Hebrews 11:1-16.  This is really one of my favorite parts of the New Testament.  Many authors call Hebrews 11 the “Hall of Faith” sort of a “Hall of Fame” with respect to people living for God, or at least trusting him.  The word “assurance” or “substance” in verse one is a Greek word which means, “to stand under”.  It can mean “substance, reality, nature, or assurance”.  It can also mean “foundation”.  I like that one (since I build houses).  A foundation is the thing that supports something; in this case faith supports the hope believers have about God’s eternal kingdom (as we will see).  The second word used to describe faith can be translated as “conviction, evidence, or proof.”  So we see that the faith of these guys is proof of what they are hoping in.  Verse 2 tells us that because of their faith they “obtained a good report” or that they were “approved”.  In Acts 1:8 Jesus told his followers that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came into their lives and that they would become witnesses to the whole world about what he is and what he had done (the God who died to deal with the sins of mankind (See 1 John 2:2)).  The word “witnesses” in Acts 1:8 is the same word “be approved” in Hebrews 11:2.  So they became witnesses and God or Jesus, in return, had good things to say about them.  It is interesting though to realize that in Hebrews we are talking about people from the Old Testament while in Acts 1:8 Jesus is talking to his original followers (and to all followers after them).  One time I was in a Bible class that was trying to prove that the church (believers in Jesus) had a local side to it; that individual churches were complete and independent.  In the Bible the church appears as both the big group of believers in Jesus; everyone from all of history, and it also appears as little local groups in cities.  Some people like to believe that the local parts have to be part of one big controlling group.  I agree that individual churches have the right to govern themselves but the teacher tried to prove that by saying that part of the job of the church was to encourage believers in living for God.  The teacher argued that a dead guy could not do that and so was not a part of the “local” church.  It seems to me that these “dead” guys are being used as an encouragement to the church (or churches) that the Hebrew Christians were a part of.  All of the authors of the Bible do the same thing for each of us; local churches are responsible for themselves but they are still part of a bigger thing, the universal church that will one day be together in Heaven under it’s supreme ruler, Jesus.

Verses 3-5 give us a couple of examples of the particular faith the author is talking about.  In this case the faith relates to things God is doing.  By faith we believe that God created the world from nothing.  God told us so but we did not see him do it, so to some degree we need to believe.  The next example is Abel.  Cain and Able were brothers, the first two children of Adam and Eve.  Both of them made offerings to God but God rejected Cain’s offering.  We do not really know the details but according to the author of Hebrews,  Cain was not acting with faith when he made the offering and that is why it was rejected.  In some way Abel was being faithful when he made his offering but Cain was not.  The third example is a guy named Enoch who, again, was faithful to God.  He was so faithful in fact that he was taken directly to Heaven without dying (Genesis 5:22-24).

In verse 6 we learn that it is not just any kind of faith or belief that pleases God but it is believing the story we read in the Bible.  Lots of people think it doesn’t matter what you think about god or who your god is; they think all gods are the same.  Verse 6 tells us we need to believe that God exists and we need to believe the story the Bible tells about him; that he has standards and a plan to help us because we broke those standards.  Not all gods are the same and you need to choose which one you believe in.

Verses 7-12 give us some more examples of people who were approved by God and the kind of faith they had.  Noah was warned about judgment coming to the world and obeyed God.  Abraham is commended because when God told him to leave the place he was living and go, he went.  He didn’t know where he was going but he went.  It’s kind of like the story we are reading at Friday Night Alive about Bruce Olsen, God lead him day by day and he followed, and the result was thousands of South American Indians finding a new relationship with God.  In verse 9 we see that his obedience had an affect on his son and grandson too.  Verse 10 helps us understand how we can all live by faith, we need to look beyond the “here and now” to the future God has for us.  Abraham was looking forward to God eternal kingdom and so he lived day by day according to the things God was asking him to do.  Verses 11-12 are an interesting example because if you know the story of Abraham and Sarah you know that Sarah laughed when God said she would have a child.  Abraham was 75 years old when God sent him to the land of the Canaanites (Genesis 12:4).  It was 10 years later when God promised Abraham that he would make his descendants into a mighty nation (Genesis 15:1-16:3).  Sarah had had no children so she followed a common custom of the day and had one of her servants sleep with Abraham.  That girl, Hagar, became pregnant, Sarah was angry and abusive and so Hagar left.  God sent Hagar back where she remained in Abraham’s care for several years.  When Abraham was 99 years old (14 years later, 13 years after Hagar’s son was born) God appeared to Abraham again.  God repeated his promise that Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation.  Abraham assumed Hagar’s son, Ishmael, was the beginning of that promise but God indicated that Sarah would have a child and it would be that child who would receive the promises.  Abraham laughed at the though of having a child when he was 99 and Sarah was 90.  A short time later God appeared again and reaffirmed that Sarah would have a child, this time Sarah laughed at the though and was confronted by God for her unbelief (Genesis 17:15-18:15).  So it is odd that Sarah is commended for her faith.  It is clear from Genesis 18 that Sarah did not believe what she heard when she heard it but according to Hebrews 11:11 she evidently came to believe that God could make it happen.  As a result she fairly quickly became pregnant (The angel told Abraham that she would bear a child within the year).

Verses 13-16 return to the idea in verse 10 about a future place with God.  In verse 13 we learn that all of these faithful followers of God died before God’s promise was fulfilled.  Interestingly Sarah did have a son a year later, Issac, so the promise the author is talking about was something different.  Issac was one step in a process leading to a future kingdom filled with people who had put their trust in God.  According to verse 16 the promise is about a kingdom that is not really a part of this world

I like it that the people who are mentioned are not perfect, Noah got drunk after he got off the ark and both Abraham and Sarah laughed at God’s promise to give them children.  They also took matters into their own hands with the whole Hagar thing.  But they are still mentioned as being people of faith who will have a part in God’s forever kingdom.  It is also interesting in the case of Noah that he was drunk after the Ark ride, so it’s not like God only forgives things we do wrong before we are believers (that’s what Augustine of Hippo, an early church leader, thought).  It is also interesting that Sarah became pregnant 14 years after the promise was made.  That shows me we need to be patient.  We also see that in the fact that the people mentioned didn’t get the ultimate promise before they died.  In 2 Peter 3:3-9 we see that God is not slow about his promises but that he is being patient too.  He is being patient with us, waiting for as many people as possible to turn (the meaning of repent) to him.  Eventually there will be a last person to turn to him and then he will take over the world forever.  If you are not a believer maybe he is waiting for you.  If you are a believer maybe he is waiting for you to tell that one person who will be the last one.  As we wait we need to be God’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20).

God help me be a good ambassador for your forever kingdom.  Help me be bold and beg people to turn to you.  Help me have real faith and live each day with my eyes on that eternal kingdom.  Give me faith and perseverance.