Keeping Faith With the Faithful

Text: Hebrews 11:29–12:2

Focus: Faith

Function: Celebrating life

Form: GOK

Intro: We know that Brother Paul told us that three things endure through the tests of all time, Faith, Hope and Love, and the greatest of these is love. We are named HOPE, we focus on Love, and faith is the third leg of the stool that helps us keep focused.

In the midst of the turmoil and uncertainty in our lives, one of the things that seems to be endure in one way or another is our community of faith.

And that community of faith will be a blessing to the world around it as long, I believe, as it remains to this principle from the scriptures, Love Wins. Well, the words are written like this, in 1 Peter: 1:¹⁹Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.

Love is really the only option.

I was at the Dentist the other day and a sort of vocal about her faith employee was there and she was defending the right to bear arms to another employee and she said it this way, “Jesus wants us armed to protect ourselves from our enemies.”

I felt sorry for her because she backed herself into a corner by trying to equate her politics with the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus made it clear that we are to rise above the political structures of the day. This is the place where everyone is welcome.

Although I could not support her position, I felt sorry for her and so, in agreeing with her to “help her out,” I added, hoping she would pick up the gospel message the statement: “And Jesus is the one who told us that is indeed possible to love even our enemies.”

She thought I was arguing with her and she reacted with something.

I should have left her alone to fend for herself and anyway. Oops. Religion and politics, the two subjects you cannot talk about.

Now the situation had degenerated and I was concerned that we might have a disagreement in front of her co worker and I might undermine whatever ministry she was doing with her.

Remember, wherever believers go, the Holy Spirit comes with them and wherever we are, God is working through us. Even her.

I wanted to help her, but she was defensive and I was now making it worse, so I was trying to graciously get out of it in such a way that her co worker could see that not all Christians believe in violence as a solution to human conflict.

Not knowing why I said it, I said: “But Jesus told us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (shake head in confusion)

I don’t know what I was thinking. I hate arguing, it never changes anyones mind and afterwards I go through all the what if’s and should’ve saids.

She said. “But if we are wise, we are smart enough to arm ourselves.”

Unfortunately, the lady she was talking to laughed in derision at her, shook her head and walked away. I caught her eye enough to let her know I was giving up arguing with her co-worker anymore.

I know we are to be a witness for peace everywhere we go. It is like there are two forms of Christianity out there, one that seems to serve those in power and one that seems to serve those who are not in power.

I felt the leading of the Holy Spirit as I was talking with the ladies, but again, sometimes it is better to keep one’s mouth silent.

I like encounters like that because I can learn from anyone and it helps me understand my own convictions.

Afterwards, I go through the what if I had said and I did come up with the clever answer later, and I want to tell you, not to think I am clever, because it was way to late to make a difference, but as I unpacked her response I realized that this is exactly what Jesus meant.

Obviously, Jesus did not that we should resort to violence, but that we should by faith depend on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to give us an alternative to violence. That is exactly what Jesus meant.

Love, over violence, will eventually win.

Either that or humanity will not survive its ability to wage war.

I say this because this week marked the anniversary of the Bombing at Nagasaki and one of the Presidential Candidates actually asked why we cannot use nuclear weapons again.

Humanity has to figure out a way to love one another.

And God has given the world the Church for that singular purpose.

I love the Great Commission from Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20. Go into all the world and preach good news, teaching them all I have taught you, baptizing them in the names of God and I am always going to be with you on this task.

God is here.

And, according to our passage, God has already been there.

God wants us to show the world how to love each other, but to do it, God gives us faith.

I look at faith and hope as the spiritual energy to do the job of loving those Jesus calls us to love.

Hebrews 11 tells recaps the stories of faith from the Old Testament and it says:

All these people died in faith without seeing the actual gift of Love that God gave to all of Humanity when God’s own self left Heaven to suffer and die.

And, that suffering and dying taught us how to live and love one another also.

Jesus laid down His life to love others.

By faith, we to can live for others.

Last week we kept seeing the repeating theme through the lesson of faith. The people of God lived their earthly lives with the knowledge that heaven is their reward. They lived for the heavenly city and today’s text says that people like that are better than this world. It says “the world was not worth of them.”

They lived with that hope in heaven and believed that living a sacrificial life here on earth was worth it because it was the way that they could live and keep faith with God.

We saw last week how they kept faith with God.

Today, we see how we can keep faith with both God and the faithful.

What I love about this part of Hebrews 11 is the transition that occurs right in the middle of verse 35. He is going on about all the great miracles that happened, some at the last moment, acts that were more than bravery, but events that clearly marked God’s favor and help. Events that proved that prayer works and God answers prayers.

But then he shifts to a whole `nother group of people who prayed and did not get an answer they were hoping for. He says “sawn in two, bound for prison, tortured.

I think the biggest one of faith comes from Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego. They were the three men to be placed in the fiery furnace and the King said to them: “What God can deliver you out of my hands?”

And their answer was one of great faith. They did not confess a miracle. They did not act like the prophet Elisha and call down fire on two different groups of 50 men. They did not “take authority in the name of Jesus” over this bad king.

No, they simply said to the king: “Whether or not our God delivers us from your hands, we do not know. But we know that God is able. But more than that, the one thing that is certain is that we will not worship another god.”

Faith, for them, was trust in the outcome from God, even if it was what appeared to be a bad outcome.

Now, there are many times in our lives when we have been disappointed over something that we thought we had to have, only to find that something else was better and we chalked it up to youth and naiveté.

Some had what appeared to be a victory. Some did not. And they all lived in faith.

These people were the faithful.

I have met a lot in my life.

I know our numbers are low this morning because of the faithfulness of Don Willoughby and the memorial service for him this morning.

I know Marie, and if Don was like her, what a saint.

People like that are people that we can look up to as examples of what it means to live a life that demonstrates faithfulness.

I know we are here to worship Jesus this morning, but it is important to realize that God is still alive in the Church.

Keeping Faith With God

Text: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-10, 13-16

Focus: Faith

Function:

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

Among Christian Biblical Scholars, there is quite a debate as to who wrote the book of Hebrews.

Almost all the New Testament, is written in the trade language of the day, Koinẻ Greek except for Matthew, written in Aramaic, the common language of the Jews and the book of Hebrews which is written in classical Greek.

Classical Greek is difficult and writing with the style suggested that the author was highly educated. The Apostle Paul could fit that bill, but all the rest of his writings are in Koinẻ.

The Apostle Apollos, a latecomer to the apostleship, was also educated enough to have written the anonymous book. Then there was also the Apostle Prisca. Some wonder if the reason the authorship is kept secret is because it was a woman.

That is not worth arguing except to understand whoever wrote verse 3 understood both Classical Greek and philosophy.

Although the Greeks had their own mythology that involved Deities with Supernatural powers, at the core of everything, Greek mythology believed in materialism.

Materialism was also the dominant philosophy of the Age of Modernity that seemed to have ended sometime around 9/11.

Materialists believe that the first cause of everything is matter. Matter is and has always existed.

At the time that the Ancients were pondering the meaning of the universe, physics, astronomy, philosophy and all the other disciplines that have created the fabric of human understanding of life, the universe and everything when the scriptures were being written in Greek Culture, the dominant philosophy of the origin of the universe is that matter is the only thing that has always existed.

The Logic was simple and it went like this: Since it appears impossible for matter to create itself, matter itself must have always existed. Matter is the one thing that appears constant.

And for earlier man, that made sense. As mankind learned, tested hypothesis against experience, dominant theories have become so absolute that we accept them as fact.

We have the laws of motion, gravity, thermodynamics, electrical conductivity, physiology, and so forth.

All of that learning has happened because matter and the universe appears to be constant.

But, as we have learned, it isn’t constant, and it is in flux and we stand more and more in awe of it.

Some people worship it.

But then we learned that the universe that we know is at best, according to our ability to measure, somewhere around 4.5 to 5 billion years old.

We can see microwave radiation that confirms that it all began at one point in time. We theorize that this is one of many universes that have expanded in and out of existence forever and then we realized that perhaps the universe started out as big as it seems, but we wonder what happened before it?

What is outside of the universe? Everything material has a physical limit. The Universe is material, and although we cannot imagine an end to it, we can imagine something that is bigger than it. And we question ourselves that if we can imagine something, can it also exist?

It all gets dizzying.

Except, the same thing can be said for God.

When I was a kid I used to wonder who God’s Father was. And if God had a Father, who was His Father? And where was God’s Mother? And if They had parents, then somewhere, sometime, somehow someone must have been always there.

Again, the Greeks believed it was matter.

And we Christians, according to this text, believe that it is God.

I wonder if the Jewish writer/philosopher wrote this verse, believing that God created it all because he or she knew that the logic of God being the First Cause over matter makes more sense.

Matter is inanimate. Our theory of evolution, one of those things that most accept has been elevated to fact, -one in which many theologians like me see no inconsistency with this verse and the account of Creation in Genesis- states that somehow the inanimate became animate. SOMEHOW. Scientists have a plausible theory, but we lack any way to re-create it in a lab because of the statistical improbability of success.

Anything is statistically possible, but not statistically probable. And, our Scientific experience is that matter in of itself is dead.

We wonder if it is possible. If there is no Creator God, then it must be possible.

And again, matter could not have created itself. If we can imagine a “Father” to the Father God and that infinite chain of Fathers eventually going back to the One who always was, then we can also imagine a time before there was matter. It has to be, or it cannot be because it cannot create itself.

It is a logical dilemma. The Greek mind chose matter, the Jewish mind chose God.

And the reason seemed to be superior logic. Since matter cannot create itself, then something supernatural, that has creative ability, the ability to self-exist with divine power.

Something has to be supernatural enough to have always existed.

We cannot actually prove God.

But, logic makes more sense that God is the first cause since matter could not have created itself and there has to have been a time before matter existed. Right now, we know it has existed around less than 5,000,000,000 years.

By faith we understand. The author of Hebrews make an intellectual statement to the learned minds of his or her time.

And the Author goes on to describe in the chapter a litany of people who lived and died in faith, but then we see the story of Abraham:

I want to jump down to verse 8 and start reading

the phrases connected with why he is credited with having faith:

(God) ...called him to go… ...to a different country.

Now this is huge. The tribal family was the government and the only real system of defense and security. Anyone could have killed him and there would be no government to enforce justice on his behalf.

That was verse 8. Verse 9: by faith… ...he was a foreigner. He lived in tents… ...no permanent place here on earth, a different place was home to him, and it was not on earth. We see it in verse 10:

Verse 10: waiting for a city… a perfect city… ...the city of God… ...his divine reward. He lived for the Kingdom of God.

God changed his country of allegiance and called him to live by faith in a foreign land.

Verse 13. The author adds back in others from the list that I have left out. And again, this itinerant phrase is applied to them: “they admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.”

Look at their bravery. They choose to side with the weak and the oppressed, the foreigner and the refugees. They choose to side with the refugees. Think about that. This is the legacy of those who have faith. This is the proof of their faith.

Verse 14, They all make it clear they are looking for a country that is not their own.

Our reward, our hope is not here. We too, live for a foreign country whose foundations are permanent, in heaven, set aside for us.

Verse 15. It is not an earthly place that anyone can return to.

Verse 16: “A better country.”

Every single verse describes the hope and inheritance of believers. This is where our reward and security lies. Why should we live in fear of what happens here on earth?

Why side with those who live in fear and preach fear?

We live by faith.

And, continuing to side with the marginalized and oppressed, speaking louder and clearer is what is needed from the church today.

We are the city of God.

We are the place where the stranger and the refugee is welcome.

And if we are to keep faith with God, then we must remember that we love God as much as the person we love the least.