The certainty of faith

Sermon for Midweek of Epiphany 3

Hebrews 11:1-16

We were shown two shining examples of faith in Sunday’s Gospel of the healing of the leper and of the centurion’s servant. Do you remember the qualities of their faith that we highlighted? Humble, bold, matter-of-fact trust in Jesus’ goodness and in His authority over human bodies. The centurion’s faith seemed to have come out of nowhere, and yet it was so great that Jesus praised it. This evening we continue that focus on faith with the “faith chapter” of the Bible, Hebrews 11, where the author gives us a working definition of faith, as well as a litany of believers in the Old Testament who exhibited such faith.

What is faith? Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Now, that definition works for any kind of faith. You can be assured in your heart that your team is going to win the Super Bowl, because that’s what you hope for, and you hope for it so strongly that you’re convinced it’s going to happen. It has to happen! That’s a kind of faith. But no matter how sure you are, you may still be wrong. You may be assured that a person you trust in will keep his or her promise to you. And you may be right! But you may also be wrong.

Biblical faith, on the other hand, can never be wrong, because it’s always based on a word or promise of God, who can never fail, who can never change, and who can never lie. You heard such a word and promise of God in the first lesson this evening from Jeremiah 33, where God promised the people of Jerusalem, who were already being besieged by the Babylonians and who had already seen their city destroyed, that He would heal their land, rebuild it and restore it, and forgive them for their sins against Him. There wasn’t a single outward indication that such a thing could ever happen, as the Babylonians prepared to haul them off into captivity. But God promised it, and so faith had something to cling to.

Hebrews 11 gives us many examples of faith, this assurance of things hoped for, this conviction of things not seen—not seen, but spoken by God, either as something that He had already done when they weren’t there to see it, or, in most cases, as something He would do, although they did not yet see it.

Take the creation of the world, for example. No human being was there to see it. Even Adam and Eve could only take God’s word for how they and the world got there. 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 we believe the words of the Psalm we sang earlier this evening: By the Word of the LORD the heavens were made; and all the host of them by the Spirit of his mouth. Unbelievers have come up with their own explanation of the origin of the universe, and they, too, have to take it by faith, because they weren’t there to see it. But when the question is whether to believe the fallible science of fallible men or the infallible word of the infallible God, faith will always take the side of God and His Word.

God’s word had proved reliable to Adam and Eve, and so Abel, although He didn’t interact directly with God as his parents had before the fall into sin, gladly and willingly offered to God, by faith, a better sacrifice than his brother Cain offered, trusting not only in the fact that God existed, but that God was good and worthy of his worship, whereas Cain lacked such faith. And through his faith, though he died, Abel still speaks. In other words, the example of Abel urges us to trust in God, as he did, and urges us to believe that even if we lose our life on this earth as he did, God is still worth trusting in, because He has something even in greater in store for us after we die.

Then we’re given the example of Enoch, the 7^th generation from Adam. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. How do we know that faith had anything to do with it? The next verses are important: 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. In other words, faith holds that God is good, that God is merciful, and that God is worthy of our worship. Abel’s faith teaches us that God is worthy of our worship, even if we die for it. While Enoch’s faith teaches us that, for those who believe in God, there is a way to escape death.

Noah comes next. 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. God told Noah that a cataclysmic flood was coming. There were no outward signs of it, not even rain clouds gathering in the sky. But because God said it, Noah believed it and acted on it and was considered righteous by God, not because he was sinless, but because he believed in God’s promise to save him and his family.

Abraham’s faith is our next example. God told him to move his whole family to an unknown, unseen land, where God promised to bless him and take care of him. Isn’t it remarkable that Abraham simply took God at His word and did it? How could he do that? How could he willingly become a foreigner in the land of the Canaanites, giving up his permanent residence for a life of moving his tent from here to there, for the rest of his life, living in a land that would never be his? As it says, He was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith he looked beyond this world, beyond this life, to the permanent life with God in heaven. Now, there is zero evidence for such a place, for such a life. But faith itself serves as the evidence, concluding that, because God has promised it, it must be true.

Sarah is the final example given in the verses before us. 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. It wasn’t faith that gave Sarah the ability to conceive in her old age and sterility. It was faith in God’s promise that connected her to God’s ability to carry out His promise.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but, having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They desired a better country, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

These examples of faith are recorded for us in Holy Scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the book of Hebrews, to show us what true faith looks like, how it behaves, and how it enables a person to do remarkable things, even things that defy human reason, not because of how wonderful faith is, but because of how reliable and dependable God’s word and promises are.

So when God says that Jesus truly took your sins to the cross, died for them, and rose again, even though you weren’t there, even though you won’t find any scientific evidence to prove it, you should believe it. And when God says that the waters of Baptism washed you clean of sin in His sight and made you His beloved child, you should believe it, even though it appears to be just water. When Jesus says that bread and wine are His body and blood, you should simply believe that, too. And when He says that He reigns over all things for your good, that your loved ones who died in the faith are alive with Him, and that you will be, too, after you die, accept it by faith, not because you can prove it, or because you can see it, but because God says so. Seek God with that kind of faith—the faith of the leper, of the centurion, of the Old Testament saints, and, for that matter, which is the faith of a little child—and one day, in the next life, in the city that God is preparing for you, you will see with your eyes that your faith in God’s word was never in vain. Amen.