The Weekend Word
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.
In God’s economy, “faith” certainly plays an important role. Obviously, Christ and his work are paramount, but then there’s faith. Great article MLD.
Jean, I think what we will see starting next time is that the upcoming ‘heroes of the faith’ were all just normal folks, with normal life issues who had no ‘personal’ faith that warranted anything on their part – but their faith came directly from the faithful one.
When God comes a callin, how much wrestling do we do before the old man taps out?
examples of faith in action… hmmm
then we have Lot’s wife… was that beyond faith or 2nd thoughts – regret?
and we have the Exodus population… no faith – regrets?
when does questioning as a Thomas progress to a condemning no faith?
well, i am a person of little faith… quit watching Seahawk game early on…
but i have thought on MLD’s question as the day has gone on… i have to confess that i don’t recall anyone of GREAT faith in my past…
perhaps my dear grandfather, but he was so influenced by the Holiness movement of his time and place… on the other hand, he was totally sold out to following Christ as his truth and reality – no matter what transpired he blamed his own performance, never questioned God’s love or sovereignty… i know that God honored his son Edward and welcomed him as a good and faithful servant when he passed into Eternity – Edward was a good, God loving-without-pretense man … that’s some kind of faith – stubborn and myopic? maybe, but never, NEVER self righteous
OK, I finally got home. I ushered and help serve communion for the 1st & 3rd services – taught my class that runs concurrent to the 2nd service and then presided over the quarterly congregation meeting for 2 hours.
I am hoping that in the revised edition of Hebrews 11, that I will be included in the list of the faithful —- does it work that way??
Wow, MLD, all I did was make a platter of tuna sandwiches!
“I am hoping that in the revised edition of Hebrews 11, that I will be included in the list of the faithful —- does it work that way??” it did until you bragged on it 🙂 🙂
i jest – God needs more of your tribe – of that i’m pretty certain
can’t have too many tuna sandwiches, either, i don’t think 🙂
all i did was pray for the pastors, the teachers, the helpers and ask God to forgive me for being so perfunctory about my prayers today
hmmm… i mentioned that i thought that my grandfather was stubborn and myopic… now i’m thinking that that is great Faith – focused and unwavering
not a good thing if the object of your faith is false, however…
thinking… thinking…
I listened to a teaching this morning by a great preacher who challenged pastors to preach the Gospel without ever mentioning the word “faith” because it is the Gospel that creates what it requires. Preach Christ and the Spirit will do his work.
Norman Nagel at the St Louis seminary used to say – use the word Jesus instead of faith.
#10 – i absolutely agree with that preacher, Jean
it’s all about Christ, everything else in the Book is just pertinent data