Sermon: Growing in Persevering Faith (Hebrews 11)

Ben and I made the decision that, since this chapter builds on one another every week, we’re just going to keep reading more. So next week, we’re going to read the whole of chapter 11. It’s like we’re pro-Bible.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. This is, in a manner of speaking, faith in general, but it begs a couple of questions: What are the things hoped for? What is not seen? Actually, as we go through this text, this definition is filled out when we get to verse 6: “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.”

How do you draw near to God? What is saving faith? It is simply these two things: One, believe he exists in Jesus Christ. And second, believe that he rewards. This is fascinating. It’s the subject of this whole text—this whole sermon—that a lot of people show up to church thinking, “I just got to do this.” Now, in one way, that’s right. God commands us to do certain things, and we should obey God’s commands. But God, because he is a giver—because he is so fantastically generous—will reward us for seeking him far beyond any other rewards in this world. He says it is in your self-interest to follow me, even if it costs you your life.

Now, this belief that “he exists [and] rewards those who seek him” can be found in the simplest gospel presentation. Like when I was a kid, sitting in kids’ club or something, and someone says, “Hey, you know, Jesus is pretty good. You don’t want to go to hell; you want to have a good life. Okay, everybody close your eyes. Do you believe in Jesus? You want to go to heaven?” And I’m like, “Yes, I want to go to heaven. I’ve done this five times, but I’m going to do it one more time just to be sure.” And that’s actually fantastic. I love Jesus. I want to go to heaven. And God says, “Yes, that is great. If you want saving faith, simply believe in God through Jesus Christ.” Add on to that the reward of eternal life, and you have saving faith. Pretty easy math. That is salvation—an awesome thing. It is literally that simple. Not just for great, good people; not for people who do things; but for people who have faith.

But Hebrews wants us to think more deeply about this, because Hebrews isn’t written to a bunch of people who need to know Jesus Christ. It’s written to people who have known Jesus Christ for a very long time and are in danger of falling away. That’s the constant refrain: to persevere, hold fast to what you believe, don’t drift, pay closer attention to what you have heard. And what Hebrews wants us to see is that we need persevering faith. The thing about persevering faith is that it’s still believing God exists and that he rewards—except it’s growing in those two things bigger. It’s still the same math; it’s just growing.

First, you can grow in how much you know of God. When I was a kid, I didn’t understand the Trinity or a lot of things. I had some heterodox beliefs. I just knew Jesus saves me. But as we read God’s word, we can actually know more about God. We can know him not just as “I love Jesus,” but we can know God as the Holy Spirit—to be filled with his Spirit in such a way as to experience intimacy, growth, and power in God. Maybe we can know God as God the Father, something of his majesty and grace, which will knock us to the ground in worship. And as we grow in that, we grow our faith because we know who he is.

In the same way, rewards work the same way. I started out like, “Yes, I want heaven—that sounds good.” But as you learn and grow, you realize heaven isn’t even the best part of the deal. It’s like going to a good place and living forever—that sounds good. But there’s actually way more. Jesus says simple things like in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Literally, everything you talk about—like the richest man in the world—is nothing compared to those who meekly follow Jesus Christ. Everything will be given. Paul says, “All things are yours” in Christ. There is no limit to what faith offers you, what God offers you by following him. No limit. None.

And you know what? That’s not even all of it. Going on in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” They shall see God. Because ultimately, the greatest treasure is knowing God himself. In fact, the day our faith will end is the day we become like him because we will see him as he is. We will no longer hope in something far off, but we will see him. We will know fully who he is, and we will receive his reward fully. And that’s where it’s all ending.

So Hebrews, in showing what faith is like, points to stories in God’s word, which tells us something: If we want to grow in our faith, we need to know and grow in God’s word. This is Caregroup Sunday, so all these people up here—and this is one of the ways we grow in God’s word: by spending time. It’s great to come here; we want to learn God’s word here and grow deeper in it so that we can grow our faith. Some great stories—I love this.

We’ll start at the end of the text: “By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.” Hebrews didn’t have to say “Rahab the prostitute.” Sometimes we want to shy away from the embarrassing details about people, but it doesn’t. It wants us to see here that faith—the kind of saving faith—is again for people who know God exists and he rewards. In fact, if you go back to Joshua, Rahab says this: “For the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” She knows who God is. And she does this because she doesn’t fear the king or dying. She knows that God is the rewarder. So she follows him, betraying her people but finding salvation—and ending up, by the way, as the great-great-great-grandmother of not only David but of the Lord Jesus Christ. A stunning thing that God would do it that way, because he wants us to know that saving faith is not just for good people, but for anyone who reaches out, knowing that God is good and exists, no matter their background, their past, or the shame they’re dealing with. He is that kind of Savior. And Rahab gets listed alongside Moses and Abraham because even though her faith may look a little small, she had faith—and that was more than enough.

Speaking of Abraham, let’s look at this story carefully: “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.”

In Genesis, God says, “Go offer up your only son.” That sounds really terrible, and it would be if God’s plan was for Isaac to die. But then Hebrews notes verse 18: “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. And the important word here is “considered” (or in some translations, “reckoned”). That’s because Abraham was not acting on blind, stupid faith going up Mount Moriah to offer his son. He wasn’t following some cult leader or leaving his brains behind because he knew something. In the chapter before he goes up to sacrifice his son, it says, “For through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” God promised that offspring would come through Isaac. So as Abraham walked up to the top of Mount Moriah and heard the voice from heaven—”Abraham, do not lay a hand on the boy”—and saw the ram caught in the thicket, he was not surprised because he knew Isaac had to live; it was promised.

I look at this word “considered” or “reckoned” because this word from the Lord was not something totally obvious to everyone on first glance. It was something Abraham had to think about, something he had to consider and build up in. And that’s why the word of God isn’t something just to be stored there, recited on Sunday, or thought about and left behind—but something to actually be considered and reckoned with so that we can know what the good promises are. Abraham had the promise of offspring; he knew it would come. And if faith is growing in knowing God and knowing his rewards, we can find out his rewards in the Bible if we read it. And not just read it—if we study it. Care groups are a great way to do that. In any way, you’re going to learn and grow—do that thing.

He goes to Moses, and this is when you get, you know, sometimes faith isn’t easy. In Moses, we see when it isn’t easy, but still worth it: “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.”

He was looking to the reward—not serving God stoically. No, it doesn’t say that. He considered it better to give up the only solid roof Moses ever lived under, which was in Egypt. And he gave it up twice: first for 40 years chasing the lost sheep of Midian, and second for 40 years chasing the lost sheep of Israel. And you know what? He did it with joy because he was looking forward to a reward. He knew that God’s rewards were better than all the treasuries of Egypt—everything hidden under the pyramids (however they got built—no comments). You know, when they were built, they actually had gold on the top and this white stucco on the outside—like crazy. But nothing compared to what God offered. In fact, it says he considered the reproach of Christ. And this is where we get that Christ is the model of faith (I don’t want to get to chapter 12 yet, but Christ, for the joy set before him, endured the cross).

In the hard days—and there will be hard days in your life if you’re going to follow the steps of Christ—those steps are not always easy, because Jesus bore a cross, and he said his followers would too: “Take up your cross and follow me.” But we can do it if we do it in faith, knowing that reward is better than anything we could suffer on this earth—even if it means suffering and death. We know God’s rewards are far greater, and that we consider God’s rewards better than any treasure or pleasure that sin may offer, any treasure the world will offer. God offers better treasures. It is in your self-interest. And in fact, we grow faith by looking to who God is in his character—including the character of Jesus Christ—and knowing how great his treasures are, more by growing and knowing the stories of God.

Now, I want to take you last to a weird triplet of stories that Hebrews goes through, in verse 20: “By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on the top 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.”

Here, in every case, we have old men dying—sometimes in difficult circumstances. Why go to Isaac? Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau—you know, this was not a good moment in Israel’s history. This is the blessing where Jacob dresses up like his brother, kills an animal, pretends to be Esau, and steals the blessing, and then Esau wants to kill him. Okay. Joseph leaves his people in a foreign land where they’re going to be slaves. And this gets to the kind of faith that can face the end of life with a lot of unfulfilled expectations—with a lot of things that just didn’t quite go the way you wanted. Maybe your kids are literally trying to kill each other. But still, offering a blessing because, with faith, you know who God is in his character and that his promises go far beyond anything in this mere world—that his promises will come to pass. That you can meet that day—the day when the cold sting of death lies heavy on your brow—not just with acceptance, but with joy. Having developed the faith that knows God’s promises will always stand. And not even death can take them away.

We know that death cannot take away the promises because those promises are accomplished and won in Jesus Christ. He faced hardship and death, but then he entered into his reward with faith, knowing that God does reward.

So, summary of everything—if you missed all of it, this is it: We grow in persevering faith by knowing more of God and the promises of his reward. And in fact, these two things—knowing God and his reward—actually collide when you get to the deepest reward: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Because ultimately, knowing God is the greatest reward.

And this gets to—if you are in a place in your life where you feel like you need more faith (who needs more faith? Like, “I need more faith”)—the way to do it is by growing in the knowledge of these two things. And that happens by looking seriously into his word in all the ways that God has offered to us. Now today, we’re particularly highlighting care groups, and it’s an awesome way to know more of God—like sitting around with people, asking good questions. You can be like, “Hey, what are you talking about with this Davidic covenant? I don’t understand.” And people can go through it; you can learn and grow. You can go deep into things. So today, one way to grow in this is: I’m going to ask caregroup leaders to go stand in the back over there after the end of the service. We’ll get you together. Go talk to one. Say, “Hey, here’s my number. I’d like to get involved.”

Now, I don’t want to just advertise the church’s programs, because just open your Bible. Read it. That’s great. You have a friend? Call them up and say, “Hey, I want to just look at the Bible with you. Read a passage. Let it work.” God’s word is powerful. Okay? Even if you don’t know it very well, it’s still powerful. Like, a baby can wade in God’s word, and an elephant can swim. Both of those things are true. Open the Gospel of John. Just start reading it. Know who Jesus is.

All right. So, if you want to persevere in your faith, know who God is—he exists—and know more of his rewards. Grow in those two things, and God will meet you even as you draw your last breath.

Let’s pray.

Oh Lord God, we come to you today in simple faith. We look to you. You are the triune God—Father, Spirit, Son—that you have loved and cared for. You’ve created. You are holding everything in your hand, and you will bring it to completion at the end. We look to you in who you are, in your character, in love. And Lord God, we come to you knowing your reward. You not only forgive our sin, but you offer to us all things when we follow you—that the world, the heavens, and ultimately you yourself are the treasure won by your work on the cross. So we look to Jesus Christ today in faith and ask, Lord, increase our faith. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.