Exploring My Strange Bible - Book of Hebrews Part 7 - What is Faith?

Episode Date: January 15, 2018

In this teaching we camp out in chapter 11, which is a re-telling of the first 3/4 of the Bible. It highlights all of the characters who had moment of bold and courageous fate. It is one of the few chapters that specifically has the issue of fate and trust at it’s main theme. We let the pastor of this letter define what biblical faith is, and what it means to have that kind of trust and faith in Jesus. Tune in to learn more…

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right. Well, in this episode, we're coming near the end of the series exploring the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. In this teaching, which I did a number of years ago when I was a pastor at Door of Hope Church.

And we're going to camp out on one of the most well-known chapters from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11. It's a retelling of the first three quarters of your Bible, the Old Testament story. It's a retelling of the first three quarters of your Bible, the Old Testament story, highlighting all of the key characters who had moments of bold and courageous faith. It's often called the faith chapter. And it's one of the few chapters that explicitly has as its main theme the issue of faith and trust in God. Obviously, faith has entered into modern English, at least, and in the modern West as this kind of big umbrella category to describe religious faith in general, just faith. Do you have some kind of faith or do you have faith? There's so many

deep misunderstandings and distorted ways of thinking about what the word faith means and what it means to have faith. And so we're just going to let the author, this pastor of this letter define what biblical faith is, what Jewish Christian faith is in the storyline of the Bible, and then what it means to have that kind of trust and faith in Jesus the Messiah who lived and died and was raised for us. And so there you go. I learned a ton in prepping for this teaching, and I hope you learn a ton too. So let's open up Hebrews 11 and learn together. We're continuing on in our series in the book of Hebrews, and it's going to go for a couple more

weeks right up to the beginning of the Fellowship of, and it's going to go for a couple more weeks right up to the beginning of the Fellowship of the Burning Heart series. And you recall a couple weeks ago, I liken the book of Hebrews to a great door, a huge door that swings on a hinge. And so in chapters 1 through 10, if you've been following this summer through the series with us, chapters 1 through 10, the preacher, the pastor of this house church to which he writes this written sermon, he's been exploring the identity and the character and the purpose of Christ, his deity and his humanity, and the meaning of his death on the cross for the sins of the world and how he conquered death in his resurrection. He's been exploring how Christ is a

priest for all humanity. He stands in to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves as compromised human beings. And so 10 chapters, just going, exploring every angle you can possibly imagine. And so we came just two weeks ago or something to the hinge of the book at the end of chapter 10. And the pastor, the preacher, he kind of gets in our face and he says, if this is in fact who Jesus is and what he's done, how are you going to respond? And the door swings on its hinge now to the final chapters, chapters 11 and 12 and 13. And the preacher is going to challenge us to respond. What are you going to do? What's an appropriate response to this reality of Jesus, the divine and human priest who has offered his life to us in self-giving love

for our forgiveness and for the remaking of our hearts and our minds to make us into new kinds of humans? How should we respond? And so we watch the door swing on the hinge at the end of chapter 10, last time we were in Hebrews. Why don't you turn there with me? Hebrews chapter 10, if you're not there already. Many of you are. We're going to just pick up kind of where we left off last time. Chapter 10, verse 35. He says,

Therefore, don't throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you're going to need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you can receive what is promised. For, and then he quotes two ancient Hebrew prophets here, the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Habakkuk. He says, yet a little while, and coming one will come and will not delay, but my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. And then the pastor comes along and he says, but we are not of those who shrink back and

shrink back and are destroyed. We're rather of those who have faith and preserve their souls or preserve their lives. So look at what he's doing here. He's making this challenge here. Jesus has accomplished what he's accomplished. He's mapped that out in chapters one through 10. And he gives this future hope. If Jesus, who he says he is,

he's not just done something in the past, he's going to do something in the future. And what does he say here in verse 37? He says, the coming one will come and he will not delay. What's the pastor, what's the preacher referring to here? He's referring to the return of Jesus. The whole chapters one through 10 is talking about the past accomplishment of Jesus. Now he moves to the future return of Jesus. And he says, now here we are in the present. We await Jesus' return where he comes to remake and renew all things. We look back to his accomplishment on the cross and resurrection.

We look forward to his return. And what is to mark the lives of God's people in this in-between time, after the cross and resurrection, before his return, what's to mark our lives, our hearts and our minds? What does he say? My righteous one will live by faith. It's faith. So here we go.

Whatever faith means in the book of Hebrews. Today we're exploring the great faith chapter, Hebrews chapter 11. Whatever faith means, and I find faith is one of these religious words that we use a lot or throw around or whatever, and it gets used so often we just don't stop to think what it means anymore. We actually don't really know what it means. It's kind of a murky concept for many of us, and we're just going to move right towards it here tonight. But whatever faith is, whatever Christian faith is, whatever you think

faith is, it's not just like some belief in some abstract religious ideas. Christian faith, especially faith in the book of Hebrews, is about life in this in-between time, after the cross and resurrection, before Jesus' return. It's faith in God's promises. He's accomplished his purposes. He's going to be faithful to bring them to completion. We live by faith in the meantime, in the present. Welcome to Hebrews chapter 11, which is all about faith. Now, Hebrews chapter 11 is the longest chapter in the book, and we're not going to work through it kind of verse by verse or even almost section by section because we just don't have the time, and I're not going to work through it kind of verse by verse or even almost section by section because we just don't have the time, and I'm not sure that'd be the most helpful thing

for us. What we're actually going to do, I'm going to focus in on a few themes in Hebrews chapter 11, but I thought we should do first and foremost is at least hear the whole thing together. Because they're very powerful, the repetition, the way the preacher has organized. This is a retelling of the whole story of the Old Testament through the lens of this characteristic of faith. And so I've invited someone to read the whole chapter for us. Here we go right now before we dive in. So I'm going to invite Ashley up here. Hey, Ashley. Hey.

And here's, if you want to read along, it's great. If you want to just listen. But this is a very powerful chapter. And it's going to set up everything that we're going to do with the rest of our time here together. So let's hear the word of the Lord together. Hebrews chapter 11. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith, Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith, Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of those same promise.

tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of those same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And by faith, even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children, because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they're looking for a country of their own.

If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so, in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's son and worshipped as he leaned on top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when the end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. By faith, Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger. He persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood

so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched round them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak,

Samson, and the Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised, Who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of flames, and escaped the edge of the sword. Whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released, so that they might gain an even better resurrection.

Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning. They were sawed in two. They were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us they would be made perfect.

It's powerful, yeah? It's very powerful. There are a million cool things we could focus on. How about three? Yeah, because it's hot and we don't have all night. This definition of faith, again, faith, I think for many of us, it's kind of a murky concept, but whatever it is, the preacher in Hebrews, he thinks it's core. It's core characteristic of what it means to be a follower of Jesus in this in-between time. And it's

characterized the life of God's people throughout all of its history. It's faith. It's faith. Now, I don't know, when you hear the English word faith, we have a number of words in English. We have faith. We have belief. We have trust.. We have faith, we have belief, we have trust, and I think in English most of these words, faith or belief, we primarily tend to think of like a mental activity. Something happens in your head. Yes? Is that primarily what these words mean in English? I think you believe something. It's referring to something that you think. Does Hebrews 11 describe a group of people who are sitting around thinking? No. No, it's describing how God's people live and make choices, terribly difficult choices, when they're in dire

straits and in distress. So faith is linked to endurance. It's also linked to hope. And so what I want to do is, particularly I want to dwell on the definition of faith that the author, the preacher begins with in verse one, and then also kind of explore the implications of that by highlighting a few things in the chapter, namely that faith is about experiencing the reality, getting a taste of the thing that we hope for in the future because of God's promises. And faith, contrary to popular belief, faith is not the rejection of thinking and reason. As we're going to see, the preacher in Hebrews thinks that faith begins by engaging our minds in reason and thinking, but it does not end there. Biblical

faith begins with our minds, but it ends, it results in commitment, radical action in response to what God has done. Let's dive in here. Verse 1, and we'll unpack this here. It'll kind of open up the whole of the chapter. I have the English Standard Version translation, and you'll see why that's important in just a second. So my translation reads, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the convictions of things not seen. Many of us in the room are going, yeah, that's kind of roughly what my translation has. Some of you have something similar to this. You'll kind of see a slide up here.

There's a number of translations that read something similar. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's the confidence of things hoped for. It's the conviction of things not seen. And so we walk away. Many of us have this in our translation. We're like, okay, faith is about something. It's about this inner disposition inside of me. It's about an inner state. It's about a feeling, something, a mindset I get myself into. I'm mustering up confidence. I'm mustering up conviction. God said he's going to do what he's going to do. And so my faithful response to that is to believe it and to find ways to make myself

believe it and so on. It's about an inner response and so on. Are you tracking with me? Is that kind of what you walk away with by reading that sentence? Nodding heads would be great. Okay, yeah, okay. So now there's a whole bunch of us in the room who have something kind of different than this. If you have any form of the King us in the room who have something kind of different than this. If you have any form of the King James translation, or if you have any of what are called the contemporary English versions of the Bible, you have something that looks like this. This would be option number two here.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, or faith is the reality of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In other words, here faith is not this inner feeling that you have or a mindset you get yourself into. Faith is an experience. And when you have this faith experience, you actually begin to taste the reality, not the full thing, but like a foretaste of what it is you're hoping for.

Do you see? That's kind of what that means there. Nodding of heads? Yes. Okay. Are those two different? Yeah. Yeah, they're totally different. How do you feel about this? So yeah, so welcome to the wonderful, exciting world of Bible translation and interpretation. And so this is one of those passages, I hate to get like Greek geek on us, you know, I try not to do it that often, but this is one of the passages where it actually really matters. And this shouldn't surprise us, you know, the scriptures are a divine word, but they're also a human word. And so whenever we're opening the Bible, this is hard for us to remember because we encounter it in English, but we're crossing a cultural boundary line. It's like we're getting on a plane and flying to another country when we open up the Bible. And it's another time, another place,

another language, another culture. And so sometimes the biblical authors use words or ideas that are hard to translate into other languages, or they use words that are sometimes kind of hard to discern what exactly the meaning is. It could go two ways and so on. And so what you have by looking right there is that the author uses a couple Greek words here that there's basically two views on what their meaning is. So do you want to get all Greek geek? Come on, do you want to hear the words? Yeah, come on. You'll see them up top here. Faith is the, you want to pronounce the first one? It's the hypostasis of what is hoped for. It's the elenchos of things not seen. And I worked through every commentary I could get my hands on. And it seems to the majority, I think the best arguments,

lie in interpretation and translation number two. So this is okay. This shouldn't scandalize you in any way. This is why I encourage people to read multiple translations or to change up the translation that you read because translation is hard work. And these scholars are doing the best that they can. But when these things are highlighted for you in different translations,

it should clue you in like, oh, I need to engage my mind. Maybe go pick up a commentary. Maybe go talk to somebody about this, try and figure out what the difference is. So I'm going to go with option two because I think it's the right one. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. I thought I could be. But I think option two captures the heart of what the author of Hebrews wants to say.

In other words, yes, faith is a mindset. It is something going on inside of you that you consider God faithful, and it's about this assurance, an experience that you have. But the author of Hebrews wants to say something more than that, I think something much more profound, that faith opens up for us an experience to participate and taste the thing that you hope for. So it's not that you just kind of like talk yourself up, I believe it, I believe it, I believe it, but actually you come to experience the evidence of it in the act of faith. That may seem very abstract here, so let me kind of illustrate here. What does this mean, to taste the thing that you're hoping for, to experience the substance or the reality?

So I'm going to probably keep telling stories about this for a long while, so you just have to suffer me. So I moved here four months ago from what great state in the Union? Wisconsin. All right. So I was very happy to come home, back to Oregon again, for a number of different reasons. Weather is one of them. So many Portlandians are complaining about 100 degrees of weather. I'm just thrilled to death about this heat that we have. Because, first of all, the humidity is like, what? It's around like 70%. This is great, you guys.

This is great. So you go to the south, you go to the midwest, and it's 100 degrees plus like 95% humidity. Do you want to go outside on a day like that? And if you try the mosquitoes, we'll eat you alive too. So midwest summer is not necessarily a picnic. And these are the winters. Holy cow, you guys.

I'm so glad to escape the winters. And here's why. So I don't know. Some of you have lived in the Midwest. But a solid Wisconsin winter is about four, four and a half months of ice and snow and well below freezing temperatures. Who wants to go move there now, you know? So it's real, I really, really struggled with winters there. And I think just, I'm used to 40 degrees and rain, you know, that's winter to me.

And so what happens in Wisconsin winter is that the snow comes, and I captured a picture from you just from our front window from December 1st, a couple years ago. And this was the first snow. Snow comes in early December, late November. And that's basically what you're looking at until like the end of March or early April. Except it's not pretty, because it gets all dirty and nasty and hard like ice.

So when you fall, it actually hurts you. And all the green dies. No green, just brown and gray. And it's just a very hopeless landscape, whatever I call it. I called it Planet Hoth during my years there. So there you go. So here's what you're looking at. There you go.

Welcome to Wisconsin winter. And in the heart of winter, like January, February, you're lucky to get a day like 20 is a high in January for sure. I remember January is where it's just like single digits or well below zero just for the entire month. You never want to go outside because it hurts your skin. It hurts when you breathe in your nose. It hurts the membranes in there. It kind of hurts.

And so whatever. I was so, this is one thing I'm so happy about. You will, if you find me complaining about Oregon winter, slap me this winter, please. Because this is paradise. You know it's going to be green all winter long and anything. Okay, so here we go. So trust me me this winter. Please. Because this is paradise. You know it's going to be green all winter long and everything. Okay. So here we go. So trust me, this connects to Hebrews in a very significant way. So long, long winters, four and a half months of this. By the

time March comes along, March is kind of a wash because you'll get like a 45 degree day, which seems cold here. But in Wisconsin, after four and a half months of this, 45 degrees feels very balmy and very warm, actually. And so I'm not kidding you. In the mid to late March, upper 40s, kind of 47-degree day, people are like wearing short-sleeved T-shirts outside, and it's totally just breaking it out because we've been stuck inside all winter doing whatever Wisconsinians do all winter inside their houses. And so 45 degrees comes

and it's this great exodus of the summer wardrobe. And it's ridiculous because it's going to snow again. It always snows again in April and so on. But it's just we can't wait to break out. And we know the spring's coming because those 45 degrees days are there. And something else happened in March that finally connects us back around to Hebrews. And it's something that became very beautiful and symbolic to me. Those 45 degree

days in March produce something out of the ground. Little patches of snow will kind of recede. And my wife, Jessica, she planted one of the flowers, one of the first flowers to bloom come springtime. What is it? First flower. The crocus flower. The crocus flower. And here's what's great about the crocus flower. It's small.

It's tiny. It's beautiful. Purple, orange, yellow, or whatever. But it's going to snow again, even after the crocus flower kind of peeks its little heads out. But the snow can't stop it. It just peeks its head right up through the snow here. And so you end up with beautiful little postcard pictures like this, crocus flowers everywhere, peeking up through the snow.

And there's something about the 45-degree days, there's something about looking at the crocus flower that became symbolic for me because I knew that winter's passing. It's this tactile, colorful, beautiful reminder to me. The winter is not eternal, even though it feels like it after four and a half months, right? I can look at it. And it motivates me to put on a short-sleeved t-shirt and embrace these 45-degree days, because I know that spring and summer is coming. Do you see where this is going?

that spring and summer is coming. Do you see where this is going? Do you see where this is going? So when I put on a short-sleeved T-shirt on a 45-degree day in late March, early April in Wisconsin, what am I doing? I'm getting a little taste. I'm actually beginning to experience by faith

the thing that I will fully experience once summer comes. And if you think I'm crazy for wearing a short sleeve t-shirt on a 45 degree day, what can I point to? I can point to the crocus flower. It's the evidence of the fact that winter is receding, spring and summer, spring and summer, they're coming. It seems to me this is something of what the author of Hebrews is trying to get us at,

that faith, yes, it's a mindset, but it's actually an experience that you have when you obey and you follow Jesus in a way that makes no sense in light of your present surrounding. It only makes sense in light of the future. And when you act in faith the way that these people did, as we read the stories, their behavior makes no sense in light of their present circumstances. In fact, the acts of faith of many of these people end up getting what? Getting them killed and tortured and so on. But what they were doing, their eye was on the fact that spring and summer is coming. And they can point to something as evidence, as evidence,

that God will be faithful to bring about his promises. And what is the crocus flower in the story and the theology of the New Testament? What is the blooming of the flower that reminds us and points to what's to come? What is it? It's the death and the resurrection of Jesus. It's the sign that God has conquered death and is bringing new life. It's the foundation of our faith. And so faith is not just a mindset. As we're going to

see, we're going to dive in here. We're going to see some examples. It's actually acting in such a way that I participate in the substance and the reality of what I will fully come about in the future. Hi guys, are you guys tracking with me here? Okay, we'll see it played out here as we go. So with that on the plate, then I just want to focus on two things, two themes that the author highlights faith and kind of bring it around, because I think this is personally very challenging, is that faith, this kind of faith, Christian faith, it begins by engaging our minds. It is not a blind leap of faith into the dark. It is not a blind leap of faith into the dark.

It begins with thinking and reasoning, but it does not end there. It ends with radical commitment and action that shows I actually believe that God's going to do what he said he's going to do. Look at verse 11. There's a little statement about Sarah here that's very interesting. There's a little statement about Sarah here that's very interesting. The preacher says, By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age of childbearing, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

What is Sarah's act of faith, according to verse 11? Was it an action? Was it? It actually said something happened in her heart and in her mind. What did she do? It said she considered God faithful, that he would do what he had promised he was going to do, and that is her act of faith. So I guess Sarah's an exception to the rule. Many people are acting and doing this, winning battles and escaping the mouth of lions and so on by faith,

but Sarah exercises faith by thinking. So that's interesting, because I think many of us have this idea, and we've kind of bought into this idea from our culture, for sure, that religious faith is believing or accepting something when there is no evidence, or there is no reason, you know? And it's like, check your brain at the door if you want to have religious faith, right? That's precisely the opposite of what the preacher of Hebrews is saying. He's saying Sarah's act of faith was exercising her mind. And what's she doing here? She's considering God faithful. She's looking at the past.

She can say, okay, God called us into this crazy land to come live here and be nomads, and we don't own any property here, and we don't know anybody or have any neighbors or relatives here, so we're just kind of here because God called us here. He said he was going to bless us. We're going to read the sentences that come before in just a few minutes. And God had been faithful to fulfill his promises to them. And so based on her past experience, she can look to that experience as evidence and say God has been faithful and she does the math. She does mental math. God's proven himself faithful here. He's

going to prove himself faithful there. Done. He's faithful. That is Sarah's act of faith. It's engaging her mind. It's putting the pieces together, looking to the past of God, fulfilling his promises, and putting that out into the future. Do you see that here? She considered, she engaged her mind.

Look at verse 17. Abraham. Apparently they were both thinkers, because Abraham, the same thing said about him. Verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, he offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises, it's Abraham, he was in the act of offering up his only son, his son of whom it was said, through Isaac, your offspring will be named. Okay, so follow this here. So God has made this promise to Abraham.

A great nation's going to come for you. And through your seed and offspring, all nations of the earth are going to be blessed and so on. The promised child's going to come. So he has that promise in one hand. And then he has this reality in his other hand that somehow God is asking him to give up the very son through whom this promise is going to come true. This is called an apparent contradiction in the life of somebody who's following God. I see God's promises here, and then I see what God says here, and I can't put these two together. I see God's promises

here, and then I see the reality of my circumstances here. How do these two go together? And so what does Abraham do? What's the next thing that Abraham does? NIV was spot on. A New International version said he reasoned, or English Standard Version, he considered. He engaged his mind, and he began to do the math. He said, okay, well, I know that God's going to fulfill his promises this way. That seems to contradict this experience of having to offer my son.

And so what does he do? He reasons. He engages his mind and he begins to work out the problem. And so he says he reasoned that God, he must be able to raise Isaac from the dead. From which, figuratively speaking, Abraham did receive Isaac back from the dead. He knew that somehow God was going to work out his promises. This contradiction would resolve itself if he was patient and he thought things through. This is the theme in Hebrews chapter 11. If you go through and read it again, the author

highlights numerous times where God's people sit down and think and reason. And this is very significant, I think, for the preacher's definition of faith here. Faith is not the absence of thinking things through. It actually begins with that process. And this is very counterintuitive for most of us, because I think many of us, maybe we have a version of religious faith or some idea of what religious faith is. Faith is what you have when there is no evidence. Faith is what you have when there is no reason to believe. And the preacher of Hebrews seems to say just the opposite. Faith is what you have when you know there's good reason to believe that God is going to do what he said. Are you tracking here with me? To believe in something

when there is no good evidence, there's not a shred of reason or evidence, that's not faith, that's stupidity. Come on. If there's no good reason, why would you believe it? That doesn't make any sense at all. The reason we believe that God is going to do, the reason we believe the coming one will come is because we can point to the crocus flower. And we can say, look, there it is right there. It still looks like winter all around me. It still looks

like it's 45 degrees outside and there's ice and snow everywhere. But there's the crocus flower. It's there. And based off of that evidence, I engage. I rethink my circumstances. I reason. I engage my mind. Do you see where this is going here? So I might just be on a soapbox here. I kind of am on a soapbox. At least I'm on a platform. But I think this is very important because here's the thing. There's a whole bunch of us here. Many of us here, we just don't have a lot of questions about faith. We're not really skeptical by nature. We don't probe and poke at things. God bless you. Thank God for you. You're much more stable than the rest of us. There's a whole bunch of the rest of us who just, we're wired, our personality,

God's given us brains that don't quit, and we just keep asking questions. And we struggle. And we see what the scripture says about God, or we see things that the gospel claims about God, and then we see things happening in our world or my life experience, and we're like, how do these two go together? We struggle. We struggle with hard questions. And there's nothing more frustrating than sharing those struggles with other Christians and getting a response.

Maybe you should just kind of like tone down the questions a bit. Just like believe. Just have faith. And in as kind a way as I can say it. And it's not that kind. I just, that's total hogwash. That's total hogwash. That's total hogwash. I don't believe in Jesus just because I can muster up some sort of inner disposition to make myself. I believe that. I believe it because something real happened 2,000 years ago. Anybody. The crocus flower bloomed.

Jesus lived. He died. He rose from the dead. It's the foundation of our faith. That's what makes God faithful. We consider, we think it through. Is that really true? Is that really believable? And if it is, then I can engage my mind

and consider God faithful for what's to come in the future as I live in this in-between time. When the early Christians tried to compel people of the truth of the gospel, they didn't say like, just believe. Faith was not just a religious experience for the early Christians. It was built on a series of facts. And the facts are these. Paul the Apostle, this was a big deal to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says, Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel that I preached to you,

which you received, and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you're saved, and if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, your faith has been in vain. Do you see that the reality of faith is built on the truthfulness of the thing that your faith is in? Do you see this here? The focus is actually not so much on your experience being able to drum up like belief and faith. What's much more important is the reality,

the foundation of your faith. Is it trustworthy? You know what I'm saying? If you're sliding down off a cliff, some of you have heard this example before, if you're sliding down off a cliff, are you going to be thinking through, like, am I able to hold on to the branch? I don't know. Can I muster enough energy to hold on to the branch to keep me from falling off? Is that what I'm thinking about in the moment? What am I thinking about?

Can the branch hold me? And are you going to sit down and think of it? You're going to grab on, right? What matters is the strength of the thing that you're grabbing onto. That's what Paul's getting at. That's what the author of Hebrews is getting at. So he says, here it is. Here's the foundation.

What I received, I passed on to you as of first importance. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried. That he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve, and after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have died. You want to go talk to some eyewitnesses? Go ahead. Hundreds are still alive. Then he appeared to James James and then to all of the apostles and then last of all he appeared he appeared to me do you get any sense that the faith in the gospel here is is rooted in just mustering up some religious experience I believe I

believe is that what Paul's getting at here the faith is rooted in historical testimony his store historical facts. Now, of course, you could say, well, many of you are like me, and you say, so are these eyewitnesses reliable? And is that eyewitness testimony that finds its way into the New Testament, is that reliable? How can I know it's true? And you want to poke, and you want to prod, and you want to song.

And I want to say, this is great. It's great. The fact that you're asking questions is not a sign of, like, you're lacking faith or something. In my opinion, it's that you're actually growing. You're engaging in your faith. You're growing. You want to find answers. Now, sometimes you get into situations where you come across people who have questions, questions, questions, and they're not actually looking for answers, right? They're intellectually lazy, and they read some blog somewhere, and they smoked pot, and had a good conversation with their friends, and then they don't believe in Christianity anymore. It's like,

come on, be serious here. These are serious matters. This is historical testimony. This is 2,000 years of people appealing to the reality of the risen Christ. It's the foundation of our faith. And so for many, you know, if you just, if you struggle with doubts, if you struggle with questions, I just want to encourage you, that's okay. It's okay. But be responsible with those. Find ways to answer them and so on. Find ways to move towards them and poke and to prod and engage. Be like Abraham and Sarah. Engage your mind. Probe the truthfulness of what God has done in Christ.

It can stand the test. The Bible stood the test for about 2,000 years now. And things may be much more complex than you first thought or what you were raised in Sunday school. That's okay. Reality's complex. God's complex. But you don't have to be afraid.

Engage. That's a sign of an active faith, according to Hebrews. Engaging with your mind. Faith begins with engaging your mind and with reason. How you guys doing? Is Hebrews chapter 11

a chapter about people who sit around reading apologetics books and considering and engaging their minds and thinking. No, no, no. It has some of that, but the primary examples of faith are people who are living radically, radical commitment and obedience to the teachings of the God of the covenant and to Jesus. Look at verse 8 with me. of the covenant and to Jesus. Look at verse 8 with me. By faith, Abraham did what? Was he thinking in this case? Okay, apparently he had thought beforehand, but here faith is linked not with thinking, but with obedience. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to a place that

he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, didn't know where he was going. By faith he went to live in this land of promise, like he was living in a foreign land. And he was living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of that same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations and whose designer and builder is God. Faith here is linked to action and to obedience.

And here it's linked to actions and obedience that doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense in Abraham's present circumstances. Do you see that? Abraham's obedience makes sense if God's promises are true. And if God is faithful to bring about those promises, then his behavior makes all the sense in the world. He's going to go to this land

because God is going to give it over to his possession and to his descendants. But does he have proof of that in the present? Answer? No. He can reason that God has been faithful so far, but this is where faith becomes a leap. But it's not a blind leap.

It's an eyes wide open leap. I reason that God is, there are reasons for me to believe that God is faithful. Now I'm being asked, hard decision, am I going to act in a way that doesn't make sense in light of my culture, my current circumstances? Here's where faith becomes the lead. But it's an informed lead. It's informed by whether or not God is faithful and so on. That's what's happening here. And so what Abraham is doing, going to move his whole family into the middle of this land. No, he doesn't have any relatives. He doesn't own any of the land. This is about, it makes about as much sense as walking around in March when it's 40 degrees outside with a short-sleeved t-shirt on. It's like, what? Why would you do that?

That doesn't make a lot of sense. Well, of course it doesn't make sense if you believe that winter is forever. But if you know that the crocus flower, you know that sunny in 65 is coming, then your behavior all of a sudden makes all the sense in the world. And this, in my mind, this is the meaning of obedience, obedient faith in the New Testament. It's not just that God enjoys telling people what to do, and Jesus enjoys telling people what to do, and then he just gives a bunch of rules, and okay, are you going to do it? Checklist, and if you don't, lightning bolt on you. You know what I mean? Like, no, it's such a gross, gross distortion of what's happening. The whole point of what Hebrews is saying is the crocus flower has bloomed.

In the resurrection of Jesus, death has been conquered. God's taking our world somewhere. He's moving it towards renewal, towards restoration. When Jesus returns, it comes to set all things right. restoration, when Jesus returns and comes to set all things right, if that's really where the future is headed, it makes all the sense in the world to obey in the present. Why would I refuse to forgive, for example, one of Jesus' most well-known teachings, love your enemies, bless those who persecute you, forgive as you've been forgiven, and so on. Why would you do that? bless those who persecute you, forgive as you've been forgiven, and so on. Why would you do that?

Why would you release from obligation and debt and love and pray for and bless someone who's hurt and wounded you deeply? Well, because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, I know that all things are going to be reconciled and made right one day. all wrongs made right, all forgiven, all relationships restored. If that's where this world is going, then it makes absolutely no sense for me not to forgive. Of course, it makes sense in the present because this world is all about like, get yours, you know, and you're going to get what's coming to you. You know, don't tread on me. Of course, it makes sense in the land of winter, but that behavior makes absolutely no sense once summer comes. Do you see this here? Obedience is about living in the present as if the future has already arrived.

And it's not blind faith. You're doing it because you can point back to the evidence of the risen Jesus, to the testimony of the risen Jesus. How's this fitting together here? I'm trying to make coherent sense here. See, faith is not this blind acquiescence to tradition. The gospel makes claims about what kind of world we're living in, about events that took place that have cosmic significance,

and you can choose to ignore those claims, but I think you'd be foolish to do that. You can choose to probe and poke and discern if those claims, but I think you'd be foolish to do that. You can choose to probe and poke and discern if those claims are really true, and if you discern that they are reasonable claims, that they are truthful claims, then it just changes everything. It changes how you think about your relationships and your finances and sex and your work and vocation. It reframes all of that, because all of those things in my lives are going to be a part of where God is taking this world. And am I going to choose to perpetually live in winter,

even though the crocus has already blossomed? And in reality, that's an aspect of the New Testament's teaching on health. People who refuse to recognize that the crocus has blossomed, and they choose to live in winter, even when summer is on its way. It's remaining trapped in a life of unfaith or unbelief. This is the power of Hebrews 11. And so it might speak differently to us, This is the power of Hebrews 11. And so it might speak differently to us.

But at the end of the day, it's beginning with engaging my mind, looking at what's happened in the gospel. It's about obeying by faith, living as if the future has really arrived in its beginning, in the resurrection of Jesus. And when you do that, when you actually forgive, when you actually reorient how you actually forgive, you know, when you actually reorient how you think about sex and money and you begin to obey the teachings of Jesus, you actually, it's like you begin to taste the reality of what you're hoping for. You get a taste of the new

creation when you forgive and don't retaliate. You get a taste of the new creation when you're able to master your bodily impulses that are telling you to do all kinds of things that are going to ruin your life. And you know, I'm headed towards restoration and self-control and whole healthy relationships. That's where things are going. You begin to taste the reality of the new creation in the present. I think that's what the author means when he says, faith is the substance of what you hope for. When you obey by faith, you experience the future. How you guys doing?

There are some of us here, you know, you might not be a Christian, and my challenge to you would be to consider the claims of the gospel. We're not gathering around superstition here. If that were the case, I would have checked out a long time ago. And many of us would too. We're coming around the gospel because we're convinced that it's actually true. And if Jesus in fact rose from the dead, then the world is just a lot stranger than you thought it was when you woke up this morning. And there are things that are possible and that are true

that perhaps you didn't realize could be possible and are true. And so the challenge to you would be to consider those claims, the truth claims of the gospel. There might be some of us here, we would call ourselves Christians, and we're struggling with doubts and with questions. And I want to encourage you, move towards them. And real practical, like here's an assignment. Get three friends, go buy these two books, you'll see them up here on the screen,

and read them together with your friends and talk about them. Does that sound like rocket science? No, that's pretty simple. So these are two of the best books. I buy them and I give them out like candy. We're actually out of them in the bookstore, faux pas on my part, but there's lots of Powell's I checked the other day. So move towards, be responsible. Don't be lazy with your doubts and with your questions. It's like Josh is influencing me to read everything he reads now, of course. So as G.K. Chesterton said, the mouth that remains perpetually open, the mouth that remains perpetually open is where the flies come in.

The mouth opens so it can close on something. Don't have a perpetually open mouth. Don't be that person who's constantly putting off faith just because you enjoy asking questions. You have to close your mouth on something at some point. And for the rest of us, I think if we call ourselves Christians, Hebrews 11, it really delivers this punch to the gut. And here's how I would put the question. I would say, can you identify an area of your life that makes no sense, that behavior and obedience makes no sense

in light of your present circumstances. It only can be explained because of your faith about where God is taking this world. An area of forgiveness, an area of finances, an area of generosity. Do our lives show the marks of this faith of radical commitment that I live in the present as if the future

has already arrived in Jesus. And if I can't think of one area of my life where I'm following with that kind of risky, radical faith, not blind, ignorant faith, but risky, radical faith, it's taking a step, considering God faithful and doing something that doesn't seem normal now, but it will seem normal in the new creation. I would just encourage you to just examine your life. Is your life exemplified by that kind of faithful obedience that like Abraham would take up and do something that makes no sense to anybody else around him? It only makes sense because of God's fulfilling his promises to him.

So Hebrews 11 speaks a very powerful word to all of us. And so we're going to shut this part of the service down. But really, we're just getting started in a sense. We are going to start the AC unit for sure. But this is our time of worship. It's our time of prayer, our time for the bread and the cup. And I would just encourage you, sit with Hebrews 11 open in front of you and just ask God to point out areas of unfaith, of unbelief, areas in your

life where you know God is asking you to take a new step of obedience and just sit with those and just discern what God wants to say to you in this time. We close this with a word of prayer. You guys, thank you for listening to this episode of Exploring My Strange Bible. The next episode will finish out this series of teachings on the letter to the Hebrews. I hope these have been helpful for you. They were deeply challenging and helpful for me. So there we go. Onward and upward. We'll see you next time.