By Faith
I wanted to start today with a little demonstration. I have asked these brave volunteers to help me demonstrate to you the act of faith.
2 Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk by faith, not by sight. Walking by faith means that, even though we are unable to see what the future holds, we trust the One who knows the future, sees the path that we are to follow, and can safely guide us down that path.
Today we begin a 3-month journey through Hebrews chapter 11. We will learn the stories of men and women that had faith in God. We will also learn about your stories. The word story comes from the Latin historia, which means history. Today many people think of Bible stories as fictional or fairy tales. These stories that we will learn are part of a real history recorded by various men inspired by God to write them down in what we call the Bible.
As we begin this study, it is important that we understand a few things about the book of Hebrews. Nobody knows for certain who wrote the book. Some have suggested Paul. In fact, the original King James Version of the Bible listed Hebrews as an epistle of Paul. Most theologians
have shown that there is no doubt that Paul did not write Hebrews.
There are some clues to who wrote Hebrews. Chapter 2:3 shows that the writer heard about Jesus from someone who had heard the Gospel directly from Jesus. The original readers of this letter knew who wrote it because in chapter 13 he asks the readers to pray that he could visit them and that he hoped Timothy would join him on the journey.
So, we don’t know who wrote the book. What about the audience? Who was this letter intended for? We don’t actually know that either. The intended audience was probably Jewish believers with a similar background to those Jews who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were not eyewitnesses to Jesus, but they had learned of him from those who were. Among locations suggested are Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome, with the latter being the best possibility.
Why did I just take the time to tell you in detail that we don’t know who wrote the book and that we don’t know who they wrote it for? Because I think it is important for us to understand that while there are some things we will never know or understand about the Bible, we can trust God and His Word.
1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.2 For our ancestors won God’s approval by it. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by God’s command, so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible. (Hebrews 11:1-3, HCSB)
Hope Comes from God
Eyesight produces a conviction about objects in the physical world. We understand certain things and believe certain things because we can see them. Faith produces the same convictions for the invisible. It produces an assurance that what we hope for will happen. [Anders]
The dictionary describes hope as a feeling or desire for something to happen. The Bible uses the word hope in a different way. Romans 15 says that our hope comes from God. Psalms 33 says that we put our hope in the Lord. If our hope comes from God and we put our hope in Him, then we have a certainty...not just a feeling or desire for something to happen. We can know that the God who gives us hope is able to do what He has said He will do. This is our hope.
Hebrews 11 is often called the Hall of Faith for God’s Chosen People. Verse 2 shows that these people we will read about won God’s favor. Many of these individuals were far from perfect people, but they won God’s favor because of their faith in God. Verse 3 shows that by faith, they believed that God was the creator of the universe.
Believing that God created the world involves a leap of faith. Faith points to an unseen power who made the world we see. By faith we know that all we see around us and all that takes place on earth came from one we cannot see. [Anders] Satan has and continues to do everything he can to shake our faith... starting with attacking our core beliefs in God as creator.
Science tells us that the universe and everything we see and know came about as a random act. Everything there is came from some small amount of matter and that the universe progressed along a wildly unpredictable, yet incredible path until life sprang forth from some ooze and over millions of years evolved into the intelligent life form that we call humans. With all of the scientific data that they have used to explain the universe, science has yet been able to answer one simple question: where did that original matter come from?
Creation Points to God
God’s Word teaches that the universe was created by God. Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” It was created ex nihilo, meaning out of nothing. Science cannot answer where the original matter came from because God created it. In John 1, we read, “All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.”
One day a group of scientists having discovered the ability to clone humans said that we no longer had a need for God because now they knew how to create life. God said, “I created man out of dirt. Let’s have a little competition to see if you can create life the same way.” The scientists agreed and bent down to scoop up some dirt. God said, “No, no, no. Go get your own dirt. I made that.”
The actual details of creation are something that theologians continually argue. Some say that you must believe in the 6 literal days of creation. Some say that the number of days is not important as long as you believe that God created. Some claim the world to be around 6000 years old. Others claim the earth is billions of years old. Some say that God created every new creature from scratch. Some say that God created new creatures through the process that science calls evolution.
It could take billions of years just to explain the various theories and thoughts from among the Christian community concerning creation. Perhaps because of the uncertainty of how God created, science has been able to persuade many more people to believe their Big Bang theory and their theory of evolution. How does a Christian respond when a scientist says that they can carbon date items with a measure of certainty and that some items have been found to be millions of years old?
My response is that I trust God who says He created the world out of nothing. If God could create a man that had the ability to walk instantly on legs that had never walked before, using muscles that had never been used before, with the appearance inside and out of a man rather than that of a newborn baby, then why is it so hard to believe that God can create a universe that has the appearance inside and out of one that is far older than it actually is?
Believing that an unseen power, God, created the universe out of nothing is an act of faith, and, I believe, is one of the primary steps of faith that we as followers of God must accept. If we cannot trust God’s Word when it says that God created everything out of nothing and that there is nothing that exists that God did not create, then how can we trust God when He says that He sent His Son to die for us? How can we trust Jesus when He said that He has gone to prepare a place for us? Faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. God’s people lived by faith.
What’s Your Story?
That is their story. What’s your story? Beginning tonight, we are going to learn how to share our story. A story that should point others to God’s story.
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