Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This week we are continuing our sermon series on the heroes of faith.
And we're looking at a guy that you probably have never heard of.
His name is Enoch and there's about four verses in the Bible that tell us about him.
What we know of Enoch is that he walked with God and then he disappeared.
So tune in as Rob takes us through this mysterious story and talks with us more about what it
means to walk with God.
Our first reading is from Genesis chapter 5 verses 21 to 24.
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.
After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God for 300 years
and had other sons and daughters.
Altogether Enoch lived a total of 365 years.
Enoch walked faithfully with God, then he was no more because God took him away.
Our second reading is from Hebrews chapter 11 verses 5 and 6.
By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death.
He could not be found because God had taken him away.
For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
And without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe
that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
This is the word of the Lord.
Well, just about every single superhero has some kind of superpower.
It might not be 100% true, but just about everyone does.
Take for example, here's Superman.
Superman wants to go somewhere, he doesn't walk, he doesn't take an Uber, he doesn't
take the bus, he can fly, right?
He can soar over cities, he can fly over top of mountaintops.
His superpower, one of his superpowers is flying.
Or how about the Flash, right?
His superpower is speed, right?
The Flash could run a marathon, clean his old house, binge watch a Netflix series.
All before you finish tying your shoelaces.
His superpower is speed.
And then of course, what about the Incredible Hulk?
Superpower obviously has got to be strength.
He could lift a car, he could lift a tank, he could lift this whole building if he wanted.
That's his superpower, strength, right?
Lifting.
There's all sorts of different superpowers in the comic book universe, in the Marvel
universe.
There's one in the comic class, one that might be a little more obscure, but this is Squirrel
Girl.
Squirrel Girl.
And believe it or not, she has a superpower.
And her superpower is summoning squirrels.
So she just does this and then squirrels come running to her.
She has the ability to talk to squirrels, speak to squirrels, and actually she has a
utility belt that she wears that contains little pouches that she puts nuts and stuff
in there to feed her squirrel friends.
It's true, you should look her up.
Squirrel Girl.
So you've got all of these different superpowers.
You've got flying, you've got running, you've got lifting, you've got summoning squirrels.
And then of course, we come to Enoch.
Enoch.
Enoch is the hero that we are looking at today.
And what is Enoch's superpower?
Well, wait for it.
It is walking.
Enoch's superpower, the thing that he is known for is walking, not flying, not jumping, not
lifting, but walking with God.
And while that may sound kind of like, that doesn't sound very much like a power or doesn't
make him into a hero, we're going to find out that actually walking with God is one
of the most transformative and powerful things that a person can do.
In fact, it may just be the greatest superpower of them all.
So this January, we began a brand new teaching series, which we called Heroes of Faith.
And really all we're doing in this series is we're just looking at one chapter of one
book in the Bible.
The chapter is chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews.
And in chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews, the author, and we actually don't even know
who the author is, the author makes a case that the real heroes in our world, the real
heroes are those who live their lives by faith.
And so you've got people like Moses and his amazing leadership by faith.
You've got people like Noah and his amazing obedience by faith.
You've got people like Rahab and her amazing courage exercised by faith.
He tells all these stories.
And then you've got, of course, the story of Enoch and his amazing ability to walk.
Walk, right?
Enoch is a strange candidate for sure to have on this list.
Enoch's whole life is really just described in 48 words found in Genesis chapter five.
Here's a few things we know about Enoch.
Enoch was the seventh in line after Adam.
Enoch was the great grandfather of Noah.
And Enoch was the first person of whom it was said in the Bible that they walked with
God, walked with God.
It doesn't sound like much, but we're going to find out.
It's actually, there's a lot packed in there.
And so today we are going to look at three things.
We're going to look at the life Enoch lived, the legacy that he left, and the lessons we
can learn.
So I encourage you, as always, you can follow along here.
We have little sermon notes to make sure that everybody gets the most out of our teaching
time here at Trinity.
Let's begin with the life that he lived.
You know, at the end of all of our lives, people are going to stand up and they're going
to say a few words about you after you're gone.
It might be an obituary in the newspaper.
It might be a eulogy right here in Trinity.
And they're going to get up and they're going to say a few, just a few words about your
life.
Right?
And what do we read as the kind of the eulogy, the obituary, the summary of Enoch's life?
What would be the epitaph on his headstone?
Although as we'll find out, he didn't actually have a headstone.
What would it say?
Well, it would say something like this.
Enoch became the father of Methuselah.
And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years.
Because Enoch walked faithfully with God.
And then he was no more because God took him away.
Now, I just want to acknowledge something that probably everyone thinks about when they
read this part of the Bible.
And that is what is with the super long lifespans, right?
You got people living 300, 400, 500, 800 years long.
And what's up with that?
Now, I just want to say, don't, I wouldn't, don't get hung up on that.
Some people might believe that, oh yeah, in the pre-flood world, people just lived longer.
And if that's what you want to believe, that's, that's fine.
I think scholars have a couple other theories.
One is that those numbers actually have a numerological significance.
There's a code, there was a meaning, there was a lot of symbolism in numbers in the ancient
world.
And so maybe there was some symbolism that we don't know what it means anymore.
But to the original audience, they knew exactly what that age and what those numbers meant.
The other is that in actually a lot of ancient genealogies, not just the Bible, but in a
lot of ancient genealogies, people were given these, these, these huge lifespans, but it
was mostly as a way just to, to honor them and to signify that these were really, really
great ancestors.
And we want to signify that by giving this, them this enormous lifespan.
Hey, what, whatever you think, I would encourage you to actually this week at your life group,
walk it through what's up with those long lifespans.
But let's kind of move past that.
And let's just notice the simplicity here of Enoch's testimony.
He walked with God.
Sometimes the church is guilty of doing this sometimes.
Sometimes we put a lot of emphasis on people who have great, amazing testimonies.
They did wonderful, wonderful things and, and came to God.
You know, I was a, I was a, I was in prison and I had an awakening and came to God.
You know, I was a billionaire, but my life was going nowhere.
And then I found God and followed Jesus or I was sick or I was dying or I died.
I actually died and I met God and I came back to life.
And now I live my life for God and for Jesus.
You know, when we give the microphone to those people, those stories are amazing and we love
to hear them.
But when we give the microphone to Enoch, his story is basically, yeah, I'm Enoch and
I walked with God.
Oh, tell us a little more.
Enoch?
No, that's just about it.
I just, I walked with God.
Hi everybody.
Well, let's hear it for Enoch.
Yay.
Right.
But it doesn't sound very impressive of a testimony, but let's be honest, right?
Some of us have a hard time walking with God for a full day.
Some of us have a hard time walking with God for a week, much less.
Look at Enoch.
Enoch is remembered as someone who walked with God for 300 years.
Wow.
So what does it even mean to walk with God?
That's a good question to ask at this point.
We talked about this at our staff meeting earlier this week and actually the staff had
some good thoughts.
They thought, well, listen, whenever you're walking with someone, it means that you're
on the same path.
Okay.
That's true.
And whenever you're walking with someone, it means you're heading in the same direction.
Right?
That's true.
And when you're walking with someone usually means that you're going along at the same
pace.
You're going along at the same speed.
Yeah.
And that you're ultimately headed to the same destination.
Like all those things we can discern from this idea of walking with God.
There's a few more things we might want to notice.
And that walking with God implies there's some movement happening here in one's relationship
with God.
Faith is this dynamic thing, right?
It's not static.
You're continually growing in your faith.
You're continually changing.
You're continually being transformed.
Faith also requires some effort on our part, as does walking.
It's not always easy.
Walking and faith is a discipline.
You go through some difficult times, some tough stretches in your walk with God.
Walking is also relational because when you walk with someone, you're usually talking
with someone.
You're talking with them.
You're in close proximity.
It's an intimate thing to go walking with someone.
Walking is also forward looking.
We don't usually walk like this.
We walk like this.
We're facing into the future.
We're leaving the past behind.
And in our faith, we do look forward to where God is leading us.
And we know that the past is in the past.
And finally, walking takes time, right?
Enoch walked with God.
He didn't run with God.
He walked with God, which means that to walk with God.
You've got to slow down your life enough to kind of walk in step with God.
And that is something that our culture definitely struggles with a lot.
So that is how Enoch would have walked with God, I presume.
And that is also how we walk with God today.
And now maybe you're beginning to see, oh, this doesn't actually sound so easy after
all.
Ha ha ha ha.
Walking with God isn't so easy.
It's not easy to walk with God.
It was even harder for Enoch than for us.
And here's why.
Because we are told that in the culture that Enoch grew up in, the antediluvian pre-flood
era, the world was a disaster.
In fact, in Genesis chapter six, we read that in Enoch's day, every thought and every inclination
of everyone's heart was only evil all the time.
Things were bad.
Things were so bad that God was going to flood the earth and start all over again.
But here's the thing.
While the whole world was headed in one direction, Enoch made a decision to walk a different
way.
To walk with God when nobody else was walking with God.
You cannot walk with God if you are concerned with following the crowd.
I mean, most times, if you're going to walk with God, you have to go against the flow.
And that's what Enoch did.
He was surrounded by this corrupt and evil generation.
He decided, no, you know, now is the time.
I'm going to take a stand and I'm going to live differently.
I'm going to think differently.
I'm going to walk differently.
And I wonder if, let's be honest now, some of you are deeply aware you're in a crowd
of people and they are going in one direction and you are just being sucked along with them.
The world is going in one direction.
You're just being sucked along with them 100%.
And there is actually nothing noticeable about the way you live your life that would distinguish
you from any other person in that crowd at this point in your life.
And maybe now God is, you're aware God is saying to you, now's the time, right?
Now is the time for you to take a stand.
Now is the time for you to make a decision to walk with God, to follow Jesus, to live
your life in a different way, even if that means that you stick out.
Now don't worry because actually Enoch also, that was not the way I put it in there.
But anyways, Enoch also didn't walk with God his whole life.
Actually if you read this, what you can see on there, you will see that there was a time
that Enoch didn't walk with God and then something happened and he began to walk with God.
What happened?
Well we read, after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God.
There you got it.
All parents know this, that when a kid comes along it changes everything, right?
J. Vernon McGee, the old preacher and Bible teacher, he said this, there is, if the presence
of a baby in your home won't change your life, nothing will.
You know, having kids, it wakes you up.
But it's not the only kind of life change that wakes you up, right?
What about like you get married or you move into a new city or you start a new job or
you lose someone, you lose someone to death.
All of those things force you to kind of think about your life and to think about God in
brand new ways.
I bet there are some of you here today that you can relate to this.
You were living your best life at some point.
You were doing what you wanted to do and then the kids came along and you're like, oh my
gosh, what do we do now?
We've got to make sure they know about God's love.
We got to make sure that they have some kind of moral compass to live by.
We got to take them to church.
Let's go to church.
And maybe the same is for others of you.
You started university and you're like, shoot, I am not ready for this.
You started a new job.
You're like, shoot, I was not prepared for this.
You lost someone special and you were like, how am I going to get through this?
And so you, like Enoch, you made some decision.
You said, I need to walk with God now more than ever.
I need a community of faith.
And maybe that's how you ended up at Trinity is because something big changed in your life.
Now of course, that's not the only thing that people know about Enoch's life that he walked
with God.
He of course is also very famous because according to the scriptures, he did not experience death.
There's an incredible amount of mystery around this obviously, but Hebrews says by faith,
Enoch was taken from his life so that he did not experience death.
He could not be found because God had taken him away.
And if you go back to the Genesis account, it says Enoch walked faithfully with God and
then he was no more because God took him away.
This is so interesting.
You know, Genesis five is sometimes called the and he died chapter, right?
Because it, you read through Genesis five, it says this was so and so he did this and
then he died.
Then so and so came along.
He did this and then he died and then he died and then he died and then he died and then
he died and he died and he died.
Nine or 10 times it keeps us saying and he died and he died and he died.
And of course it's true ever since Genesis chapter three, when sin entered the world,
human beings life now has an end point.
We all die.
We all return to the dust except for some reason this guy, right?
Enoch just disappeared and went straight to be with God.
According to the Hebrews, you can see the Hebrews version.
It says that, that he could not be found, which meant they must have sent out a search
party or something looking for him.
And they're like, where did he not go?
I have no idea where he went.
It appears that Enoch walked with God so closely that he just kept on walking right over death
into God's presence.
So as you can guess, this is a crazy part of the Bible.
People have scratched their heads at this one for a long time.
It actually gave rise to a whole bunch of legends about Enoch.
In fact, centuries later, actually right in Jesus's time, there was a lot of interest
in Enoch.
Ooh, what about Enoch?
Where did he go?
And these legends began to develop about him, how he escaped death and that how he journeyed
through the 10 heavens and that he had received visions from God's throne.
And that one of the weirdest ones I came across is that Enoch later got transformed into an
angel named Metatron.
Metatron, you know, it sounds, you know, that's better than squirrel girl.
I'm telling you, right?
But Hebrews, Hebrews actually doesn't say any of that, right?
It just says Enoch walked with God.
He just kept on walking, kept on walking, kept on walking right into the presence of
God.
It made me think of this guy.
Actually didn't look like that at all.
That was the AI generated image of Dallas Willard.
Dallas Willard was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2012.
And he said, quote, I think when I die, it might be some time until I know it.
Because, because Willard often taught that eternal life is not something that starts
when you die, but it's already underway and the in the, in the present for those who are
walking closely with God.
And he believed therefore that if you walk closely with God, that the transition from
this life to the next might not be jarring or abrupt or shocking.
It may just feel seamless.
And it might even take you a while to realize, oh wait, yeah, I'm dead now.
Right?
So that is the life that Enoch lived.
It's a simple testimony.
He walked with God.
So now let's talk a little bit about the legacy that he left.
Well, for Enoch, it wasn't just that he walked with God, but we also learned that he pleased
God.
We read that before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
I would love that to be on my headstone one day, or when, you know, people stand up and
talk about my life to say, oh Rob, yeah, he pleased God.
Wouldn't you love that too?
Wouldn't that be a great, oh, this is a person who pleased God, but how do we please God?
Well, the answer is we've already seen how to please God.
We please God by walking with God.
Sometime, I don't know, sometime around the first century, a bunch of Greek scholars got
together and they said, we need to translate the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek.
And so 70 of these scholars got together and they did the translation work to turn it into
a Greek version of the Old Testament.
That version of the Old Testament is nicknamed the Septuagint, because Septuaginta means 70,
and there were 70 scholars or 72 scholars who worked on this thing.
Anyways, they had to make all these interpretive decisions.
And when they came across the story of Enoch's life, where it said that, you know, Enoch
walked with God, that was the Hebrew version, in Greek, they said, well, let's just translate
that into he pleased God, which means that for them, walking with God was actually the
same thing as pleasing God.
That's how you please God.
You please God by walking with God.
Now, other people were known as people who pleased God and walked with God, you know,
after, for example, after Enoch, Noah was said to have walked with God.
Abraham was said to have walked before God.
But before Enoch, there was very few instances of the word walk.
But the very first use of walking with God came in the Garden of Eden, right after Adam
and Eve had sinned and they were hiding from God, right?
We learned something amazing.
We learned something amazing that apparently God would regularly go for walks with Adam
and Eve in the garden.
Some walks every evening when the cool breeze would come, there they are, right?
Every evening, God would come along and say, hey, let's go take a walk.
And they would go for a walk.
And Adam and Eve would say what's on their heart and what's on their mind.
And God would say, let me tell you what's on my heart and what I'm thinking about.
Of course, Adam and Eve, they rebelled and that relationship got broken.
And it is really hard to walk with someone when the relationship has been broken.
Have you ever wronged someone?
When you see them coming around the corner, usually run the other way.
You try to hide.
You don't want them to see you.
And so when it was Adam and Eve, they couldn't walk with God anymore.
But was that the end of the story?
No, no.
God is displeased with us.
And so now we're never, ever going to get a chance to walk with God again.
But no, because what happens is a few chapters later, Enoch comes along and shows us something
really startling.
Enoch walked with God.
Wait, wait, wait.
You mean someone can walk with God again?
Someone can actually please God again in spite of our sin, in spite of our rebellion?
When Enoch walks with God, it tells us that it is possible to be reconciled with God.
It is possible for God to be pleased with us again.
Jesus said, I always do what pleases him.
Paul said that we make it our goal to please him.
Whatever you have done in your life and you think God doesn't love you, God has left you
behind or God is displeased with you.
There's hope.
Start walking with God again, because Christianity is not about some general belief in God.
It's about walking with God, not jogging with God.
Hey, woo, see you later.
It's not just bumping into God from time to time.
It's like, oh, fancy meeting you here.
And it's not just having a weekly visit with God, coming to church once a week or something
like that, but walking with God is this consistent daily 24-7 kind of thing.
Here's an example I was thinking of.
According to statistics, 70% of people own a pair of running shoes, but they never run.
No, I should say that 70% of people who own running shoes never actually run.
They might look the part, right?
But the shoes actually don't fulfill the purpose for which they are created.
They sit in the closet.
In the same way, I think it's true to say that many people own their Bibles.
Many people have been baptized.
Many people attend church, but they're not actually walking with God.
Faith isn't just about having all the things or jumping through all the hoops.
It's about using these things daily in your walk with God as you are living in step with
God.
That is how we please God, right?
That is how Enoch pleased God.
In fact, I was thinking about this.
There are so many times in life that I think we are wondering what is the right thing to
do in this situation?
Should I date this guy or not?
Should I make this decision or not?
Should I send this text message or not?
But what if in those moments we just ask the simple question, will this please God?
Will this please God?
Would the thing I'm about to do please God?
Would the words I'm about to say please God?
George Mueller once said that nine-tenths of our difficulties are overcome when our
hearts are ready to do what is pleasing to God no matter what.
So there you go.
We've got Enoch.
We've got the life that he lived.
We've got this legacy that he left.
He pleased God.
And finally, what lessons, what other takeaways can we learn?
Well, I just want to share two more brief ones here.
So well, one, they come from this phrase here.
And without faith, it's impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must first
believe that he exists and that he second rewards those who earnestly seek him.
So one lesson for us is that faith begins when we believe that God exists.
It's impossible to walk with God if you don't believe he exists.
It's impossible to please God if you don't believe God exists.
But when we believe God exists, that's the starting point of faith.
But listen, he's not just saying believe any God exists.
He's not just saying we please God when we believe in a higher power or we believe in
some kind of supreme being.
No, he says when we believe that he exists, he exists.
And of course, he's referring to a certain deity.
He's referring to the God of the Bible, to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
He's referring to the God who was the father of Jesus.
And so when you believe in this God, it's the starting point of faith.
You don't have to have a degree in theology.
You don't have to understand all the soteriology or whatever.
You just need to believe to start this God exists.
In fact, I was thinking, do you remember the very first time that when Moses meets God
and God kind of gives Moses his name, he says, Moses, I am who I am, which could be just
as easily translated.
You know, Moses, I am he who exists.
Right?
So basically, I think what we're saying is we need to believe the one who exists exists.
That is the starting point of faith.
Lots of brilliant people in the world believe in a God, just not this God.
Albert Einstein, for example, he believed in a God, a God that was vastly superior to
humankind, but not a God who was involved at all in human affairs, but believing in
some unknown higher power like Einstein did.
I suppose it's I suppose it's a starting point, but anyone who comes to God, walks with God,
must believe in the God of the Bible, the one who exists.
And then the second lesson is we have to believe that you this God rewards us according to
Hebrews 11, must believe he rewards the cosmic force can't reward you.
Right?
A higher power can't reward you.
Only someone who is personal can reward you.
Many religions would say God is a punisher.
Christianity says he is a rewarder.
Right?
Many people think that God is distant and harsh, but when you walk with God, you come
to see him as a rewarder, someone who blesses you and provides for you.
If you don't like the idea of this idea from Hebrews 11, that God is a rewarder, just keep
in mind what the reward is.
Certainly the only reward in mind here is the reward of knowing God himself.
Those who seek God are rewarded with a relationship with God.
And that is the reward.
The reward is knowing him, the joy and satisfaction that comes from knowing him.
Jesus says, seek and you will find find what you'll find an easy life.
You'll find money.
You'll find prosperity.
Is that the reward?
No.
Seek God and you will find God and you will realize that he is the reward.
James as well invites us, he says, draw near to God and God will draw near to you.
Walk with God and God will walk with you.
So the reward for seeking God is finding God and walking with God.
Let's end.
Let's end with this.
After surgery, one of the first things that doctors want to do is they want to get you
up and walking.
Okay.
It might seem counterintuitive because your body's weak, but they know that walking promotes
healing and gets your circulation going and prevents all sorts of complications.
And it helps you grow and heal more quickly.
It's essential.
Walking is essential to life and health.
The same is true spiritually.
Walking with God isn't just some optional extra for the super spiritual.
It's not something you just do when it's easy or convenient.
It's essential for our spiritual health.
It's how we grow stronger.
It's how we stay connected to God.
It's how we recover when life knocks us down.
But just like in the hospital, the key to spiritual health is to get up and start moving.
Are you walking with God this morning?
Maybe your faith feels really, really weak or life has knocked you down.
But the answer is not just to stay where you are.
The answer is to take that first step.
Walking with God, you don't have to be perfect.
It just requires movement.
Remember, it just requires some kind of daily intentional step to move toward him, whether
that's reading your Bible or praying or worshiping him.
Enoch's story, it reminds us that walking with God is not only possible, it's totally
transformative.
It's how we grow.
It's how we heal.
It's how we find our way into his presence.
So wherever you are today, start walking, walk with God and keep walking with him until
the day comes when you find yourself in his presence.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church, Streetsville on January 19th, 2025.