The Weekend Word

Hebrews 10:36 – 11:3

Chapter 11 has been called The Fathers of the Faith – The Heroes of the Faith – The Faith Hall of Fame

Tell me some stories of people in your life who were people of great faith

What is faith? – One thing we will find out – and where many make a mistake, is that this chapter does not define faith – it describes faith. It is saying “this is what faith looks like.”

What is faith? Is it just wishful thinking?

You may have heard this story before –

• The Great Bandini comes to Niagara Falls and strings his tightrope over the falls.
• He starts walking back and forth with his balance bar.
• People begin to take notice – now the people have knowledge – “this guy is a tightrope walker.”
• He then does it blind folded – then blind folded without his balance bar.
• The people begin to cheer and applaud – we now have people who have both knowledge and acceptance.
• They now accept the Great Bandini as the world’s greatest tightrope walker.
• Now he grabs a wheelbarrow – and walks back and forth – the people go wild!
• Then the Great Bandini says – I will now walk across pushing the wheelbarrow with a person inside.
• How many here BELIEVE I can do this?? The whole crowd erupts with great applause.
• The Great Bandini then says “Which of you will be the one to get in the wheelbarrow???
• The one who gets in the wheel barrow is the one who has faith – the one who BELIEVES.

You could actually run the beginning of this chapter back to 10 ³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

And let it flow into 12:1 – Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

The word for endurance is the same.

³⁵ Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

• Confidence itself is the reward.
• We are always looking to the promise.

³⁷ For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;

³⁸ but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

• His pastor’s heart is showing as his concern flows out..

³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

• Great locker room pep talk.

Hebrews 11

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

• We have covered most of this above
• I found this version to be a little odd
• NCV (New Century Version) = Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it. ???

² For by it the people of old received their commendation.

• Commendation – rewards?? We could do a whole study on rewards.
• The saints of old had to take it on faith. But this is the Saving Faith of the OT Saints.
• What was their faith in? Where is their saving Jesus?
• Genesis 3:15 – This is called the protoevangelium — the first annunciation of the gospel
• “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

³ By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

• This is scientifically true – The universe was created out of nothing.
• The Big Bang theory sounds good to me – God is the Big Banger
• When he spoke everything into existence it would have been like a big explosion of unimaginable power.
• This would also explain the expanding universe.
• God created time, space and matter – Read Genesis 1 –
• “In the beginning (time) God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter).”
• People fight over religion vs science … and both sides handle it poorly.
• Did people think the world was flat? Yes – but that is not in the Bible
• The Greeks had a fairly close estimate of the circumference of the earth.
• Did God take 6 days to create? This is the official LCMS position.
• Why would God need even 6 days?
• This really becomes a distracting point, and is always used to diminish Christ.
• No one in the NT thought of Genesis 1 as a metaphor
• But I think our young people need preparation in this area.
• So many go off to college and have their faith challenged right at this point.

What are we to learn from these people? Is it ‘How to do Good Works’?

Is it ‘how to be obedient’? Is it ‘how to be strong in the faith’?

 Which do we usually think first? Seeing is believing or believing is seeing?

God says believe and you will see or do we go with show me Thomas?

 Whenever you think you know the way man should go – many times you will find God’s way is the opposite.