By Faith, Jacob

Posted on September 27, 2026 by sarhodes

By Faith, Jacob (Heb 11:21; Gen 48)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, September 27, 2026

Tony Evans writes:

Somebody has come up with a great concept—putting playrooms in doctors’ offices. Many parents bring their kids to the doctor because they are sick and they need the doctor to see them. The playrooms are designed to distract the children from the pain of their problem until their problem gets fixed. The playroom gives them joy in a bad situation.

That’s the way God works. Even though things may not be going the way we want them to be on the outside, God has designed a “playroom” in our soul. In the midst of our circumstances, His joy can distract us from our pain or discomfort, until He makes provision for our change or healing.^{520,^[1]}

So, how does your faith make you feel? Does trusting in God make you happy? Does God make you happy? Without your faith, would you be unhappy? I don’t believe all Christians are happy and joyful all the time. But I like to believe that being reminded of God’s promises will encourage and equip us for both good times and bad. I want to believe that returning to God’s promises will give us renewed hope.

Today, I want to look at a passage that will once again take us back to Genesis. We will look at Jacob and how he blessed his son and two of his grandsons. In this blessing, he was both prophetic and trusting in God’s promises.

My theme and application:

Jacob blesses both of Joseph’s sons, trusting in God’s promises. We can also have faith by trusting in God’s promises.

Recall that we introduced Jacob last Sunday. At that time, he was not yet married. He was a conniving man who stole his brother’s birthright. Yet this demonstrated God’s sovereignty. God oversaw everything, and God’s will came to pass.

Now, years later, Jacob is 147 years old and has a large family. He has 13 children, 12 of whom are sons.

Read with me:

Hebrews 11:21–22 (ESV)

²¹By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. ²²By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

I heard about a pastor who said:

On one of my pastoral visits, I had just stepped inside a hospital elevator and punched the button for the fifth floor when a young pregnant woman slipped in beside me.

Noticing she glanced at the button panel, but didn’t press a button for another floor, I asked, “Number five?”

“Heavens no!” she gasped. “It’s only my first!”^[2]

Well, it was her first, but Jacob had 13 children. A lot has happened to Jacob in the last few years. Now, here he is, and he is grateful.

The Abrahamic Covenant continues:
1. God made a promise to Abraham, and that promise was still being fulfilled. The promise is called the Abrahamic covenant, first recorded in Genesis 12:1-3; let’s turn there.
2. Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)
3. Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4. Now, turn over to Genesis 13:14–18 (ESV)
5. ¹⁴The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, ¹⁵for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. ¹⁶I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. ¹⁷Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” ¹⁸So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
6. Now, this covenant is again repeated in Genesis 15:18–21 (ESV)
7. ¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
8. Once again, now turn over to Genesis 17:6 (ESV) ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
9. These are God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants; understand that Christians are grafted into these promises (Romans 11:17-24; Galatians 3:15-29 (especially 29); 4:1-6; 21-31 (especially 28)).
10. Jacob knew these promises, and God, who is sovereign and in control, was going to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant even through Jacob, who was conniving. God fulfills his promises even through you and me.
11. So, we come to Genesis 48, where Jacob is about to die and will bless his children and grandchildren.
Let’s look at the blessing:
1. Turn to Genesis 48:15–16 (ESV) ¹⁵And he blessed Joseph and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
2. This blessing predicts the future in a manner similar to the blessing Isaac gave to Jacob and Esau in Genesis 27.
3. How can anyone predict the future?
4. In 1995, an American scientist named Clifford Stoll boldly predicted that the Internet would be just another passing fad. He wrote an article for Newsweek titled “The Internet? Bah!” Here’s what Stoll said in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio:
5. I expect the value of the Internet for communications in general isn’t very high. I don’t think it will ever replace face to face meetings and real rallies—things that get commitment and involvement from people. Rather, it induces a very shallow … involvement and as such, I think it’s grossly over-promoted and there’s a great deal of hyperbole surrounding it.
6. I think it’s grossly oversold and within two or three years people will shrug and say, ‘”Uh yep, it was a fad of the early 90’s and now, oh yeah, it still exists but hey, I’ve got a life to lead and work to do. I don’t have time to waste online.” Or, “I’ll collect my email, I’ll read it, why should I bother prowling around the Worldwide Web …” simply because there’s so little of value there.
7. Ten years later, in a 2006 TED talk, Stoll reflected on his failed predictions and said, “If you really want to know about the future, don’t ask a technologist, a scientist, a physicist. No! Don’t ask somebody who’s writing code. No, if you want to know what society’s going to be like in 20 years, ask a kindergarten teacher.”^[3]
8. I like the last line. Ask a kindergarten teacher!
9. Or, God. God knows the future and had already given future promises to Jacob. Jacob personally heard God’s promise.
10. Turn over to Genesis 28:13: And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring.
11. Jacob knew God’s promise, and he clung to it as he blessed. Next, he blessed two of his grandsons. He blessed the younger one first.
12. Turn back to Genesis 48:17–22 (ESV) ¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. ¹⁸And Joseph said to his father, “Not this way, my father; since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.” ¹⁹But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.” ²⁰So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, ‘God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.’ ”
13. Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. ²¹Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. ²²Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.”
14. Jacob knew God’s promises and blessed accordingly. This was faith, trusting in God.
Okay, now it is for us to trust in the promises of God as well. Have faith like Jacob.
1. God has promises in Scripture, and we must trust in them.
2. We must trust that the Lord is our Light and our Salvation. Whom shall we fear? (Psalm 27:1)
3. We must trust that we can look to the hills, for our help comes from the Lord (Psalm 121).
4. We must trust that the Lord is our Shepherd (Psalm 23).
5. We must trust Phil. 4:4-13: We are to pray with prayer and petition with thanksgiving, and then there is peace that passes understanding. We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.
6. We must trust James 4:7: when we submit to God, we can resist the devil, and he will flee from us.
7. We must take John 3:16–18 (ESV) as a text about security and trust:
8. ¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
9. We must hold fast to the promise of Rev. 21 and the new Jerusalem.
10. We must hold fast to the promise that, absent from the body, we are present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8).
11. As Jacob remained true to the promises when giving this prophetic blessing, so we must cling to the promises of Scripture.

Close:

Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin know endurance better than most. For 111 days, they ran the equivalent of two marathons a day in order to cross the entire Sahara Desert on foot. They touched the waters at Senegal and then made their way through Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, and Egypt to touch the waters of the Red Sea. Along the way, the trio faced blazing afternoons of over 100 degrees, jarring, freezing nights, sandstorms, tendonitis, violent sickness, and the usual aches, pains, and blisters. But the biggest challenge they faced can be summed up in one word: water. Finding it in its purest, cleanest form gets to be a bit of a chore while in the middle of nowhere!

Crossing the Saharan Desert on foot is an amazing accomplishment. But just as commendable are these marathon finishers:

• Christians who finish their lives still growing, still serving.
• Husbands and wives who stay faithful to each other “until death do us part.”
• Young people who preserve their virginity until marriage, in spite of crushing peer pressure.
• Pastors who stay passionate about ministry until their last breath.
• Church members who weather the rougher patches and remain joyful, loving, and faithful.^[4]

Let’s pray

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 174. ↑
Preston A. Taylor, Hondo, Texas. Christian Reader, “Lite Fare.” ↑
Molly Bloom, “The Internet will be a fad, claimed scientist in ’95,” MPR News (2-16-12) ↑
Jon R. Mutchler, Ferndale, Washington; source: Anna Johnson, “3 ultra-athletes run across Sahara,” USA Today (2-20-07) ↑

By Faith, Isaac’s blessing of Jacob and Esau (Hebrews 11:20; Genesis 27:27-29, 39, and following verses)

Posted on September 20, 2026 by sarhodes

In Toy Story 3, Andy, the owner of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and other toys, prepares to leave for college. At the end of the movie, he decides to give his toys to a young girl named Bonnie.

The scene starts with Andy entering the front gate of Bonnie’s home and showing her the box of toys. Andy tells her, “I’m Andy. Someone told me you’re really good with toys. These are mine, but I’m going away now, so I need someone really special to play with them.” Then as Andy proceeds to hand the toys to Bonnie, he introduces them by saying something special about each one.

He begins with his toy cowgirl Jessie: “This is Jessie—the roughest, toughest cowgirl in the whole West. She loves critters, but none more’n her best pal, Bullseye.”

Andy then hands Bonnie his toy Tyrannosaurus, Rex, “the meanest, most terrifying dinosaur who ever lived.”

For the Potato Heads, Andy says, “The Potato Heads—Mister and Missus. You gotta keep em together cause they’re madly in love.”

Slinky the Dog “is as loyal as any dog you could want.”

Andy blesses Hamm, the Pig, by saying, “He’ll keep your money safe, but he’s also one of the most dastardly villains of all time, Evil Dr. Pork Chop!”

Buzz Lightyear is “the coolest toy ever. Look, he can fly and shoot lasers. He’s sworn to protect the galaxy from the evil Emperor Zurg!”

Finally, for his pal Woody, Andy says, “He’s been my pal as long as I can remember. He’s brave, like a cowboy should be. And kind, and smart. But the thing that makes Woody special, he’ll never give up on you—ever. He’ll be there for you, no matter what.”^[1]

It seems as though Andy is giving a benediction, a blessing regarding the toys.

Today, we continue our walk through Hebrews 11 and come to verse 20. For the next two weeks, we will look at blessings. Today, we look at Isaac and the blessings he gave Jacob and Esau. This is an insightful passage, and the longer I read it, the more it revealed to me. I have read this passage repeatedly, but until now it never stood out to me how God’s sovereignty came through and how Isaac had faith.

My theme:

Isaac blessed his two sons in faith, and Isaac’s blessings are prophetic.

Application:

God is sovereign; we can trust Him. This means that we can have faith in Him.

Hebrews 11:20 (ESV)

By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

Now, I must start by summarizing this event in the Old Testament.
1. If you want to follow along, which I recommend you do, please turn to Genesis 27. I will be summarizing the passage.
2. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of how the blessings came about, but the reality is that in these blessings we see a great God. God was, and is, over everything. God’s plan was accomplished. God had determined that the older would serve the younger (Gen. 25:23), and the blessings show that.
3. This narrative has four main characters.
4. We have Isaac, and he is the dad. He is the son of Abraham and Sarah.
5. We have Rebekah, Jacob and Esau’s mother and Isaac’s wife.
6. We have two sons: Esau, the oldest, and Jacob, the youngest.
7. We have some backstory that you must be aware of:
8. In Genesis 25:23, Rebekah is told that the older will serve the younger.
9. In Genesis 25:25, we see the birth of the two boys.
10. In Genesis 25:33-34, Esau, very hungry, sells his birthright to his brother. This meant that his younger brother now had the right to the firstborn blessing.
11. In Genesis 25:28, Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
12. In Genesis 26:34-35, Esau took wives from among the foreign women, which made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
13. In Genesis 27, there is a major account of Jacob deceiving Esau to steal the blessing. Jacob had already paid for the blessing, but he now takes it. I suppose Esau was not really going to give it to him. As I shared, Isaac should have known that the firstborn’s blessing belonged to Jacob, the younger, as God had declared. Yet Isaac was not obeying God. Do you see how God works? Do you see that God’s will comes to pass in the end?
14. In Genesis 27:
15. Verses 1-4: Isaac calls Esau and tells him to go hunt some game so they can eat and he will give him the blessing.
16. Rebekah has overheard Isaac’s plan, but she loves Jacob more. So, she has her own plan. Jacob will take a few young goats, have them slaughtered, and have Rachel prepare them. Jacob will go to his father, Isaac, pretend to be Esau, and steal the blessing. Isaac’s eyesight is failing, so this should not be an issue. Jacob will wear Esau’s clothes and use goat skin to make himself feel hairy like Esau (Genesis 27:5-17).
17. The plan works, and Jacob is blessed (Genesis 27:18-29).
18. Esau returns, upset that the blessing was stolen. Isaac and Esau are beyond upset. Esau receives the secondary blessing (Genesis 27:30-38).
The blessing of Jacob is prophetic:
1. Genesis 27:28–29 (ESV) May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”
2. Isaac’s blessing included four elements: agricultural prosperity (v^[2]. 28)—even as he had done for Isaac (26:12); international respect and success (27:29); a command directing Jacob to be master over the entire clan; and the transference of the protective provision of cursing and blessing that God had once given Jacob’s grandfather Abraham (12:3).^{^[3]}
3. He should never have given this to Esau, since he knew what God had said at the birth in Genesis 25:23.
4. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you. This is from Genesis 12:3 given to Abraham.
5. Later, Esau entered the room, upset that the blessing was stolen.
6. Isaac then gives Esau a blessing.
7. Genesis 27:39–40 (ESV) ³⁹Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you grow restless you shall break his yoke from your neck.
8. Everything in this chapter is a mess, but God’s will comes through. His will was for Jacob to be the chosen one.
9. Some insight that Tim Keller gives:
10. Many years ago, when I first started reading the Book of Genesis, it was very upsetting to me. Here are all these spiritual heroes—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—and look at how they treat women. They engage in polygamy, and they buy and sell their wives. It was awful to read their stories at times. But then I read Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Narrative. Alter is a Jewish scholar at Berkeley whose expertise is ancient Jewish literature. In his book he says there are two institutions present in the Book of Genesis that were universal in ancient cultures: polygamy and primogeniture. Polygamy said a husband could have multiple wives, and primogeniture said the oldest son got everything—all the power, all the money. In other words, the oldest son basically ruled over everyone else in the family. Alter points out that when you read the Book of Genesis, you’ll see two things. First of all, in every generation polygamy wreaks havoc. Having multiple wives is an absolute disaster—socially, culturally, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and relationally. Second, when it comes to primogeniture, in every generation God favors the younger son over the older. He favors Abel, not Cain; Isaac, not Ishmael; Jacob, not Esau. Alter says that you begin to realize what the Book of Genesis is doing—it is subverting, not supporting, those ancient institutions at every turn.
11. When I read Alter’s book, I then reread the Book of Genesis and loved it. And then it hit me: What if when I was younger, I had abandoned my trust in the Bible because of these accounts in Genesis? What if I had drop-kicked the Bible and the Christian faith, missing out on a personal relationship with Christ—all because I couldn’t understand the behavior of the patriarchs? The lesson is simple: Be patient with the text. Consider the possibility that it might not be teaching what you think it’s teaching.^[4]
Did you notice God’s sovereignty in these events?
1. Some of you need to read this and be encouraged.
2. Be encouraged that you are never too far gone for God to use you. God wants to use you and will do so if you give Him the chance.
3. You may think I am afraid I will mess up what God is doing. You won’t.
4. Follow the Lord, live for Him, and things will be ok.
5. Look, God worked in this mess, and He wants to work in your life.
6. We see this in this chapter. God works in messy situations. You will not thwart God’s plan. However, you ought to be part of God’s plan.
Apply the faith of Isaac to your life.
1. How was Isaac faithful? Let me get back to this. Isaac was faithful in that he trusted God to fulfill His promises.
2. These promises come from the Abrahamic Covenant. The original promise of the Abrahamic Covenant began in Genesis 12:1-3, then in Genesis 13:14-18, then in Genesis 15:18-21, and then in Genesis 17:6. These promises concerned blessing the descendants so they would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Isaac trusted God regarding the blessing.
3. Do we trust God’s promises?
4. God’s promises are found in His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Do we trust them?
5. Do we trust the promise of the Gospel: 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
6. 2 Cor. 5:21: God made him who had no sin to be sinfor us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Close:

Trust God’s Word, which contains His promises; Isaac did. In trusting we have faith.

Don’t run from God and don’t think you are too far gone. God is working through you. You will not thwart God’s plan.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Toy Story 3, Scene 33, “Goodbye Andy,” 1:28:55 to 1:32:05; Submitted by Derek Chin, Portland, Oregon ↑
v. verse ↑
Robert D. Bergen, “Genesis,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 50. ↑
Tim Keller, in the sermon “Literalism” (available on PreachingToday.com on 5-17-10) ↑

By Faith: Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15)

Posted on September 13, 2026 by sarhodes

We are talking about stepping out in faith.

Last week we talked about Abraham. Now, we transition to Sarah.

J.D. Greear writes:

What will you do when you realize that the foundations of your life aren’t as permanent as you thought?

Before D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones became one of the greatest preachers of the twentieth century, he had been a promising young medical doctor, trained at the best British medical school and the protégé of the most well-known surgeon at St. Bart’s Hospital in London. Just as he was reaching the apex of his medical career, one of his colleagues, another rising star, was dating a young woman who unexpectedly got sick and died.

A few days later, the man appeared at Lloyd-Jones’ door and asked to sit with him by the fire. They sat there for two hours, in silence, as the man kept his gaze on the fire. Lloyd-Jones’ friend had seen the joy of his life taken from him—and he had no response.

This encounter changed the trajectory of Lloyd-Jones’ life. Seeing the vanity of all human greatness, he left medicine to become a preacher, reasoning that even the best medicine, valuable as it is, cannot stop death.

Our perceptions and best wisdom are always in flux. Everything is crumbling, no matter what it is. Tim Keller once said that many seek the Lord after realizing their “cities” have no foundation. Like Lloyd-Jones’ friend, they encounter some crisis so acute that they aren’t equipped to handle it. It feels like the ground itself is giving way under their feet.

We all need a city with a lasting foundation. Hebrews 11 tells us that’s what Abraham realized (Hebrews 11:10). When God blessed him, he called Abraham away from what was familiar and secure to an unknown place where the only thing Abraham had left was to depend on him. Abraham knew all about the impermanence of this life.^[1]

And… Sarah was with him. Sarah had been by his side. So, let’s talk about Sarah.

Let’s read:

Hebrews 11:11–12 (ESV)

¹¹By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. ¹²Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Let’s put this passage in context.
1. In verses 1-8, Abraham receives visitors (Genesis 18:1-8).
2. The Lord himself and two angels visit Abraham near Hebron (Genesis 18:1-3).^{^[2]}
3. Then we see Abraham ministering to his heavenly visitors (Gen. 18:4–8): Abraham prepares a meal of veal, cheese curds, milk, and bread for his visitors.^{^[3]}
Now, we see the reaction of Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15).
1. The details (Gen. 18:9–10): In her tent, Sarah overhears the Lord’s promise concerning the birth of Isaac.^{^[4]}
2. Genesis 18:9-10:⁹They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” ¹⁰The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
3. Now the angels and the 3^rd man, likely the preincarnate Christ, ask him where Sarah is.
4. Sarah was listening at the tent door.
5. Verse 11 says they were old and advanced in years. Sarah was past childbearing (literally, the manner of women).
6. Sarah laughs in unbelief (verses 11-12):
7. Genesis 18:11-12: ¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. ¹²So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”
8. Her laugh is a laugh in disbelief, a lack of faith.^[5] It says that she laughed to herself.
9. Keil and Delizsch: Abraham also had laughed at this promise (Gen. 17:17), and without receiving any reproof. For his laughing was the joyous outburst of astonishment; Sarah’s, on the contrary, the result of doubt and unbelief, which had to be broken down by reproof, and, as the result showed, really was broken down, inasmuch as she conceived and bore a son, whom she could only have conceived in faith (Heb. 11:11).^{^[6]}
10. It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” V^[7]T 24 (1974): 454–73.^{^[8]}
11. However, Timothy Keller makes the case that she is referring to sexual pleasure. He shares: What does this pleasure mean?” Right away I used to think (and you probably would think too) she is saying, “I am very old. I’m past the age of childbearing. Am I supposed to have the pleasure of a son? That’s not what she thinks. That’s not what she is saying, because the word for pleasure is sexual pleasure. Right away what she thinks about it is the fact is, “Abraham and I aren’t even having sex.”^[9]
12. NET: Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.^{^[10]}
13. Is anything too hard for the Lord (verses 13-14):
14. Genesis 18:13-14:
15. ¹³The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ ¹⁴Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
16. I love how the Lord questions; this is the Lord.
17. The Lord asks why she laughs.
18. The denial: in fear, Sarah denies that she laughed in unbelief.
19. Genesis 18:15: ¹⁵But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
20. I love how the Lord responds, “But you did laugh!”
Applications of faith:
1. We all must trust God with our children and grandchildren as Sarah did.
2. First, notice that the Bible does not gloss over the sins of the people. Sarah had faith issues as far as her being the mother. But she did trust God’s major plan.
3. If you go back to Genesis 12, we read that Abraham was to be the father of nations. Sarah trusted God but did not know how this was to happen. In Genesis 17:17, we find out that this was to happen through her womb. Sarah, being 90 years old, was to have a child.
4. But we can look ahead and see that Sarah’s child was born in Genesis 21:2 and named Isaac, which means “Laughter.”
5. This was somewhere around 2000 B.C., and then when Hebrews was penned some 2000 years later, Sarah is remembered for her faith.
6. She trusted God.
7. Sarah had watched everyone else raise children, and now it was her turn. The Bible says in verse 14: “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?”
8. How are we doing with trusting the Lord? How are we doing with trusting the Lord with our children on a day-to-day basis? How about even after they are grown?
9. In that manner, we are best to remember that God’s faithfulness is unending and we must trust Him, who can do all things, with our children.
10. Some Scripture:
11. Psalm 89:1-2 (and the rest of the Psalm) are about God’s faithfulness.
12. Psalm 91:1-4 compares God’s faithfulness to an eagle sheltering us under His Wings.
13. Psalm 100:5 is about God’s faithfulness.
14. Psalm 108:4: God’s faithfulness reaches to the skies.
15. Psalm 143:1: O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. (from New International Version)
How do we have faith? How do we trust God?
1. Pray and talk to God. We must live with Jesus.
2. Have silent time before the Lord. Read Scripture and listen. Meditate/ruminate on passages. Worship the Lord.
3. Prayer partners are important (Ecc. 4:12; Prov. 27:17).
4. Lean on your church family for help.
5. Read testimonies of those who stood strong in faith in difficult times.
6. Pray for a faith that is head and heart.
7. Go to the Bible and read the Scripture passages on faithfulness.
8. Talk with a small group or prayer partner, or me. Talk with a Christian counselor.
9. For those going through tough times, I would welcome the chance to listen and pray with you.

I have used this story before, but I believe it is worth sharing again.

I love the story of the lumberjack who was preparing to cut down every tree in a certain section of a mountain forest. Just before he began, he noticed a bird building its nest atop one of the trees. Not wanting to harm the bird or its young, the lumberjack took a mallet and pounded on the base of the tree until the bird flew to another tree and began to build its nest there. But since the lumberjack knew that tree was coming down too, he repeated the process with that tree. So the bird moved to a third tree, which the lumberjack knew was coming down also, so he did it again.

He knew that every tree in this part of the forest was coming down, so the lumberjack and the bird repeated this dance a half dozen times, until the bird, highly annoyed, flew away and built its nest on the side of a rock face. The bird probably never understood why the lumberjack attacked each tree he attempted to build his nest in, but the lumberjack’s motive was not cruelty, but compassion. The lumberjack knew that every tree in the forest was about to come down, and he wanted the bird to build its nest in a place axes couldn’t touch it.^[11]

What to Do When the World Around You Crumbles. February 3, 2025; By J.D. Greear.

https://jdgreear.com/what-to-do-when-the-world-around-you-crumbles/ ↑
H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Ge 18:1–3. ↑
Ibid, Ge 18:4–8. ↑
Ibid, Ge 18:9–10. ↑
Dr. Rydelnik, Open Line on Moody Radio 08.14.2021 ↑
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 1 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 146. ↑
VT Vetus Testamentum (a journal) ↑
Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ge 18:12. ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ge 18:14. ↑
What to Do When the World Around You Crumbles. February 3, 2025; By J.D. Greear.

https://jdgreear.com/what-to-do-when-the-world-around-you-crumbles/ ↑

By Faith, Abraham

Posted on September 6, 2026 by sarhodes

I heard a good illustration from Chuck Swindoll:

My older brother, Orville, was never a wealthy man, but he was wonderfully generous with what he had. He never held back from the Lord . . . and that is still true! It was this overabundance of faith that led him to be a missionary for more than thirty years in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Just before that, he had done some short-term mission work in Mexico and had come north to gather his wife, Erma Jean, and the kids for the long trip down into the far reaches of South America.

Before leaving, they stopped off for a quick visit with our parents in Houston. Now, you have to appreciate the kind of man my father was. Look up the word responsible in the dictionary, and his picture is there! To him, risks are for those who fail to plan. Responsible people leave nothing to chance. As far as he was concerned, faith is something you exercise when your three backup plans fall through and you have run out of all other options. My father was a believer, but he never understood the life of faith. Not really.

My brother, on the other hand, was stimulated by faith. He has lived his entire adult life on the raw edge of faith. To him, life doesn’t get exciting until God, and God alone, can get us through some specific challenge. That drove our dad nuts!

Orville pulled up to the house in an old Chevy sedan on four of the slickest tires I had ever seen. My father always inspected tires when we came to visit. I wondered how long it would take for him to say something. I’m sure Orville did too. Not very is the answer.

After a great supper of good ol’ collard greens and corn bread, onions and red beans, my mother and sister went into the kitchen, leaving my father at one end of the table, Orville at the other, and me sitting on one side. Then it started.

“Son, how much money do you have for your long trip?”

“Oh, Dad, don’t worry about it. We’re gonna be fine.”

Before he could change the subject, my father pressed the issue, “Answer me! How much money do you have in your wallet?”

Orville smiled and shrugged as he said, “I don’t have any in my wallet.”

I sat silent, watching this verbal tennis match.

“Nothing in your wallet? How much money do you have? You’re gettin’ ready to go down to South America! How much money you got?”

With that, my brother smiled, dug into his pocket, pulled out a quarter, set it on its edge on his end of the table, then gave it a careful thump. It slowly rolled past me all the way to my father’s end of the table and fell into his hand. Dad said, “A quarter? That is all you’ve got?”

Orville broke into an even bigger smile and said, “Yeah. Isn’t that exciting!”

That was not the word my father had in mind. After a heavy sigh and a very brief pause, Dad shook his head and said, “Orville, I just don’t understand you.”

My brother grew more serious. Looking Dad in the eyes, he answered without blinking, “No, Dad, you never have.”

I don’t know how he actually made the trip to their destination . . . or how he and Erma Jean took care of all their little kids, but they never went hungry. And they served in Buenos Aires and traveled to other parts of the world for more than three decades. My father was a man who emerged through the Great Depression, lived in fear of poverty his whole life, seldom took a risk, and never experienced the joy of trusting God that made my brother smile so big that day.^[1]

That faith, the faith that Swindoll’s brother, Orville, had, is the same faith Abraham had. Abraham is certainly the father of our faith.

We are here because of Abraham. Our Christian heritage goes back to Abraham.

Abraham was blessed to be a blessing. He followed God in faith, not knowing where he was going, but he was blessed, and he blessed the world.

I want to turn to Hebrews 11:8-10 to talk about Abraham’s faith.

Today’s challenge:

Abraham had faith in following God, not knowing where God was leading him. So let’s follow Abraham’s example and have faith in God about our future.

Remember that God is in control.

God is in control—repeat after me.

Hebrews 11:8–10 (ESV)

⁸By 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. ⁹By 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. ¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Now, let’s read Genesis 12:1-3:

Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

First, we see the pilgrimage of faith; this is separation from the world.
1. This has to do with Abraham’s willingness to follow the Lord. He was willing to follow the Lord in uncharted territory.
2. Let me set the context.
3. In Genesis chapters 1-2, God creates everything. Then there is the fall. So, we have chapters 3-11, and these chapters are about degeneration. Things are getting bad. The world is going to hell. God destroys the world with the flood. Now, beginning in chapter 12, we have the regeneration.
4. God will begin to regenerate the world through Abraham’s line.
5. Abraham lived in Ur.
6. He then goes to Haran before getting to the area of the promised land.
7. Of course, if you read the rest of Genesis, he travels quite a bit.
8. So, think about it: you are, let’s say, seventy-five years old and you hear from God. I don’t know how God spoke to Abraham, but He did. Imagine that God speaks to you.
9. God says, I want you to go to Malaysia to serve on the mission field. It may make no sense to you. You are comfortable here. God just tells you to go.
10. Or suppose that all of your family is close by. Your children and grandchildren live nearby, but God calls your son or daughter to Malaysia. This means they are going overseas, and so are your grandchildren. They are going to be missionaries.
11. Suppose God calls your family to Iran, Egypt, or Iraq as missionaries. You see, this is what is going on for Abraham.
12. I bet there are many family and friends that he never, NEVER saw or talked to again.
13. No letters, no email, no Skype, no phone.

The following were the 12 obstacles that Abraham encountered in his faith journey:

1. Sarai was barren and incapable of producing an heir (11:30).

2. Abram had to leave the Promised Land, which God had told him he would inherit (12:10).

3. Abram’s life was in danger in Egypt (12:11–20).

4. Abram’s nephew (heir?) Lot separated from Abram over a land dispute (ch. 13).

5. Abram entered a war and could have died (14:1–16).

6. Abram’s life was in danger from retaliation in the Promised Land (15:1).

7. God ruled Eliezer out as Abram’s heir (15:2–3).

8. Hagar, pregnant with Abram’s son (heir?), departed (16:6).

9. Abimelech threatened Sarai’s reputation and child (heir?) in Gerar (ch. 20).

10. Abram had two heirs (21:8–11).

11. God commanded Abram to slay his heir (ch. 22).

12. Abram could not find a proper wife for his heir (24:5).

“… the narrator has skillfully woven this material together in such a way as to involve the reader/listener in a drama of increasing tension between, on the one hand, the promise of Yahweh that Abram would have an heir and, indeed, would become the father of many nations, and, on the other, the threat to the fulfillment of this promise by a series of crises.”^{68^[2]0,^[3]}

Then we see the patience of faith—the ability to wait and endure without ever entering into possession of the promised land.
1. Abraham reached the promised land but never owned it. We read in Genesis 23:1-20 that Abraham bought land to bury Sarah. But he did not live to see Israel take possession of it.
2. Abraham did not get to see but two sons.
3. Abraham never saw the nation that his descendants would become.
4. God’s promise to Abraham, which he waited on:
5. There are seven elements in this promise—seven—suggesting fullness and completeness (cf. 2:2–3): (1) God promised to create “a great nation” through Abram. (2) God promised to “bless” Abram. (3) Abram’s “name” would live on after his lifetime (“I will make your name great”). (4) Abram was (commanded) to “be a blessing” to others. (5) God would “bless those who bless[ed]” Abram. (6) And God would “curse those who curs[ed]” Abram. (7) “All the families of the earth [would] be blessed” through Abram and his descendants.^{^[4]}
Perseverance of faith: the positivity of faith, the focus on heaven that causes us to have a certain indifference to things in this life because we’re looking to that glory to come.
1. Repeat after me. God is in control. God is in control.
2. Consider that Abraham was looking towards a city that God would design.
3. We are looking to the city of God.
4. We are looking towards the New Jerusalem.
5. We are looking towards a time when God makes all things new and right (Rev. 21).
6. Now, some two thousand years after Abraham: The writer of Hebrews referred to “Abraham” 10 times in total; his example is especially helpful for those tempted to abandon faith in God. Only two other books mention him more: Luke (15 times) and John (11 times).
How do we apply this?
- - 1. We must be willing to trust God to lead us to uncharted territory as Abraham was willing.
    2. We must be willing to sacrifice income, time, talent, and location to serve the Lord.
    3. We must be willing to move for the Lord.
    4. We must be willing to change occupations for the Lord.
    5. We must be willing to prayerfully consider mission trips, local or foreign. This may be uncharted territory.
    6. We must be willing to serve somewhere new in the community: hospice, nursing home ministry, etc.
    7. We must be willing to talk to someone about Jesus. This is uncharted territory in many ways.
    8. We must be willing to step out.
    9. We must be willing to trust God with our future. We must trust God with the unknown.

Close:

The future can be scary, can’t it? I think the future can be very scary.

When I was in high school, I had many friends who were called to the mission field. Several of them are serving overseas now. I did not want to be called to missions. I was trying to be sensitive to the Lord’s will, but I was not interested. But now I realize I am called to missions as well. In like manner, I must trust God as Abraham did. I like comfort zones, but I must trust God.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Taken from Charles R. Swindoll, “Ragged-Edge Faith and Reckless Generosity,” Insights (May 2007): 1-2. Copyright © 2007, Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide ↑
⁶⁸⁰ Helyer, p. 80. See Mathews, Genesis 11:27-50:26, p. 90, for a diagram of the chiastic structure of the Abraham narrative. ↑
Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ge 11:27. ↑
Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Ge 12:2. ↑

By Faith, Enoch (Hebrews 11:5-6; Genesis 5:21-24)

Posted on August 30, 2026 by sarhodes

By Faith, Enoch (Hebrews 11:5-6; Genesis 5:21-24)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on August 30, 2026

One thing I enjoy doing is going for walks with my kids. Sometimes Meagan comes along, but it depends on how her legs are feeling. Oftentimes, in late summer or early fall, we have great seasons for walks. We take the dog with us and walk to the Poland library and back, or we choose another route. When we are out walking, we have opportunities for conversation and fellowship. We are in a sermon series on faith, focusing on the people of faith in Hebrews 11. We come to Enoch.

Who can tell me something about Enoch?

Anyone, tell me something about Enoch?

J. D. Greear shares:

I once heard a preacher say that it was almost like Enoch and God were out for a walk one night. And as they walked along, God said, “You know, Enoch, my place is closer to here than yours, so why don’t you come on up and stay with me?” And God walked him right on up into heaven. That’s amazing.^[1]

Theme:

Enoch walked with God.

Application: Walk with God.

That is my simple challenge for the day. I challenge you to learn from Enoch and walk with God.

Let’s start by reading the texts:

Hebrews 11:5–6 (ESV)

⁵By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Genesis 5:21–24 (ESV)

²¹When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. ²²Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. ²⁴Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

First, let’s talk about who Enoch was? Or, I guess I could say “is” because he never really died.
1. Timothy Keller shares:
2. If you’re a careful student of this passage, you will notice for the very first time, by faith … Because all the case studies start that way. By faith Abel. By faith Enoch. By faith Noah. By faith Abraham. By faith Moses. Every one of the case studies starts by faith, and in every case, by faith is connected to an active verb.
3. By faith Abel offered. By faith Noah built. By faith Abraham obeyed. But in Enoch’s situation, it’s a passive verb. By faith Enoch was taken by God. In other words, this verse does not tell us what Enoch did by faith that caused God to take him. He did something by faith, but we’re not told what it was by faith. It was because of this thing he did by faith that God took him.^{^[2]}
4. This is an account I could easily skip over, and maybe you have as well. Think about it. God just took him! That is cool, isn’t it? Don’t ever miss these amazing events in the Bible.
5. Remember, this is the fifth chapter of Genesis; we are still early on.
6. Enoch was a descendant of the godly line of Seth.
7. There was also an ungodly line of Cain.
8. He was the seventh generation from Adam (Jude 14 says).
9. By the way, these genealogies are important because they form the genealogy of Christ Jesus.
10. This was also a time when people were living very long lives. By the way, other ancient Near Eastern texts attribute even longer lives to earlier generations; for example, the Sumerian King List mentions kings who reign—interestingly, before a flood—for periods of 28,800, 36,000, and 43,200 years.
11. I think the other dates are inflated to make the kings seem greater. I do believe the Biblical numbers are accurate. I don’t think they dated differently, or not by that much. I think the world was different before the flood.
12. We also learn from this genealogy that people lived nearly a thousand years. And so there wasn’t much death, which meant the population increased at an amazingly rapid rate. This genealogy is also here, not only to show us the time involved and the expansion of the population, but it is here to show us the reign of death. Eight times in this chapter, you will read, “and he died; and he died; and he died.” This is the reign of death. This is the judgment of sin.
13. If you do the math, Adam was still alive when God took Enoch.
14. Enoch’s son Methuselah was the oldest man who ever lived.
15. Jude 14 lists Enoch as one who prophesied. This comes from an apocryphal book that says that he called out wickedness. He said, “The Lord is coming, and He’s coming with many thousands of His holy ones, and He’s going to execute judgment, and it’s going to fall on all the ungodly with all their ungodly deeds done in an ungodly way and all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” He was a judgmental preacher.
Second, let’s talk about “walking” with God.
1. The Moody Commentary shared some technical details about the grammar of Gen. 5:22-24 and then concludes: the point clearly emerges that, although sin prevented Adam and Eve from experiencing the prefall ideal of “strolling” (mithallekh) in most intimate physical proximity to God, the possibility still remains open for human beings to experience that more fundamental spiritual proximity to God.^{^[3]}
2. To walk with God meant to have a relationship with God. This meant fellowship and communion, which led to Divine Favor.
3. Timothy Keller shares:
4. Some years ago, I was reading a book about the history of labor and management fights and strikes and all the stresses of that in the Pittsburgh area, in the steel mills and in the coal mines. One interesting thing I remember reading was the workers would talk about a bad mill and a good mill like this. They would say in the bad mill the managers do not walk with the workers, but in the good mills, they would say, “They walk with us.” See, that’s exactly how the Bible uses the word. The word walk means no longer adversaries, no longer hostile, reconciled.
5. When Genesis 5 tells us Enoch walked with God, it tells us something amazing. We’re reconciled with God. Now why do we need peace with God, and how does it come by faith? First of all, why do we need it? Because we’re at war. Just the fact that Enoch walked with God means he is one of the great heroes of the faith now. Walking with God is such an incredibly important thing because we’re at war with him.^{^[4]}
6. Sin brought estrangement with God.
7. Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:2; Hab. 1:13; Numbers 32:23; Romans 3:23
8. We need Jesus. We need to be reconciled to God.
9. We can walk with God today because of Jesus.
10. Turn to 2 Cor. 5:17 and 21:
11. Verse 17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
12. Verse 21: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Let’s apply:
1. The Bible often describes the Christian life as a walk. Walking is natural.
2. What will it take for us to walk, or continue walking, with God?
3. Enoch walked with God. We must try our best to walk with God.
4. It seems that “walk” refers to a relationship with God or to pleasing God. We must aim to please God. We must aim to be in communion with God.
5. The Bible Knowledge Commentary calls “walk” the Biblical expression for fellowship and obedience that result in Divine Favor. We have fellowship with God because of the Holy Spirit. We must praise Him for that sweet fellowship.
6. We are reconciled to God through the cross. We must walk with Him.
7. The response is Romans 12:1-2.
8. Enoch did not have to run with God. The life he lived is considered a walk. This is natural. This is not something out of the ordinary. We must understand that the Christian life is walking with God, as God created us to walk. He created us to walk with Him.
9. Enoch walked with God for 365 years, as the Scriptures say; he stuck with it. We must live our lives walking with God, all our lives. We must finish strong.
10. Enoch prophesied according to Jude 14: he called out the Truth. We must also speak the truth.
11. Hebrews 11:6: We cannot please God without faith. We must have faith as Enoch had faith.
  - 1. We must hold true to the promises in the Bible.
    2. We must hold the Bible in reverence.
    3. We must trust the Gospel.
    4. We must seek God’s conviction and follow Him.

Close:

Keller shares:

This is God, the Lord God, the Lord of the universe. If the 93 million miles from the earth to the sun were contracted into the thickness of a single piece of paper, then the diameter of just the Milky Way would be a stack of paper 310 miles high. The Milky Way is just one little speck, one little dust speck in the vast universe.

This God created all that and holds it together with the word of his power, and this One every evening would come to us and say, “Let’s take a walk. Let’s go for a walk. I want to hear what’s on your heart, and I want to tell you what’s on my heart.” Walking with God, and yet we’re shown the minute human beings disobeyed God, they couldn’t stand intimacy with infinity anymore.^{^[5]}

Yet, because of Jesus, we can walk with God again. We are yearning for more. We are yearning for Jesus.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

How to Be an “Enoch” in Your Generation. November 25, 2024. By J.D. Greear.

https://jdgreear.com/how-to-be-an-enoch-in-your-generation/ ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, eds., “Genesis,” in The Moody Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 55. ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑

By Faith intro (Heb 11:1-3): By Faith Abel (Heb. 11:4; Gen. 4:1-8)

Posted on August 23, 2026 by sarhodes

We are going to look at Hebrews 11, often called the “Hall of Faith,” the “Triumphs of Faith,” or “Faith in Action.” We are going to look at a verse and then talk about the person. We are going to get into the Old Testament. We will look at Abel, then Enoch, Noah, and many more people in the Old Testament. Sometimes we will have to wonder, “How in the world did this guy or gal get into this list in the New Testament?’ To that, we must remember that God uses imperfect people to accomplish His will.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a film version of C. S. Lewis’s book by the same name. In this scene, the children who have once again been summoned to Narnia—Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan —team up with King Caspian aboard the royal ship, The Dawn Treader.

During their journey, Lucy, the youngest of the children, encounters a book titled The Book of Incantations. This mysterious book boldly promises to provide “an infallible spell to make you the beauty you’ve always wanted to be.” Despite her vibrant faith in Aslan (who represents Christ), Lucy has always struggled with a deep wound: she feels inferior to and jealous of her beautiful older sister Susan. Tempted by her desire to become more beautiful, Lucy speaks the spell. Suddenly, a mirror appears on the page directly across from the spell. As Lucy looks into the mirror, she realizes her face has been transformed into her sister’s. She decides to tear out the page and hide it.

Later, in a dream, Lucy pulls out the page of the mirror and recites the words at the top, “Make me she, whom I’d agree, holds more beauty over me.” Suddenly, in the dream, the spell works to transform Lucy into her sister Susan. However, by being transformed into her sister, Lucy discovers that she never existed.

As Lucy stands before the mirror, horrified, Aslan appears, and the film has the following conversation:

“Lucy,” says Aslan.

“Aslan,” she replies.

“What have you done, child?”

“I don’t know. That was awful.”

“But you chose it, Lucy,” he tells her.

“I didn’t mean to choose all that,” Lucy answers. “I just wanted to be beautiful like Susan. That’s all.”

Aslan tells her, “You wished yourself away, and with it much more. Your brothers and sister wouldn’t know about Narnia without you, Lucy. You discovered it first—remember?”

“I’m so sorry,” Lucy says sadly.

“You doubt your value,” says Aslan. “Don’t run from who you are.”^[1]

The Theme:

By Faith Able presented a more acceptable sacrifice.

Application:

Are we religious or righteous? Do we serve God out of duty or because we are pursuing righteousness?

Read with me:

Hebrews 11:1–3 (ESV)

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ²For by it the people of old received their commendation. ³By 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.

Let’s look at the context.
1. Hebrews is written to Jewish believers who have faced persecution. They are now considering turning their back on Jesus.
2. Hebrews is a sermon-type letter.
3. The writer gives expository sermons on various Old Testament passages.
4. Now, we come to this magnum opus passage on faith.
Let’s talk about Cain and Abel.
1. Genesis 4:1–7 (ESV)
2. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” ²And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. ³In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. ⁶The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it.”
3. Adam and Eve have a son and name him Cain.
4. Adam and Eve have another son and name him Abel. There is no mention of a time lapse, so it is possible that these two boys are twins. I imagine, though I cannot prove it, that they grow up together. I imagine that they work together. I imagine that they played games together, wrestled, and shared a tent or bedroom. We do not know what it was like back then, but I imagine that, as brothers, they were together a lot. Later, we read that Adam and Eve had many other children (Genesis 5:3), so they had other people to hang out with. We also know that when Cain is banished in Genesis 4:13-14, he is concerned about others killing him, so there were many others. Still, I imagine these two boys are brothers, and there might have been a bond when they were young. It seems they were also the first two boys of Adam and Eve. It seems they were the first two children of creation.
5. Abel was a shepherd.
6. Cain was a farmer.
7. These were common professions. I read, “Both professions were known in early society; sheepherding and agriculture provided an occasion for a natural rivalry. The Sumerian tale of Dumuzi and Enkimdu depicts a rivalry between the shepherd god and the farmer god over marriage to a woman, but it ends in a peaceful resolution.”
8. In Genesis 46:32 and 47:3, the Israelites were shepherds.
9. In Genesis 4:3-5, we see their sacrifice and how it worked out and did not work out.
10. Cain brought a sacrifice of the ground. Abel brought a blood sacrifice.
11. Later, there were grain sacrifices under Israelite law, so that was not something Cain did wrong.
12. We read here that Abel brought the first fruits of his flock. I think this is key. Abel did not pick the lame or smaller animal; no, the sacrifice was one of the firstborns. It was as if Abel were saying, “God, I love you so much, I am making this sacrifice.”
13. Cain and Abel knew God’s pleasure and displeasure with the sacrifice immediately. That is interesting. How did they know? I read that maybe a fire came down from Heaven and consumed Abel’s sacrifice. That did happen in the Old Testament.
14. They made the sacrifice, and Cain was mad that God did not show pleasure in his sacrifice. Cain’s face changed. He was angry. I see this in verse 5.
15. In the next few verses, God speaks to Cain.
16. That is where we have the illustration of sin crouching at the door, and the desire of sin is to overtake you.
17. Cain ignores this and kills his brother.
18. Genesis 4:8–10 (ESV)
19. ⁸Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.
20. Cain was jealous.
21. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his book Being and Nothingness, has a chapter called “The Look.” In it, he says there’s nothing worse than a stare, because if someone sees you who you cannot see, if you cannot control people’s knowledge of you, it destroys you. It utterly destroys you. It’s easy for people to say, “Oh, that’s just not true of me. No, no, no. I happen to know who I am, and I don’t care what people think about me.” Sartre says that’s silly.
22. He says if there’s anybody who sees you who you can’t see, if there’s anybody who absolutely has access to knowledge, and you can’t be selective about what people see of you, and you can’t provide certain things and keep certain things back, you’re destroyed. Why? Because fundamentally, we know we’re not acceptable. We never just go in. We always bring offerings. We always have to hide and cover up who we are.^{^[2]}
What is an acceptable sacrifice today?
1. Abel gave an acceptable sacrifice and that begs the question, what is acceptable today?
2. Don’t go slaughtering your pet. Jesus is the only sacrifice.
3. Jesus came and died for us.
4. However, we must respond, and we must not respond to Jesus out of duty but love and devotion to Him.
Now, let’s talk about religion vs. righteousness. These are applications which I made personal.
1. These must all fall under one major application of religious versus righteous.
2. The religious person goes to God and serves God out of pure duty.
3. The righteous person goes to God and serves Him out of love.
4. The religious person thinks that he/she can earn Heaven by duty.
5. The righteous person accepts Christ’s righteousness, surrendering to Him.
6. It seems that Abel’s sacrifice was not pure duty, but pure love.
7. This means that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul (Matt. 22:37-40).
8. We must love the Lord with all our being.
9. We must give God our love in devotion and sacrifice.
10. 1 Cor. 10:31 is fitting: eating and drinking, in everything, we must do them to the glory of the Lord. We must do them to love the Lord.
11. Abel gave the first fruits. We must not give God our last, but our first.
12. This applies to money. This means that we must give God our first in money.
13. This applies to our energy as well. We must not wait until we are tired to read devotions and pray. We must give Him our best time.
14. We must not stay out late on Saturday night or up late and fall asleep in worship.
15. We must give God our best.
16. We must prepare for our time with God and prepare for worship.
17. Abel seemed to have an attitude that was not only duty but faith in loving God. We must have an attitude of faith in loving and committing to God. We must ask God to take away our constant drive to make our relationship with Him a mere duty rather than a relationship.
18. Hebrews 12:24: The blood of Abel was a temporary sacrifice. Jesus’s sacrifice is forever. We must trust Jesus.
19. Jesus accepts us by His grace.
20. We don’t need to be thin-skinned.
21. We don’t need to be jealous.
22. We can have our worth in Jesus. We serve for the applause of One.

Close:

Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

Thousands of years later, Abel was remembered.

Trust Christ’s righteousness, and we will live for eternity with Him in paradise.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Fox 2000 Pictures, 2010), directed by Michael Apted, chapter 13; 0:50:19—0:51:12; submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a film version of C. S. Lewis’s book by the same name. In this scene, the children who have once again been summoned to Narnia—Lucy, Edmund, and Edmund—team up with King Caspian aboard the royal ship, The Dawn Treader.

As Lucy stands before the mirror, horrified, Aslan appears, and the film has the following conversation:

The Theme:

By Faith Able presented a more acceptable sacrifice.

Application:

Are we religious or righteous? Do we serve God out of duty or because we are pursuing righteousness?

Read with me:

Hebrews 11:1–3 (ESV)

Let’s look at the context.
1. Hebrews is written to Jewish believers who have faced persecution. They are now considering turning their back on Jesus.
2. Hebrews is a sermon-type letter.
3. The writer gives expository sermons on various Old Testament passages.
4. Now, we come to this magnum opus passage on faith.
Let’s talk about Cain and Abel.
1. Genesis 4:1–7 (ESV)
2. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” ²And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. ³In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, ⁴and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. ⁶The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it.”
3. Adam and Eve have a son and name him Cain.
4. Adam and Eve have another son and name him Abel. There is no mention of a time lapse, so it is possible that these two boys are twins. I imagine, though I cannot prove it, that they grow up together. I imagine that they work together. I imagine that they played games together, wrestled, and shared a tent or bedroom. We do not know what it was like back then, but I imagine that, as brothers, they were together a lot. Later, we read that Adam and Eve had many other children (Genesis 5:3), so they had other people to hang out with. We also know that when Cain is banished in Genesis 4:13-14, he is concerned about others killing him, so there were many others. Still, I imagine these two boys are brothers, and there might have been a bond when they were young. It seems they were also the first two boys of Adam and Eve. It seems they were the first two children of creation.
5. Abel was a shepherd.
6. Cain was a farmer.
7. These were common professions. I read, “Both professions were known in early society; sheepherding and agriculture provided an occasion for a natural rivalry. The Sumerian tale of Dumuzi and Enkimdu depicts a rivalry between the shepherd god and the farmer god over marriage to a woman, but it ends in a peaceful resolution.”
8. In Genesis 46:32 and 47:3, the Israelites were shepherds.
9. In Genesis 4:3-5, we see their sacrifice and how it worked out and did not work out.
10. Cain brought a sacrifice of the ground. Abel brought a blood sacrifice.
11. Later, there were grain sacrifices under Israelite law, so that was not something Cain did wrong.
12. We read here that Abel brought the first fruits of his flock. I think this is key. Abel did not pick the lame or smaller animal; no, the sacrifice was one of the firstborns. It was as if Abel were saying, “God, I love you so much, I am making this sacrifice.”
13. Cain and Abel knew God’s pleasure and displeasure with the sacrifice immediately. That is interesting. How did they know? I read that maybe a fire came down from Heaven and consumed Abel’s sacrifice. That did happen in the Old Testament.
14. They made the sacrifice, and Cain was mad that God did not show pleasure in his sacrifice. Cain’s face changed. He was angry. I see this in verse 5.
15. In the next few verses, God speaks to Cain.
16. That is where we have the illustration of sin crouching at the door, and the desire of sin is to overtake you.
17. Cain ignores this and kills his brother.
18. Genesis 4:8–10 (ESV)
19. ⁸Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. ⁹Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.
20. Cain was jealous.
21. Jean-Paul Sartre, in his book Being and Nothingness, has a chapter called “The Look.” In it, he says there’s nothing worse than a stare, because if someone sees you who you cannot see, if you cannot control people’s knowledge of you, it destroys you. It utterly destroys you. It’s easy for people to say, “Oh, that’s just not true of me. No, no, no. I happen to know who I am, and I don’t care what people think about me.” Sartre says that’s silly.
22. He says if there’s anybody who sees you who you can’t see, if there’s anybody who absolutely has access to knowledge, and you can’t be selective about what people see of you, and you can’t provide certain things and keep certain things back, you’re destroyed. Why? Because fundamentally, we know we’re not acceptable. We never just go in. We always bring offerings. We always have to hide and cover up who we are.^{^[2]}
What is an acceptable sacrifice today?
1. Abel gave an acceptable sacrifice and that begs the question, what is acceptable today?
2. Don’t go slaughtering your pet. Jesus is the only sacrifice.
3. Jesus came and died for us.
4. However, we must respond, and we must not respond to Jesus out of duty but love and devotion to Him.
Now, let’s talk about religion vs. righteousness. These are applications which I made personal.
1. These must all fall under one major application of religious versus righteous.
2. The religious person goes to God and serves God out of pure duty.
3. The righteous person goes to God and serves Him out of love.
4. The religious person thinks that he/she can earn Heaven by duty.
5. The righteous person accepts Christ’s righteousness, surrendering to Him.
6. It seems that Abel’s sacrifice was not pure duty, but pure love.
7. This means that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul (Matt. 22:37-40).
8. We must love the Lord with all our being.
9. We must give God our love in devotion and sacrifice.
10. 1 Cor. 10:31 is fitting: eating and drinking, in everything, we must do them to the glory of the Lord. We must do them to love the Lord.
11. Abel gave the first fruits. We must not give God our last, but our first.
12. This applies to money. This means that we must give God our first in money.
13. This applies to our energy as well. We must not wait until we are tired to read devotions and pray. We must give Him our best time.
14. We must not stay out late on Saturday night or up late and fall asleep in worship.
15. We must give God our best.
16. We must prepare for our time with God and prepare for worship.
17. Abel seemed to have an attitude that was not only duty but faith in loving God. We must have an attitude of faith in loving and committing to God. We must ask God to take away our constant drive to make our relationship with Him a mere duty rather than a relationship.
18. Hebrews 12:24: The blood of Abel was a temporary sacrifice. Jesus’s sacrifice is forever. We must trust Jesus.
19. Jesus accepts us by His grace.
20. We don’t need to be thin-skinned.
21. We don’t need to be jealous.
22. We can have our worth in Jesus. We serve for the applause of One.

Close:

Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)

Thousands of years later, Abel was remembered.

Trust Christ’s righteousness, and we will live for eternity with Him in paradise.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Fox 2000 Pictures, 2010), directed by Michael Apted, chapter 13; 0:50:19—0:51:12; submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑

The Cost of Discipleship: Jesus Must Be Our Complete Treasure (Matt. 19:16-30)

Posted on August 16, 2026 by sarhodes

The Cost of Discipleship: Jesus Must Be Our Complete Treasure (Matt. 19:16-30)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes on Sunday, August 16, 2026

Joke-

A husband sitting alone in the kitchen on their anniversary tells his touched wife how he remembers the day her father caught them in a car and gave him a choice: marry her or spend 20 years in prison. Wiping a tear, he sighs, “I would have gotten out today!”

What do we desire?

What do we crave?

This message is not so much about money as where our treasure is.

What is most important?

Jesus changes us- He is our treasure.

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy Lord of the Rings… something very odd happens at the end. The heroes are very carefully marked out as very, very pedestrian, ordinary, normal kinds of persons, but the essence of the story of the book is these two heroes go off with and ally themselves with a high, noble, angelic-like race of beings. With the help of those beings, they fight and get glory and honor in many battles and ordeals and adventures.

In triumph, they return back to their homeland, which they love and for whose freedom they fought, for whose protection they fought, but they discover they have been changed. Something has changed. They find they still love their land, and they fought to win their land, they fought to protect their land, but they realize now they don’t belong. You see these high angelic beings they made alliances with had come from a high, immortal paradise kind of land far beyond the Western Seas.

Now our heroes return to their homeland, which they love so much, and they find the life force of that high, immortal land beyond the Western Seas has entered into them. Here’s the paradox of it. When they come back, they realize the new greatness of heart they have that enables them now to be leaders amongst their countrymen has also changed them so they don’t feel like they belong there.

They realize now their hearts are over the sea. They realize they’re restless now in their homeland. The paradox is there’s a new greatness that has come into their lives from that land. [this is the case for us as Christians, the more we grow in Christ, the more we don’t fit in society.] They laugh louder than other people; they laugh louder than their peers. They cry more deeply. They see further into the future, and they remember the wisdom of the past better because in a sense they have been taken out of their land. They have a perspective that is greater than the time and place of the people who have lived all their lives in that country.

They’re recognized by their peers as having a certain greatness of spirit, and they’re made into their leaders. Yet at the same time their peers and their friends can no longer understand them because now they’re very strange. They’re always walking off to the ocean, standing on the ocean, and the sound of the waves sinks deep into their hearts. They sit there for hours, and everybody says, “What’s wrong with them? Why do they get comfort? Why do they get strength from doing something like that?”

In other words, they love their homeland, but now their relationship to their homeland has become complex. The citizenship of their hearts, the rootedness of their soul, no longer is there; it’s over the sea. They live great lives in their homeland, and they become great leaders. In a sense their relationship with the other people they love who have not had the same experiences has been turned into something very complex.^{^[1]}

A few months ago, I read this from John Piper:

Fifty-five years ago this month, I was sitting in a seminary commencement service like this one, ready to receive my degree. One of my professors was giving the address. The title of his message was this: “Remember the Rich Young Man.” And to help us remember, he gave each of us a one-dollar bill. I don’t recall whether it was his suggestion or not, but I took that one-dollar bill home and said to Noël, “I want to keep this in front of me for the rest of my life.” So, she decoupaged [the art or craft of decorating objects with paper cut outs] it for me and it has been visible in my study for 55 years, wherever we have lived.

That message and that dollar bill and its presence with me for five-and-a-half decades have been a great service to me. How many thousands of times have I looked up and seen this dollar bill and heard the voice of Jesus:

John, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Don’t want to be rich! Don’t want to be rich! A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Make your life count. But not this way. Not money. Give every ounce of energy you have to spreading a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples in my name. I’ll meet every need you have. I’ll be with you. But not if you want to be rich. Remember the rich young man.^[2]

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

It means He must be our complete treasure.

Again, Jesus uses money as an example; we are using money as an example, but the bottom line is- what is our treasure? What do we crave?

My theme today is:

Jesus must be our complete treasure.

Outline adapted from the Outline Bible^[3]:

Context
1. What is going on in this chapter?
2. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem.
3. He explains the sanctity of marriage (Matthew 19:3-12). Then, He blesses the children (Matthew 19:13-15).
4. Then, we have the Rich Young Ruler.
5. Starting in the next chapter, Jesus will describe the Kingdom of Heaven.
6. Let’s talk about discipleship.
Jesus speaks concerning riches (Matthew 19:16–26): Jesus meets with a rich young ruler and is asked a question by his disciples.
1. Jesus and the ruler (Matthew 19:16–22)
2. Matthew 19:16 (ESV)
3. ¹⁶And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
4. Notice, the ruler is confused. He thinks all he has to do is perform good deeds.
5. Greek traditions also reported aristocratic young men who wanted to study under a famous teacher but were too spoiled to carry out what the teacher demanded.^{^[4]}
6. As Christians, is eternal life about being good?
7. Is eternal life about earning our way to heaven?
8. No, but the cost of our eternal life is much more than being good (John 3:16-18).
9. Now, Jesus responds:
10. Matthew 19:17 (ESV)
11. ¹⁷And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
12. Notice how Jesus responds with a principle. The principle is that there is only One Who Is Good. God is the only One Who Is good.
13. Tony Evans: In other words, to be good Jesus would have to be God. And since he is God incarnate, he has the authority to answer the man’s question.^{^[5]}
14. Jesus instructs him to keep God’s commandments.
15. Now, the ruler responds inquiring of which commandments he is to keep.
16. Matthew 19:18–19 (ESV)
17. ¹⁸He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, ¹⁹Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
18. Honoring your father and mother is out of order from the others. Did Jesus know the young man had not kept that one?
19. The ruler says that he has obeyed these commandments.
20. Matthew 19:20 (ESV)
21. ²⁰The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”
22. He seems very confident, doesn’t he?
23. Jesus will now go deeper.
24. NET: While the rich man was probably being sincere when he insisted I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws, he had confined his righteousness to external obedience. The rich man’s response to Jesus’ command—to give away all he had—revealed that internally he loved money more than God.^{^[6]}
25. The Savior’s conclusion (Matthew 19:21): “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor.… Then come, follow me.”
26. Perfect has the idea of completely whole, or mature (Matthew 5:48).
27. Matthew 19:21 (ESV)
28. ²¹Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
29. Jesus tells how he can be perfect.
30. Go and sell all he possesses…
The sorrowing ruler (Matthew 19:22): He turns away with sadness, not willing to give up his wealth.
1. Matthew 19:22 (ESV)
2. ²²When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
3. The young man had great possessions. He leaves sorrowfully.
4. Yet, Jesus doesn’t chase him down.
5. Jesus doesn’t change the standard.
6. Jesus doesn’t lighten the load.
Jesus and the disciples (Matthew 19:23–26)
1. Matthew 19:23 (ESV)
2. ²³And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
3. Now, Jesus talks to the disciples.
4. The rich young ruler has left, and Jesus addresses the disciples.
5. Jesus teaches them that it is difficult to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
6. Matthew 19:24 (ESV)
7. ²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
8. So, we see this allegory.
9. A camel represented the largest animal they had at that time. The eye of a needle represented the smallest opening found in a home.
10. What a picture. Can you imagine a camel going through the eye of a needle?
11. If so, then that is how a rich man enters the Kingdom of Heaven.
12. As Jesus said, we should collect “treasures in heaven,” for they cannot be destroyed, stolen, or lost (Matthew 6:20).^{^[7]}
13. I believe Jesus used images like this to help convey the lesson.
14. Matthew 19:25 (ESV)
15. ²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”
16. Given the description Jesus gave, this makes sense.
17. Who can be saved?
18. Matthew 19:26 (ESV)
19. ²⁶But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
20. Notice the description: Jesus looked at them.
21. I think this is emphasizing that Jesus wants to make a point.
22. Jesus is making eye contact.
23. This is not possible without Divine intervention.
24. For the wealthy to shift their primary allegiance to God is humanly impossible, but with God all things are possible, as evidenced by the conversions of rich men like Joseph of Arimathea (27:57) and Zacchaeus (Luke 19:9–10).^{^[8]}
25. We need outside help to be saved.
26. Romans 6:23 (ESV)
27. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus speaks concerning rewards (Matthew 19:27–30)
1. Peter speaks up: Matthew 19:27 (ESV)
2. ²⁷Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”
3. Peter seems concerned. Jesus had told the rich young ruler to sell everything he owned and follow Him.
4. Peter says that they have left everything.
5. Peter was a fisherman (Matthew 4:18-20). They left everything.
6. Peter asks what they will have.
7. The Kingdom of God reverses the kingdom of man:
8. Matthew 19:28–30 (ESV)
9. ²⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. ³⁰But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
10. There is a lot in verse 28. What does it mean? The disciples will judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
11. Jesus teaches a principle.
12. This is a significant promise because it shows that the disciples were not only the foundation of the Church (Eph 2:20–22) but also the leaders of the remnant of Israel (Rm 11:1–6). Jewish believers have this unique status as members both of the Church and Israel. This promise was probably made only to the twelve as a unique group, but the N^[9]T indicates that all believers will participate with Christ in His judgment of the earth (Mt 25:21; Rm 16:20; 1Co 6:2; Rv 2:26–27; 3:21).^{^[10]}
13. In verse 29, Jesus says that Christians will inherit. It is an inheritance, not a reward.
14. Those who have left things behind for Him will have a great reward.
15. In verse 30, we have the line: “The first in this world will be last in eternal life.” Those last in this world will be first in eternal life.
16. The statement in context states that God’s grace extends to those who approach God in childlike trust (vv^[11]. 13–15).^{^[12]}

Tim Keller helps us:

He comes to Jesus and says, “I’ve been a good person. Is there anything I’ve left out?” Jesus says, “Yeah, one thing.” Then he says, “Sell everything you have, give it away, and then you’ll have treasures in heaven.” What he said there will make no sense to you unless you understand the principle of this text, the principle we’re getting across now. You might say, “Oh my gosh! He’s trying to say you have to sell all of your goods in order to be saved?” No, he’s not. Instead, he’s saying, “My dear young man,” whom he loved. Remember what the text says? He looked at the man and confronted him because he loved him.

He says, “My dear, you have a lot of money, and yet you have nothing. It’s all going to burn up. If you could only see that if you have me you have everything. You could have my record. You could have my forgiveness. Unless you see that my dying love is your real treasure, unless you see that, frankly, salvation and eternal life is not a matter of doing or adding one more thing to your good life but rather it’s a matter of throwing it all over and trusting wholly in me, until you see that if you have me you have everything, you cannot inherit eternal life.” Jesus is saying, “If you understood that I am eternal life, your attitude toward your money would be very different.”^{^[13]}

Piper concluded his message with this:

In that same commencement service 55 years ago, there was another professor. He had a degree from a prestigious European university. We met at his house several times. I took a couple of courses from him. When I left school, I heard later that he was beginning to invest in the stock market. He was eventually consumed with a passion for wealth. And he walked away. Today he’s not a believer. He doesn’t even believe in God, with his doctorate in theology.

What’s going to keep you on the Calvary road with Jesus — who loved you and gave himself for you — living a life of joyful simplicity, lavish generosity, heavenly-mindedness? The answer is this: God will keep you. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). And one of the means he might use to keep you is a plaque hanging on your wall: “Remember the Rich Young Man.”^[14]

Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
June 3, 2026

Graduates, Remember the Rich Young Man

To the Class of 2026

Commencement Address | Bethlehem College and Seminary | Minneapolis; Jude 3, 2026

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/graduates-remember-the-rich-young-man ↑
H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Mt 19:16–30. ↑
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Mt 19:16. ↑
Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 901. ↑
Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Mt 19:20. ↑
Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 901. ↑
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1862. ↑
NT New Testament ↑
Michael G. Vanlaningham, “Matthew,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 1489. ↑
vv. verses ↑
Michael G. Vanlaningham, “Matthew,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 1489. ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑
Graduates, Remember the Rich Young Man

To the Class of 2026

Commencement Address | Bethlehem College and Seminary | Minneapolis; Jude 3, 2026

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/graduates-remember-the-rich-young-man ↑

Come humbly before God; He accepts us based on Jesus’s death and resurrection (Luke 18:9-14)

Posted on August 9, 2026 by sarhodes

Praying in Humility (Luke 18:9ff)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 09, 2026

Do we recognize our need for Jesus?

Tim Keller shares:

In every culture … the Norse legends, the Finnish legends, The Kalevala, and Anglo-Saxon stuff like Beowulf. These are ancient pagan, northern European legends and cultures. At the very end of Beowulf, when the great king has died, here’s what they put on his tomb.

They say something like, “Of all men, he was the most hungry for glory.” See, in that culture, that was a compliment. I mean, the commentators on this say, we say … It’s almost untranslatable. In Anglo-Saxon, the word is lof-geornost, and it means to be hungry for glory, to be hungry for renown, to be hungry for acclaim.

Of course, in that culture, that meant glory and battle, but it was considered … In that culture, everybody was hungry for glory on the battlefield. Of course, in this ancient Jewish culture, the idea of getting glory on the battlefield was kind of repugnant, and to us it’s repugnant, but wait a minute. Are we not, though we cannot relate to the cultural form of this, talking about the same thing? What are they hungry for? What are we hungry for?[1]

We all feel like we need acceptance. Do we come to God as needy people?

My theme is:

Come humbly before God; He accepts us based on Jesus’s death and resurrection.

We see the characters in Luke 18:9-10.

In verse 9, we see the audience.
Let’s read Luke 18:9-10: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Notice how this begins. He, Jesus, told a parable.
Who does He address the parable to? He addresses the parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
At this point in Luke’s gospel, Jesus is heading to Jerusalem. He is on His way towards Jerusalem to be crucified.
From Luke 9:51-19:27, Jesus is on His road to Jerusalem. On this journey towards Jerusalem, Jesus goes right through Samaria. Most Jerusalem Jews avoided Samaria, but Jesus did not. Jesus came for everyone. While in Samaria, Jesus told 10 parables that are not found in the other gospels.
Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.
Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32.
Jesus shares other parables during this time of traveling.
One of those is the parable that we are getting into.
This parable is addressed to people who trusted in themselves. They thought they were doing just fine and did not need a Savior.
In verse 10, we see the two people praying. One is a Pharisee. They are the religious elite of the day. They do not need any help, nor do they need Jesus, or so they thought.
Then a tax collector- they are not even supposed to be in the temple. They were looked down upon. It looked like they had sold out to Rome. The taxes were not regulated and held accountable, so the tax collectors would charge extra, taking advantage of people.
Sproul shares: The other man in the temple was a tax collector. When the Romans imposed taxes on people they conquered, they hired people from the conquered nation, from the Jews in this case, to go to their countrymen and collect the oppressive taxes. Tax collectors got rich on the commissions they made from serving Rome against their own people. They were the quislings of the day. When the people saw the tax collector, their hearts would swell with fury and hatred against him.[1]
II. In verses 11-12, we see the first prayer.
Look at the Pharisee’s prayer in Luke 18:11-12: The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
He thinks he is okay, doesn’t he?
He talks about all that he has done for God. But it is all about him.
Keller: There’s a preposition here that in every single translation you pick up it’s going to translate it differently because it’s deliberately ambiguous. It’s a Greek preposition and it’s in verse 11. It says, “The Pharisee stood up and prayed …” In this translation it says, “… about himself.” In other translations, it’ll say, “by himself.” It’s a deliberately ambiguous preposition because it means both things…^[1]
I think the audience was laughing at this.
They were probably thinking, “I cannot believe Jesus said that. He is going to get Himself stoned or crucified.”
In verse 13, we see the second prayer.
Look at Luke 18:13: But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
The tax collector, who was looked upon as a sinner, was very humble.
The tax collector pleaded to God in humility.
He asked for mercy.
Sproul: In contrast to the Pharisee, who said he’d never stolen, yet who stole the glory of God and who was not an atheist but was an idolater, stood the tax collector. He was probably by the door of the temple. He, in fear and trembling, wouldn’t even lift his face up to heaven. His gaze was on the floor. He brought absolutely nothing to God but his sin. He had nothing to offer to God except his guilt. “Be merciful. Have mercy. It’s only by Your grace alone, not Your grace and my contribution.” This man understood the doctrines of sola fide and sola gratia: justification by faith alone and justification by grace alone. There are tens of thousands of Christians in America today who will affirm justification by faith alone but not justification by grace alone. You really don’t believe in justification by faith alone if you think you’re adding something beyond your faith, beyond the righteousness of Christ, for you to be justified.[1]
In verse 14, we see Jesus’s principle.
Look at Luke 18:14: I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Jesus says the tax collector was justified. Jesus says the tax collector was declared righteous.
Why?
He recognized his brokenness before God. The humble will be exalted by God.
This is the sum of the gospel: how do we get justified?
It is all about Jesus.
We are all broken, and we need Jesus.
This parable is mainly about needing a Savior for eternal life.
I think most of us recognize this.
However, do we realize that we need a Savior for this life now?
We are all broken.
We are all in need.
Keller:
He says, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner.” When he uses that word merciful, in the Greek, it signals something very intriguing which doesn’t come across in English because the word mercy … Usually, when you see it in the New Testament, there’s a perfectly good Greek word that’s used, eleos. In fact, later on in this chapter, there’s a place where, for example, a blind man cries out and says, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” That’s the normal word for mercy, but not here.
The tax collector is using the word that literally means atone for my sin. It’s the word hilastērion. In the temple, there was a Holy of Holies, and there was a place where God spoke, his shekinah glory dwelled, but it was over the ark of the covenant, in which was the Law, the Ten Commandments.
In other words, you could not come near God without being scrutinized by the Law. So who in the world could pass the scrutiny of the Law in order to see God? But over the top of the ark of the covenant was a gold slab called the mercy seat. It was called the hilastērion. The very same word the tax collector is using here, and almost certainly, he had it in mind.
On the mercy seat, once a year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest could come back in and talk to God only because he put the blood of a substitute, who died to pay the penalty for the sins of the people, on the mercy seat so that the Law’s scrutiny was satisfied, that the Law’s penalty had been fulfilled.
This word hilastērion is used, in Hebrews 2:17, of Jesus because in Hebrews 2:17 we’re told that for this reason Jesus became a merciful and faithful High Priest in service to God, that he might make hilastērion, propitiation, atonement, for the sins of the people. This man is not saying, “God, let me off. God, lower your standards. God, just overlook my sins.” That doesn’t help with the problem of righteousness.
What he’s saying is, “Lord, I need atonement for my sin.” Well, where does it come from? Here’s how it comes. Jesus Christ became the sinner. He became the ultimate sinner. He died on the cross for us. He was looking at you and me, I believe, when he looked at his disciples falling asleep on him at his moment of greatest need. Do you remember, in the garden, he says, “All I want for you to do is just stay awake,” and they keep falling asleep, and yet he died for them anyway?
Here is how Christians deal with the problem of approval. You have to know, first of all, Jesus loved you so much that he made atonement for you. Secondly, he made such atonement for you that now he can love you. What does that mean? He can come in. Once he died for you and paid the penalty for your sin, in spite of all the things you’ve done wrong, now you’re accepted in him. You’re utterly approved in him.[1]
We are approved by Jesus, not by our merit, but by His.
Let’s pray like the tax collector.
Come to God in humility.

[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[1] Sproul, R.C.. Luke: An Expositional Commentary (p. 459). Ligonier Ministries. Kindle Edition.

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[1] Sproul, R.C.. Luke: An Expositional Commentary (p. 459). Ligonier Ministries. Kindle Edition.

[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

The Disciples Ask to Have Their Faith Increased (Luke 17:5ff)

Posted on August 2, 2026 by sarhodes

The Disciples Ask to Have Their Faith Increased (Luke 17:5ff)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 2, 2026

Lee Strobel shares about talking with Dr. Craig Keener about miracles. He shares:

With that, Keener began recounting some of the stories he had investigated. He started with the case of a nine-year-old British girl who was diagnosed with deafness in September 1982, apparently the result of a virus that severely damaged nerves in both of her ears.

“Her case is reported by Dr. R. F. R. Gardner, a well-credentialed physician,” Keener said. “What makes this case especially interesting is that there is medical confirmation before the healing and immediately afterward, which is unusual to have.”

The child’s medical record says she was diagnosed with “untreatable bilateral sensorineural deafness.” Her attending physician told her parents there was no cure and nothing he could do to repair her damaged nerves. She was outfitted with hearing aids that did help her hear to some degree.

The girl didn’t want to wear hearing aids the rest of her life, so she started to pray that God would heal her. Her family and friends joined her. In fact, her mother said she felt a definite prompting to call out for God’s help.

“I kept feeling God was telling me to pray specifically for healing,” she said. “Passages kept coming out at me as I read: If you have faith like children . . . If one among you is ill, lay hands . . . Ask and you shall receive . . . Your faith has made you whole.”

On March 8, 1983, the girl went to the audiologist because one of her hearing aids had been damaged at school. After being examined and refitted, she was sent home.

The next evening, the child suddenly jumped out of her bed without her hearing aids and came bounding down the stairs. “Mummy, I can hear!” she exclaimed.

Her mother, astonished, tested to see if she could detect noises and words—and she could, even whispers. Her mother called the audiologist, who said, “I don’t believe you. It is not possible. All right, if some miracle has happened, I am delighted. Have audiograms done.”

The following day, she was tested again, and her audiogram and tympanogram came back fully normal. “I can give no explanation for this,” said the audiologist. “I have never seen anything like it in my life.”

The girl’s doctor ruled out possible medical explanations. After repeated successful audiograms, the dumbfounded consultant’s advice to her parents: “Forget she was ever deaf.”[1]

When we pray, how is our faith?

My theme today is:

The disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith.

Context:
- This section follows the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus in Luke 17:19-31.
- Jesus is giving mini messages.
- He warned them about causing others to stumble (Luke 17:1-2), then about forgiving others.
- Then, the disciples ask for an increase in faith.
On Faith (Luke 17:5-6)
- Luke 17:5–6 (ESV)
  ⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” ⁶And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
- Why are they asking this?
- To me, they seem overwhelmed by what Jesus shared.
- In Luke 17:1-5, Jesus warned against causing someone else to sin (Luke 17:1-2) and told them never to stop forgiving.
- Further, I agree with John MacArthur[1] that this is about humility. Jesus had spoken about forgiveness. After this, Jesus will be talking about humility. It is humbling to admit we need help.
- Do we admit that we need help?
- 1 Corinthians 2:1–2 (ESV)
  And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. ²For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
- The request by the disciples (Luke 17:5): “We need more faith; tell us how to get it.”
- NET: The request of the apostles, “Increase our faith,” is not a request for a gift of faith, but a request to increase the depth of their faith.^[2]
- What is faith? This means our trust in the Lord. Faith has the idea of trust.
- When we pray, do we recognize that we are needy people?
- Are we trusting the Lord?
- The Lord then gave the example.
- The reply by the Savior (Luke 17:6): Even a little faith can do great things!^[3]
- A black mulberry tree is a deciduous fruit tree that grows about 20 ft (6 m) tall and has black juicy berries. This tree has an extensive root system, so to pull it up would be a major operation.^[4]
- To cause a tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea is impossible. The expression is a rhetorical idiom. It is like saying a camel can go through the eye of a needle (Luke 18:25).^[5]
- The image of the mustard seed is another hyperbole, but the point is clear. Christians, even apostles, are distinguished not by the quantity of faith, but by the employment of faith; not by greatness or smallness of faith, but by acting on faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed.^{21,^[6]}
- After these verses, Jesus gives an illustration.
- Luke 17:7–10 (ESV)
- ⁷“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? ⁸Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? ⁹Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? ¹⁰So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’ ”
- What is the point?
- This fits in with humility. This fits in with forgiveness.
- As Timothy Keller shares:
  Now why would Jesus use this illustration when his disciples say, “We can’t do this”? He says, “You could if you remembered who you were. You have an owner, and what if he made you pay for everything? You are just servants. If you start to hate the people who have wronged you, you’re forgetting you’re servants.”^[7]
Applications:
- Do we ask the Lord to increase our faith?
- Do we remember who we are?
- We are servants (Luke 17:10), but we are servants of King Jesus.
- Our faith is trusting in Jesus.
- In another passage, Jesus said:
- John 14:12 (ESV)
  ¹²“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
- Jesus is talking about the spreading of the Gospel.
- Jesus is talking about what happened in the book of Acts.
- If we pray in His Name, this means we are praying in His Will. Back then, “name” had to do with who a person was. When we are praying in His will, we can do great things. Jesus said that when they believe in Him, they will do greater works than He did. Now, that is a little bit of hyperbole because Jesus saved all those who come to him by His death on the cross, but what happened in Acts? The Gospel spread all over the known world, and even further than that. The Holy Spirit came upon them, and over 3000 were saved (Acts 2:41, and that was just the beginning).
  What about faith in our passage of Luke 17:5?
- One source shares:
  These hyperbolic expressions describe what faith can do, but in practice Jesus was not speaking of a faith that stages wonders²³⁸ but of a faith that facilitates healing,²³⁹ that understands the need of Christ to suffer (24:25–26), that has confidence in God’s providential care (8:25), that will not fall away (8:13; 22:32) but will endure (Acts 14:22), and that will believe God and grow.^{240, ^[1]}
- The more I live as a Christian. The more I am convinced that I need to live “in Christ.”
- That means I need the fuel that only Jesus can give me.
- I began this sermon about miracles, but the greater miracle is salvation in Jesus.
- It is a miracle when we experience salvation in Jesus.
- It is a miracle when we share the gospel with someone.
- Think about it:
- When we are saved, we are forgiven. We are redeemed. This carries the idea of being bought out of slavery. We are bought by Jesus’s blood out of slavery to sin.
- When we are saved, we are sanctified. This means we are set apart for a purpose (1 Cor. 1:2). God sets us apart for His purposes. God makes us holy. This is positional sanctification. We are in a position of holiness because of Jesus.
- When we are saved, we are being sanctified. That means God is growing us more mature in Him. This is progressive sanctification (Heb. 10:14; Phil. 1:6; 2 Peter 3:18).
- When we are saved, we are justified. This means that God declares us righteous. How does this happen? Jesus gives us His righteousness, and Jesus takes our sin upon Himself (Rom. 8:1, 30; 2 Cor. 5:21).
- When we are saved, we are children of God (1 John 3:1).
- We can cry out to Him as a Father.
- We are in the family of God.
- We have the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9).
- Think about Who we are in Jesus.
- We live with Jesus.
- Are we living with Jesus?
- Do we ask Him to increase our faith?
- We can picture faith as a connection between the work of the Holy Spirit and the power at work in our new nature. Faith is a wire that conducts a current called grace that flows from the Spirit so that the new nature receives power.^{270,^[1]}
  
  Prayer
  
  ^[1] Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 96.
  
  ²³⁸ Cf. Luke 4:9; 11:16, 29; 16:27–31.
  ²³⁹ Luke 7:9; 8:48; 18:42; Acts 14:9.
  ²⁴⁰ Acts 6:5; cf. Luke 1:45 with 1:20.
  ^[1] Robert H. Stein, Luke, vol. 24, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 431–432.
  
  [1] MacArthur, John. Four Hallmarks of Humility, Part 3. September 10, 2006.
  https://www.gty.org/sermons/42-219/four-hallmarks-of-humility-part-3
  
  ^[2] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Lk 17:5.
  ^[3] H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Lk 17:5–6.
  ^[4] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Lk 17:6.
  ^[5] Ibid.
  ²¹ Nolland, Luke 9:21–18:34, 838, “What is needed is not the increase of faith, but the exercise of faith.”
  ^[6] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 479.
  ^[7] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[1] Strobel, Lee. The Case for Miracles: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Supernatural (pp. 99-100). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Prayers to Increase Faith (Mark 9:24)

Posted on July 19, 2026 by sarhodes

Prayers to Increase Faith (Mark 9:24)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 19, 2026

We have been preaching on prayer. We have been focusing on prayer. Do we come to God as needy people? Are we honest with God?

Today, we look at a passage in which a father needed help. He was desperate. He was also honest. He was honest that he needed an increase in faith. Today, and in two weeks we will be talking about prayers for an increase in faith.

Today, my theme is:

Jesus heals and casts a demon out of a boy, despite his father’s unbelief.

My application: Be honest with God. Ask the Lord to increase our faith.

What is the context?
1. Jesus has just been transfigured before Peter, James, and John.
2. We see this in Mark 9:1-13.
3. Now, they come down from the mountain.
The scribes are arguing with a crowd (Mark 9:14-16).
1. Mark 9:14–16 (ESV)
2. ¹⁴And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. ¹⁵And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. ¹⁶And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?”
3. Imagine this: they come down from the mountain and see scribes arguing with the disciples.
4. It seems that they are arguing with the other nine disciples.
5. Who were the scribes? They were specialists in the law of Moses.^{^[1]}
6. Most scribes did not claim the power to work miracles, in contrast to Jesus’ disciples (6:12–13). Teachers of the law knew the Bible better than the disciples did, so if the disciples could not demonstrate God’s power in other ways, they risked their credibility.^{^[2]}
7. We will see; they are arguing about how to cast this demon out of the boy.
8. Then, Jesus comes down from the mountain, so they all rush towards Him.
9. Of course, Jesus asks what they are arguing about (Mark 9:16).
10. I wonder: did Jesus and the disciples go up the mountain on the same trail they came down? Then, they come down the mountain and see these people gathered, discussing?
11. Was this a lively discussion?
12. Where was this demon-possessed boy? Was he nearby? What condition was he in?
13. Many lessons are here. (1) We see that demons are real beings, not simply mythological creatures. Jesus clearly believes in the demonic. (2) Demons desire to inflict pain and death. (3) Demons are capable of inflicting physical suffering. This boy had symptoms resembling epilepsy (Matt 17:15). (4) In our own strength we are helpless against the supernatural powers of the demonic. (5) Spiritual victories in the past (cf. Mark 6:7–13) are no guarantee we will be victorious today, especially when we operate with faith in ourselves rather than in Christ. (6) When all human efforts have been exhausted, we can turn to Jesus. Counter to our sinfulness and weakness, He is where we should turn from the start.^{^[3]}
14. Dr. Jeremiah Johnston shares:
15. Sometimes mental illness and demon possession go hand in hand, the former opening up the possibility of the latter, or the latter causing the former. We may have an example of this in the case of the boy and his distraught father (see Matthew 17:14–20; Mark 9:14–27; Luke 9:37–43). The father tells Jesus, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth” (Mark 9:17–18). Should the reference to a “dumb” or “mute spirit” be understood as a sentient being? Or is it a condition? In Matthew’s account (17:15), a Greek word that means “moon-struck” is used. But at the end of the story, Matthew (like Mark) says Jesus spoke and the “demon” came out of the boy. Luke says Jesus “rebuked the unclean spirit” (Luke 9:42). In the case of the tormented boy, we do not know which happened first—the demon or the illness—but Jesus drove out the one and healed the other. (In all three gospel accounts the evil spirit is driven out, then the boy is healed.)^[4]
16. Dr. Johnston seems to be stating that there was both a mental health issue and a demon possession.
17. One source shares: The symptoms were similar to epilepsy, but Mark says they were the result of unclean spirits (9:17, 20, 25).^{^[5]}
18. IVP BBC NT: The possessed person’s lack of control over his own motor responses is paralleled by examples of spirit possession in many cultures through history and is attested in anthropological studies of spirit possession today. Some writers have noted parallels between this form of demonized activity and epileptic behavior (though epilepsy and demonic possession are distinguished in Mt 4:24); the parallels could indicate that the spirit gained access to the same centers in the brain where seizures could also be induced by other means.^{^[6]}
The demon-possessed boy (Mark 9:17-24).
1. Mark 9:17–18 (ESV)
2. ¹⁷And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. ¹⁸And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”
3. Now, the boy’s father speaks. He is within the crowd.
4. How big is this crowd? We don’t know.
5. He addresses Jesus as “teacher.”
6. This man’s son has a “spirit” that makes him mute.
7. This is obviously a demonic spirit.
8. An angelic spirit would not do harm to a boy.
9. Verse 18, Mark 9:18, shows that this demonic spirit seizes him. It makes him throw himself down, grind his teeth, and become rigid.
10. This is a horrible situation.
11. What was this like for this father?
12. The man loves his son, and he is helpless.
13. The disciples were asked to cast the demon out and they couldn’t do it.
Jesus responds.
1. Mark 9:19–23 (ESV)
2. ¹⁹And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” ²⁰And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. ²¹And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. ²²And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” ²³And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”
3. We see Jesus respond.
4. We see Jesus’s frustration with the people.
5. We know this was not sin, but frustration with the fallen world.
6. I wonder, was this Jesus hurting for the poor boy?
7. The fundamental problem of the people (the opponents, the spiritually oppressed, and even the disciples) is that they are faithless (cf. 6:6; 9:23). Jesus’ burdened expression echoes that of the prophets (e.g., Deut. 32:5, 20; Isa. 6:11; Jer. 5:21–22; cf. note on Mark 8:12).^{^[7]}
8. Daniel Akin: I appreciate the convicting words of William Lane: “The rhetorical questions … express the loneliness and the anguish of the one authentic believer in a world which expresses only unbelief” (Mark, 332). Sinclair Ferguson adds, “Mark vividly captures the pressures and frustrations of Christ’s life in these verses. On the mountaintop he had been faced with the spiritual short-sightedness of his disciples. Here in the valley he was confronted by [their] unbelief” (Mark, 143).^{^[8]}
9. Jesus asks for the boy to be brought to Him.
10. In verse 20, the demonic spirit saw Jesus and made the boy convulse more.
11. This is a horrible thing. Imagine your son or your daughter enduring this.
12. He is rolling around and foaming at the mouth.
13. Jesus asks the father how long this has been going on.
14. The father says this has been going on since childhood. The demon is trying to destroy him.
15. The father asks for compassion.
16. Notice how the father says, “if you can…”
17. Jesus says, “All things are possible if you believe.”
Help
1. Mark 9:24 (ESV)
2. Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
3. Is that our cry?
4. Are we honest with our doubts?
5. One pastor writes: As a pastor, I was called to meet a couple at a hospital. Their daughter had suffered a seizure and was not breathing. When I reached the hospital, neither the parents nor the doctor were with the child. A nurse was unplugging the flat-lined machines.
6. The Holy Spirit prompted me to do something I’d never done before — pray over the girl’s lifeless body. I asked the nurse if I could pray for a minute, to which she replied, “You know she’s dead,” but allowed me to go ahead.
7. I asked God to restore the little girl. Then I went to the next room and found the parents witnessing the doctor. About a minute later, we heard a scream, then the little girl crying for her mommy. It’s never happened to me before or since. But Jesus is still healer.^[9]
8. When we pray, do we pray expecting God to do the miraculous?
9. Can we be honest?
10. We know some are healed regardless of faith.
11. Jesus healed the child of this man, who admitted to weak faith.
The demon comes out (Mark 9:25-29).
1. Mark 9:25–29 (ESV)
2. ²⁵And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” ²⁶And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” ²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. ²⁸And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” ²⁹And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
3. Notice, Jesus rebuked the demon.
4. Jesus casts out the demon.
5. Jesus told the demon to stay out.
6. Otherwise, maybe the demon would have tried to enter the boy again.
7. Jesus’s command to never enter him again is unique in all the exorcisms in the Gospels.^{^[10]}
8. Notice, the demon did not leave peacefully.
9. The boy cried out and convulsed more.
10. Then, the boy appeared dead.
11. Jesus helped the boy up.
12. The disciples ask privately why they could not cast out the demon.
13. In verse 29, Mark 9:29, that type of demon can only be driven out by prayer.
14. It seems that they were trying to cast out the demon without prayer.
15. Their failure is an occasion for encouragement to more prayer (cf. 4:10; 7:17; 10:10), implying that more time and effort in prayer (and therefore in closer fellowship with God) leads to growth in faith.^{^[11]}
16. Exorcists’ methods normally focused on their own power or, more precisely, their ability to manipulate other powers; Jesus here emphasizes prayer instead (9:29).^{^[12]}
17. Notice that, prayer is so very important.
18. Daniel Akin:
19. The disciples failed big time. It was public, brought ridicule, cast doubt on their Master and mission, and filled them with self-doubt. So when Jesus initiated reflection and debriefing, they asked, “Why couldn’t we drive the demon out?” Their question betrays a sense of confidence in their own strengths and abilities. It suggests a spirit of pride rooted in past accomplishments (6:7–13) that they believed should have been sufficient for this encounter. They are saying, “We did it before and we will do it again. But it didn’t work this time. Why?” Failure leads them to question themselves. This is a good thing.^{^[13]}
20. The phrase “this kind” refers to casting out demons and all other spiritual conflicts of this nature. He is not saying some demon exorcisms require prayer but others do not. He is saying that whenever we take to the spiritual battlefield, if we go in our own strength, pride, and self-sufficiency, we have lost the battle before it begins. Faith bridges the gap between divine omnipotence and human weakness, and that faith is experienced and exercised through prayer. Could this be why prayer is one of the most difficult of the spiritual disciplines? Could this be why we don’t see greater things in missions, our churches, and our personal lives? Is this why Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing”?^{^[14]}
21. The power of prayer is obviously not going to be experienced if we don’t pray. Tim Keller observes that the prayer of the father is characterized by honesty, helplessness, hopefulness, specificity, and passion (“Mark,” 112). These character traits of believing prayer can be summed up in one word: humility. It all depends on Jesus. If He acts, I’m delivered; if He doesn’t, I am lost. Faith expressed in prayer says, “I would not have it any other way.”^{^[15]}

Tim Keller:

To say, “I don’t have faith, I’m riddled with doubts, I’m not faithful, but help me,” is faith in Jesus instead of you. Jesus says, “When you say that, my power is released into your life, because now, finally, you have faith in me.” Remember the absolute difference between the religions of the world and Christianity. Religion says, “You give God a good record; then God owes you blessing.” Christianity says, “God gives you, at infinite cost to himself, a perfect record through Jesus Christ by grace, and then you live gladly for him.”

They’re absolutely different, totally different. Religion starts by saying, “Look, I’m holy. I’m faithful. I’ve really summoned up all my faith. I’ve gotten rid of all of my doubts. Now you have to work in my life.” I’m sorry. There are many branches of Christianity that talk like that. “Oh, God will only bless me if I get it all together.”

Here’s a man who says, “I don’t have faith. I have all my doubts. I don’t have what it takes, but help me,” and Jesus says, “I can work with that,” because that is saving faith. It’s a way of saying, “Accept me not because of what I am but of what you are.” Isn’t that good news? The first step into access to the presence of God is not holiness; it’s helplessness.^{^[16]}

Prayer

William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 206. ↑
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Mk 9:14–15. ↑
Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 187. ↑
Johnston, Jeremiah J.. Unleashing Peace: Experiencing God’s Shalom in Your Pursuit of Happiness (p. 130). (Function). Kindle Edition. ↑
Ross H. McLaren, “Mark,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1575. ↑
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Mk 9:16–18. ↑
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1912. ↑
Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 187. ↑
https://www.cmalliance.org/about/beliefs/healer ↑
Ross H. McLaren, “Mark,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1576. ↑
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 1912. ↑
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Mk 9:28–30. ↑
Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 189. ↑
Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 190. ↑
Daniel L. Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, ed. Daniel L. Akin, David Platt, and Tony Merida, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2014), 190. ↑
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). ↑

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By Faith, Jacob

By Faith, Isaac’s blessing of Jacob and Esau (Hebrews 11:20; Genesis 27:27-29, 39, and following verses)

By Faith: Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15)

By Faith, Abraham

By Faith, Enoch (Hebrews 11:5-6; Genesis 5:21-24)

By Faith intro (Heb 11:1-3): By Faith Abel (Heb. 11:4; Gen. 4:1-8)

The Cost of Discipleship: Jesus Must Be Our Complete Treasure (Matt. 19:16-30)

Come humbly before God; He accepts us based on Jesus’s death and resurrection (Luke 18:9-14)

The Disciples Ask to Have Their Faith Increased (Luke 17:5ff)

Prayers to Increase Faith (Mark 9:24)