Endure by Faith: Living for the City

8 By 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. 9 By 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. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore 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. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

John Cotton, a prominent Puritan pastor, arrived in New England in 1633. Three years prior to that, in 1630 while still in England, he preached a famous farewell sermon to a group of fellow Puritans who were making their departure across the Atlantic to New England. The title of the sermon was God’s Promise to His Plantation. And his sermon text was

2 Samuel 7:10 ESV

10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly,

2SA

His primary emphasis in this sermon was that God was making room for his people in this new land, New England. He says in the sermon that when God

makes a Country though not altogether void of Inhabitants, yet void in that place where they reside. Where there is a vacant place, there is liberty for the sons of Adam or Noah to come and inhabit, though they neither buy it, nor ask their leaves.

This placing of people in this or that Country, is from God’s sovereignty over all the earth… Only in the text here is meant some more special appointment because God tells them it by his own mouth… God’s people take the land by promise: And therefore the land of Canaan is called the land of promise.

There is poor comfort in sitting down in any place, that you cannot say, this is appointed me of God.

In a very real sense, for these Christians crossing the Atlantic to come to New England was metaphorically like Israel crossing the Jordan River to take possession of the Promised Land. This was to be a new and better country for them where they would be able to escape the religious persecution they were enduring in England.

As we know, this “better city” wasn’t so much better for everybody. In 1973 Stevie Wonder put this trauma to music with his song Living for the City - telling the story of a black young man trying to get out of the south and make a new life in New York City. He gets sent to prison and serves ten years for a crime he didn’t commit.

His hair is long, his feet are hard and gritty He spends his life walking the streets of New York City He's almost dead from breathing in air pollution He tried to vote but to him there's no solution Living just enough, just enough for the city

What was viewed as the chance for a better city by the Puritans became the place of persecution for others. We can rightly criticize the Puritans for living as though New England was to be a place built by and for Christians. And at the same time, we get the fact that, whether we’re Christians or not, we long for things to be better. What that longing is is a longing for God. A longing for God to make things better. And it’s hard to endure with joy when that longing is so intense.

I love the way St. Augustine put it when comparing the cities of this world and the City of God. He said,

One is the city of ‘belongings’ here in this world; the other is the City of ‘longings’ for God.

How do you live in the city of “belongings” here in this world as citizens of the City of “longings” for God? This is what the Pastor is emphasizing to the Hebrews in our passage today. He’s saying to them, “God wants you to live like you’re a citizen of heaven, not like you’re a citizen of Palestine.” This is the life of faith in Jesus Christ. By faith in him we are able to endure through the ups and the downs, the ins and the outs of this life because we understand that we are citizens of the city of God.

He’s saying, “God wants you to live like you’re a citizen of heaven, not like you’re a citizen of Palestine.” This is the life of faith in Jesus Christ. By faith in him we are able to endure through the ups and the downs, the ins and the outs of this life because we understand that we are citizens of the city of God.

He delivers this message to them by using Abraham as his example. Abraham gets more space in this chapter than any of the other “people of old.” That’s because Abraham was recognized as the father of the faithful. So he had credibility. If Abraham, by faith, lived like he was looking forward to a better city, a city with foundations, whose designer and builder was God, then what’s your excuse? The Pastor’s already told them in 2:16 that Jesus helps the offspring of Abraham. So, if you’re one of those offspring, you ought to be living like it. You ought to be Living for the City. That is, the City of God.

With Abraham as his example, the Pastor shows them and us what Living for the City of God means. He shows us what it means to have your life now be informed and formed by the reality of a heavenly homeland. I have four things to share with you. Living for the City means Obedience. Living for the City means Trust. Living for the City means Clarity. Living for the City means No Shame.

Living for the City Means Obedience

The Pastor began his roll call of faith all the way back in Genesis with Abel and Enoch who were commended by God. God testified that they were faithful. Then he talked about Noah who by faith constructed an ark for the saving of his household and became and heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Now he says in v. 8…

Hebrews 11:8 ESV

8 By 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.

By faith, when Abraham was called, he obediently went out to a place that he would later receive for an inheritance. And he went out with no idea where he was going.

By faith, when Abraham was called, he obediently went out to a place that he would later recieve for an inheritance. And he went out with no idea where he was going.

Last week we talked about X-Ray vision, the connection between sight and faith. Faith is the assurance of the things we hope for. It is the conviction about the things we don’t see. I said that faith in the unseen undergirds this entire chapter. And here it is again. Abraham didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t know where this place he was to receive as an inheritance was going to be.

GEN12

Genesis 12:5–7 ESV

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

God didn’t tell Abraham the destination ahead of time. But when Abraham heard God’s call, when he heard the word of God he responded with obedience. Living for the City means obeying the King of the city. That word obedience makes us nervous. It doesn’t make us nervous when it’s in the context of other people obeying us. We definitely like that. Parents all over the world would be smiling today if they knew that this was the one day of the year that their children were going to be perfectly obedient. If they knew that today, of the 365 days, there was going to be no back talk; there was going be no rolling of the eyes; there was going to be no stomping or no grouchiness or grumpiness because your child didn’t want to do what you asked them to do. Oh the joy that would fill a mother’s or a father’s soul on this day if that were to happen.

God didn’t tell Abraham the destination ahead of time. But when Abraham heard God’s call, when he heard the word of God he responded with obedience. Living for the City means obeying the King of the city. That word obedience makes us nervous. It doesn’t make us nervous when it’s in the context of other people obeying us. We definitely like that. Moms all over the world would be smiling today if they knew that this was the one day of the year that their children were going to be perfectly obedient. If they knew that today, of the 365 days, there was going to be no back talk; there was going be no rolling of the eyes; there was going to be stomping or no grouchiness or grumpiness because your child didn’t want to do what you asked them to do. Oh the joy that would fill a mother’s soul on this day if that were to happen. You can hear dad now, “today of all days would you just do what your mama asked?”

We’re happy when other folk are obeying us. What makes us nervous is when we’ve got to obey somebody else. That’s because we’re not in the driver’s seat. But this first point out of v. 8 is that faith responds to the word of God with action. And the action is obedience.

Abraham was living in Ur of the Chaldeans. That is, he was living in Babylon. And he didn’t have a miserable life. His wife Sarah couldn’t have children, but he wasn’t poor or struggling to make ends meet. Abraham didn’t have any reason to leave his homeland. That is until the Lord God said, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” And the Pastor reminds us that by faith, when he was called to go, Abraham obeyed. God’s word was enough for him to leave his homeland without looking back. And the sense of both the text in Genesis and our text here is that Abraham’s response was immediate. The Lord said, “leave here, and follow me to a place that I’m going to give you as an inheritance. I’ll let you know when you get there.” Abraham’s response was, “Let’s go.” The feet of faith is obedient response to the word of God.

A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews Excursus IV: The Doctrine of Creation in Hebrews 11:3

Abraham’s example teaches us, further, that true faith always leads to decisive action, that trust must manifest itself in obedience, indeed that works are the evidence of faith.

A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews Excursus IV: The Doctrine of Creation in Hebrews 11:3

the word of God calls not merely for faith but also for action which springs from faith in that word. When Christ demands of his disciples that they should follow him, he is demanding not some kind of abstract contemplative pursuit but that following which displays itself decisively in the act of rising, forsaking all, and daily taking up the cross

If you’re living for the city of God then the word of God is sufficient enough reason for you to respond in obedience. If there’s no obedient response to the word of God it’s a clear demonstration that I don’t have my sights set on heaven at all. It’s a demonstration that what matters most to me is how I want things to be in the here and now. And get the idea out of your head that you need to have every ‘I’ dotted and every ‘t’ crossed before you’ll respond in faith to God’s word. This is a hard word, but I think that Martin Luther hits the nail on the head when he says,

this is the glory of faith, simply not to know: not to know where you are going, not to know what you are doing, not to know what you must suffer, and with sense and intellect, virtue and will, all alike made captive, to follow the naked voice of God.

A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews Excursus IV: The Doctrine of Creation in Hebrews 11:3

Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977), 467.

Living for the city of God means obediently following the naked voice of God because, here’s the second point, you know that you can trust God.

Living for the City Means Trust

Living for the City means trusting the King of the City. It means trusting God because you consider him faithful. Abraham set out in faith because he had a firm grasp on God’s promise of an inheritance. Trusting God’s promise drove his actions. Look at vv. 9-12 again…

Hebrews 11:9–12 ESV

9 By 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. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore 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 me make an editors note here. Verse 11 is a tricky verse to translate from the Greek text. The ESV takes Sarah, Abraham’s wife, as the subject for v. 11, but it’s clear to me that Abraham is the subject of this entire paragraph, and that includes v. 11. So, the 1984 NIV’s translation of v. 11 is better,

Hebrews 11:11 TNIV

11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.

Let me make an editors note here. Verse 11 is a tricky verse to translate from the Greek text. The ESV takes Sarah, Abraham’s wife, as the subject for v. 11. We’ll talk about it more in Sunday School, but it’s clear to me that Abraham is the subject of this entire paragraph, and that includes v. 11. So, the NIV’s translation of v. 11 is better,

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age — and Sarah herself was barren — was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.

I point that out because what the Pastor is Abraham’s unwavering trust of God that had him always looking forward to the fulfillment of God’s promises. Even when he got to the land of promise, even when he got to Canaan and the Lord said, this is the land that I’m going to give you and your descendants as an inheritance, Abraham never owned any of it. In fact, Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, the Bible says, gave a sermon in that got him stoned to death. He begins that sermon with his own history lesson beginning with Abraham. He says in 7:5 that God gave Abraham no inheritance in the land, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.

So our text reminds us that the entire time Abraham lived in the Promised Land he lived as a foreigner. When Sarah died in and it was time to bury her, he said to the Hittites in 23:4, “give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” Living as a foreigner meant not having the rights and privileges of a land owner. He sojourned in the land of promise. He moved around in it. He didn’t settle down and build a house. He lived in tents like he was just visiting for a while.

When we’ve decided that we’re going to settle down, that we’re going to make someplace our new home, we eventually buy a house. We establish roots in that city or town. But sometimes the pull from original hometown makes us hesitant to think of somewhere else as our home. We still consider ourselves visitors to our new place. Abraham lived like a visitor in Canaan, but it wasn’t because he was homesick to go back to his father’s land. When it was time to find a wife for Isaac he sent his servant back to his homeland. The servant asked him in , “What if the woman isn’t willing to follow me back to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” Abraham basically says, “Under no circumstances are you to take my son back there…If the woman isn’t willing to follow you, you’re free from this oath of mine; just don’t take my son back there.”

It seems as though Abraham had such a trust in God’s promise to give his descendants the land of Canaan that he put out of his mind any thoughts of going back to live at home. No matter how difficult it was for him to live like a visitor, moving from place to place, never settled; no matter how difficult that was, there was no thought of going back to the security of his homeland. The Pastor’s point in showing us how Abraham, by faith, endured through life in the Promised Land as a renter instead of an owner goes way beyond his trusting God for a piece of land. He says in v. 10 that Abraham was looking forward to the city that has foundations. The city whose designer and builder is God. What city is that? Is the Pastor saying that Abraham was looking forward to the day when his descendants would live in Jerusalem? Is the Pastor saying that as Abraham moved around in tents he came across the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem and he said to himself, “I’m trusting God that this city is going to be the capitol of Israel. It’s going to be the city of God.”

forward to the city that has foundations. The city whose designer and builder is God. What city is that? Is the Pastor saying that Abraham was looking forward to the day when his descendants would live in Jerusalem? Is the Pastor saying that as Abraham moved around in tents he came across the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem and he said to himself, “I’m trusting God that this city is going to be the capitol of Israel. It’s going to be the city of God.”

Isn’t it obvious that the city with foundations whose designer and builder is God goes way beyond the land of milk and honey? Abraham considered the God who made the promise to be faithful. And he understood the inheritance that God promised to be nothing less than the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy city it says in , “the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” A tent has no foundations, but the city God establishes does. Trusting God by faith that our citizenship is in heaven enables us to live like foreigners. What does it look like to live as someone who’s citizenship is in heaven? Paul says in

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

PHILI3

Philippians 3:17–20 ESV

17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

He just told them that counts everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. He said, I’ve suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ. Then he say, brothers and sisters, join in imitating me. If your citizenship is in heaven then you don’t live like your god is your belly. He doesn’t just mean that you eat too much. To live like your god is your belly means to be consumed by material things.

Living for the City Means Clarity

Abraham became wealthy. But notice that the Pastor makes no mention of his material wealth at all? It gets no mention not because it’s evil to be wealthy or righteous to be poor, but because living for the city of God means trusting in God and not in our stuff. Living for the City means obeying the word of God because you trust God, and you trust him because, here’s the third point, you have clarity on where your real homeland is.

The Pastor becomes slightly more generic in vv. 13-16. He’ll get back to Abraham specifically in v. 17, but he says in vv. 13-16a…

Hebrews 11:13–16 ESV

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

These all died in faith. That is, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob were all still living by faith when they died. They were still living by faith when they died because they had clarity of vision. They did not receive the things that were promised, but they were able to see and welcome the promises from afar. The promises of God were so clear and certain to them, that even though the promises did not physically materialize in their lifetime, they could see it clearly.

What hinders us from living for the city of God is cloudy vision. And difficulty can make things foggy. You see it over and over again if you read through this letter. The Pastor has had to tell them, ‘we’re not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” They’re dealing with opposition to their faith, and it’s making things cloudy. You may not be dealing with direct opposition to your faith as Christian, but there are still things going on in your life that’s fogging up your vision. It might be relationships with people, or issues at work, or temptations to do what you know is ungodly that are moving you to act like your citizenship is here. Can’t I just give him a piece of my mind? It’ll feel so good if I can tell her where she can go! God wants that piece of your mind too. He wants you to clearly confess that by faith in Jesus Christ I’m different. I’ve got a different citizenship.

ungodly that are moving you to act like your citizenship is here. Can’t I just give him a piece of my mind? It’ll feel so good if I can tell her where she can go? God wants that piece of your mind too. He wants you to clearly confess that by faith in Jesus Christ I’m different. I’ve got a different citizenship.

I love v. 14…

Hebrews 11:14 ESV

14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

People who confess that they are strangers and exiles on the earth are making it clear that they desire a homeland. He says in v. 15 that the homeland Abraham and his family were thinking of wasn’t Ur of the Chaldeans. If that’s what they were thinking of, when things got rough in Canaan they could’ve gone back there. But, v. 16, they desired a better country. Just in case you’re wondering, the Pastor says the type of homeland I’m talking about is a heavenly homeland. The better country the people of faith desired wasn’t another piece of land somewhere on earth that wasn’t going to be problematic for Christians. People of faith endure because they’re clear that this better country doesn’t exist in the here and now. This clear desire for a heavenly homeland is what informed their life of faith here on earth.

Look with me at how he is connecting the faith of the people of old with the lives of the people to whom he’s writing. Back in ch. 10:32ff he said to them,

Hebrews 10:32–36 ESV

32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

HEB10.32

You know what it’s like to live for a better city. You know what it’s like to suffer the plundering of your property because you knew you had a better possession! When you lived like that you were just joining in the history of those who live by faith. Don’t stop now! Endure through to the end! Can I tell you something? You can’t actually live as a Christian without this same testimony. There will always be evidence in our lives of the Spirit of God enabling us to suffer some kind of loss with joy because he has given us clarity that we have a better possession.

Living for the City Means No Shame

Here’s the question. Do you have clarity that heaven is your homeland? The reason that clarity is necessary is because every culture in every place throughout all time wants to set the conditions for the good life according to its own standards. It’s always hard to say to people, you can’t live life without putting your trust in Jesus Christ and then assume that heaven is your home. It doesn’t sound like your being nice when you say that. It sounds like you’re much nicer if you say that heaven is everybody’s home no matter what. But the Bible is clear that to have heaven as your homeland requires faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. You can’t live like the homeland you desire is the one you’ve got right now and then say, “I’m going to heaven.” The Pastor says, people who desire the better homeland, the heavenly one, make a confession. They confess by faith in God and his promises that they are strangers and exiles right now, and there’s evidence in their life to that effect. They’re not just giving lip service.

And here’s the point I’ll end with. For people like this, there’s no shame in their game. Living for the city means no shame. A life of faith in Jesus Christ may certainly mean that other people may put you to shame, but where it counts there’s no shame at all. The Pastor says, “Therefore, because they desire a heavenly homeland, God is not ashamed to be called their God. Why? Because he’s prepared a city for them.”

Hebrews 10:30 ESV

30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

God was not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob because he prepared for them a city with foundations. He designed it and he built it. And he’s not ashamed to be your God either through faith in the Son of God,

Hebrews 2:10–11 ESV

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

Almost like bookends at the beginning of the letter and toward the end of the letter the Pastor emphasizes that God is not ashamed. God’s lack of shame is seen in his willingness to send his Son to suffer for us. Now his lack of shame is seen in the fact that he’s prepared a city for us. The double negative accentuates the positive…

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, ( ESV)

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