We witness the importance and power of example in the lives of faithful Christians who lived before us. We can consider the practice of their faith to inspire and help us to follow Jesus and make other disciples. Knowing the outcome of their way of life, we can imitate their faith (Heb 13:7).

When I began working in construction, my boss neither offered a book to read, nor gave me a lecture about framing a wall. I was assigned to work with an experienced man. By working alongside him, I learned how to drive a nail and frame a wall. Throughout history people have served as apprentices to others, working in their shadow to learn their craft. People watch examples on YouTube to learn to how do a myriad of tasks—from plumbing to working on a car.
We see the power of example in the way many people pray in church. How do most Christians learn to pray? Most learn by listening to the prayers of others. For this reason, we hear commonly repeated phrases in prayer like, “lead, guide, and direct,” or “we lift up . . .” In the church in which I grew up, one faithful saint always ended his prayer by saying, “and let my daily walk be a testimony to others.” I noticed members in the church began using this same phrase in their prayers.
This post is part four of a practical series on making disciples. The task of discipleship requires and emphasizes faithful teaching (Matt 28:20). Biblical discipleship also recognizes the importance and power of setting an example for those we teach.

The Apostles Appeal to the Example of Jesus

The Apostles point to the example of Jesus as they teach others to live a faithful Christian life. Peter’s first letter emphasizes the theme of suffering as we follow Christ. He points to the example of Jesus for us to emulate as we face suffering. He writes, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Pet 2:21–23).
Philippians 2:1–5 addresses relationships in the church. Paul calls the Philippians to follow the example of Christ’s humility. He presents the glorious theology of Christ “taking on the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7) as a powerful warrant for Christians to be humble toward one another. He points other Christians to the power and importance of Jesus’s example.

The Importance of Example in Paul’s Discipleship of Timothy

Throughout 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul emphasizes the importance of teaching sound doctrine in the church (1 Tim 1:3; 4:6, 13, 16; 6:20; 2 Tim 1:13–14; 2:15; 3:12–4:5). Timothy was to use healthy doctrine to counter poisonous teachings infecting the church (2 Tim 2:17). The Apostle also highlights the necessity of Timothy setting a Godly example for Christians. He writes, “Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim 4:11-12).
Let’s consider the five areas Paul specifies for Timothy’s example in the church:

Set the Believers an Example in Speech: We use speech as a primary way to communicate and interact with others. Paul consistently addresses problems with the speech/words of the false teachers (1 Tim 4:7; 6:4, 20). “In speech” translates the Greek phrase “ἐν λόγῳ” (logos). This example likely refers to what we say to others—the content of our speech. In our conversations with other Christians, or those we are discipling—what are we saying?

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Be energized by the concept that your church could become the most loving church in the world. I find this compelling. There will be many things your church may not be. It may not be the most educated church or the most innovative church, or the most evangelistic church,  but it can be the most loving church. There is nothing to stop that from happening except your lack of determination and/or the will of the people. Love, after all, is the sign of maturity as a church. Now, if you are seeing this, you will find ways to encourage love.

Some time ago I drove to several small towns in rural Arkansas with my 89 year old father and my siblings, tracking the steps of the ministry of both my dad and his father. The experience was memorable. We visited small towns that even Arkansans might not recognize today: Cotter, Caledonia, Hagersville, Greenwood, LaVaca—twelve in all. These were the places where my father, and his father, labored for Christ eighty and ninety years ago.
Much has changed in the landscape of rural America in those eighty plus years. For one thing, most farms have been eaten up by large conglomerates, dramatically reducing population. The size of families has dropped and the area Walmart has made ghost towns of the typical downtown areas. Families long ago moved out of these rural places for the big cities in order to find work, and what young people you may find will almost certainly not stay where there is no action. With these demographic alterations, the country church has been reduced to only a shadow of what it once was.
But this does not mean the country church is not there. There are yellow brick buildings with mud stains around their base that still exist as the gathering place for those few faithful (and often reserved) older citizens and, in several cases, a family or two or even more containing younger people.
The “county seat” town churches are doing better, but even they feel the changes. Some have become regional churches for the surrounding areas. In fact, there are some notable exceptions to the general rule that rural churches are failing. In one Arkansas town that you have likely never heard of, there were 900 attending the largest church on Sunday mornings. The more remote rural churches have yielded their younger families over to these active centers which often carry on vibrant ministries. Regionalization is definitely a trend. We could call it the “Walmartization” of the rural church.
I’ve been there in my own ministry, pastoring in historic Washington, Arkansas as my first assignment. Thirty-five years ago, this town consisted of about 400 occupants, half black and half white. It has now lost much of that population and has turned into a state park (it was the old Civil War capitol of Arkansas). I never knew what quiet was until I pastored in that town. I used a “privy” behind the café and I waited out the lonely nights in a “Jim Walter” home provided by the church. It grew up to about 60 in attendance while I was there, but stayed mostly around 40. The grade school moved to Hope just after I was there, and things went down further. There is not as much going on now as far as church life is concerned, since the town has become a state park site. We said, even at that time, that the church was “just past Hope.” In more recent days, I’ve been back to that town and have reminisced about the good days of early ministry there, learning from kind people.
In addition to that, I’ve preached in so many rural churches that I could not even begin to recount them all. My ministry of 40 years of preaching has landed me in both city and rural churches, some huge, others in towns so sleepy that the grass grows unmolested on the two-lane highway—and deacons wear overalls. Though I’ve loved all of the experiences I’ve been privileged to have, I have to admit that it is often easier to visit than to stay in such a church. And I’ve scratched my head with the pastor wondering how the church could find vitality.
What happens when the young seminarian or college ministerial student takes his first churches in these areas?
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We must be prepared to contend for God as our Creator and all that it entails. We are not cosmic accidents that must build our own meaning in life; we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are wonderfully made because of the special attention that the Creator placed in making humanity. We are fearfully made because of the responsibility and accountability that He has also placed upon us. Neither are we the products of an impersonal god. Our greatest hope is not to align ourselves more fully with the universe but to know our Creator and be known by Him. Such a task is rightly both wonderful and fearful.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Hebrews 11:1-3 ESV

Albert Einstein once wrote:
I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past places such vast power in the hands of priests… The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.[1]
Although Einstein conceded the probable existence of an impersonal, transcendent deity, his emphasis upon striving only toward rational knowledge rather than “blind faith” is the materialistic philosophy that has governed modern thinking since the Enlightenment. Interestingly, Einstein did admit that not everything could be rationalized; indeed, he “considered the comprehensibility of the world to be a miracle, an eternal mystery, which atheist have no hope of explaining.”[2] Of course, if the world did come into existence purely by chance, then we have no reason whatsoever to expect it to be comprehensible and to adhere to laws of reason. Yet here it is. Somehow. Making every discovery, as Einstein says, a miracle.
Recognizing many of the inconsistencies of the materialistic worldview, it is increasingly popular to openly profess faith in the kind of impersonal deity that Einstein somewhat believed in. Taking a cue from Hinduism and Buddhism, that deity is often simply called the universe or perhaps Mother Earth, as environmentalism increasingly reveals its own religiosity. And its popularity can be seen in current trends such as the resurgence of manifesting on TikTok, which was an idea that became popular in the 2000s through The Secret. Sadly, the word of faith movement baptized manifesting and called it Christian.
Despite what some claim, there is no lack of faith today; rather, there is a great deal of it. of course, the real question is what kind of faith, and, more importantly, faith in what?
As we begin Hebrew’s magisterial chapter on faith, let us pray for the Spirit’s enlightenment to behold true faith, that by it we may behold our God.
What Is Faith? // Verse 1
So far in the sermon-letter called Hebrews, we have concluded the very great explanation at the heart of the epistle on the superior priesthood of Jesus. From that extended and essential teaching, the author gave us three commands: draw near to God, hold fast our confession, and stir up one another to love and good works. He then proceeded to stir us up first with a stern and sober warning followed by a rousing word of comfort and encouragement. In that word, the author sought to strengthen his readers for endurance in the faith by setting their eyes backward onto their previous faithfulness under affliction and forward onto the blessed hope of Christ’s return to “save those who eagerly wait for him” (9:28). Our previous text concluded with a citation from Habakkuk 2:3-4, which spoke of God’s righteous ones who live by faith and also those who shrink back in fear and are destroyed. The final verse rings like a coach’s speech before a big game: “But we are not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (10:39).
That great rallying cry flows directly into chapter 11, which is one of the most beloved passages of Scripture. Often called the Hall of Faith, the author will take us through several examples of Old Testament saints who did not shrink back from the task that God set before them; rather, they had faith and preserved their souls. They each held fast to God’s great promise, even they did not receive those promises in their lifetimes. They drew near to God by faith and walked in obedience to Him, despite the unbelief of the world around them. Yet these great examples of persevering faith properly begin in verse 4. Here in these first three verses, the author establishes for us what faith is (v. 1), why it is vital (v. 2), and where it must begin (v. 3).
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
This first verse is often set forth as the biblical definition of faith, and it certainly is. However, we should take care to note that this is not an exhaustive definition of faith. The author is not giving us a dictionary definition; he is giving us a definition in motion with the flow of his argument. A more exhaustive definition of faith might be what we read in Question 21 of the Heidelberg Catechism:
Q. What is true faith?
A. It is not only a certain knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word; but also an hearty trust, which the Holy Spirit works in me by the gospel, that not only to others, but to me also, forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation, are freely given by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits.
The verse before certainly matches that definition, yet notice that the author of Hebrews clearly desires to emphasize that faith is what is not yet present or visible. Indeed, there are two clauses in this verse that both flow from the opening words ‘Now faith is…” Thus, we are meant to understand this verse as saying to us: “now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and faith is the conviction of things not seen.” The first is temporal faith, and the second is spatial faith.

Things hoped for are future realities that are not yet present. Things not seen are present realities that are invisible to us. Both require faith since they cannot be touched or seen, and the author has revealed to us that the promises of God fit into both categories.

The author has repeatedly emphasized the unseen reality of Christ’s present rule over all creation at the right hand of the Father until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. Although Stephen and John were privileged to be given a supernatural vision of the reigning Christ, they are as exceptional as Enoch was with death, and none of us should expect to receive such a sight. Instead, it is a present reality that is as invisible to us as the angels that are undoubtedly worshiping alongside us this morning.
As the Heidelberg noted, the forgiveness of our sins must also be received by faith. Although there are outward fruits of having such a faith and baptism is a visible symbol of our forgiveness in Christ, our salvation fundamentally comes through hearing the word of the gospel and trusting truly in Christ’s once for all sacrifice to pay the debt of our sins. The gospel must be heard, not seen.
As we noted last week, the return of Christ is the most essential thing for which we hope. Faith is required to place our assurance in that glorious Day that will arrive at a time known only to God. Yet upon that Day, we also have a multitude of hopes attached. We have hope in the resurrection of our physical bodies yet in a glorified state that will be incapable of sinning any longer. We have hope in God’s judgment of the wicked, of His execution of vengeance upon all who continued in their rebellion against Him. We have hope in the creation of a new heavens and a new earth, in which God Himself will dwell forevermore in visible midst of His people. Indeed, we have hope in the beatific vision, that we will see our Lord face to face, and, in that sight, all sad things will come untrue.
Both future promises and present invisibilities require faith since they lie beyond the material realm. However, notice that the author’s point is most certainly not that faith is a blind leap into the dark. As Hughes writes, “True faith is neither brainless nor a sentimental feeling. It is a solid conviction resting on God’s words that makes the future present and the invisible seen.”[3] Indeed, faith is the instrument by which we latch ourselves onto truths that are larger than our own empirical experience. As Dennis Johnson notes:
Most translations present this verse as describing the subjective experience of faith as “assurance” and “conviction.” The Greek terms chosen by our author focus instead on the objective reality of faith and could perhaps be translated, “Faith is the reality [substance] of things hoped for, the evidence that proves things unseen” (cff. KJV, NKJV)… Here he has chosen “reality/substance” and paired it with a term that refers to a legal argument substantiated by evidence (elenchos; Job 13:6; 16:21; 23:7 LXX). Faith goes beyond our internal attitudes to put us in touch with realities that are “not seen” (because they are still future; 11:7; cf. Rom. 8:24).[4]
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