Living a Life of Faith
Hebrews 11:1-3
February 20, 2005
Rev. Johanna Adams
I have been really wrestling with these verses this week. It is a familiar passage of scripture one that I remember memorizing as a youth. It is a passage of scripture that I felt I understood pretty well, but this week, as I thought about this passage I begin to see so much more than before. So, let’s look at this scripture and also see what other passages in the bible say to help us understand it better.
Now, the writer of Hebrews begins this chapter of Hebrews 11 with a definition of what faith is. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Don’t you think that it is an interesting definition? Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The NLT of the Bible says that faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.
What is that you hope for? What is it that you want more than anything else? Now sometimes it is easy to confuse what we want with what we hope for. The example that the writer of Hebrews alludes to is the faith that Abraham had. Genesis 12 records the call of Abraham when he left the land of Ur and went to the place that God would show him. As a part of this call, Abraham was promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.
In Romans 4, Paul writes that Abraham “hoping against hope, he believed that he would become the father of many nations.” “Hoping against hope,” don’t you think that is an interesting phrase? Abraham was around 80 years old when he was called by God. Sarah, his wife was barren, so there wasn’t much hope for carrying on the family name. But, when God called him, when God said go, he went. He believed the promises of God. Can you imagine? Being 80 and being given a promise that you would have descendants and then, everyday, wondering, waiting. It took almost 20 years for the promise to come. Would you have that much faith? Would you have that much hope? Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Abraham had the assurance that what he hoped for would come true. Not because of who he was or because he could control anything, but because he believed in the one who made the promise.
But look at the second part of the definition in Hebrews 11. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. That is pretty easy to understand. You believe in something that you cannot see. We believe in God even though we cannot see him. But yet we are always looking for ways to prove that God exists. Wanting to know for sure that he can be trusted, even though the Bible tells us that this is a part of who God is. Look at how he created the earth. In Romans 4:17 Paul writes that God created what is seen out of what is unseen just by his spoken word. But we don’t have to take his word for granted, we can actually read the creation account in Genesis where we see that God said, “let there be light” and there was light. And then God proceeds to create this world just by speaking. Just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean the unseen things are not there.
You and I have forgotten that faith is a gift from God. We cannot manage it or come up with a strategy for how to use it or even get more of it. You and I have to believe that the unseen is real and be willing to trust that. It is the same struggle that Nicodemus has in John chapter 3 when he asks Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?” Jesus replies that he must be born again. Nicodemus wants Jesus to explain it to him in greater detail so that he can then believe it. But Jesus tells him that if you don’t believe what you can see, how will you believe the things you can’t see?
Thomas didn’t believe the disciples when they told him Jesus was risen. Now before we get too far-gone, let us remember that the disciples did not believe until they saw him. None were counting down the days until Sunday saying, “Just wait till Sunday.” So let’s not judge Thomas too harshly when he comes into the room and they say, “we’ve seen the Lord” and Thomas replies, “Until I can put my fingers into holes in his hand and put my hand in his side, I will not believe it.” After all, seeing is believing.
You and I are not different from these. We put our faith in the evidence and not in Jesus. God’s promises are true whether you and I choose to believe them or not. Let me say that again. God’s promises are true whether you and I choose to believe them or not. The fact that we don’t get it or that we don’t feel it doesn’t mean it is not real. We believe that baptism is an act of initiation. It is God welcoming us, reaching out to us, showing his love for us. When we baptize infants, we tell them that. I bet you wonder sometimes what I say when I am walking an infant down the aisle. I am telling him/her that you are not part this family and that these people love you and will help you as you grow up. Now, do you think that that infant knows and understands what I am saying? No. That baby is just making faces at you because you are smiling at him. But even though he doesn’t get it, even though he doesn’t understand what I am telling him, it doesn’t negate the facts. It is still the truth.
This would be a lot easier to do, if I could just give you a list of five things that you could do this week to live by faith. But that is not how faith works because it is a relationship we must learn how to live in that relationship. To recognize that God is in us and for us and is totally committed to us. You and I must participate with him and recognize his presence in us. We must live with him and for him everyday. You and I need stop putting limitations on God. We need to believe that the impossible can become possible, but we can only do this as we daily recognize the presence of Jesus in our lives. We need to live by faith and recognize it as a gift. We need to begin to hope against hope because only then are we living by faith.
In Matthew17:20 if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will be done.
Now faith is assurance of things hope for, the conviction of things not seen.