Hebrews 11:1-12
I. The New Covenant Has A Superior Person: Christ (1-6)
A. \\#Heb 1:1-3\\ Christ is superior to the prophets.
B. \\#Heb 1:4-14\\ Christ is superior to the angels.
C. \\#Heb 2:1-18\\ Explanation and Emphasis
D. \\#Heb 3:1-6\\ Christ is superior to Moses.
E. \\#Heb 3:7-4:16\\ Explanation and Emphasis
F. \\#Heb 4:14-5:10\\ Christ is superior to the High Priest
G. \\#Heb 5:11-6:20\\ Explanation and Emphasis
II. The New Covenant Has A Superior Priesthood: Christ over Melchizedek (7-10)
A. \\#Heb 7:1-11\\ Christ’s Priesthood Is of A Superior Origin
B. \\#Heb 7:12-14\\ Christ’s Priesthood Is by A Superior Covenant
C. \\#Heb 7:15-23\\ Christ’s Priesthood Is by A Superior Promise
D. \\#Heb 7:23-28\\ Christ’s Priesthood Has A Superior Nature
E. \\#Heb 8:1-5\\ Christ’s Priesthood Has A Superior Tabernacle
F. \\#Heb 8:6-10:18\\ Christ’s Priesthood Is A Superior Ministry
G. \\#Heb 10:19-39\\ Explanation and Emphasis
III. The New Covenant Has A Superior Principle: Faith (11-13)
A. \\#Heb 11:1-40\\ The examples of faith
1. \\#Heb 11:1,6\\ Two Basic Truths about Faith
2. \\#Heb 11:2-12\\ The Roll Call of Faith (part 1)
3. \\#Heb 11:13-16\\ Explanation and Emphasis
4. \\#Heb 11:17-31\\ The Roll Call of Faith (part 2)
5. \\#Heb 11:32-38\\ The Roll Call of Faith (part 3)
6. \\#Heb 11:39-40\\ But These Were Required to Wait
The writer has discussed faith several times, as recently as \\#He 10:38\\.
Faith has been brought up repeatedly because it is the one element that everyone
he is writing to needs. The unsaved Hebrews needed faith to trust Christ as
Savior. The saved Hebrews needed faith to continue through the persecution, thus
receiving the fulfillment of all the promises God had made to them.
Faith is also that element that all of us need and for the same reasons. Thus,
as an encouragement to those the book was written to and all who would follow
after them, the writer gives us the Roll Call of Faith chapter, a chapter filled
will illustrious examples of those Old Testament saints who believed by faith even
when circumstances were difficult.
What is the writer’s point? While there are probably many, two stand out.
1. First, the writer wanted to demonstrate the necessity of faith. By showing
how those of the past had served God by faith, he was emphasizing that
there is no other way to please Him. All who have, are, or will serve
God, must do so by faith.
2. But with his illustrations, he also makes the point that faith, or the
lack of faith, effects the lives of those who have it. Illustration after
illustration shows how faith influenced the people of God to do great
works for themselves, their families, the world they lived in, and most
especially, their God.
While the writer takes the opportunity to argue for a walk by faith, we should not
conclude that this is a new principle for those under the old covenant. As a
matter of fact, all of the illustrations the writer gives to encourage a walk by
faith are Old Testament examples. Faith has been the means of accessing salvation
in every dispensation and, as the writer points out, has been the only way to
please God.
III. A Superior Principle: Faith (11-13)
A. \\#Heb 11:1-40\\ The examples of faith
1. \\#Heb 11:1,6\\ Two Basic Truths about Faith-Two important and basic
truths about faith are shared in this chapter. Sharing these truths
is a key reason the writer wrote this section.
a. \\#Heb 11:1\\ The definition of faith
(1) Faith has been a reoccurring message in this book.
(a) After challenging the readers to walk in faith
\\#He 10:38\\, the writer feels the need to define
and illustrate what faith is.
(b) The definition is less one of meaning for the word and
more of a practical example of what faith does.
(2) Faith does two things:
(a) "faith is the substance of things hoped for"
i. Faith is the "reality" or substance of that which we
long or hope for in Christ.
ii. God gives us promises.
iii. God’s promises create a hope or longing for the thing
that has God promised.
iv. Faith is what we have until that hope becomes
reality.
aa. When God tarries fulfilling the promise, our
faith that He will fulfill His word is all that
we have.
bb. We must lean on that promise and trust it as
much as if the fulfillment were already ours.
v. A Christian must train himself to be as content with
the promise of God as with the fulfillment of that
promise.
vi. The writer will use most of the remainder of this
chapter to show us how substantive faith can be.
(b) Faith "is the evidence of things not seen."
i. It is the evidence of things not seen AS YET.
ii. Until God fulfills His promise and makes our faith a
reality, the only evidence or proof that we have of
the promise is our faith in it.
aa. Our faith becomes our security.
bb. Faith is what we hold onto while we wait on God
to fulfill His promise.
iii. Faith is our IOU from God.
aa. It is what we show, not only to others but to
ourselves, to demonstrate that we have a
certainty from God.
bb. In fact, our faith is more like a charge card.
We continue the work God has for us using the
promise, knowing that God will fulfill His
promise and honor all claims made against the
promise.
(3) Understanding these two aspects of faith, we see that our
faith is what gives God’s promise a presence in this world.
(a) Without faith, God’s promises would not effect our world
very much, but a promise from God combined with faith in
that promise produces an effect in our world.
(b) One without the other would do little good.
(c) We must have both a promise from God and faith that God
will do what He has promised before God will step into
our world.
(d) Both the promise and faith in the promise are needed
to produce an impact our reality.
i. If God’s promise were the concrete and steel of
a modern-day bridge, faith would be the pillars
that hold the bridge in place.
ii. If God’s promise were an air plane, faith would
be the engine that keeps it in the air.
b. \\#Heb 11:6\\ The necessity of faith-Not only is it necessary to
understand what faith does, it is also necessary that we under-
stand how important faith is.
(1) "without faith it is impossible to please him"
(a) God has bound Himself to work through His promises.
(b) That is, we must bring God into our world by finding and
believing what He has promised.
(c) God will work in no other way.
(d) Since God desires to work in our world, our faith is
required to "please" God.
(2) For faith to work, the believer must believe two things.
(a) "that he is"-He must believe in God’s existence.
i. A case could be made that not only must one believe
that God exists but that He must also believe in
the God that the Bible describes.
ii. The proof for such a case lies in the fact that God
is not bound to honor the faith of those who believe
that God is an idol or merely a divine being.
iii. If the only thing God requires is that one believes
in the existence of a supernatural being, then all
religions would lead to God, but they do not.
iv. Our faith must be in the God of the Bible.
(b) "and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him"-He must believe that God honors those who will
seek Him out.
i. God does not desire that we have a passive faith that
does not effect or alter our life.
ii. God honors the faith of those who are changed by
their strong belief in Him.
iii. That belief should be strong enough to cause a person
to look for God’s method of interacting with us;
that is, to look for His promises.
iv. And once found, that faith should be strong enough to
move a believer to claim those promises and expect
God to honor them.
v. Faith that is life altering is the kind of faith that
God will honor.
2. \\#Heb 11:2-12\\ The Roll Call of Faith (part 1)-The roll call will
be divided up into three sections. The first section will give
specific names of those who walked by faith (with two exceptions) and
specific actions which were done by these heroes in faith. The
emphasis of these examples is to show the necessity of faith and to
demonstrate how faith can effect the life of the one who has it.
a. \\#2\\ "by faith the elders obtained a good report"
(1) ELDERS is a reference to the leaders of Israel.
(2) The writer does not tell us which generation of elders to
which he is referring, but any group of Jewish leadership
that pleased God, would have had to walk by faith.
(3) One of the godliest generations of elders would have to be
the elders who were served with Joshua.
(a) There is no record of those elders resisting Joshua.
(b) Instead, with nothing but the promises of God and faith,
they crossed over the River Jordan to wage war and take
the land that God had promised them.
(c) Even more to their credit is the statement recorded about
them at the end of the Book of Joshua.
Joshua 24:31 And Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the
days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of
the LORD, that he had done for Israel.
(4) Certainly, that early group of elders obtained a good report
because they walked by faith.
b. \\#3\\ "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by
the word of God"
(1) This act of faith is not a applied to any one person in
particular; rather, throughout mankind’s history, it was a
belief that was held commonly among all of those who had any
kind of belief in a deity.
(a) In this text, the writer is not trying to persuade any-
one to accept this belief. Rather, he is stating a
fact.
(b) The writer likely considered faith in a Creator to be a
common faith; that is a faith that all men would have.
(c) The belief in a Creator would have a profound effect on
their everyday life and behaviors, as the lack of this
belief has had a profound effect on the lives and
behaviors of today.
(d) The writer probably never envisioned a time like ours,
when the majority of the world’s population would
believe that the world, and life itself, simply appeared
on its own.
(2) This is the very kind of faith that the writer wanted to
produce among his readers—only he wanted to produce a much
more specific faith.
(a) He wanted to produce a faith that Jesus is the Son of
God who came to die for the sins of mankind.
(b) If his readers would accept that belief, it would have a
profound and lasting effect on their lives.
(3) Although the writer’s main purpose is not to teach about
creation, we need not overlook the truth revealed in
this verse.
(a) "the worlds were framed by the word of God"-God stood
upon nothiness and spoke the worlds into existence.
(b) "so that the things which are seen were not made of
things which do appear"
i. With amazing accuracy, this statement flatly asserts
that evolution is false.
ii. The word "appear" means "to be exposed to view, to
appear to the mind, to have light shed on it."
aa. In short, it means to be found or discovered.
bb. Evolution is the belief that the microscopic
matter which has "appeared" to modern-day
scientists made the worlds (the things which
are seen).
cc. According to evolution, even life itself was
caused by the random grouping of elements and
matter. No outside force or intelligence was
required.
dd. What a simple but perfect description of what
evolution is!
iii. The writer here asserts that was not the case.
iv. Because refuting a theory which had not yet been
formulated was not the author’s purpose, he does not
take his statement any further. He simply makes it
and moves on to the next example of faith.
c. \\#4\\ "By faith Abel offered… a more excellent sacrifice"
(1) Now the writer moves into specific acts of Old Testament
faith.
(2) The account comes from \\#Ge 4:1-5\\ and also demonstrates how
what we believe effects our life.
(a) Abel believed what God had commanded concerning the need
for a living sacrifice to atone for sin.
(b) Cain did not have faith and did not belief, so he brought
what he considered to be "just as good."
(c) Abel’s act of faith brought righteousness while Cain’s
lack of faith produced a bitter heart and murder.
(3) In these examples, we see not only the NEED for faith but how
faith or the lack of faith effects one’s life. Regardless of
what path you choose, faith or the lack of faith, it colors
your philosophy and determines many of your actions.
(4) The writer’s desire was that they would have faith in Jesus
as the Christ and the promises God as made concerning Him.
d. \\#5\\ "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see
death… he had this testimony that he pleased God."
(1) Enoch’s story is in \\#Ge 5:21-24\\\.
(2) The writer’s first point is that for Enoch to have walked with
God, he had to do so by faith.
(3) A second point is that his faith in God so influenced his
everyday walk with God that God spared him the ordeal of
death.
(4) Enoch’s life "pleased God" because he walked by faith.
(5) That faith in God and His words effected Enoch and brought
God’s presence into this world.
e. \\#7\\ "By faith Noah, being warned… of things not seen as yet"
(1) Noah was told by God of the judgment that would come.
(2) By faith, Noah believed God, even though he could not
presently see the judgment that would come.
(3) Noah’s faith was absolutely necessary for him to build the
ark. If he had not believed God, he would have never worked
so hard for so long a time.
(4) Noah… "prepared an ark to the saving of his house"-But
again, we see how Noah’s faith effected his life and the
lives of others.
(5) Noah’s faith provided God’s method of saving the Noah, his
family, and the whole human race from extension.
(6) Noah’s faith is a perfect example of how God works through a
promise and faith in that promise to effect lives and
even the world in which we live.
f. \\#8-10\\ "By faith Abraham"
(1) \\#Ge 12:1-25:8\\ Abraham is another often referenced saint
whose life demonstrates the effect that faith in a promise
can have.
(2) Four examples of Abraham’s faith are given:
(a) \\#8\\ "he was called to go out into a place which he
should after receive"-Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees
with nothing more than a promise from God and his faith
that God would honor that promise.
(b) \\#9\\ "he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a
strange country, dwelling in tabernacles"-Not only did
Abraham go to the "promised land," but he spent the
remainder of his life in that land, all the while
believing God’s promise that the land would be his.
(c) "with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same
promise"-Abraham also accepted another part of God’s
promise by faith, namely that the land would be his
descendents.
(d) \\#10\\ "For he looked for a city which hath foundations,
whose builder and maker is God"
i. While seldom mentioned by contemporary preachers, this
verse tells us that Abraham’s vision was not solely
terrestrial.
ii. A city with foundations build by God would have to be
a celestial city for God has never constructed a
city on earth, neither has God ever indicated that
He would do so.
iii. While a good portion of Abraham’s faith was centered
on what God had promised to do for him on earth, it
is apparent from this passage that God had also made
some promises to Abraham about heaven too!
iv. Outside of this passage, promises about heaven are not
mentioned until we come to the New Covenant where
such promised are made to the church by Christ
Himself \\#John 14:1-3\\ and other New Testament
writers.
v. Typically, we consider the that God promised an
earthly kingdom to the Old Covenant believers and a
heavenly mansion to believers of the New Covenant.
vi. Why did God give Abraham both terrestrial and
celestial promises?
aa. Likely because Abraham is the father of both the
old and the new covenants.
bb. This is what Paul argued in Romans.
Romans 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the
righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might
be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that
righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only,
but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he
had being yet uncircumcised.
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise
might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to
that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him
whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things
which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many
nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
cc. Abraham, as the father of both the old and new
covenants, received the promises of both
covenants.
dd. It would seem that Abraham had more knowledge of
our time and heritage with God than most give
him credit for having!
g. \\#11-12\\ "Through faith also Sara"
(1) Faith is not just a man’s attribute. Many women believed the
promises of God and saw how faith could effect their lives as
well.
(2) \\#11\\ "Sara… received strength to conceive seed… when
she was past age"-God did not give the promise of a child to
Abraham alone, but to Sarah as well.
(3) It as Abraham AND Sarah’s faith in that promise that made the
promise a reality.
(4) "Therefore sprang there… so many as the stars of the sky in
multitude"-Their combined faith not only effected their
lives, but the lives of everyone who has, is, or will dwell
upon this planet.
(5) What a potent illustration of how faith brings God into this
world!
<Outline
Index> <Close Window>
