Faith in Christ
Hebrews 11: 1-16
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 14)
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the ninth Sunday after Pentecost is the epistle reading Hebrews 11. All we have to do is take a quick look at our readings, collect, and Introit for today and it becomes apparent that the main theme running through the Divine service is faith. It all started with the Introit. “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor His pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love.” The words fear and hope in the Lord is another way of saying that the Lord delights in those who have faith in Him. You may also remember what we prayed in the Collect of the Day. “Grant that we may walk by faith, and not by sight, in the way that leads to eternal life.”
In our Old Testament reading God makes a promise to Abram that he will have a son and that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. The Lord made this promise when Abram and his wife were very old. Yet, Abram trusted in God’s promise. We remember what was said at the end of our reading from Genesis. “And he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.”
In our Gospel reading Jesus tells us not to be anxious about our life but to trust in God. Jesus makes it clear that if the heavenly Father provides for birds and flowers, He will certainly provide for us. Not only does our heavenly Father give to us all that we need in this life but He also gives to us the eternal kingdom of God through His Son, Jesus. Here are the words of Jesus. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Our faith is in the Lord who is the giver of both eternal and temporal blessings.
That takes us to our epistle reading from Hebrews. The word faith is mentioned several times in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. But before we continue with our discussion about faith it might be helpful to have some background information about this epistle. Hebrews was written to a group of Christians probably living in Rome. Their confession of Christ would have put them in conflict with the society around them. They also risked persecution by the authorities. Because of persecution and conflict they had become weary and were in danger of losing hope in God’s promises and were at risk of falling way from the Lord all together.
To revive their faith the writer of Hebrews proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them for it is the Gospel that strengthens faith. The book of Hebrews was also written for us so that we also would remain in the faith in times when we are weary. We are given a definition of faith in the first verse of our reading. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” This definition of faith makes a lot of sense. For example none of us were present when God made all things. We did not see God creating the universe with our own eyes, but we know that God did create all things because His Word tells us that He did. We did not witness Christ’s death and resurrection, but we know that it happened because it has been revealed to us in God’s Word. Indeed, the eyewitness accounts of our Lord’s ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension have been recorded for us in the Bible. We have not yet seen what heaven looks like, but we know that heaven exists because God has promised to take us there to be with Him through Christ Jesus.
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for (eternal life) and certain of what we do not see.” In this life we do not see God with our eyes. As Christians we live by faith. But our faith is not wishful thinking. Our certainly of God’s blessings is not based on subjective feelings or thoughts, but our certainty is based upon the Word of God. Our faith is grounded in historical reality. After the fall into sin God made a promise to Adam and Eve that the seed of the woman would be the Savior of the world. The Bible follows that promised seed through the centuries as it leads to Jesus. That’s why our Old Testament reading is so important. The descendants of Abraham were the Israelites and the seed that would come from the line of Abraham, the one who will bless the nations, is the Lord Jesus. Many promises and prophecies were made in the Old Testament about this Savior of the world that were fulfilled by Jesus. Throughout history God revealed Himself to certain people at certain times. He reveled himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David, the prophets. He inspired the prophets to write down God’s revelation so that all people, including us, would know the truth. The same thing can be said about the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus called His apostles and sent them out into the world to proclaim the Gospel. Some of the apostles were called by God to write down the eyewitness accounts about Jesus. From these writings (the New Testament) we hear about our Lord’s conception, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension. In other words God reveals Himself and what He has done to win our salvation in the Bible. The Bible (the Old and New Testament) is the inspired Word of God.
Not only does the Bible record for us true history but it is also the means that God uses to create and sustain our faith. Our Lord comes to us in a very special way through Word and Sacrament to give to us forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. We receive these blessings through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith created in us by God. We are declared righteous by God through faith in Christ. We are now able to see that God is our creator and redeemer. We understand that God blesses us now and will continue to bless us forever.
The writer of Hebrews was speaking to a group of Christians who were becoming weary. They faced conflict and persecution and some of them were drifting away from the Lord. We may not face the same kinds of things that the Christians in Rome were facing but we can grow weary. The world is trying to pull us way from Christ with false teaching, deceptive messages and worldly idols. Satan is always on the attack, and we are in constant struggle with our own sinful nature. We experience sickness, aging, and difficult situations. We experience guilt, shame, and embarrassment. Life is not always easy, but we live in hope.
When the Christians in Rome were facing troubles the writer of Hebrews proclaimed to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the same Gospel that is proclaimed to all of us. As you go through your life know that God loves you, forgives you, and will never forsake you. You can be certain about this because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. His death and resurrection gives to you the assurance that God’s grace will sustain you. And so we walk by faith and not by sight. We look to the Lord Jesus who is leading us to eternal life. Amen.