Week 5
READ Hebrews 11:1-3 “Genuine Faith”
QUESTIONS:
VERY IMPORTANT!!!! DON’T MISS THIS!
Up until this point, Hebrews has been VERY heavy in portraying to you a Christ whose value far exceeds that of anything in this world or in the universe. At this point, I pray you can understand the overwhelming importance of Christ, his worth, and his work! Mixed in with that has been some severe warnings about falling away and not treasuring Christ above all. So in recap, it has been all about the awesomeness and the surpassing value of Christ. This foundation has been laid. But now that the foundation has been laid, what house will the author of Hebrews build upon it? What I mean is, what is the book of Hebrews trying to produce in its readers? My explanation for this goes back to the Centerpoint Wheel. The author has just spent 10 full chapters and way over half the book bringing you to a place where the value of Christ far exceeds everything. Now, after toiling and laboring to those ends, he will begin to show what type of person, who treasures Christ in this way, will be produced!
Chapters 11-13 are dedicated to showing what radically treasuring Christ produces. Radically treasuring Christ produces a Christian who risks everything in this life to experience Christ now and gain him forever!!!! The author of Hebrews is convinced, seeing Christ rightly will naturally produce a follower of Christ that will go to any lengths to please Him and serve Him.
I pray at this point Christ has completely overwhelmed you. If he hasn’t, you haven’t understood the first 10 chapters of Hebrews. As you continue forward, know that everything from here on must come from a radical passion for Christ. If you set out to do chapters 11-13 without Christ burning in your heart, you will fail and will not please God.
So if Christ is everything, let’s lean in and see some examples of faith, how to live for Christ, and a radical life of obedience to our Savior and Great High Priest!
Hebrews 11 is known as the “Hall of Faith”. In it, you will see heroes of the faith that have gone before us and left a legacy of treasuring God by faith. So before we can go further, we should understand just what faith is.
Write out what your definition of Faith is. How would you define Faith? (Don’t look it up)
Read Hebrews 11:1-3. Read it 5 times. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for”. What things is your faith hoping for specifically? (Hint: End of Hebrews 10:34.) What does that mean?
Look up what the word “assurance” means? Write it below.
So now, rewrite “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for” in your own words using your answers from above.
Now look up the word “conviction”. Write below what it means.
Now, in your own words, rewrite “the conviction of things unseen” using your definition above.
Now read the two phrases you wrote in your own words together. How does this differ from the original definition you came up with on your own?
Now read verse 3. Verse 3 is a direct commentary on verse 1. Verse 3 says, “By faith” we believe something. What do we believe?
In verse 3, there is a reference to things that are seen and things that are unseen. What is seen in verse 3 and what is unseen? (hint: Genesis 1:3)
If you believe God created everything, you believe something that is unseen has produced something that is seen. This is the perfect definition of faith. You trust or have the conviction of things that are hoped for or unseen and your assurance in these unseen things produces a lifestyle in you that can be seen. You’ve never seen and couldn’t see the Words God spoke to create the world, but we are here and there is a creation that can be seen. God’s unseen words were the means by which the seen world was created. (Romans 1:20) In the same way, your unseen faith has real and actual effects, in a lifestyle that can be seen. From this, the argument can be made that in the same way God’s word spoken had to create creation, a faith within a person must create a lifestyle that adores the object of the faith. So what is faith? “It is the unseen substance that convinces you and assures you that you have a better possession and an abiding one in Christ that you put your hope in, and this which is unseen, that is faith, will produce a seen lifestyle that radically loves and serves Christ.”
Now let’s put verse 2 in the discussion. Read verse 2 and explain below what you think this verse is saying in regards to faith.
In the context of Hebrews, who do you think “the people of old” is referring to?
It says “by this these people received commendation” – (praise or reward) By what?
By being assured of a better possession and an abiding one, these people about to be mentioned in chapter 11, lived a life that placed them in the Hall of Faith. They were so convinced that what God had promised them was better than anything this world could give them. Are you fully convinced that Christ is a better possession and an abiding one…better than anything this world can give you? Does your life show it?