Sermon the Week; John Piper: Faith That Moves: Hebrews 11 Explained

Beloved, what is faith? What does it look like to live by faith in the promises of God? The book of Hebrews gives us the picture. Faith is drawing near to God with confidence. Faith is trusting the faithful promises of God just like the saints of old. And faith is fixing our eyes—steadfast, unblinking—on Jesus, the Author and the Perfecter of our faith.

Faith is not vague. Faith is not passive. Faith is not wishful thinking.
Faith moves.
Faith leans in.
Faith looks up.

Hebrews calls us to come close to God, to stand on His promises, and to keep our eyes locked on the One who started our faith and the One who will finish it. That’s what it means to live by faith in the promises of God.

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Transcript

What Faith Really Is

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Welcome to Biblical Talks Sermon of the Week. Beloved, what is faith? And what does it look like to live by faith in the promises of God? The book of Hebrew gives us the picture. Faith is drawing near to God with confidence. Faith is trusting the faithful promises of God, just like the saints of old. Faith is fixing our eyes steadfast, unblinking on Jesus, who's the author and the perfecter of our faith. Faith is not vague, faith is not passive, faith is not wishful thinking. Faith moves, faith leans in, faith looks up. Hebrew calls us to come close to God, to stand on his promises, and to keep our eyes locked on the one who started our faith and the one who will finish it. That's what it means to live by faith in the promise of God. Today we will hear from John Piper as he preaches on what is faith. Here's John Piper.

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What I hope to do is show you from the book of Hebrews

The Pathway To Radical Faith

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that if you've ever dreamed of having a faith that is so real that you'd be willing to sacrifice all your possessions for the sake of Christ and do it gladly? Or if you've ever dreamed that you would have a faith that is so authentic that you would be able to choose against wealth and comfort and security in order to serve God's people for forty years and do it gladly, or if you've ever dreamed that you could have a faith so powerful that you would give your life to save other lives gladly, then the pathway to your dreams is here. It's here. So what I'm about to show you is the pathway into that kind of radical, real, authentic, life-changing faith from the book of Hebrews, and I invite you to turn to Hebrews chapter 11 as I pray. Father, I do need your help. We need your help because faith is a gift, and it is so different than anything this world knows. There are no analogies that come close to what we're

Defining Hypostasis In Hebrews 11:1

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about to see. And I want to see the students and the faculty and the friends here go so deep with faith, this kind of faith, that they would indeed be able to lose all their possessions, choose against comfort, lay down their lives gladly. For Christ's sake. So come and help us, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to drill down on the first half of verse 1 in Hebrews 11. And then once we've done that, we'll try to confirm what I propose from three other places in Hebrews. The experience of Jesus in chapter 12, the experience of Moses in 1125 following, and the experience of the early church in chapter 10. Because what I think the writer is doing is telling us what faith is in a proposition in chapter 11 and 1, and then he's fleshing it out for us to see it actually doing it, what it does, what it looks like in people's lives in those instances. And those instances then become a confirmation, I hope, of what I'm arguing for in verse 1. So here we are in chapter 11, verse 1. Now, faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Now, I don't use Greek in worship services, but this is Bethlehem. Everybody here studies Greek. I think. You should. I think under the Trinity, I give a lot of thought to this, whether I should say this, but I'm gonna say it. Under the Trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, nothing is more important than the Greek New Testament in the universe.

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Okay.

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So I'm gonna talk about it. The Old King James Version translates faith is the substance of things hoped for. Almost all modern versions translate it, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and I'm gonna argue for substance. Tell you why, tell you what I think it means, and then flesh it out in those three instances. Number one, three reasons. The word hypostasis is used two other times in the book of Hebrews. One, three. Listen to this. Christ is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his hypostasis. Translated nature, substance, essence, reality. Chapter three, verse fourteen. We have come to share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence, hypostasis, hypostase, firm to the end. Now, in the original, there's no word for our.

Assurance Versus Substance

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And it helps, right? How do you take a future substance and make it a present substance? Substantialization, like realization. Something in the very nature of the hoped-for reality is experienced, sensed, tasted by faith. Now, those are my three reasons, but that third one I realize is almost just like a claim. It's not an argument, but it's a claim based on these three instances of how Jesus lived by faith, how Moses lived by faith, how the early church lived by faith. And I think they flesh out that argument. This is what faith is. It's the substance of things hoped for. The things hoped for are realized in this experience of faith. So something of that is here. I don't get too worried about the controversy about substance versus assurance. Because I think, I've tried to do this, if you bore down to the bottom of the reality of assurance, you wind up in the same place. Why do we have assurance? If you were to ask the author, I mean, suppose you translated assurance, and you say, how do you get that? Where does it come from? What is it? I think he would say faith sees, faith knows, faith tastes, faith experiences,

Jesus Endured For Joy Set Before Him

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things hoped for. That's how you have assurance. I don't think we need to quil, frankly. Because these other instances are the answer to what it is, whatever word you use, the these experiences. We want to know, I want to know what it looks like. What would your life look like if you had this? Because we know from Hebrews what it looks like. One more introductory comment. Um I'm only talking about one dimension of faith, one element, one aspect. Oh my goodness. Faith in the New Testament, even in Hebrews, is a many splendored thing. So if you say, well, what about I'm not talking about that. So you do that, okay? You you preach on that. I'm preaching on this because I think this is one of the most important aspects of faith, and one that is sorely neglected and rarely thought or taught about. If you would ask the average Christian what faith is, they wouldn't say what I'm about to say. It's just not thought about much, and it's utterly transformative. It did in Hebrews anyway. I think it would for you. So we're going to talk about Jesus, we're going to talk about Moses, we're going to talk about the early church and how faith was the substance of things hoped for in their experience. Okay, so let's go to Jesus chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. I hope a lot of you are looking at your Greek New Testament. You think those are just for study? It's a wonderful book. The writer has just given us 19 instances, actually, way more than 19, but he's used the phrase by faith 19 times in the 11th chapter. So by faith, Abraham obeyed. And then 18 more. By faith, by faith, by faith. So this this chapter leading up to 12, no chapter divisions in the original. This chapter leading up to 12 is all about what does it look like? What does faith look like? How does it do what it does? And then he comes to Jesus. Here's another illustration. Verse 1, therefore, that's significant, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, so that's all those Old Testament faith people. Let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with endurance, just like they did. The race that is set before us, and then he shifts gears looking to Jesus. Oh, I thought we were supposed to look at chapter 11. Well, you are, but here's another person who really does it well. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, sounds familiar? Things hoped for. This is the joy, at the right hand of the throne of God. So he calls Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith. That founding includes not only his role as foundation, but also illustration. Look to Jesus. Look at him. Watch him do this. How does he do this? How does he dare endure the cross? So he not only secured our finishing the race by his death, chapter seven, saved to the uttermost, he also gave us the example of how to get there, how to finish the race, how to do it. So the writer tells us, look to Jesus, verse 2. What does he want us to see? What does he draw our attention to when he says, Look at him? Look at him. He says, I want you to see how he endured the cross. Because the rest of chapter 12 unfolds, you're gonna want to endure. Namely, he did it for the joy that was set before him.

Moses Looked To The Reward

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So the writer has said nineteen times, by faith, by faith, by faith, the saints obeyed often at great cost to themselves, sawn into. And now, with a climactic illustration of the obedience of Jesus, he says, instead of by faith he endured the cross, he says, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Same thing. Because faith is the substance of things hoped for. He tasted it. It was so real, this joy, this hoped for joy was so real, so substantial, so precious, so present, so powerful that it sustained him through the agony of the cross. Suppose you were in Gethsemane with Jesus, and you dared to ask him. Jesus. I think through the bloody tears and the agony, Luke uses the word agony. I think he would say I can see it.

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I can taste it. It's so real. It is so substantial. It's gonna get me through. I think that's what he would say.

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This hoped for joy at the Father's right hand, I believe, became for Jesus in the garden, on trial, on the cross, a powerful presence, an obedient, sustaining substance, reality, essence of that. In other words, the hoped for joy wasn't just future. It was realized, it was made real in the present. Faith is the present experience of the substance of the thing hoped for. This is how hoped-for joy becomes a mighty force in your life to enable you to die gladly for others. There was no greater act of love that's ever been performed in the history of the world. And it was performed for the joy that was set before him by faith. He was able to do that because that joy set before him had a present substance, reality, obedience, sustaining power. So if we were to ask at this point in the message, what's faith? What's faith? I think the answer would be something like this faith embraces a hoped for joy, and that joy becomes a substantial element of the faith. Because faith is the substance of things hoped for. It doesn't just look at the substance, it is the substance participates in, partakes of the substance of what's hoped for. Let's turn to Moses. Chapter eleven, verses twenty-four to twenty-seven.

The Early Church’s Joyful Losses

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So if you read this now, notice that twice, verse twenty-four, twenty-seven, it says, by faith he did this, by faith he did this. So what are we reading? We're reading the author's effort to help us see what faith is and does, how it works. That's the point. How does it work? You know what faith is by watching it do things in people's lives. So let's read it. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth. Very odd, right? He considered reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward, things hoped for, the joy set before him. This is no accident. This author has a profound grasp on reality. He wants us to see this pattern over and over again. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured, just like Jesus endured the cross, seeing him who is invisible. Well. Moses did three things by faith. Number one, by faith he refused to be called Pharaoh's daughter. Two, uh he that's not right. By faith he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Two, by faith he chose to be mistreated with the people. And three, by faith he considered reproach for Christ more precious, more valuable than the treasures of Egypt. Verse 26. So 24, 25, 26, three things that he was able to do by faith. Those three sacrifices, renunciation of Pharaoh's court, choosing mistreatment over fleeting pleasures, valuing the Messiah, him who is invisible, over the treasures of Egypt, those sacrifices correspond to Jesus enduring the cross. Then comes the explanation for how he did it by faith. Verse 26, for he was looking to the reward. This corresponds to Jesus looking at the joy set before him. When it says Moses looked to the reward, it doesn't mean he looked and saw nothing of substance. In fact, verse 27, by faith he left Egypt as seeing him who is invisible. He didn't just look, he saw. And what he saw was Messiah. And this hope for Messiah was his reward. It's called a reward in verse 26. Greater reward than all the treasures of Egypt. That hope was so great. That joy set before him was so great. What he saw was so real in the promises of God that we can say Moses' faith became the substance of things hoped for.

Faith That Suffers And Overcomes

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The present experience of tasting the joy of the reward of Messiah was faith. And that taste, that experience in the present, is faith. It was the present substance of the hoped-for future at Messiah's right hand. And the power of that faith was enormous in his life. Transformative. In the same way that Jesus was sustained in enduring the cross by the joy set before him, Moses endured the loss of the court, the loss of the fleeting pleasures, the reproaches of the Christ, serving a cantankerous people for forty years. Because he looked to the reward to him who is unseen. One more example. Moses is not us, and Jesus is not us, but oh my, this is us. Hebrews 10 32. Recall the former days when you were enlightened, meaning saved. The lights went on. You endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison. And here's the key phrase. You joyfully. This is just mind-boggling when you think of how much we grumble at little losses. You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property. Since you knew, what did you know? You knew for yourselves that you had a better possession and an abiding one. You had hoped for things. You had a joy set before you. You had a reward. You had a messiah. It's all the same, whether it's Jesus or Moses or the church. The dynamic is all the same. This is what faith is. Moses looked to the reward. The Christians look to a better and eternal future. And verse 35 calls it a great reward. So the question is, how did how did that happen? How did looking to that produce

Closing Prayer And Life Application

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sacrifices for the Christians in prison? How did that how did that work? And the answer is that hope for reality became so real that they had overflowing joy as their goods were being plundered. The substance of that happy future came. It was real and they rejoiced. It came from the future, it overflowed back into the present. It didn't just stay out there. Oh, that'll be nice someday. It substantialized, it realized. It came, it was there.

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Faith is that experience. That's what faith is. That's not all it is, but it's gloriously that.

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That joy there in verse thirty-four, you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, was immediately tied to the things hoped for. This joyful future flowed back into the present and became real, substantial, powerfully effective. Faith. Okay, conclusion. I conclude from these three passages 12 2, 1124 to 27, 1032, 35, Jesus, Moses, early church, that they are all describing the experience of faith. They are all illustrating Hebrews 11, 1A. What does it mean that faith is the substance of things hoped for? They're all showing that faith is the present participation in the joy hoped for, the treasure hoped for, the reward hoped for, the Messiah hoped for. Faith tastes the joy hoped for. Faith treasures the treasure hoped for. Faith cherishes the reward hoped for. This is why it's so powerful to change their lives. I mean, listen to these words. I do not, maybe you don't either. I I do not expect verses 35 to 39 in chapter 11. But here it is. By faith, some were tortured, refusing to accept release that they may gain a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two. They were killed by the sword. They went about in skins and sheep and of goats and destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy. All these were commended through their faith. Tortured by faith, flogged by faith, chains and imprisonment by faith, sawn into by faith. What in the world does that mean? It means sawn into and chained, imprisoned, tortured by the present experience of the substance of the things hoped for. It means they tasted the reality of the joy of God's presence, even says so in verse thirty five. They refused to stop being tortured that they might gain a better life. Do we know what Christianity is in America? It means they tasted the reality of the joy of God's presence, and it was so powerful, so substantial, that they would they would suffer anything for him. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and it is very powerful. So I end where I began. If you have ever dreamed of having a faith so real that you'd be willing to sacrifice all your possessions for the sake of Christ gladly. If you've ever dreamed of having such an authentic faith that you choose against wealth and choose against comfort and choose against security and serve God's people for 40 years, it's not lost on me that that happened when he was 80. Oh, so good. Moses started at 80. This is not relevant for you at all. If you've ever dreamed of having a faith so real that you would give your life like Jesus to save others with joy, the answer to your dreams is here.

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Let's pray.

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Father in heaven, we so long to have the eyes of our heart enlightened. That's why Paul prayed that for the Ephesians. And we so long that we would taste and see that the Lord is good, that the realities we've been promised, these spectacular promises, would be substantialized in our hearts, and that we would know this experience of faith that this writer is talking about, and we would live our lives so differently than the way the world lives them. Loving people, laying down our lives for others, foregoing the fleeting pleasures of Egypt, counting reproach with Christ, greater wealth than everything Egypt has to offer. I pray this in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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