(Adapted from Ray Stedman’s sermons on raystedman.org)
A Modern Story to Begin: The Phone With No Signal
A traveller once broke down on a remote mountain road. Confidently, he opened his maps app and began walking in the direction the blue dot pointed. An hour later, he realized the phone had lost signal long before he started. The map was frozen. His confidence was real, but the information he trusted wasn’t.
That moment captures a truth many people miss: Faith is not about how strongly you believe, it’s about whether what you believe is actually true.
The final letters of the New Testament, Hebrews through Jude, exist to make that distinction unmistakably clear. They demonstrate that faith responds to God’s reality, even when that reality is invisible.
How These Books Fit Into the Whole Bible
The Bible is a unified story. The Old Testament lays the foundation, revealing God’s promises and foreshadowing the coming Messiah. The Gospels unveil the fulfillment of those promises in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Acts shows the message spreading outward into the world. Then come the letters, God’s explanation of what Jesus accomplished and how it transforms us.
Romans through Philemon reveal the two great movements of the Christian life: Christ in you (inner transformation) and you in Christ (a new identity and community). But none of this becomes real unless we learn to trust God enough to act on what He says.
That is why Hebrews through Jude form the New Testament’s final movement. They show us how faith works, how it grows, how it suffers, how it loves, and how it must be guarded.
Hebrews - Faith Defined
Before Hebrews unfolds its rich theology, it confronts a widespread misunderstanding about faith itself. Many imagine faith as little more than wishful thinking or spiritual superstition, a vague optimism, a magical feeling, or an inner energy that, if we could just “work up enough of it,” would make anything possible. This misconception is not limited to sceptics; it often appears among Christians as well. Scripture refuses to treat faith as a mystical substance or emotional surge. It insists that faith is something far more solid, grounded, and essential.
Yet beneath these misconceptions lies a deeper struggle many believers quietly carry. They wonder how they can truly believe that God cares for them personally when life feels confusing, painful, and uncertain. They hear the promises of Scripture, but those promises can seem fragile, more like hopeful ideas than solid realities. Even the simplicity of the New Testament can feel distant when doubts rise, when prayers seem unanswered, or when the world’s chaos presses in. Many long to believe more deeply, but longing alone doesn’t seem to bridge the gap. They think, If only I could understand faith better, maybe I could produce it. But the more they examine their faith, the more it seems to evaporate.
This is one of the great paradoxes the book of Hebrews addresses: faith disappears the moment we stare at it. The harder we try to analyse it, the more elusive it becomes. Faith cannot be manufactured by introspection or summoned by effort. It only comes alive when it rests on something, or rather, someone, outside of us.
And even when faith begins to rise, doubt often rises with it. We feel the quiet conviction, This must be true, and almost immediately another voice whispers, But what if it isn’t? Hebrews treats this not as failure but as the normal tension in which faith grows. God rarely gives further evidence until we take the step He is calling us to take. Faith, therefore, is not certainty without questions; it is the courage to act in the presence of questions.
At this point, Hebrews gives its famous definition: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV)
Faith is the settled confidence that the things we long for, the transformation we desire, the holiness we hunger for, the life God promises, are real and attainable because God has spoken. And what gives us this assurance? Not emotional intensity, not intellectual mastery, but the quiet, steady resonance of God’s word. Scripture has a way of ringing true in the deepest places of the heart, awakening the sense that this is reality, even before we see it with our eyes.
Hebrews teaches that faith grows when we stop analysing our feelings and start looking at the facts God has revealed. Human beings are made to believe; trust is the most natural action of the human spirit. We rely on chairs, roofs, relationships, and routines every day without hesitation. Belief is woven into our design. The question is never whether we believe, but what we believe. Hebrews insists that God has spoken, and His word is the most reliable foundation for human trust.
This is why Hebrews says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV). Not because faith is rare or difficult, but because faith is the only way to receive what God gives.
Throughout the letter, we see that faith becomes real only when we act on what God has said. Hebrews alternates between sober warnings and stirring encouragements, warnings about drawing back after receiving enough evidence to trust, and encouragements drawn from the long line of men and women who stepped forward before they saw the results. Hebrews 11 is a gallery of ordinary people who ventured everything on God’s word, and Hebrews 12 reminds us that they surround us still, urging us to trust God as they did.
In Hebrews, faith is not a mystical feeling or a heroic achievement. It is the simple, courageous willingness to step forward because God has spoken, to treat His promises as more real than our fears, our circumstances, or our limited understanding. It is the doorway through which the life of Christ becomes our own.
James - Faith Demonstrated
James writes one of the most practical books in the New Testament. Although he grew up in the same household as Jesus, he never appeals to that relationship, never claims privilege, and never uses his family connection as spiritual authority. The same is true of Jude. Both brothers came to recognize Jesus not as a relative to be honoured but as the Son of God to be obeyed. Their letters carry no trace of family advantage, only the weight of truth.
James’s great concern is to show what faith actually does. His famous line, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:26, NIV), is not a call to earn salvation but a reminder that faith is not real until it moves. We often say we believe something, but James presses us gently: Have you acted on it? It is one thing to say, “I trust that chair will hold me,” and quite another to sit down. Until we venture, our belief remains only an opinion.
For James, faith becomes visible the moment it steps into real life. When faith ventures, it stands firm under temptation. It refuses to treat people with favouritism or prejudice. It becomes attentive to the needs of others and generous in response. It learns to restrain the tongue, to quiet jealousy, to end quarrels, and to cultivate peace. It grows patient in suffering and persistent in prayer. In every chapter, James shows that genuine faith always expresses itself in action, not dramatic action, but the steady, everyday obedience that transforms relationships, habits, and character.
James is a faith with its feet on the ground. If Hebrews defines faith, James shows what it looks like when it walks into the room.
1 Peter - Faith Tested
Peter’s letters carry a unique weight because of the man behind them. He was the disciple who once declared with bold sincerity that he would never abandon Jesus, even if everyone else did. Yet that same night, he denied the Lord three times, just as Jesus had warned. He walked away into the darkness with Jesus’ words echoing in his heart: “And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32, NIV). When we open 1 Peter, we find him doing exactly that. The man who once collapsed under pressure now writes to steady others whose faith is trembling.
Peter understands the kinds of experiences that shake believers, sudden hardships, unexpected losses, painful trials, and the bewildering moments when life seems to fall apart without warning. These are the things that make us ask, Why? Why would God allow this? Why does faith hurt? Peter answers not with clichés but with the insight of someone who has walked through failure, been restored by Christ, and learned what faith costs.
He explains that suffering is not a sign of God’s absence but a sign of our participation in the life of Christ. To follow Jesus is to share His mission in a world that often resists Him. Love that reaches into a broken world will inevitably encounter rejection, misunderstanding, and pain. Faith places us in the very stream of Christ’s redemptive work, and that work is costly. Paul captures this same mystery when he writes, “I rejoice in what I am suffering for you… for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24, NIV). Peter echoes this truth: God uses trials not to crush us but to refine us, to strengthen our trust, deepen our hope, and shape our character into the likeness of Christ.
In Peter’s hands, suffering is not meaningless. It becomes the place where faith is purified, where love is tested, and where Christ’s life is revealed through ours. The man who once faltered now strengthens the church, reminding us that in God’s hands, even our pain becomes part of His redeeming work in the world.
2 Peter - Faith Safeguarded
Peter’s second letter shifts from external trials to internal dangers. He warns that faith can be undermined not only by persecution but by subtle distortions within the community. False teaching, moral compromise, spiritual laziness, and forgetfulness all threaten to erode the life of faith from the inside.
He urges believers to grow deliberately in goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love (2 Peter 1:5-7, NIV). Faith is not static; it either grows or shrinks. The Christian life requires continual nourishment, continual remembering, and continual strengthening. 2 Peter calls believers to vigilance, to guard the truth, to resist corruption, and to keep their eyes fixed on the promises of God.
1 John - Faith Expressed in Light, Love, and Life
John writes with the tenderness of a spiritual father, and in his three letters, you begin to see how faith actually works in everyday life. If Hebrews defines faith and James demonstrates it, John shows its inner movements, the way faith breathes, walks, and loves. His first letter unfolds this with remarkable clarity.
John teaches that faith works by drawing us into the very character of God. Because “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5, NIV), those who trust Him learn to walk in honesty rather than hiding. Faith brings us into the open, teaching us to confess rather than pretend, to live truthfully rather than in shadows.
Faith also works through love. John reminds us that “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19, NIV). The more deeply we trust Christ’s love, the more naturally we begin to extend that love to others, not as sentiment, but as sacrificial, practical care. Love becomes the visible evidence that faith is alive.
And faith works by shaping our lives into the pattern of Christ Himself. John says, “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6, NIV). Faith is not merely believing the right truths; it is allowing those truths to form our desires, our relationships, and our daily choices. Light, love, and life weave together into a single fabric, the lived expression of trust in Christ.
In 1 John, faith is not abstract or mystical. It is the steady, relational, transforming power of Christ’s life flowing through His people. It is faith made visible in the way we walk, the way we love, and the way we live.
2 John - Faith Guarding Truth
In his second letter, John emphasizes that love must be anchored in truth. “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them” (2 John 1:10, NIV). Genuine love does not embrace every idea or every teacher; it discerns what aligns with Christ and what distorts Him. Truth is not a cold doctrine but the framework that protects love from becoming sentimentality or deception. Faith, therefore, must guard the truth even as it practices love.
3 John - Faith Walking in Integrity
John’s third letter highlights the relational dimension of faith. He commends believers who show hospitality, humility, and generosity, and he warns against leaders who use authority to dominate or divide. “Do not imitate what is evil but what is good” (3 John 1:11, NIV). Faith is not only vertical, directed toward God, but horizontal, shaping the way we treat people. Integrity, humility, and kindness are as essential to faith as doctrine or devotion.
Jude - Faith Defended
Jude is a brief but urgent book, and its origin is striking. He tells his readers that he originally intended to write about “the salvation we share,” a warm and celebratory theme (Jude 1:3, NIV). But as he began to write, he sensed the Spirit redirecting him. Instead of a meditation on salvation, he was compelled to issue a warning, a call to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 1:3, NIV). Jude had planned to encourage; the Spirit pressed him to protect.
What follows is a sober look at the subtle perils that undermine faith from within. Jude exposes the quiet forces that erode trust in God: the desire to have our own way, the pull of immorality, the lure of greed, the rise of false authority, the poison of division, and the creeping influence of worldliness. These dangers do not always announce themselves loudly. They slip in unnoticed, shaping attitudes and habits until faith becomes hesitant, compromised, or silent. Jude writes to awaken the church before these hidden currents pull believers away from the life God intends.
Yet Jude does not end with warnings. He closes with a clear and hopeful path forward, a way to strengthen faith in a world full of pressures: “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:20-21, NIV). Here is Jude’s antidote to spiritual drift: nourish your faith, pray with dependence, remain in the love of God, and keep your eyes fixed on Christ’s mercy. Faith must be guarded, fed, and exercised. It grows strong not by accident but by attention.
In Jude’s hands, the Christian life becomes a vigilant, hopeful journey, one in which believers stay awake to the dangers around them while anchoring themselves deeply in the love and mercy of Christ.
Conclusion - Faith Must Be Exercised
All of this, from Hebrews to Jude, points to one central reality: faith must be exercised. It is entirely possible to possess great riches in Christ and yet experience very little of them, simply because we never step out on what God has said. That is why Scripture continually urges us to be strong in faith, not by staring at our faith, but by fixing our eyes on the great facts God has revealed. As we meditate on His promises, remember His character, and recall the long line of believers who have trusted Him before us, something awakens within us. A quiet urge rises: Try it. Venture. Step forward. That moment is the crisis of faith, the place where truth invites action.
Hebrews reminds us of God’s great complaint against His people: “For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.” (Hebrews 4:2, NIV)
The message came with all its power, but it bore no fruit because they never acted on it. They heard, but they did not venture. They saw the facts, but they never stepped onto them. And so the promises remained unrealized.
The same danger faces us. We can admire truth, study it, analyse it, and even long for it, but until we respond, nothing changes. Yet the moment we step forward, even trembling, the promises of God begin to unfold. There is no limit to what God can accomplish in a life that dares to trust Him. No limit to the transformation He can bring. No limit to the grace He can pour out. No limit to the fruit He can produce.
Faith grows not by looking at faith, but by looking at Christ, and then stepping where He calls.
So What? Why These Books Matter Today
These letters insist that faith is not a feeling; it is a response. You don’t wait until you “feel spiritual.” You act because God’s word is trustworthy. They teach that faith grows through obedience, is strengthened by trials, expresses itself in love, and must be guarded from deception. Faith is anchored not in our emotions but in the unseen Christ who lives and reigns.
There is no limit to what God can do through a person who takes Him at His word.
A Closing Story for Those Who’ve Never Read These Books
A young woman once signed up for a gym membership but never went. She watched fitness videos, read articles, and even bought new shoes. But nothing changed until she walked through the doors and picked up a weight.
That’s Hebrews to Jude. They are not written to be admired; they are written to be used. A great cloud of witnesses stands behind you, Abraham, Moses, James, Peter, John, Jude, calling out:
“Trust Him. Step forward. You’ll find Him faithful.”
Start with Hebrews 11. Let the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things awaken something in you. Then read James and practice one small act of obedience. Then read 1 John and ask God to help you love one person well today.
Faith grows not by staring at faith, but by acting on truth.
Resources:
For more references, please see the following:
- All About Faith
- The Gospel Coalition - Introduction to the Epistles and Revelation
- Bible Project Guides - New Testament
