"Enoch" Sermon: Hebrews 11:5

“Enoch”

[Hebrews 11:5]

July 21, 2013 Second Reformed Church

As we look at each figure mentioned in Hebrews 11, we need to remember that faith is not a work, but a gift from God by which we receive what God has to give us.  If we remember, I said faith is like the gutters and leaders on our houses and apartments – it receives what is given and moves it to where it belongs.

We also do well to remember the two prongs of faith mentioned in the first verse of the chapter:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, ESV).  We will note this over and over in the hopes that it begins to be a natural understanding for us:

            We saw this verse talks about faith being “the assurance of things hoped for” and “the conviction of things not seen,” and we understood that to mean:

First, faith receives the Word of God, the history and promises and witnesses statements therein, and believes with absolute certainty that everything that God has promised and said will come about, will come to pass, exactly as it has been given to us and received by us in faith.

Second, faith receives the Word of God, the history and promises and witnesses statements therein, and believes with absolute conviction based on the evidence we have received that things that are spoken of which are not seen by us, either by difference of time, or because such are invisible to our eyes have happened, will happen, and do exist, exactly as they have been given to us and received by us in faith.

            We are looking at one verse, concerning Enoch, this morning, which raises three questions:  Who was Enoch?  Why didn’t Enoch die?  And, so what?

“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.”

Who was Enoch?

There are three references to this Enoch in Scripture.

We read this in the book of Genesis:  “When Jared had lived 162 years he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.

            “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:18-24, ESV).

            So, first we see that Enoch was the son of Jared; he was the seventh generation after Adam. 

            We have noted before that one of the points of the genealogies of the Scripture is to show us that we are dealing with history and not mythology.  God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, and we can follow the genealogy and see that there was a real person by the name of Enoch in the seventh generation after Adam – about a thousand years before the world-wide flood.

            We note that Enoch was the father of Methuselah – the oldest person on record, who lived to 969 years old.

            We note in this morning’s Scripture that Enoch did not die – “he was taken up.”  And in the Genesis text, we are told that Enoch did not die, “for he was not, for God took him.”  When Enoch was 365 years old, God took Enoch, and Enoch did not experience physical death.

            Enoch is in a special group of two people who never experienced physical death – the other being Elijah.  We remember that Elijah was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind:  “And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kings 2:11, ESV).

            In the third and final text we have about this Enoch, we read, “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him’” (Jude 1:14-15, ESV).

            From this, we learn that Enoch was a prophet – and this text in Jude is the only extant prophecy left of his ministry.

            And what is Enoch’s prophesy about?  The Second Coming of the Christ!  He tells us that when the Lord comes with myriad angels with Him, He will execute judgment on all people – the entire world will be judged – and the ungodly – those who have spoken against the Christ – will be convicted – the gavel will come down in judgment.

            If Enoch’s prophecy sounds familiar, it may be because Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. … And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:31-32, 46, ESV).

            And so we see that Enoch had faith – even if our text did not tell us that had faith, we can see that Enoch had faith, based on what the author of Hebrews says in verse one of this chapter: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1, ESV). 

            Enoch receive the Word of God through faith -- its history and promises and witnesses statements therein, and believed with absolute certainty that everything that God had promised and said about the Christ would come about, would come to pass, exactly as it has been given in the Scripture.

Enoch had an absolute conviction based on the evidence he received in the Scripture that the coming of the Christ and His judgment of all people – things that were spoken of which he had not seen, because they would happen after his life – would happen, exactly as it they had been promised and prophesied.

Enoch’s prophecy and Enoch’s faith were directed at Christ.  And we have seen several times now that true faith ultimately points to Christ.  Faith is designed to receive Christ.  And any so-called faith that does not have Christ foundationally – first and foremost – is not a faith that God is pleased with.  And, Lord, willing, we’ll talk more about that next week.

Enoch was a man of faith.

And we also see in these texts that Enoch was a man who followed God, who obeyed God, who walked with God.  Enoch strived to obey God in every aspect of his life and in every way he knew as revealed in the Scripture, and God was pleased with Enoch.

Enoch pleased God. 

God tells us that Enoch was a good and faithful servant – a prophet of God.

Think about that for a moment:  do you long that God would say that to you – as He did of Enoch – that you were a good and faithful servant?

Well, let’s continue on to our second question:  Why didn’t Enoch die?

Well, the answer is obvious, is it not?  The Scripture we have looked at tells us that Enoch was faithful, commended by God as having pleased God, a man who walked with God in obedience.  So, Enoch earned his not dying and being taken to be with God alive, right?  No!

Paul writes, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.  Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:10-18, 23, ESV).

Since the sin of our first parents, every merely human born child is born a sinner, inclined towards sin, so Enoch was a sinner, and nothing he could merit could earn him deliverance from a physical death.  As the author of Hebrews tells us: “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27, ESV).

And Paul writes, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—“ (Romans 5:12, ESV).

So, before Adam sinned, there was no death.  But after Adam sinned – being our representative before God – all mere humans were born sinners and sin – and die.

So, we have a problem:  if all mere human beings after Adam are born sinners – spiritually dead – and sin, and die in the flesh, Enoch could not have merited entering into the presence of God – Enoch was a sinner.

The easiest way to deal with the problem is to say that it just didn’t happen.  Enoch was not received alive and bodily into the presence of God.  But that leaves us with the problem that if this history is not true, we have reason to doubt all of the history of the Bible.  So that is not a satisfactory answer.  So, we are back to the fact that Enoch, a sinner, was received alive and bodily in to the presence of God.  What other options do we have to explain this?

The older commentators say, God made a “special dispensation.”  What does that mean?  God made an exception!  And we immediately cry out, “That’s not fair!”

And Enoch would tell you, “Who in the world ever told you God was fair?”

God’s not fair:  God chose some people out of all of humanity who had turned their backs on God in sin – committing cosmic rebellion – damning themselves to eternal Hell – and God sent His Son to save those He had chosen to be His people.  That’s not fair.  Fair would have been to let us all perish for our sin.  God has to be holy, but He doesn’t have to be fair.

So God, for His Own Reasons, chose to take Enoch out of the world – alive in his body – and bring him into the presence of God.  Enoch was a sinner who had faith in the Savior – the Christ – that God would send – Who we now know as Jesus.

Yet, we can learn something from the life and translation of Enoch, can’t we?

And that is the answer to our, “so what?”

In our Scriptures, we see that we must have faith to please God. 

Lord willing, we will talk about this more next week, but for now, let us see that God commended Enoch as having pleased Him because Enoch had faith.  Because Enoch had faith and through it received all that God had said and believed it and followed it, he pleased God.  It especially pleased God that Enoch believed all that God said about the Savior He was sending.

Along with this, we do well to remember that faith is a gift.

Paul explains:  “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:1-9, ESV).

All mere humans since Adam are born dead in sin, opposed to God, and unable to have faith.  It is only if and when God chooses, in love, to make a person alive in Christ by grace that the gift of faith is given and a person can receive what God has said and promised in the Scripture, believing in the Savior and the Gospel and repenting of sin.

And it pleases God to save some:  God is pleased with us when we receive His Word, through the faith that He gives us, by the grace in which we have been saved.  God is pleased when we read His Word and believe in Jesus.  It gives God pleasure to hear us sing with believing hearts about His Son.  It gives God joy when we tell others what He has said, having believed it ourselves.  As we see in the life of Enoch, God is pleased when the people He has chosen to believe receive the Gospel through faith and belief.

In addition, it pleases God when we walk with Him and in His Word – when we do what He has said.  When we receive His Word as our law and life as Christians, God is pleased.   When we seek to be obedient to our Lord and Savior – God is pleased.  When we seek to love God with our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves – God is pleased.

Do we seek to wholly set ourselves aside to God?  Do we strive with everything that we are to make Who God is and what His Gospel is clear in our lives?  Do we use our bodies to show the Glory of God?  Our minds?  Our hearts?  Our souls?  Are we fighting in love to be obedient to God and obvious about His Gospel? 

Do we seek to keep our neighbors from harm?  Do we seek their benefit?  Do we seek to help them grow and profit and mature – especially in the things of Christ and His Gospel?

Surely Enoch did – he walked with God – obeying His commands – and he spoke out as a prophet, warning his neighbors that the Savior is coming – the Christ is coming – the Messiah is coming – and those who reject Him will be judged for their sins.

Don’t be afraid to ask others for help in understanding how you can best follow God – how you can best walk with Him.   Sometimes we see things in each other that we have not seen – or sometimes, there is just a need that you can address, even if is not your “be all and end all” for the meaning of your life.

Enoch believe through faith and he worked diligently at obeying all that God said as he walked with Him.  May he be an example to us of the true Christian life:  faith plus works.

Enoch also shows us that God saves our physical bodies and our souls – not just our souls. 

If we die as Christians, God will reunite us with our resurrected bodies and receive our whole selves into the Kingdom – incorruptible.  Paul wrote, “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  … Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49, ESV).

Our bodies, like Enoch’s, will be received into the presence of God.  After the resurrection, our bodies will be made like Jesus’ glorified body – still a real human body – able to eat and be touched – as we see in the Scripture.

Our bodies are good and will be received into the Kingdom – into the presence of God.

Knowing this – and seeing that Enoch lived after having been taken and brought into the presence of God – we find comfort in the death of Christians – knowing that this is not the end.  Our bodies shall be raised and we shall live for ever and ever in the presence of God in the Kingdom.

Paul wrote:  “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:  ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?’  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:50-57, ESV).

We, Christians, have nothing to fear from death, and great hope to cling to by faith that we will be received into the Kingdom.  As Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18, ESV).

One more thing:  as we look at what happened to Enoch, we recognize that he was a type – a foreshadowing – of Christ in His Ascension.

Just as Abel was a foreshadowing of the high priesthood and sacrifice and death of Christ, so we see that Enoch is a foreshadowing of the Ascension of Christ.

So, the author of Hebrews gave the example of Enoch as a man of faith that we would look to him and see a believer who received the Word of God and followed it in obedience, who looked forward to the coming of the Christ and warned of the judgment that was coming.

We see in him the promise of the resurrection of the physical body and its reception into the Kingdom, and we understand that believers do not need to fear death.

And we see a foreshadowing of the Ascension of Christ through which we have the promise of our resurrected physical body being received into the Kingdom by Christ Himself.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we thank You for the witness of the man of faith, Enoch.  We ask that You would continue to make us into the Image of Your Son – that we would hear Your Word and follow You in all obedience – that we would not fear death, and that we would believe with all surety, in the resurrection of the body.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.