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

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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)

5 By 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. 6 And 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)

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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

  1. 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/ ↑

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

  3. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, eds., “Genesis,” in The Moody Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 55. ↑

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

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

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