeal that Vanish makes in their commercials with the appeal the preacher of Hebrews makes at the end of his sermon. Keep in mind the passage about the faithful that we read just a moment ago.
Hebrews 13:7–16 (NLT)
7 Remember your leaders who taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and follow the example of their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas. Your strength comes from God’s grace, not from rules about food, which don’t help those who follow them. ...
12 So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood. 13 So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore. 14 For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.
15 Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. 16 And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.
Let’s ask the same questions about this as we did about the ad.
What is the preacher asking you to do?
[Stay committed to Christ no matter what; don’t be tempted by the world’s systems or ideas; live as a Christian]
What does the preacher assume about your life?
[That you have faith, and that you need faith—i.e. you are a sinner]
What evidence does he present for his case? (you can include the passage at the beginning, Hebrews 11 & 12 as well)?
[Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, the faith of the ancient saints, the faith of our leaders.]
What faith do you need?
[You need to be confident that Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension means that he can save you from your sins and that he is preparing a home for you in the new world. You can’t see a demo, you have to trust Jesus.]
What difference will it make to your life?
[You will have eternal life.]
So, you can see that buying stain remover is different from becoming a Christian (or, indeed, rejecting Christianity).
Let’s unpack this a bit further.
The preacher’s arguments
The preacher’s arguments
The preacher of Hebrews is well aware that the call to Christianity is a much more serious call than the call to use Vanish stain remover. And so the evidence he has presented to support his call has been much more impressive than a quick cut to a clean shirt.
The preacher recognised that his listeners were Jews, and were already aware of the reality and faithfulness of God through his interactions with Israel over a millennia and a half. He piggybacked on that, demonstrating that Jesus was even better than anything that had come before. And then, on top of that, he warned, in vivid terms, of the dangers of failing to carry through, failing to persevere.
We are the inheritors of three and a half millennia of God’s faithful engagement with his people. We have seen the world transformed in many ways by God’s faithfulness, and we should be well aware of Jesus’ superiority to any religion or faith, not just Judaism.
But with persecution coming, the preacher recognises that we cannot simply rely on cold, hard evidence of God’s past faithfulness. Indeed, the greatest motivator of all is future results. The Vanish ad works because it shows you the results you will get—a clean shirt. But faith in God is different: the ultimate results are not successes in this world, even though God does often deliver this. Rather, the true results of being a child of God are eternal life. But eternal life is not something you can demonstrate, whether you have a 30 second ad or even multiple lifetimes of experience. Eternal life is in the future for everyone, except for one person: Jesus. That’s why Jesus is so central to the message of Hebrews.
Accepting the reality of eternal life requires trust that God can and will deliver such a thing. Sure, Jesus has received it, but can we trust God to deliver it to us? In other words, it requires faith. As the preacher says, at the beginning of this section:
1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
We don’t have evidence of the reward of eternal life, because such a thing is in the future—a future that we cannot yet access. And so, in place of evidence, we have faith. Faith is not held despite evidence, faith is an extension of evidence, to goes beyond the evidence but remains consistent with it. The preacher of Hebrews has spent his entire sermon giving evidence for Jesus’ superiority, necessity to our lives, and trustworthiness. And now he asks us to go beyond that evidence through faith.
Let’s review again his argument for faith.
Why you need faith
Why you need faith
33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions,
The preacher reminds us that God is real, he has power over everything, and he is on our side.
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.
But then he turns to the reality that his listeners are about to enter: the reality of persecution, of death.
You see, God’s plan does not involve his triumph in this world. This world is too corrupted to be fixed. To repair this world it must first be unmade. This is the consistent teaching of Scripture and we see it realised in Revelation:
11 And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide.
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Because God’s triumph exists in the future, not in our present, we cannot look at our present circumstances as if they presented the whole picture. We can’t complain that our shirts are still stained, because God’s promise is not that he will remove all the stains now, but that he will remake our clothes at the end of time, giving us new, eternal clothes.
What about our faith?
What about our faith?
Which brings us to the question: what sort of faith do we need?
Well, it depends on what sort of persecution we will face, right? The problem with persecution is that it is easy to understand it as evidence against God, evidence that God isn’t trustworthy, that he doesn’t have our best interests at heart.
So far, our persecution here in Queensland has been more a form of social ostracisation, along with increasing temptations. But times are changing. We face actual persecution, being arrested and tried for speaking the Word of God, or obeying him. For example, the Voluntary Assisted Dying bill before Queensland Parliament, makes it illegal for hospitals or doctors to refuse to assist in this process of euthanasia, of killing someone. So a Christian doctor or hospital administrator who refuses to participate on the basis of his or her biblical understanding of the inherent value of human life will be treated as a law-breaker by their own government.
These encroachments will continue. It is the direction in which our society is headed.
So we must have faith that God is at work despite what happens to us.
But there is another way in which we need faith. Our modern world is far more integrated across the planet than ever before, and this places enormous pressure on our faith. How?
Earlier this week I was listening to a podcast conversation between Sean McDowell, an apologist who teaches at Biola University, where I studied, and Jon Steingard. Jon Steingard was previously the lead singer of Christian pop-punk band Hawk Nelson (yeah, I know, I’ve never heard of them either) until, in May last year, he announced that he was abandoning his Christian faith.
In the course of the conversation, Jon revealed that a major catalyst in his de-conversion was a mission trip to Uganda. It turned out that he was so shocked by the terrible conditions there—high infant mortality, low life expectancy, terrible poverty, etc.—that his confidence in God’s loving nature was shattered. “How can I believe in a loving, father God when he allows such terrible suffering?” was his reaction.
You see, Jon thought he understood God, and it wasn’t until he saw the terrible suffering of his brothers and sisters in the faith that he realised that the God he believed in didn’t exist. Jon explained that he had understood God’s love as delivering the blessing of an ideal parking space (with the comfortable life of a North American simply taken for granted). Do we think God is a God who exists to answer our parking space prayers, like Jon did?
Sean McDowell gently pointed out that Uganda has one of the highest proportions of Christians in the world, at 85% of the population. Clearly the Ugandan Christians have a different view of God than Jon had. Their suffering helps them truly value the suffering of Christ, and they understand how much better he is than everything else, and they trust that he will deliver eternal life in the future, rather than a comfortable life now. Their faith can thus withstand the terrible suffering they experience.
So the challenge that the preacher of Hebrews offers his listeners, and that God’s word offers us, is: do you really trust God? Do you recognise the supremacy of Christ? When life turns ugly, when you encounter others experiencing horrendous suffering, when cancer comes calling, when a child dies, when you lose a job, when you’re thrown in jail, when your friends abandon you or worse, attack you, when your church splits, when everything seems lost: do you trust God?
Let’s pray.
Father, we know that your purposes are larger than our lives. Even your purpose for our lives are larger than our lives here on earth. You sent your son to die for us. Help us to trust in you. Help us to cling to your promises, no matter what. We know you love us, and you have given so much for us.
Amen.