A Faith that Pleases God
As we continue our study of Hebrews, we come to chapter 11 which is a fascinating chapter, not just because of its list of faithful people, but it also is an entire chapter that serves to illustrate the point made in 10:39 and one that will be repeated in chapter 12.
Hebrews reminds us that we are not like those who shrink back in faith. Cowardice is not a Christian virtue. It takes bravery and grit to pursue holiness.
Faith from the Beginning | Hebrews 11:1-7
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. 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.
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Hebrews 11:1-7
Every once in a while I hear or read people who attempt to separate the Old and New Testaments as though they are two very different things. Of course, there are the heresies as old as the first and second century in which it was believed the God of the Old Testament was different than the God of the New Testament. Sometimes this old false belief pops up even in our day. But within Christian circles, the question has to do with how people are saved. How can the Old Testament people be saved if Jesus hadn’t come yet? The answer is faith.
Salvation and pleasing God has always been a matter of faith.
The people of old “received their commendation” through faith. Before Christ, the faithful believed God would provide the means of salvation. After Christ, we believe God has provided the means of salvation. In either case, the saving factor is faith. This entire chapter unites the people of the old faith with those of the new faith.
The list of faithful begins with the foundation of all theology. By faith we understand the universe exists because the word of God spoke it into existence. We cannot go any further in faith if we don’t first accept the reality that God exists, and that He exists apart from, and above all, Creation.
I once heard a pastor say, “Once we accept Genesis 1:1 as Truth, then the rest of the Bible makes perfect sense.”
How can these stories be true?
How could the world flood?
How could the sun stop?
How could a single family develop into a nation that has lasted for thousands of years?
How could walls fall from walking and shouting?
How could the sick be healed?
How could the dead be raised?
How could the Divine exist in a human?
How can all the world be raised to life or judgement?
It can be because “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
The next set of verses remind us of the stories of the faithful before the Flood. Inherent in this series is a reminder of coming judgement. Abel offers the acceptable sacrifice. Enoch walks with God so faithfully he does not see death. And Noah saves his household by building the ark. Verse 6 gives the key idea: whoever would draw near to God must believe He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
It is worth noting that each of these characters “please God through faith” before any notion of the Law or Messiah is recorded. We don’t know what “church” or “worship” looked like in the days before the Flood outside of the description “they had faith and brought a sacrifice.” As we consider what this means for us today, it is worth us to consider how we define ‘walking faithfully with God’.
Is it tied to our service to Him?
Is it tied to our church attendance?
Is it tied to our giving?
These are all good things, but they aren’t necessarily acts of faith. Look again at verse 6. The reward is in seeking God. It is not in ritual sacrifice but in seeking to know the Lord. Jesus warns in Matthew 7:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23
A faith that pleases God is a faith that seeks to know the Lord and experience life with Him.
And this type of faith does have evidence of good works, but it goes deeper than just ‘doing the right thing.’ Let’s continue reading.
A New Family of Faith | Hebrews 11:8-12
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
Hebrews 11:8-12
Abraham’s faith that pleased God sends him away from home and into a new land that would be his family’s inheritance. This land would eventually be a kingdom, but not his kingdom. The nation that would come from his family would come centuries after his death.
But notice the emphasis isn’t on what Abraham achieved (or rather what God achieved through Abraham), but rather on the fact that Abraham should not have born any children. Sarah was barren. She was beyond her childbearing years when God fulfilled His promise to give Abraham children. That is why Hebrews says he was “as good as dead.”
Abraham’s story proves it is never too late to begin a legacy of faith for your family.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would not see the great city of Jerusalem on this side of heaven, but they continued in faith walking with God. Yes, they were very flawed men. Genesis reads much like a Soap Opera with the amount of vice and drama, but God still used these very flawed men to bring about the salvation of the world.
Faith in a Land that is to Come | Hebrews 11:13-16
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Hebrews 11:13-16
Here, Hebrews reminds us the historical and physical realities of the Old Testament have spiritual and heavenly applications and meanings.
The Promised Land was a typology of the heavenly promise God gives to those who trust in Him.
The characters leading up to Abraham would not see the Promised Land of Israel, but they knew what they really sought was the Promised Land of Heaven. This promise extends into the New Testament era as we seek the Return of the Lord and the new heaven and new earth.
Pleasing faith in God understands God exists, seeks to know God, and knows there is a better land waiting for those who trust in God. And this promise of a better land informs how we conduct our lives here on earth. We seek to bring value to the world, to bring love to the world, and to know God’s will for this world, but we also don’t hold on to anything too tight knowing this world is passing away.
A New Nation of Faith | Hebrews 11:17-31
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
Hebrews 11:17-31
Hebrews continues the story of Israel, but let’s take a closer look. What is the ongoing theme throughout these verses?
We see the pattern of new life emerging from death. Isaac was declared the sacrifice and was bound for death. But God intervened offering a substitute.
While Joseph faced his own death, he gave directions for his body. Those directions were for his descendants to take his body into the Promised Land when God would send them out of Egypt—400 years before God fulfills this promise.
Moses was among the Israelite boys that were to be slain. But his mother hid him away saving his life. Moses would then die to self, denying the treasure of Egypt for the sake of Christ.
Wait! How can Moses follow the cause of Christ when Christ had not come? Because suffering for the sake of Christ is an act of faith. Hebrews has said it multiple times throughout the book, but here he uses Moses as an example of a faith that suffers.
A faith that pleases God endures the suffering that comes from following Jesus.
There is life on the other side of death.
The Israelites kept the Passover in faith—again, life protected in the face of death.
And last, we see Rahab who is saved from death because she welcomed the spies and protected them from the king. The pagan prostitute who had no claim and no inheritance in God’s Kingdom gained an inheritance and is counted among the faithful because she stepped out in faith.
She was willing to give up all of her former life—she died to self—because she knew salvation was waiting for her in the new land and new life.
Innumerable Examples of Faith | Hebrews 11:32-39
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Hebrews 11:32-39
There are so many more examples that Hebrews does not have enough parchment to record. And beyond the Old Testament, we could look at the heroes of faith in the New Testament who endured the same persecution and struggles. We could look at the heroes of faith in Church History—even those heroes who are not recorded in any history book. They are simply those who lived faithfully enduring all manner of hardships for the sake of Christ. And though we may not know their names, we the Lord who has recorded their names in the Book of Life, and that is the only book that really matters.
These heroes of faith may not have received their inheritance in this life, they certainly received it in the next. God has provided something even better for us.
Their faith would not make them perfect (or whole) until after their death. Because of the blood of Christ, we are being perfected now. They had to wait to enter into communion with the Spirit of God until they died and faced the Lord. We can commune with the Divine now because the Holy Spirit resides within us.
Now, before we close, let’s take one more look at that last verse. It says, “that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” Sometimes when we read ‘perfect’ we tend to think “morally perfect,” but that’s not actually the typical meaning in the New Testament. ‘Perfect’ is teleioo which has to do with ‘complete’ or ‘fulfilled’. The faith of the Old Testament characters is made perfect by their impact on future generations. They paved the way for the Messiah who completed the work of making a way for us into the true Promised Land.
What is the reward for all these people suffering and facing lions, swords, enemy armies, and all the other things? For some, they would see the dead returned to them. For some, they would see freedom from foreign oppressors.
But they would all still face death. It would not be until the fullness of their work is completed through Jesus Christ that the impact of their lives would be felt.
Their lives are made perfect by the legacy of faith that produces and encourages faithful people. We can face our trials knowing that we have a cloud of witnesses who have faced similar—if not worse. The very next verse reinforces the point. Because we are surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses, we too can lay aside every weight and sin and run with endurance the race before us. But before we get there next week, let’s consider this idea of “perfection through legacy.”
A faith that pleases God produces a legacy of faith in future generations.
We may see some reward in this life, but the lasting legacy we leave will not be known until the ripple of our life spreads through time. One of my favorite movie lines comes from Gladiator. Maximus, as he stands ready to send his army into battle, tells them, “What we do in life echoes into eternity.”
We have a habit in 21st century American Christianity to see faith as only a personal matter.
“Will I get to heaven?”
“I believe such and such.”
“I hope the service Sunday speaks to me.”
Look again at this list of heroes of faith. How many of these were serving themselves? How many looked to the Lord to build them up?
None.
Faithful heroes seek the betterment and salvation of those who follow.
A faith that pleases God is a faith that seeks to lift up others and point them to saving faith in Jesus.