The Pilgrims

Scriptural Text:

Message Title: The Pilgrims

Lord Make Us Thankful

Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn’t make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, “Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it!” John answered, “I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life.” “But you must!” implored his companion. “The bull is catching up to us.” “All right,” panted John, “I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ‘O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.’“

First Thanksgiving

The first American Thanksgiving didn’t occur in 1621 when a group of Pilgrims shared a feast with a group of friendly Indians. The first recorded thanksgiving took place in Virginia more than 11 years earlier, and it wasn’t a feast. The winter of 1610 at Jamestown had reduced a group of 409 settlers to 60. The survivors prayed for help, without knowing when or how it might come. When help arrived, in the form of a ship filled with food and supplies from England, a prayer meeting was held to give thanks to God.

Definition: pilgrim■ noun a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons. ■ verb (pilgrims, pilgriming, pilgrimed) archaic travel or wander like a pilgrim.  Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

■ noun a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.

■ verb (pilgrims, pilgriming, pilgrimed) archaic travel or wander like a pilgrim.

—origin Middle English: from Provençal pelegrin, from Latin peregrinus (see peregrine).

 Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, eds., Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).

The words pilgrim and stranger are synonymous, yet they are not identical. A pilgrim is generally a religious traveler who is determined to visit some holy place. History tells us about people making pilgrimages. Many individuals and many groups endured hardships and sufferings in order to reach the places on earth that they considered sacred.

A stranger is one who has found a place of residence but who cannot truly consider himself or herself a part of the new culture. He or she may be of another race and speak a different language. The culture that surrounds him or her is completely different from that which he or she has known.

If we are genuine, committed Christians, intent upon walking by faith with our Lord Jesus Christ, then we are continually confessing that we are pilgrims and that we are strangers!

The original Pilgrims, less educated and more rustic than the Boston Puritans, had in England been members of the Separatist Scrooby congregation which followed the religious radical Robert Browne (c.1553–1633) in his demand for a “Reformation without Tarrying for Anie.” Refusing to conform to the established Church of England, they were forced to flee to Holland. After twelve years in exile, worried that their children might cease to be English, they set sail for America. In 1620 the Mayflower dropped anchor in Plymouth, establishing the first permanent English colony in North America.

Hebrews (11:13-16): Believers are only strangers and pilgrims on earth passing through this life which is ever so brief and corrupt.

According to , the patriarchs confessed that they were “strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” A vagabond has no home; a fugitive is running from home; a stranger is away from home; but a pilgrim is heading home. They had their eyes on the future, the glorious city that God was preparing for them, and they passed that heavenly vision along to their descendants.

A.W. Tozier wrote in “Too At Home,”

One of the most telling indictments against many of us who comprise our Christian churches is the almost complete acceptance of the contemporary scene as our permanent home!.. the greater your contentment with your daily circumstances in this world, the greater your defection from the ranks of God’s pilgrims enroute to a city whose architect and builder is God Himself!

If we can feel that we have put down our roots in this present world, then our Lord still has much to teach us about faith and attachment to our Savior!"

therefore of the patriarch’s faith,

() A faith that endured, that forever sought an unseen, heavenly country.

Note the four points:

(1) Their faith was a visionary faith. They saw the promises of God afar off, not by sight but in their hearts and minds. (, )

(2) Their faith was a growing faith (, ) (a) They saw the promise of God and were thankful (b)They were persuaded of the promises of God (c)They embraced the promises(greeted and welcomed)

They saw the promise of God and were thankful

They were persuaded of the promises of God

They embraced the promises(greeted and welcomed)

(3) Their faith was a working faith. They actively sought after the promised land and declared the fact to all.()

(4) Their faith was an enduring faith. They never returned to the country they had left.() (a)They did not harbor the thoughts of the old world’s pleasures and desires, possessions and indulgences, feelings and comforts

They did not harbor the thoughts of the old world’s pleasures and desires, possessions and indulgences, feelings and comforts

(11:16) They are rewarded (1) They received God’s approval (, , , , ) (2) They received the promise land (, , , , )

(1) They received God’s approval (, , , , )

(2) They received the promise land (, , , , )

Pilgrims of a Higher Hope () 1. Pilgrims Are People Who Have Been Uprooted 2. Pilgrims Are Foreigners in an Alien Land 3. Pilgrims Are Those Who Seek a Place of Eternal Rest

1. Pilgrims Are People Who Have Been Uprooted

2. Pilgrims Are Foreigners in an Alien Land

3. Pilgrims Are Those Who Seek a Place of Eternal Rest

“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”