The Focus of Faith – Part 3 (Observing God’s Promise)
Hebrews 11:8-22 (13-16, 20-22)
December 27, 2015
This morning we are continuing with our study of faith
As found in Hebrews 11.
This chapter is a great study in and of itself,
But it is always important that you always remember the context.
This chapter was written to struggling Hebrews.
Hebrews 10:32-35 “But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.”
I must remind you that the people to whom this chapter was written
Were people who were losing everything in this life.
• Their property was being seized…
• Their freedom was being seized…
• Their reputation was being slandered…
Imagine enduring that…
Beyond that, as I’ve told you several times,
They were losing their right to the temple and all Jewish worship.
That is why in chapter 13 the writer will say:
Hebrews 13:10-14 “We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”
Because of Jesus,
These people were literally losing everything they could see.
That is why the writer is continually asking them
To focus on what they can’t see.
After all:
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
The writer is asking them to walk by faith, not sight.
He was asking them to truly believe
That even though they may lose everything in this life,
That they have a greater reward waiting in the next.
THAT IS FAITH.
And that type of faith is so much bigger than the fleshly type today
That seeks only to claim the things of this world.
The writer was not asking these suffering Hebrews
To believe God would restore the fortunes & comforts of this life.
He was asking them to believe that in eternity it will all be worth it.
FAITH IS ESSENTIAL.
In fact, the writer told us that we cannot please God without it.
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
We must have faith that looks beyond this life and into the next.
This is where hope and strength and encouragement and peace are found.
And in order to ILLUSTRATE his point
We have been looking at those whom the writer will refer to as
“so great a cloud of witnesses”.
• Men and women who were in similar situations and who handled them exactly as God desired.
• Men and women who because of their faith were made pleasing to God and became heirs of His righteousness.
Thus far we’ve seen THE REWARD OF FAITH
(Abel, Enoch, and Noah)
This was three gave God faith and as a result were granted righteousness.
They were made pleasing to God.
We are currently looking at THE FOCUS OF FAITH
(Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph)
Five people who received great promises from God,
But who also never received the fulfillment of those promises in this life.
Yet despite having not received the promises, they never wavered.
They never stopped believing, their gaze went into eternity.
We talk about their focus when we talk about their faith.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
That was them. They had focus.
We’ve been in this section for the past two weeks.
I told you that there are two main points.
We are currently in the first.
#1 THE PEOPLE
Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-22
We already looked at Abraham.
• We saw WHERE HE SETTLED
• We saw WHY HE STAYED
• We saw WHAT HE SACRIFICED
Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans because God promised him land
And descendants like the sand of the sea.
Abraham never saw either.
He lived in the land, but he never owned it.
He had a son, but never saw those multiplied descendants.
And yet Abraham never stopped believing God’s promise.
Last time we looked at Sarah.
• A 90 year old woman whom God promised a child.
• She started out weak in faith, but when God asked her if anything was too
difficult for Him, she said “no” and never wavered again.
She had the son and named him Isaac,
But she too never saw the rest of the promise.
And yet she believed.
This morning I want to look at the next three people in this section.
ISAAC, JACOB, AND JOSEPH
Obviously we can’t cover a complete rundown on these men here.
Together they cover more than 25 chapters of the book of Genesis.
From our study of Genesis you may remember
The main things we learned from these three men.
ISAAC TAUGHT US GRACE
• If you’ll remember Isaac was kind of the spoiled brat of the patriarchs.
• More negative is written about him than positive.
• He always seemed to carry that “spoiled rich kid” mentality.
But despite his lack of merit, God graciously chose and stuck with him.
JACOB TAUGHT US SANCTIFICATION
• Jacob was that cocky youth. Deceptive, willful, fleshly.
• We remember him showing off in front of Rachel and we remember him getting deceived by Laban.
More than anything the story of Jacob is about a TRANSFORMATION.
It is the process of God taking Jacob and making him Israel.
His story is a story of sanctification.
JOSEPH TAUGHT US PROVIDENCE
• Easily the best of the bunch, and yet Joseph suffered immensely.
• Betrayed and sold at age 14 by his brothers.
• He went from son to slave, slave to prisoner, and prisoner to ruler.
• And yet none of those things were due to anything that he had done either good or bad. Rather, God was using him to save the Messianic line.
• He taught us how to view the difficult circumstances in our lives through eyes of God’s sovereignty.
If you weren’t with us when we studied through Genesis, I’d definitely invite you to look that study up on our website.
But we obviously can’t rehash it all here.
Instead we are going to run through these three rather quickly
As the writer only wants to focus on what happened at their death.
Look at Hebrews 11:20-22
“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.”
His focus is clearly on the mentality and mindset of these men
As they were dying.
LET’S LOOK AT ISAAC.
“By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.”
• Here was Abraham’s promised son.
• He was born miraculously and even protected by God on several occasions.
Beyond that, the promises that God had made to Abraham,
He had reiterated to Isaac.
Genesis 26:24 “The LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham.”
Isaac was the child of promise and God reiterated the promise to him.
But here we find Isaac at the end of his life.
• Guess how many acres he owned? (0)
• Guess how many descendants he had? (2)
One might think that at this point
Isaac would have renounced all this land and descendants talk.
After all, Isaac saw his dad and mom believe this their whole life
And they never received it.
Now he is in the same boat.
Yet, here he is at his death, and instead of warning his boys not to be so gullible, “Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.”
If you remember the story you will also find it a little humorous.
Genesis 27:1-4 “Now it came about, when Isaac was old and his eyes were too dim to see, that he called his older son Esau and said to him, “My son.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” Isaac said, “Behold now, I am old and I do not know the day of my death. “Now then, please take your gear, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me; and prepare a savory dish for me such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die.”
There is another chapter that gets misunderstood in the book of Genesis.
Most people talk about how Jacob stole the blessing.
(first the birthright, then the blessing)
Well it is true that Jacob lied,
But I would remind you that Jacob did not steal the blessing.
It was Esau and Isaac who were trying to steal it from Jacob.
God had already given it to Jacob.
Isaac is clearly not the best role model.
• He is disregarding God’s chosen.
• He is supplanting God’s chosen with his own selection.
• His decision making is all about the flesh, not the Spirit
(Esau was the man’s man)
Clearly Isaac had flaws.
But the writer focuses on the one area where he did have faith.
He believed his descendants would flourish.
(Granted he tried to give it to the wrong son, but he believed the promise none the less)
And thinking Jacob was Esau, Isaac said:
Genesis 27:27-29 “So he came close and kissed him; and when he smelled the smell of his garments, he blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed; Now may God give you of the dew of heaven, And of the fatness of the earth, And an abundance of grain and new wine; May peoples serve you, And nations bow down to you; Be master of your brothers, And may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, And blessed be those who bless you.”
Hopefully there you hear that initial promise made to Abraham:
Genesis 12:2-3 “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
This is that original promise and it is obvious that Isaac believes it.
It certainly wasn’t because he saw it.
• Isaac had not been a blessing to anyone around him.
• Isaac did not own the land.
• Isaac had only two sons.
But here he was dying and still believing the promise.
WE MOVE ON TO JACOB
(21) “By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.”
Again the writer bypasses all the early trials and lessons of Jacob’s life
And moves directly to the time of his death.
Now Jacob (like Abraham and Isaac) had also heard directly from God regarding the promise.
Genesis 28:10-15 “Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
And here we find that even though Jacob
Had not received this promise of land or multitude of descendants,
He is also continuing to believe.
In fact, if you remember our study of Genesis you remember that
Jacob really came into his own at the end of his life.
Jacob did not even die in the land of promise.
He died in Egypt.
And even though Egypt was good to Jacob and his immediate children, JACOB REFUSED to let any of his children grow comfortable there.
He insisted that they continue to look “beyond Egypt”.
Remember the story “as he was dying”?
Genesis 47:29-31 “When the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now your hand under my thigh and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” And he said, “I will do as you have said.” He said, “Swear to me.” So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed.”
• Joseph was second in command in Egypt…
• They settled in Goshen and were growing rich…
• Life was good in Egypt
But Jacob refused to let his family lose sight of the promise.
And before he died the writer reminds how he blessed Joseph’s boys.
Genesis 48:1-4 “Now it came about after these things that Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is sick.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him. When it was told to Jacob, “Behold, your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel collected his strength and sat up in the bed. Then Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you for an everlasting possession.’”
At the end of that conversation Jacob said this to Joseph.
Genesis 48:21-22 “Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers. “I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”
I hope you see the faith involved here.
Jacob just gave Joseph a double portion of land he didn’t own.
• Jacob never took any land from the Amorite with his sword.
• He was looking prophetically at the coming conquest under Joshua.
Imagine if a member of your family passed away and in the will they left you 2,000 acres in the heart of Texas. (but you found out they didn’t own it)
The point here is that Jacob was believing.
• He never owned that land.
• He wasn’t even dying in that land.
• Yet he so believed it was his that he deeded it to his sons.
He never quit believing the promise.
AND THEN TO JOSEPH
(22) “By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones.”
There again the writer bypasses all the issues of Joseph’s life
And just focuses in on his death.
Here was Joseph.
• He was removed from the land of promise at age 14.
• He never returned there again.
• Yes, he did ascend to some pretty lofty heights in Egypt, but that still was never the goal.
• God used that to save Israel, but Egypt was never the final plan.
And here is Joseph, now at the end of his life.
Genesis 50:22-26 “Now Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.” So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.”
The interesting part about Joseph is that unlike Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph never heard the promise directly from God.
He learned it from Jacob.
Joseph never saw anything from the hand of God that would have led him to believe that Israel was ever going to own that land.
• Do you know how long Joseph lived in Canaan? (14 years)
• Do you know how long Joseph lived in Egypt? (96 years)
And yet, Joseph so believed it that he gave the Israelites
A perpetual reminder that one day it would happen.
He made them take an oath to take his bones when they went.
Here was three men on their death bed
And yet still believing a promise
That was older than the United States of America.
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph had focus.
They did not look at the circumstances, they looked at God’s promise.
That was the people.
Now let’s look at the second point of this section.
#2 THE POINT
Hebrews 11:13-16
Having seen those 5 illustrations
I think this passage will just about preach itself to you.
There should be almost no problem gaining the point here.
But let me quickly point out 5 realities that are listed here about these people.
1) THEIR DEATH (13a)
“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises,”
That has really been the point over the past few weeks hasn’t it?
It is really becoming the forgotten aspect of faith in our culture today.
Everything we know hinges upon instant gratification.
We live in a day of
• Drive-through windows
• Overnight shipping
• Instant downloads
• Walk-in doctor’s offices
• Microwavable dinners
We have crafted a culture that expects instant gratification.
Waiting on things in our culture has become the ultimate inconvenience.
So it’s not surprising that religion has even crafted a theology
Where-by you no longer should have to wait on God.
They market it under the banner of faith.
• You just claim it
• You just speak it
• You just believe it
• And God will do it for you.
But that sort of thinking really undermines the very point
Of the type of faith the writer of Hebrews is talking about.
He’s talking about faith
• That patiently waits and waits and waits and waits.
• That never stops believing regardless of how long it takes.
• That endures even through death.
“All these died in faith, without receiving the promises,”
It’s easy to see why they are our examples.
Abraham was 75 years old
When God first promised the land and all those descendants.
His great-grandson Joseph died at age 110
And they still hadn’t received it.
But they all died “in faith” still believing.
Their Death
2) THEIR DESIRE (13b)
“but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance,”
In other words
• They heard the promise.
• They saw what it was.
• AND THEY WANTED IT,
• Even though they never were allowed to touch it.
They “welcomed them from a distance”
They chose the future over the present.
It is the same thing we are called to do every time
We choose to store up treasure in heaven instead of treasure on earth.
Paul wrote to Timothy:
1 Timothy 6:17-19 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
It is what Jesus said:
Luke 12:33-34 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Those types of things are difficult for us to do
Because we are being asked to give up what we can touch
In order to obtain what we can’t touch;
Simply with the belief that it will one day be better.
All these faced that exact same decision and all these chose the future.
• They saw it
• They “welcomed” it
• But in this life it was always “from a distance”
Their desire was for the future.
Their death, Their desire
3) THEIR DECISION (13c-14)
“and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.”
There are a couple of things that make it clear
That they chose the future over the present.
And the first is their confession.
They “confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”
Remember Abraham?
Genesis 23:4 “I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
How about Jacob?
Genesis 47:7-9 “Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many years have you lived?” So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are one hundred and thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.”
These men did not beat around the bush.
They knew they were “strangers and exiles”
But here is the interesting truth that the writer of Hebrews reveals.
He does NOT say that they were “strangers and exiles in Canaan”
He says they were “strangers and exiles on the earth.”
They knew that this life was not their inheritance.
Philippians 3:17-21 “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
It is the Christian understanding that my inheritance is not here.
It is the Christian understanding that my home is not here.
Jim Reeves sang, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me through heaven’s open door, and I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
That was the belief of these 5.
They knew their reward was heavenly,
Not earthly and they confessed that to others.
The writer goes on to say: (14) “For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.”
In other words it is clear what their decision was.
They chose the next life and confessed that to others.
Their desire was for a better country and that is what they chose.
Their death, Their desire, Their decision
4) THEIR DEVOTION (15-16a)
“And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”
This is a very important verse
(especially as it pertains to the Hebrews who were receiving this letter)
Because it speaks of the staying power of these patriarchs.
They weren’t waiting for heaven because they had no other option.
They did.
In fact the writer says “if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.”
It wasn’t that they had no other option but to wait for heaven.
It is that they chose to wait for heaven.
“But as it is they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.”
Now let me ask you to pay attention to that statement for a second.
I think the temptation is to read this verse and say, “If Abraham had wanted to return to Ur, he could have, but he chose to stay in Canaan.”
And I don’t think that’s missing the point.
Certainly that is true.
But I think there is a greater point.
The writer is clear that the desire was for heaven, not earth.
I think this verse also applies to men like Jacob and Joseph.
Where did these men die? Egypt.
They also would have opportunity to return to their country,
But they didn’t.
I think the writer is giving some pretty good insight
About the eternal perspective of the patriarchs.
Their desire was not just for a patch of land (even Canaan).
If that is all it was, certainly Joseph
Could have gone back there at some point in his life.
No, their desire was for heaven.
It was never about what they could obtain in this life.
Not only did they choose God’s inheritance over the worlds
They CONTINUED to choose it
Every time a different opportunity presented itself.
THINK ABOUT THAT.
• Is this world really what you want?
• Is houses and farms and land and money here really the goal?
These people were willing to live as stranger and aliens
And their main goal in life was not to change that.
Their main goal was to please God and receive what He had for them.
1 Timothy 6:7-10 “For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
They are living illustrations of the parables Jesus gave:
Matthew 13:44-46 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
They just believed the value of God’s kingdom
Far out-weighed the value of anything here.
So every time they received the opportunity
To choose eternity over this life
They continued to make that choice.
They were devoted.
Their death, Their desire, Their decision, Their Devotion
5) THEIR DESCRIPTION (16b)
“Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
What a way to be described!
“The people of whom God is not ashamed”
Do you see how this directly applies to those Hebrews?
They were losing everything in this life
And were contemplating forsaking eternity to get it back.
The writer says, “NO!” Instead be like the patriarchs who gladly forsook this life for the next and continued to do it even when faced with death.”
No, they never received the land.
No, they didn’t always live in comfort.
But they received something far more valuable.
They received God’s favor and God’s inheritance.
“for He has prepared a city for them.”
Remember the warning the writer gave in chapter 10?
Hebrews 10:37-38 “FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.”
So the application is simple.
• People who trade eternity for this life do not receive God’s pleasure.
• People who trade this life for eternity are people God is not ashamed of.
WE CALL IT THE FOCUS OF FAITH.
This life will continually present us with difficult decisions.
It is imperative that we always
Look beyond what we can see into what we can’t see.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
