Pentecost 11 - Hebrews 11

People love their heroes and Buckeye fans are certainly no exception. There are plenty of names that live on as significant parts of the local lore and history. Those who have significant contributions and sizable accomplishments, who have been key players during past seasons of success. Names like Archie Griffin, Eddie George, Chris Spielman and of course Woody Hayes. Without a doubt, my simple list is sorely lacking and each of you could fill it in with many more Buckeye Hall of Fame-ers.

Point is, these names stand out. There are, after all, lots of players on lots of teams. Some good, some great, and a lot who just go out and fill their roles. But those who make the hall of fame, the guys who get talked about for years to come, they have done something special. They are champions. And therefore, they are heroes.

Our Epistle text for today is from Hebrews 11. And many people think of this chapter in a similar sort of way. It is a list of famous names from the Old Testament. We have Abel, whose gave the more acceptable sacrifice. There's Enoch who was taken up to heaven without seeing death, Noah who built the ark, Abraham, who followed the call of the Lord. Sarah, who gave birth even in her old age.

People who know the bible know these names. We learned them here in School. We learned them in Sunday School. We have heard stories about them since before we can remember. We often think of these people as heroes of the faith. The Ohio State Buckeyes has its hall of fame with its heroes who accomplished a lot and stood out above the crowd. We think of this list in the same way. Heroes. A “who's who” list. People who we should all look up to and strive to be like.

And why do we think of them in this way?

Because we haven't read the text closely enough.

Way too often, we read these verses and come away thinking “I need to be more like these guys. They had their act together.” and when we do we have missed the point. Because each one of the names on this list is no hero. They are not noted for their own accomplishments. They are no better than you or me.

They are sinners. Just like we are. The more you read the Old Testament texts the more obvious this becomes. God's Word clearly demonstrates and records the many errors and failings of these people whom we have here on this list as examples of faith. So it isn't the people. It isn't who they are and what they have done. It isn't even their faith or their practice and exercise of it; how firmly or resolutely they believed. It's not them at all.

It is God! What He has done through Christ in them that sets them apart. But not from you and me. Faith sets them apart together with you and me. Just as they received faith and are numbered in heaven among the faithful because of God's grace and because of God's favor, in the exact same way, you are set apart to be numbered and named as a hero in Heaven's hall of fame together with them. All because of what God in Christ has done in you.

Our text tells us that faith “is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.”

Have we truly understood what these verses mean? Have we truly understood the nature of the faith that Hebrews has in mind? Often we do not. Often our understanding of faith is influenced by influences other than the Word of God.

Shortly after President Obama was elected into office I had a young man tell me that our new president would help fix the problems in our nation and that he had faith that this would happen. “You just gotta believe.” he told me. For him “faith” and “believe” were synonyms for having a positive attitude or outlook on life or on a particular situation.

Things will get better. You've just gotta believe.

You can handle it, you've just gotta believe.

You can do it, you've just gotta believe.

If that is all faith is, than it isn't worth anything.

Take for example my friend who had faith that the president would fix America. Faith is only as good as its object. Faith is only as good as the thing that it's holding on to. It doesn't matter who the president might be, and it doesn't matter how sincerely you believe, there is no one alive who could step into that office and fix the country simply because you or anyone else believed he could. Rock solid faith needs a rock solid object. The only thing in this world that fits that bill, the only thing that you can count on to come through for you 100% of the time, is the promise of God that he has hidden in His Word.

The same can be said for those who tell us that we've just got to believe in ourselves. It's one thing when a coach tells a softball-star-in-training to believe in herself so that she steps into the batters box with confidence. But what about when she steps into the doctors office with cancer? Will that same confidence do her any good? What about when she steps into a broken marriage? Or a lost income? Or worse, will that same confidence that helped her hit a softball help her to overcome sin? Will it help her when she stands before Christ on the last day?

No. Faith is only as good as it's object. And faith in yourself will only get you so far. In the end you need faith in Jesus. You need faith in the one who could do it and who did. You need faith in the one who was powerful to overcome sickness and disease and who healed people left and right. In the end you need someone who is powerful to forgive sinners and who offers that forgiveness to all who believe.

Faith is only as good as it's object. And when the object of faith is Jesus, it's a faith that can't miss.

Hebrews 11 is a record of those people who had faith in Jesus. Our text tells us they believed from afar. From a long distance. God had given them the promise that Jesus would come and they believed in that promise. They took that promise to the bank. They were willing to stake their life and their eternity on the work that would be done by the One God would send. They believed the promise, and God counted it to them as righteousness.

They are listed, not because of their own accomplishments, but because of the accomplishments of Jesus.

Look at Abraham. He was nobody special. He accomplished nothing great. Nothing noteworthy. He was a pagan man who worshiped pagan gods. Until the Lord gave him a new Lord to worship. Even then, he didn't behave any better or any different than he used to. He was just as big a sinner as he was before God called him. You find that out when you read Genesis.

God promised Abraham a son. Abraham had to wait. He got tired of waiting so he took Hagar, his wife's slave girl, as a concubine and had a child with her. Ishmael. But then after a few years, God fulfilled his promise and gave as son to Abraham and Sarah, so Abraham sent Hagar his concubine and Ishmael his son into the desert to fend for themselves.

Ask yourself, does a righteous man do that? Does a good man do that? Does a man who is living his life God's way and patterning his life after God's principles do that? No! Such a thing is unconscionable even for a pagan! Abraham was a sinner.

Or what about Noah. Sure he obeyed God's word and built an ark. Sure he built an altar to God when it was all said and done, but then went out and got so drunk that he stumbled around his tent naked and passed out. His son had to come in and cover up his shame. Noah was no better than Abraham. He was no better than Abel, no Better than Sarah, no better than Enoch, no better than me, no better than you. We are all sinners.

Faith is only as good as its object. It's only as good as the thing you have faith IN. We need faith in Jesus.

When we read Hebrews 11 the word faith is always the word that stands out. “By faith Abraham, by faith Sarah... By faith Enoch...” what we miss is another word that is tucked away in there. Here our text translates that word as “Commended”. “By faith the people of old received their commendation.” “Through faith Abel was commended as righteous.” “Before Enoch was taken he was commended as having pleased God.”

That word that shows up here as “commended” is that same word that elsewhere can be translated as witness or testimony. Again, usually when we think of witness, usually when we think of testimony, we think of it as something we do. But not here. Here it is something that God does for Abraham, that God does for Enoch, that God does for Abel. God testifies on their behalf that they are righteous. That they are pleasing to him. They were great because God said so.

Now, before we mentioned the heralded accomplishments of past Buckeye greats. Guys like Archie Griffin and Woody Hayes and Eddie George. Guys who proved that they were a cut above because of all their accomplishments. Now suppose in the Buckeye hall of fame, in the hallowed halls where they keep the trophies and photographs of past teams and players, suppose one of the coaches decided that he wanted to place a gigantic photograph of his own son who played pee wee football. The kid never played for the Buckeyes, let alone accomplished anything on the football field. In fact, even when he did play on his pee wee team he sat on the bench and never made it into a game. Would a kid like that deserve to have his picture there with all the greatest players ever to wear the uniform? Of course not. Everyone who walked by would know that he was there because his dad pulled a few strings. We might even find it offensive. We might feel that it would diminish the accomplishments of those who did deserve to be there. Yet that is exactly what God has done for us.

We are sinners. We haven't done anything great. Our faith is weak. Our sins are many. Our hearts falter. Our will fails. We just can't do it. So God does it for us. God for us in Christ Jesus has won a place of honor. He has made us to be heroes and saints and children and heirs. All of our weakness, every sin we have committed, every temptation we have succumbed to. Every last guilt and shame has all been taken away. It has been counted to Jesus and we have been counted righteous. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Noah believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Enoch believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Paul believed God and it is counted to him as righteousness. You believed God and it is counted to you as righteousness. God does it all. He does the work. He gives the credit to us. He testifies, he gives witness for us that our sins are forgiven. We are commended to God as pleasing and righteous.

Amen.