“What‘s This Faith That Does?” Heb 11.1–12.2, Pent. 2C, June ‘25

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We’re beginning a summer sermon series today on Hebrews 11 called: "What Can Faith Do?" It’s based on those basic Old Testament lessons that form the foundation of our faith: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and so on. These are the standard Old Testament lessons that every Christian ought to know. But these days, it seems that every ounce of the devil’s efforts is aimed at keeping even church-going people from knowing their Bibles, especially the Old Testament. That’s why it’s good for us to look at these accounts, particularly from the eye of the New Testament—the perspective of faith. The message from God’s Word today is taken from Hebrews 11:1-12:2, which you can find printed in your bulletin, and is entitled, “What’s This Fath That Does?” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Hebrews 11 is all about faith. Hebrews 11 is commonly referred to as the Hall of Faith. It walks us through those famous Old Testament stories and properly frames them in light of faith. Not surprisingly, Hebrews 11:1 begins with a clear and concise definition of faith, “Faith Is the Assurance of Things Hoped For, the Conviction of Things Not Seen.”

3.                Because this is the Bible’s definition of faith, whatever other definitions you’ve ever heard for faith, forget them. This is how God wants us to understand faith. Commit this to memory: “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” That’s what this chapter is all about. Hebrews 11 claims that this faith is what all of those Old Testament lessons are all about. If you want to understand your Bible, especially the Old Testament, you’ve got to read it all in light of this understanding of faith. Let’s start our series by meditating on that definition of faith Hebrews gives us: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

4.                Start with “assurance.” Assurance means to be sure about something. Faith, first of all, is being sure of the things for which you hope. The hope we’re talking about here is not like, “I hope I win the lottery!” or “I really hope she likes me.” No, this is sure, certainty. This is hope because there’s a reason. Biblical faith isn’t wishy-washy, or based on a fad or feeling. It’s sure because it’s been made sure, assured, that the One who promised is faithful and he is able to fulfill that promise in His Son Jesus Christ.

5.                Let’s not miss this assurance just because there are things about God, about the world, even about ourselves that we don’t understand. The things that God has revealed to us in his Word are the things that we are called to believe, to be certain and sure about. These promises are the objects of the Christian’s hope. You know many of these great promises. You’ve been promised that Christ’s blood was shed to forgive you of all of your sins—known and unknown, past, present, and even future Can we be sure about that promise of God for you? Absolutely! Believing that is faith, faith that saves. You’ve been promised that Jesus who died and rose again is going to prepare a place for you in heaven, that where he is you might be also. Can you be certain about going to be with Christ in the place prepared for you when you die? Absolutely! Believing that is faith. Many more such promises are the object of our hope as Christians. And the one who puts assurance in those sure promises of God in the Bible has the kind of faith that God desires you to have—the kind of faith that saves. That’s assurance.

6.                Then take “conviction.” Conviction means to have been convinced, convicted, by the evidence and reports around you. This isn’t blind faith. It’s reasonable. It’s evidential. It’s a faith that makes sense. The writer to the Hebrews says that faith is being convinced by the evidence, which we do see, that the things we don’t see must also be true.

7.                We believe in a God we can’t see because Jesus, the Son of God, was made flesh in time and history so that the world did see him. We believe in a heaven we can’t see because the Jesus we could see was taken up into heaven before the apostles’ eyes. We believe in life after death because a very visible and tangible Jesus rose from the dead and was seen by over 500 eyewitnesses in the course of the 40 days before his ascension. We believe that God washes away our sins in the waters of baptism because Jesus poured out his very real and visible blood on the cross and rose again from the dead. We believe that Jesus gives us his body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine—even though we can’t see his body or taste his blood. We are convinced, that they are here at the altar in the Lord’s Supper because Jesus who died and rose again, who ascended to the right hand of the Father as God, has convinced us of his power to fulfill his promise: “This is my body. This is my blood” (cf Mt 26:26–28). We don’t see it, but can we be convinced by the evidence that it is true? Absolutely! Believing that is faith—the kind of faith that God desires you to have, the kind of faith that saves.

8.                Hebrews 11 says that all of the great saints of the Old Testament had this faith. Which means that the history of the Old Testament is the history of faith. The faith that saves you for the sake of Jesus is the very same faith that saved Abel, that saved Noah, the same faith that saved Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph and Moses, Rahab and all the rest. They were commended for the same faith in God that you have. The only difference, Hebrews 11:39-40 says, is that they “did not receive what was promised,” but you have received it. They looked forward to Christ, and we look back—but for both us and them, from first to last, it’s all about faith.

9.                Which means that the Bible always has been the story of Christians. It’s the story of the church from Genesis to Revelation. Adam and Eve were Christians. Abraham was a Christian. That’s what the Bible says. If you fail to read the Bible that way, you’ll miss everything, because it’s all about Jesus. It was always leading to the cross and the Son of God dying for the sins of the world. The stories of the Old Testament are the stories of sinners like you and me struggling for the same faith—members of the very same church. They may not have faced the exact same struggles we do today, but we can learn from the way they lived out their faith—from the way they clung to their assurance and stuck to their convictions—and so follow their examples as they lived their faith in Christ.

10.             That’s why we need to know their stories, and that’s why in these coming weeks you need to be here in church —that you and they may know and grow too. Or, as Hebrews 12:1–2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

11.             That’s what it’s all about: faith. A faith that is made sure by the promises of Jesus and convicted by the evidence of Jesus—because Jesus is the beginning and end of faith. If you’re still unsure or unconvinced about this Jesus, please join us throughout this series as we see more reasons to believe. May the Lord increase your faith, no matter who you are, that together we all may rejoice when he fulfills his promise to come again and take us to our heavenly home. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

“Jesus, the Wisdom of God” Prov. 8.1-4, 22-31, TrinityC June ‘25

 

1.                Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word, on this Holy Trinity Sunday, is taken from Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, it’s entitled, “Jesus, the Wisdom of God,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Why is it that we tend to start putting things together without looking at the instructions? Of course, when we get stuck, then we might take a look. On this Father’s Day weekend, Dad’s you know I’m talking to you, I’m guilty of not looking at the instructions also. If we get stuck putting things together, we may not even look at them then. God’s Word is more than “instructions for life,” it is the Word of the Creator, and he delights to have us enjoy life the way he created it (Prov 8:31). Instead, we have often it gone alone and ignored the wisdom God not only put right there in the box when he packaged all this but also gave us in writing. And yes, we get stuck. People are stuck in their sins but don’t even know it.

3.                God’s Word for life is first a Word for his gift of life: forgiveness for the sinful way of life and a whole new life in Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. This is his true wisdom. God’s Word for life is also a Word for his way of life, his way of living. This, too, is his true wisdom, and we are wise to follow it. Of course, we will fail and falter and fall, which brings us back to his gift of life: God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ, the eternal Wisdom of God!

4.                Our world seeks wisdom, from “handyman hacks” to the countless offerings of self-help books, from the practical to the deeply philosophical. The gradual decline of civic righteousness, built into creation by the Creator who made it all to be “very good” (Gen 1:31), has only widened the search for something true, noble, good, but practical for everyday living. As Christians, we know where true wisdom is found, and our Old Testament Reading for this Holy Trinity Sunday helps us discover it again. A remarkable metaphor from the book of Proverbs reminds us that, in the Trinity we encounter God’s true way of wisdom. Jesus, the wisdom of God

5.                God’s wisdom is true wisdom. This is the message of the book of Proverbs and of the whole of God’s Word (Proverbs 9:10). Proverbs often illustrates this by personifying Wisdom as a virtuous woman (Proverbs 9:1–5). It should seem obvious to listen to the Creator, who put the whole operation together to work smoothly. But fallen and sinful wisdom is clever and devious. Proverbs pictures it as a deceptive woman, attracting wondering then wandering eyes, hands, and ways (Proverbs 9:13–18). Still, God holds out for those who listen to his true wisdom. He wants to rejoice in humanity as the ultimate delight of his creation (Psalm 8).

6.                True wisdom begins with understanding God. For many, this begins with the marvels of creation that “natural causes” are hard pressed to explain. God’s work is marvelous! Our text from Proverbs 8:24–31 says, “24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, 26 before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. 27 When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.” These verses from Proverbs 8 beautifully describe Jesus, as wisdom's eternal presence with God, especially during creation, showing God's delight in both His creation and in humanity. Many have also seen a foreshadowing of Christ here—eternally with the Father, sharing in His work and love for mankind. For the full story, we have come to know God as the triune God, three persons that are both simple and yet too complex to comprehend and explain.

7.                One perspective on the Trinity is the relationship of the three persons. A famous ancient controversy dating back to the fourth century hinged on verse Proverbs 8:22 of our text, which says, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.” In this verse wisdom is personified and speaks of being with the Lord from the very beginning—before creation itself. It highlights God's eternal wisdom as foundational to all that He made. Christians often see in this passage a reflection of Christ, the eternal Word, who was with God in the beginning as the Gospel of John 1:1–3 testifies.

8.                Jesus, God’s Son says, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:58). This month marks 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, a pivotal moment in Church history. Convened by Emperor Constantine to resolve a theological dispute, the Council addressed a critical question: Who is Jesus? The debate centered on the teachings of Arius, who claimed Jesus was a created being and not equal to God the Father, versus Alexander of Alexandria, who upheld Christ’s eternal divinity and equality with the Father.

9.                The Council affirmed the biblical and apostolic teaching that Jesus is “begotten, not made, of one substance (homoousios) with the Father”, rejecting Arianism as heresy. This teaching was preserved in the Nicene Creed, which remains a cornerstone of orthodox Christian belief. At the Council it was argued that the divinity of Christ was of central importance to the Christian idea of salvation. If what Arius was maintaining was true, Christ could not save anyone, since no mere “creature” can save another creature. Only God can save and even Arius seemed to agree that, according to the New Testament, salvation was meant to come through Jesus.

10.             According to Luther’s Small Catechism, Jesus became true man in order to take our place under the Law (Gal. 4:4-5) and suffer and die for our sins. By His holy, precious blood and innocent suffering and death, Jesus paid the price for our redemption. Through His human nature, Jesus could physically bear the punishment for sins that we deserved, acting as our substitute. Jesus’ resurrection in the flesh assures us of our own resurrection and victory over death. Martin Luther emphasized that Christ had to be both true God and true man to be our Savior: True man so He could suffer and die for us, and True God so His death would have infinite value to redeem the whole world from sin, death, and power of the devil. It’s a beautiful and comforting teaching: our Lord Jesus didn’t save us from afar—He became one of us to redeem us with His own life.

11.             Despite this, Arian ideas persist today in groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and even among some evangelicals, highlighting a continued need for sound theological education. In fact, Arianism remains alive and well among evangelicals. In 2022, a survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research found that 73% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.” This widespread ignorance of Church history and the Creeds among many Christians, and the lack of interest in theological seriousness and formation among many churches, has consequences. The Council of Nicaea not only clarified the deity of Christ but laid the foundation for later doctrines about the Trinity and Christ’s two natures as we see in the Athanasian Creed we confessed today, which the Church comprised years later by the 6^th century. The Athanasian Creed was not written by Athanasius of Alexandria (who lived in the 4th century), but it reflects his strong defense of Trinitarian doctrine against heresies like Arianism.

12.             Another perspective on the Trinity is the work of these three persons, inseparable yet described as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Our teaching on the Trinity is grounded in a proper understanding of Scripture, as the debates over Proverbs 8:22 attest. Jesus the Son (Second Person) is distinct from the Father yet has existed from before the creation. The Son, as God’s true Wisdom, was present at creation, and even joined in the craftsmanship (Proverbs 8:30). The Son was both the delight of the Father and joined the Father in delighting in creation, especially the creation of humanity.

13.             Our teaching on the Trinity is grounded in a correct understanding of the “way” of God (Proverbs 8:22). This begins with the “way” of creation, visible to all. But fallen creation will continue to falter, to follow fallen wisdom, the temptress. So, the Creator came to establish a new creation, through the death of the old and a resurrection to new life. This is the primary work of God’s Son, the Redeemer, by whose resurrection God made him Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36).

14.             God’s “Wisdom for the way” is—Wisdom that leads us into the way of life. Wisdom that guides us on the way of life. We have this because the Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, has come to teach us all things. Last week’s Pentecost Gospel, Jn 14:26, Jesus says, “"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.". And the Spirit’s “all things” is Christ. Jesus says in John 15:26, "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me." Therefore, we are, by grace—Those who know and can live by God’s true wisdom in Christ. God’s delight in Christ!

15.             Holy Trinity is the one feast of the church year that is explicitly about a doctrine. Now, knowing the doctrine taught in Holy Scripture is a kind of wisdom—and not knowing correct doctrine would be catastrophic for the church, as the Arian controversy showed. But knowing the doctrine of the Trinity as Scripture teaches it is more than a wisdom of “knowing the right stuff.” It is very practical—the way we know how all things truly operate best, how the one God set up everything to work for the good of his creatures. Above all, that is to say, the doctrine of the Trinity is about being wise unto salvation—the way of eternal life as God has worked it for us in the saving work of his Wisdom, the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.