The book of Hebrews is a deeply theological book. When we struggle to connect with some of its message we are relieved when we get to chapter 11. Chapter 11 puts into practice what the book prioritizes, faith in Jesus. Chapter 11 allows us to witness how faith allows believers to see what is unseen. We all together with these “heroes” can see what God has promised through faith and become perfected as one.
Faith Pleases God
Able offered a better sacrifice than his brother Cain. Abel’s offering was acceptable to God. It was acceptable because Abel believed that everything was already God’s. His faith allowed him to see that he was to care for what God provided and that God would continue to provide for him.
His offering was also better because it came at a greater cost. An animal’s life was given which eventually led to Abel’s life being taken. He may have been silenced by his brother Cain but because of his faith, you can still hear Abel today.
Abel teaches us to give to God through the eyes of abundance and not scarcity. Faith says that the universe is God’s and I will focus on all that I have and not what I do not.
God Rewards Faith
Enoch began walking with God after the birth of Methuselah. Methuselah had a long life and died. Enoch’s life was shortened but he did not suffer death. You may live a long life and at the end experience death but Enoch teaches us that after death comes life.
You may not be able to see it now but you can believe that God rewards those who seek him. You can believe in Jesus and be taken up with him. Death
Courageous Faith
Noah teaches us to have courageous faith. When we choose to fear God there is nothing else to fear. We hold out hope when all others have lost theirs. We pay no attention to cynical skeptics and choose righteousness over ridicule. If no one else chooses to believe in God we are still in the majority because God is bigger than the world’s unbelief.
Faith > Certainty
Abraham teaches us to follow God even when we are uncertain as to where he is leading us. We will believe in his promises even when to us they seem impossible. We may lack strength but God provides the power!
Faith > Doubt
Sarah teaches us that even though we may receive God’s promises with doubt and laugh off his word, we can choose to trust him. When we trust him, God can expand our faith imagination so that we can see that what he has said will come true.
Welcoming Faith
Faith allows us to see the promises of God and welcome them from a distance. The promises of God become more visible as we choose each day to follow Jesus, abiding by his word.
This is what Eugene Peterson calls “a long obedience in the same direction.” The promises of God seem far away but we receive what God says as if it is just around the bend.
A Better Place
God has something better for you. Faith helps us to see that we are foreigners and strangers in a world full of darkness. We live in the world but we are not children of the world. We are children of God. We are children of light and our citizenship is heaven.
The New Jerusalem is our heavenly city, a better place. The city of God is populated by
Leave The Pleasures of Sin
Moses ditched the earthly treasures of Egypt and accepted the disgrace of following Jesus. In hindsight, Moses’ faith leads us all to the one whom Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:15, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.”
Faith Accepts God’s Call
Moses knew that God was greater and must be pursued more than wealth and power. He could not turn a blind eye to the suffering of his own people. When God called him to lead his people out of Egypt, faith allowed him to accept the call.
Faith Removes Obstacles
The Israelites believed God and passed through the Red Sea. With the enemy on their heels, God delivered them from harm. Faith outruns the evil one.
Jericho was a formidable city but faith made its walls crumble. What walls has the Enemy built up around you preventing you from seeing the victory of God? Faith will crush what evil has built.
Faith Endures Hardships
When the people of God are pressed they do incredible things. With faith, you and God are an unstoppable force. Many lost their lives because they refused to renounce God. Their bodies were harmed but their trust in God was galvanized. What is it that you are afraid of? God is greater than your fears.
Unfinished
Stories of faith are still being written. Hebrews 11 is incomplete. For those who trust in Christ, faith continues for the history of the world. When the timeline has reached its end all the people of faith will celebrate their heavenly reward together. Each will have contributed to God’s story because of what God has done through them.
Where do you see yourself in God’s story? Where can you use more faith? Even though you have yet to finish the race of life, how can you choose like the people in Hebrews 11 to live by faith and not by sight?
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Jovan preaches for the Littleton Church of Christ near Denver, Colorado. Visit here to listen to sermons preached at the Littleton Church.