Bible Basics Explained | FaithSample

Day 4 | Hebrews 11:8-22 | Wanderers & Pilgrims

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Welcome again to Bible Basics Explained. Kris Langham with you again, and we are back in Hebrews 11 as we dig in to understand more about a little concept called faith. Today faith steps into action as we consider the story of one of the Bible’s greatest heroes: Abraham. One man who walked the same earth that you and I do, yet today more than half the world’s eight billion people look to him as the father of their faith. Jews, Christians, Muslims, all look to Abraham. So let’s find out where faith fit into his story in Hebrews 11, verse 8:

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise” (Hebrews 11:8-9).

There is a beauty and simplicity to faith here. Abraham heard and he believed, so he obeyed. God said go, and he went. Here we see two basic aspects to faith: belief and action. Now this belief is more than simply thinking that a thing is true. Believing in God involves trust. And action isn’t simply acting the way I think God would want me to. It involves hearing from God and doing what he says. So belief and action might better be put in verb form as trust and obey.

It’s not enough to say, "I believe in God." There must be some steps taken. With every faith hero, we see a common story: a situation where they can’t see the road ahead; a Word from God with a direction and a promise of reward; and finally, obedience. Or better put, a step of faith.

Richard Wurmbrand said, “Faith is never passive. It demands a response. It asks for a mission.” Wurmbrand himself asked for a mission, and he certainly got one. Remember the young atheist who prayed and wandered into a small village? Well, he become a pastor. During World War II, he and his wife Sabina evangelized to the occupying German forces in Romania. Pretty risky for a couple Jewish Christians - evangelizing to Nazis. They also preached in bomb shelters, and rescued Jewish children from the ghettos. They were repeatedly arrested and beaten, and nearly executed. Sabina lost her Jewish family to the concentration camps, yet she continued to share the love of Christ with the Nazis.

When the war ended, the Nazis moved out, and the communists moved in. A million Russian troops poured into Romania, and the Wurmbrands boldly evangelized to the soldiers, while faithfully serving their oppressed countrymen.

Yet on February 29, 1948, the secret police kidnapped Pastor Wurmrband, and put him in a solitary cell. Sabina was also arrested, and together they served a combined 17 years locked up for their Christian faith. Upon their release, they went right back to preaching Christ. Their story is amazing, and it’s captured in the book - and now the movie - Tortured for Christ. As you follow their story, you find yourself longing for the happy ending. And rest assured, the story of believers like that ends very happily. Yet in the midst of it, that ending can seem a long way off.

And that brings us back to Hebrews 11, and something that so many of our faith heroes had in common: they were pilgrims. Not like buckle hats and Thanksgiving dinner, pilgrims as in immigrants. God’s wanderers - only these wanderers have a destination. No permanent address in this world - just tents. That was life for Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob after him. They had the promise of a land that would be their own, but they lived as strangers. Verse 10 explains of Abraham:

“For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

I love that. Notice that he was looking forward. Faith is not blind - faith sees more. The worldly man sees only today. The pain or pleasure of the moment fills their reality, and they accuse the Christian of not living in reality. Yet a believer sees the present reality just fine, but they do not focus there. In faith, they look forward. They see further ahead, and trust in what God has promised.

And when the suffering of the present sets in contrast against the glory of the future, the two are hardly worth comparing.

Regret looks back. Frustration looks around. But faith looks forward. Faith fixes our gaze on God’s promises, and moves us ahead. In anticipation. In hope.

As for Abraham and Sarah, when the promise for descendants came they had no kids, but what they did have was a Word from God. And verse 11 says they...

“...considered him faithful who had made the promise” (Hebrews 11:11).

And that gets us to the very heart of godly faith. See, your faith is only as good as that which you put your faith in. Faith in your own abilities will take you as far as your own abilities can. Faith in the situation, or faith in the system, don’t work if the system is broken. And faith in the power of faith? Well, that sounds positive, but it’s really just an empty circle.

Faith, godly faith, is not simply the power of my belief. It is my view of God, and my trust in His power.

Look again at verse 11. They considered Him faithful. We make a mistake when we treat faith as if it’s a power unto itself. Faith is not a power, it’s a decision. When you hear God’s Word and God’s promise, and you decide to believe because you consider Him faithful, that’s faith. And it connects you to His power, and to rest in Him.

Verse 13:

"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:13-16).

Next: Read Hebrews 11:8-22

For Thought & Discussion:

1. Verse 11 says, “They considered Him faithful who had made the promise.” What is the difference between believing in the power of faith and believing in God’s faithfulness?
2. In Hebrews 11:13, God’s faithful admitted “that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.” How does that attitude change the way you live?

All verses are quoted from the NIV.

Romania stories retold from Jesus Freaks (1999 Albury Publishing), and Jesus Freaks Vol II (2002 Bethany House) by dc Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs, and from Extreme Devotions (2001, The Voice of the Martyrs).