We don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews. We really don't. But we do know who this book was written to. This book was written to a group of new Christians who were following Jesus and were already being ridiculed and imprisoned, who were already having their possessions stolen, who were being mocked for following this person named Jesus Christ. So this book was written to them amidst a lot of their disappointment and discouragement that this person that they loved, this God enfleshed, hadn't returned yet, had been resurrected, and they thought would return immediately and still hadn't. And so they were losing hope. That's who this book was written to.
And we're kind of in a different time, aren't we? We're in a different country than that. We're in a different demographic than those Christians hearing these words today. And yet, I think this passage that Sarah just read from Hebrews has something to offer us in the way of encouragement and hope. We have all heard the first verse of that passage before, right? I call these pillowcase verses like Philippians 4:13 and Jeremiah 29:11. They're sort of the perfect verses to put on a pillowcase. And so this one is kind of like that: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not yet seen.”
Sometimes verses like this lose their power when they're taken out of context. Or sometimes words like the word faith are so overused that they lose their meaning. Faith. How would you describe faith to someone who asked you what it meant?
I love what the author of Hebrews does. Instead of giving a long Webster's definition, he actually points to a litany of biblical patriarchs and matriarchs who embodied faith as a way to explain the word to this group of people. And what you'll notice is this author—or I'm going to say preacher, because a lot of theologians think that the book of Hebrews is just one long sermon—this preacher told them about people. And the thread through all of the people I'm about to describe in Hebrews 11 are people who followed God even when they were not sure where God was leading them.
I'm going to say that again: they were people who followed God even when they were not sure where God was leading them. So Sarah read eight verses this morning, but I want to give you the entire overview of this chapter. So I am going to quite literally roll up my sleeves, because 19 times in this chapter alone, you are going to hear the words by faith. You are going to hear how our ancestors followed God by faith. Are you ready? Are you ready? Okay, buckle up.
By faith, our ancestors received their approval from God. By faith, God created the world—created something visible out of something that was invisible. By faith, Abel and Enoch and Noah put their trust in a God who didn't even tell them the plans God had for them, but they trusted God anyway. By faith, this guy named Abraham obeyed God when God told him to depart from his homeland of Mesopotamia and go to a foreign land he had never been to. God promised him that this land would provide for him, and Abraham went without knowing where or seeing what it was.
And by faith, Abraham stayed in that land for a very long time—a land where he was seen as a foreigner, a land where he was living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs to the exact same promise as him. By faith, he was able to have children with Sarah, even after they had been told they were too old, or, as the scripture writes, he had been deemed “good as dead.” By faith, Abraham was put to the test, offering up his son Isaac. And by faith, Isaac then invoked blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob blessed each of the sons of Joseph.
Y'all see where we're going? By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the Israelites. By faith, Moses, the leader of those Israelites, was hidden for three months by his parents because, scripture says, they saw he was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king. And by faith, he refused to be called a son of Pharaoh's daughter, instead receiving ill treatment with the Israelites, the people of God, rather than receiving the fleeting pleasures of sin. By faith, he left Egypt. By faith, he kept the Passover. By faith, the people passed through the Red Sea.
By faith, the walls of Jericho came crumbling down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab lived because she had sheltered two Israelite spies and kept them safe. And what more should I say? That's the preacher in Hebrews talking, not me. Verse 32: “What more should I say?” the preacher says. “For time would fail me if I continued to tell you about Gideon and Barak and Samson and David and Samuel and Jephthah and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, who through faith administered justice, who through faith obtained promises and shut the mouths of lions and quenched the power of fire and escaped the edge of the sword, and were made strong out of weakness.”
Y'all, this is in the Bible. You may need to read this before you take a test or have a work presentation. This is a cheat code right here. By faith, some were mocked and suffered and were flogged and put into chains and imprisoned. They wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. Yet, all of these were commended for their faith. Though they did not receive what was promised, they knew that God had provided something better.
Imagine, imagine hearing this sermon, church, when you are hopeless, when you really, really thought your Savior was coming back, and you look around and you do not see Him, and you are being beaten and brutalized for your own belief. Imagine hearing this lineage of biblical heroes before you who, by faith, were able to do what God asked them without knowing where God was leading them. Faith, the preacher shows us, is not about certainty in God, as many people would lead you to believe. It's about trust in God.
Faith is a hope that is directed toward the future. Perhaps you caught that in Abraham's vision—it's not strictly earthbound. As David Gray points out, Abraham looks beyond the temporal binding of his own life to this full reality of God and God's promises—the city of God. Did you hear that in verse 16? The city of God contrasts with these tents that they were living in and moving in. This city of God, this heavenly place, was a place that would provide them stability—stability and safety and permanence. The holy architect of that city had their back.
It is as if God is saying, “Keep one eye on the very human realities of this world, and the other eye on the future kingdom that I have promised you—a kingdom for those who live by faith.” Because when you live by faith, you let your future determine your present. I want to say that again: when you live by faith, you let your future determine your present. Which doesn't mean we get to bypass this life and just wait around for the heavenly one. It means we get to put our trust in an architect who has already pointed us toward where we are going, even if we don't know where God is leading us to today.
And it's because of this faith in the future kingdom that we can trust in that God today. We as Christians believe that faith cannot be severed from hope. But we also know that hope is really risky, isn't it? Hope is risky. It's probably why the author and preacher of Hebrews felt the need to use 19 examples to tell the people the kind of faith and hope they were going to have.
I wonder, church, what about our 19 examples? What would a preacher say to Vine Street Christian Church 19 times to allow us to live into this risky and bold hope and courage and trust in the year of our Lord 2025? I'm going to give you 19 of them. You ready?
By faith, you are participating in the life of a church during a season of a lot of transition and change. By faith, you are putting your trust in not one but two reverends with nose rings—it's true, one, two. By faith, the leaders of our church this morning are saying yes. Our council members, our elders, our deacons are saying yes to serving our church this year. By faith, Lydia is putting together a Room in the Inn task force to make sure that our lay leaders continue to do the necessary work of serving and walking with our homeless neighbors.
By faith, our staff is expanding and changing and dreaming of what this church can be. By faith, we all try to hit these high notes, and we hope to God it sounds decent on the live stream. By faith, Quentyn is leading an open and affirming task force to make sure that “all means all” in the life of this church. By faith, we are doing the best we can to live and believe in hope in a time of fear and scarcity. By faith, we are going to try intinction during communion again, y'all—come on.
By faith, our Sunday school teachers have answered the call to teach spiritual formation and biblical curiosity to kids ages one to 101. By faith, our new members today will take a chance on this church as they start an orientation. By faith, we are counting on this new HVAC to keep the temperature comfy up in this sanctuary. By faith, you have pledged your tithes and offerings, trusting that we will do the will of God with the gifts that you give.
By faith, we are discerning ways to engage in outreach in a new way and be the hands and feet of Christ out in the world. By faith, we proclaim to be a different kind of Christian in this world that is not tempted by the powers of pride and greed, but is faithful to a God of humility and love. By faith, every time we close this service, we hold hands and say, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” because we desperately and faithfully believe it to be so. By faith, we show up week after week to love each other and serve each other—even when it's uncomfortable, even when we are annoyed, even when we'd rather sleep in, even when we feel overscheduled, overburdened—because we believe that a commitment to a community is the only way we're going to get through this, y'all. Amen.
And by faith, we believe in the one who didn't place his hope on things of this world, but placed his hope on the resurrection, the heavenly place, the eternal place where we will all be one with God. And by faith, we live our lives as if that is true—trusting in the things that are unseen, having confidence in what could be with God's help. And by faith—somebody was counting—they think I got to 19 there.
Church, if you hear anything today, I hope you hear that all things are possible through God by faith. And faith isn't the assurance in things that we can see or that we know are going to happen or that have been foretold to us. No, that would be boring. What a silly end to that story. Faith is the substance, is the belief in the things that are unseen and yet to come. Our litany of heroes like Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Rahab and Abel and Enoch—they didn't know what was on the other side of their “yes,” but they said yes anyway.
Their faith was courage. Their faith was trust. Their faith was hope—hope in a future kingdom, hope in a God who had a plan even when they didn't. Their faith allowed them to follow God when they weren't sure where God was leading them, trusting, hoping that something better was waiting for them on the other side of their yes. Say yes with me this morning, Vine Street. Say yes with me and let's see what waits for us on the other side of that yes. Amen.