Faith That Works (Hebrews 11:1)

Hebrews 11:1 – “Now Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Introduction:

In 2005, when my youngest daughter was about to celebrate her 21st birthday, she carried on an air of expectation. She was excited and anxiously anticipated her birthday with the certainty of gifts and other treats from her father and me. She knew she would receive gifts but was anxious about other surprises we (her parents) might spring that time, knowing we always deliver. Birthdays combine assurance and anticipation, and so does Faith. Faith is the conviction based on experience that God’s promises and surprises will surely be ours.

Faith that brings forth our miracles must be organic, authentic, and original to make it work. An organic faith is potent Faith and is free from additives and preservatives. The Biblical concept of Faith stands at the heart of the relationship between God and His people. This relationship is intensely personal, dynamic, and multiform. In’ Faith,’ we have a God-installed need for deep relationship and Fellowship with God. This relationship and Fellowship are based on who God is (His Character), what God says (His promises), and the certainty of our expectations. In short, the beginning point of Faith that works is believing in God’s Character, and the end is believing in God’s Promises.

The writer of Hebrews did not identify himself, but the book from C.A.D. 400 to 1600 was commonly called ‘The Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews.’ Since the Reformation, it has been widely recognized that Paul could not have been the writer. Hebrews 2:3 indicates that the author had not been with Jesus during his earthly ministry nor received special revelation directly from the risen Lord as Paul had. The whole chapter of Hebrews 11 celebrates Heroes and Heroines of Faith. The chapter is the Hall of Faith of the Bible. The excellent quality these Heroes and Heroines had in common was overcoming through Faith (11:33).

Hebrews 1:1 mentioned two words that describe Faith they are Sure and Certain. ‘Sure of what we hope for’ and ‘Certain of what we do not see.’ Other words for ‘Hope’ are to expect, trust, anticipate, wish, and look forward to; ‘Certain’ is sure, convinced, positive, confident, firm, definite, and assured. Our text shows that God is who He says and will do what He says. When we believe that God fulfills his promises even though we don’t see those promises materializing yet, we demonstrate faithful Faith (John 20: 24-31).

A journey through the Acts of Apostles will imprint the Faith of the early Apostles on our minds. Without their organic Faith, there would have been no gospel, and the gospel’s spread witnessed today would have been impossible.

Faith in the Old Testament (O.T.) Hebrew aman group (muna and met) means Steadfastness, Truthfulness, and Faithfulness. Other Hebrew verbs used in parallel are:

• Batah (to trust, to believe).
• Hasa (to take refuge in, to trust).
• Qawa (to wait for, to hope in).

Among the words used to translate the Hebrew terms in the New Testament (N.T.) is Aletheia, meaning truth or faithfulness; elpizen (to hope in) and its cognates, didanosine (righteousness, faithfulness). The most common are those with the pist-root: pistis (Faith), pistos (Faithful), and pistevein (to believe, to trust in). In all these terminologies, we can see the working of a righteous God who made a promise in Zechariah 8:8 to a faithless and unrighteous people, the Israelites. You then begin to wonder about the possibility of this scenario and the ambiguity and tension from such a promise. Still, these are resolved in the person of Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our Faith.

Body Of Message:

The Faith that works miracles depends on the believer’s:

1. Conviction Of God’s Character
2. Confidence In God’s Promises
3. Certainty Of Expectations

Conviction Of God’s Character

(a) One must know the attributes of God to appreciate and have Faith in Him. Some of these attributes are:

1.  God’s Eternity: An essential attribute of God with its implied immutability, and this appears as a guarantee of his reliability in maintaining the laws of his creation and the promises of his covenant (Psalm 102:27)
2. God’s Holiness: This means separation and is used to remind us that God is both different from anything He has created and morally perfect. Holiness in the Bible is used to describe God’s absolute goodness, in contrast to the sinful state into which the human race has fallen (Leviticus 22: 31-33; Ephesians 1:4).
3. God’s Justice or Righteousness: God’s justice is in His willingness to pardon and even reward those who repent, regardless of the evil they have committed. God does not have a hierarchy of sins but regards every form of disobedience as equally wrong and, therefore, equally forgivable.
4. God’s Grace (Mercy): The Mercy of God expresses God’s free favor towards us (Ephesians 2: 7-8)
5. God’s Love: God is Love. The Love of God must be understood in His demands for obedience (John 15:14). Saved human beings are the beneficiaries of God’s Divine Love. That Love is manifested in the Son’s obedience to the Father’s Will, in his acceptance of death to save us sinners.

(b) The Benefits (Hope) from God’s Character

1. Salvation: “For in this hope we were saved’ – Romans 8:24a. We are saved to have Faith in God the Father, in Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit.
2. Eternal Life: 2 Corinthians 4:18: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Christian hope is eternal life. Life is short, but God is eternal. By Faith, we believe that we have eternal life once we have Christ, as the Scriptures teach us.
3. No Condemnation: John 3: 17 “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”; John 5: 24 –”….has crossed over from death to life.” We are no longer condemned but have passed from death to life. The precious blood of Christ has washed our sins away.

Confidence In God’s Promises

• To be Children of God: We believe we have been saved from darkness (Skotia) and brought into the light of God’s Glory as Children of God and co-heirs with Christ. We are already children of His kingdom awaiting eschatological consummation.
• To have Miracles, Signs, and Wonders: Those who believe and believe in the living God receive their share of miracles, signs, and wonders. Without Faith, you cannot get the miracle you desire. You must believe God exists and can do what you are asking Him to do.

Certainty Of Expectations

(a) These fundamental expectations arise from Faith in the Living God.

1. Assurance of Success: 2 Chronicles 20: 20; Mark 11:22; Luke 8:50
2. As a Fundamental Duty: John 6:28, 29
3. As a Defensive Weapon: Eph. 6:16; 1 Thess. 5:8; 1 Timothy 1: 19; Heb. 10: 22
4. As indispensable Element in Religion: Hebrews 11:6
5. Essential in Prayer: James 1: 5, 6
6. In Unity with Love brings forth positive results: 1 John 3:23
7. A source of Blessings: Matthew 8:13; 9:29, 30; 17: 20; Mark 9: 23

 (b) What we need to do to please God. Without Faith, it is impossible to please God. We believe God exists only by Faith, and the proper object of genuine Faith is Jesus Christ. Faith is that character quality that allows us to trust God to do what He says in His Word. In four short sentences, our faith statements should be:

• God said it
• It is settled
• I believe it
• I receive it

Our Faith makes us lean on the directive of the Holy Spirit. God is Love, and our Faith in God is re-stating our Love and showing Love among brethren. Therefore, we please God by saying No to racism, ethnicity, tribalism, and all sorts of class segregation.

Faith that pleases God most is child-like acceptance of God as Father, who one can trust wholeheartedly.

Illustrations:

Examples from the Old Testament:

• Abraham and Yahweh: This is an ambiguous paradigm. The relationship existed because of God’s initiative and persisted because of God’s faithfulness. Abraham’s responses to God’s promises and command to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22: 1-18) can be explained by the assumption that at crucial junctures, he took God to be utterly faithful, with total trust in God. ‘Abram believed the Lord (Yahweh) and credited it to him as righteousness.’
• Isaac continued to live out the conviction that God of his Father was faithful.
• Jacob, unlike Esau, his brother, shared the family conviction.

Examples from the New Testament

• The faithfulness of God in Christ. Christ Jesus became the servant of the Circumcised on behalf of the faithfulness of God so that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers and so that the Gentiles might glorify God for His Mercy (Romans 15: 8, 9)
• Christ’s faithfulness and human Faith: According to the Gospels, Jesus sometimes says to those who called out to him, “Your faith has made you well” (has saved you) – Mathew 9: 22, 29; Mark 10: 52; Luke 8: 48; 18: 42. Christ constitutes the necessary and sufficient condition of the Christian Faith. – Acts 3: 16; Hebrew 12: 2; 2 Peter 1: 1.

Personal:

Faith has kept me on and makes me a victorious person and an over-comer.

Applications:

Faith rewards those who earnestly seek God. You seek God by listening, hearing, studying, memorizing, and meditating on the Word of God. You achieve this through sermons, messages, tapes, gospel music, etc. Also, you can apply your Faith in day-to-day physical, spiritual, social, and economic activities. Most importantly, your Faith in God will:

• Move you into God’s Will.
• Enable you to conquer kingdoms and drive out the fear of the enemies.
• Make you fear God and keep His Commandments.
• Give you the confidence to win all spiritual battles.
• Guarantee the Holy Spirit’s leading, guidance, and protection.
• Make you acquire the promises in the Word of God.
• Quench the fury of the flames of the enemies.
• Make you escape the edge of the Sword.
• Turn your weakness into strength.
• Give you the power to battle and route foreign armies, witches, wizards, principalities, and demonic powers.
• Raise any dead issue in your life, business, work, and finances.
• Heal your diseases and sickness and give you divine health and divine healing.
• Assurance of salvation and hope of resurrection in Christ Jesus.
• Give you freedom from worldly chains and prison.
• Make you enjoy a great Union with the living God.
• Guarantee your miracles, signs, and wonders.

Our Faith is not in the absence of danger but in the presence of God to see us through life’s travails. Faith makes God our Tower and Strength.

Conclusion:

Faith that works is interlinked with total belief and trust in the existence and potency of the Living God. Without Faith, you will miss your miracle; you must believe God exists and can do what you ask Him in prayer. Faith is going forth in the strength of the LORD. Pray to be bestowed with great Faith that can move mountains, perform unusual miracles, and work for you in all your daily activities. Faith is the sine qua non of God and people’s relationship, the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen.

Decisions:

• Spiritual Renewal,
• Spiritual Revival,
• Rededication,
• Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and
• prayer for increased Faith.

Invitation:

God the Father, help our unbelief and increase our Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

References:

• International Bible Society. The N.I.V. Study Bible, 10th Anniversary Edition. Zondervan Publishing House: Grand Rapids, Copyright@1995
• Kingsway. Life Application Bible. New International Version, Kingsway Publications: Eastbourne
• Thompson, Frank Charles. The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible. Fifth Improved Edition: B.B. Kirkbride Bible Co., Inc.:Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.
• Hastings, James. Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible. Fifth Printing, Hendrickson Publishers: U.S.A, 2001
• Alexander, T. D. and Rosner. Brian S. New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, InterVasity Press: Downers Grove, Illinois, U.S.A.
• Soboyejo, Josephine Olatomi. The Man Upstairs, Joes Productions, Medical Road, Ikeja, Lagos-Nigeria

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