What Is Faith?

12th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/11/13
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16


What Is Faith?
I. It’s being certain of what we don’t see.
II. It’s being sure of what we hope for.


There are words that we use every day that, when asked, you might have a difficult time defining. Would you like to try one? OK. Here we go. Define the word “up.” I’ll give you a few seconds to think about it. Are you finished trying?
One of the reasons the word “up” is so difficult to define is that it’s used as an adverb, adjective, preposition, noun, verb, prefix and suffix. Dictionary.com lists 81 meanings for it. Crazy, isn’t it? We use the word over and over again and we know exactly what we mean when we use it and so do others, but we have a hard time defining it.

Today’s worship theme shares the comforting news that our God promises us better things to come. He doesn’t necessarily promise better things right now or in a few days or weeks. But there are better things for us in the future. The best, of course, is eternal life in heaven with our God.

But until we get there, we’re left here to stick it out, suffer through it, soldier on. And that gets tiresome. We get weary and discouraged. We even begin to doubt what God has promised, that being better things will come. Do you know what I’m talking about? We all do.

It’s a good thing, then, that our God shares with us his words of encouragement through the writer to the Hebrews. These words were originally written to Jewish Christians who were suffering persecution for their faith in Jesus. Thus they were tempted to go back to Judaism. Throughout this book the writer pleads with them not to do so. In this particular portion of it, he draws their attention to their faith.

There it is. Faith. How do you define faith? Just what is it? That’s the question before us this morning. What is faith? May the Holy Spirit enlighten us as we focus our attention on this portion of his word this morning.

Part I.

There’s an old saying, “Seeing is believing.” I’m sure you’ve heard it before. You’ve probably even used it. Someone tells you that they’re going to accomplish something unusual. Perhaps you know this person well enough that they have made this very same claim before. You listen to them, but you’re telling yourself, “Here we go again. I’ve heard this all before.” And while you don’t want to discourage them, you also want them to know that they have made this empty claim before. So you tell them, “Seeing is believing.” In other words, when you see them actually do what they say they are going to do, you’ll believe it.

Believing is faith. And while you won’t believe the person I just described until you do see them accomplish what they said, our Lord has the exact opposite definition of faith. Listen to what he says through the writer, “Now faith is being…certain of what we do not see.” Another way of stating that is, “Not seeing is believing.” And then the writer goes back to the very first page of the Bible and points out that very thing. “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” No one was present when God first said, “Let there be” and there it was. How do you create something out of nothing? I can’t explain that. I can’t understand it. And no one was there to witness it. But I believe it. I trust that what God tells me is true. Not seeing is believing.

After giving that definition of faith, our text says, “This is what the ancients were commended for.” He’s not simply referring to the fact that ancient believers believed in the creation account of Genesis. He’s also including the fact that they believed God’s promise of a Savior. This chapter of Hebrews presents the believers’ hall of fame. All of them believed that a Savior was coming. But none of them ever laid eyes on that Savior.

I’ve never seen the object of my faith either. I don’t even have a photograph of him. But I know and believe that Jesus is my Savior from sin. So do you even though you haven’t seen him either.

And therefore, we also trust our God for other tremendous blessings that we can’t see. As sinners, one of those great blessings is the forgiveness of sins. We know that we can’t point to any amount of money we paid, any listing of good works that we’ve done, or any other sacrifices we have made as the evidence that we are forgiven. None of those things earn any forgiveness. But they don’t have to. We believe Jesus won our forgiveness for us. Our faith looks to what he did on Calvary’s cross, not to what we do.

Another great blessing we don’t see in the moment is the guidance of our God. Certainly there are times in our lives when we can look back and see how God led us through some terrible situation, but not in the moment. We wonder what our God is doing and where he’s leading us. But even though we can’t see it, we believe that he is indeed guiding us. That’s faith.

In fact, we trust him to get us through those times. Again, you might not see it in the moment. In fact, you may be at the point in which you don’t think you can take another second of it. You’re so crushed you can barely breathe. But you trust your God to give you the strength to see another day. You can see it, but you believe it. And he does.
What is faith? It’s being certain of what we don’t see.

Do we have anyone here from Missouri? Missouri is known as the “show me” state. In other words, Missourians want to see before they believe.

Whether or not you’re from Missouri, there’s a little bit of Missouri in all of us. When life is tough, when you’re down and out, when you’ve been bearing up patiently but now your patience is at an end, and when your knees are worn out from praying about it, then you want God to show you. And when it doesn’t happen the way we want it to when we want it to, then we begin to doubt. But doubt is the opposite of faith. Your faith is being certain of what you don’t see. That faith centers in an unseen, but absolutely real and powerful Savior, the very Son of God himself. From eternity he was chosen to be your Savior and he chose you to be his own. In time he carried out the work of being your Savior when he died and rose again. He did that so that you could spend eternity with him. We can’t see that eternity yet, but we will. Faith is being certain of it. What is faith? It’s being certain of what we don’t see.

Part II.

I spoke about the impressive number of meanings of the word “up” when I began this sermon. It’s used in so many different ways. Thankfully, the definition of the word faith doesn’t share that distinction. What is faith? We just heard that it’s being certain of what we don’t see. But the writer does offer one more definition. He speaks about faith being hope.

Hope. There’s a word we use quite often. We hope it doesn’t rain because we’re planning to have a picnic. We hope we have a good day at work or school. We hope our spouse will understand. We hope the kids will behave. There’s no certainty in any of those situations. We don’t know how they will turn out. We’re simply hoping for the best to occur.

But that’s not the way the Bible uses the word hope. As Christians we have hope because we know that things will get better. God promises it. Therefore we’re sure of it.
What is faith? It’s being sure of what we hope for.

In this chapter of Hebrews, that’s the faith that these heroes of faith possessed, most notably, Abraham, the father of all Hebrews. We read, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” God told Abraham to move but he didn’t say where, only that he would show him. Would you be willing to do that? That takes faith.

He went there and God told him that this land would be his inheritance, but Abraham never owned the land. It was the “Promised Land.” Yes, Abraham eventually owned a burial cave in that land, but that was it.

In fact, he never built a house there even though God had promised him the land. The writer tells us, “He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.” He spent his life in the Promised Land wandering from place to place. He was a nomad. But he knew that one day this land would belong to his descendants. He was sure of it.

Abraham was sure about the promise of the land because he was sure of a far greater promise, the promise of a son through whom would come the Savior of the world. It took 25 years for God to deliver on that promise when Isaac was born and there were days when Abraham, like any other sinful human being, had his moments of doubt. But over all, he was sure of God’s promises to him.

Ultimately, he was sure of God’s promise of eternal life. No, he didn’t own a home or the land. But that didn’t matter. “He was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” His faith kept the ultimate goal in mind—the goal of life with God in heaven. Abraham didn’t just hope to get there. He was sure of it.
What is faith? It’s being sure of what we hope for.

Your God wants to fill you with the same hope. He wants you to be absolutely sure of eternal life with him by faith in Jesus. When doubts and uncertainties arise in your life and vex your faith, look to Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection. That was God’s plan for him so that he could carry out his plan for you. God promises better things to come. Indeed the best is yet to come. You can be sure of it because of Jesus. That’s faith! Amen.