Strength for the Journey: Hebrews 11:8-11, 13-14, 16: This World Is Not My Home

Did you ever feel like a misfit because of your faith? That’s okay. God’s people have always felt like misfits, because this world is not our true home.

HEBREWS 11:8-11, 13-14, 16: THIS WORLD IS NOT MY HOME

INTRODUCTION

An American tourist visited the 19th century Polish rabbi, Hofetz Chaim. Astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room, filled with books, plus a table and a bench, the tourist asked, “Rabbi, where is your furniture?”
“Where is yours?” replied the rabbi.
“Mine?” asked the puzzled American. “But I’m a visitor here. I’m only passing through.”
“So am I,” said Hofetz Chaim.

Christian believers have also often felt like they were only visitors on this earth. Surrounded by unbelievers, we just don’t fit in.
Just like in the old gospel song:

“This world is not my home;
I’m just a-passin’ through.
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me
From Heaven’s open door,
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”

My grandfather was an immigrant.
He came from Russia as a young man.
He told me about arriving in Kansas with no job and no money and no knowledge of the English language.
He was a stranger in a strange land.
He told me that he had gotten to a small town in Kansas and was sitting in the town square by the well, still wearing his embroidered peasant’s shirt, wondering what to do next.
A man named Weber, who knew his language, befriended him and helped him find work.
It must have been scary to be an immigrant in those days. It still is—scary and dangerous.

I. A story about Abraham

A. Hebrews 11:8-10: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.”

Abraham’s original country was Ur, of the Chaldeans.
I read about Ur in a book by a famous archeologist. Ur was in what we call Iraq; then it was called Sumeria.
It was one of the most civilized and advanced cities in the world 4000 years ago when Abraham was born there.
The archeologist wrote that they even had flush toilets. Flush toilets are something Charlotte didn’t have on the farm, even when she left home to go to college 65 years ago.

The Bible says that Abraham’s family moved the family to another famous city, Haran, where his father died.
Tradition tells us that Abraham’s father was a maker of idols.
Joshua 24.2 tells us that Terah, Abraham’s father, worshiped pagan gods.

Historians tell us that Haran was a center for worship of the moon god.
We don’t know whether Abraham, in his younger days worshiped idols or the moon, but the Bible tells us that it was at Haran that God spoke to Abraham and told him to take his family and go to a land that God would show him.

So Abraham went out, not knowing where he was going, except that God was going with him.
When Abraham arrived at Canaan, the land that would later be Israel, God promised that Abraham’s descendents would become a great nation, and in his descendents all the world would be blessed.

But, as the text I read you from Hebrews tells us, Abraham dwelt in the Land of Promise as a sojourner in a foreign land—we would call him an immigrant.
Abraham had servants and flocks and herds. The Bible says he was rich. But he was still a sojourner.
He never lived in a house.
He never owned a farm.
Abraham was always a stranger in the land in which he dwelt.
That is why the writer of Hebrews uses him as an illustration of how we disciples of Jesus are in our world.

B. Continuing to read in Hebrews of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their families: “These all died in faith, not having received what was promised, but having seen it and greeted it from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland….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” (Hebrews 11:13-14, 16).

The writer of Hebrews uses Abraham as an example of how followers of Jesus were in the world in his day.
They lived in a world surrounded by unbelievers—who were often hostile to them.
They didn’t fit in.
They often suffered abuse from those around them.
They had a different values, hopes and loyalties.
In a sense, they even spoke a different language—the language of faith in God.
Their lord wasn’t Caesar, but Jesus.

Sometimes when people come to Jesus and begin to live for him, they find that their old friends lose interest in them.
We don’t share the same ideas about what constitutes pleasure—or success.

II. So the Bible often calls God’s people strangers or sojourners or exiles.

A. A psalmist writes: “I am a sojourner on earth; hide not thy commandments from me” (Psalm 119:19).
Another psalmist addresses God this way: “I am thy passing guest, a sojourner like all my fathers” (Psalm 39:12).

St. Peter addressed his first letter to scattered believers in some of the lands we now call Turkey as “the exiles of the Dispersion” (1 Peter 1:1).

St Paul wrote to his friends in the city of Philippi, reminding them that their citizenship was not on this earth. He wrote, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation to that it will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20).

Someone said of Abraham: “He went, not knowing where he was going, but only that he was going with God.”
So it is with us. We go through life—sometimes walking in the dark—but knowing that we are going with God.
And God will bring us safely home.

B. The passage I read from Hebrews says of Abraham: “He looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (v10).

Abraham never found that “City that had foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
He had to be content with viewing it from afar.
Just so, we view our eternal home from afar.
Maybe we are close to it now, and we are looking forward to our arrival.

We read in the last book of the Bible about the Holy City, New Jerusalem that comes down from Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
People wonder, will we know one another in Heaven?
Surely we’ll have plenty of company— it will be a great reunion.
Yes, we’ll know one another and we will enjoy the companionship of our Lord Jesus and his family forever.

CONCLUSION

Dorotha told you a story at the beginning of our service. Now I have a story for you. It’s not a true story—although it could be. It is a parable.

In his book A Light Shines Bright in Babylon: A Handbook for Christian Business Owners, Buck Jacobs tells “The Parable of the Janitor and the CEO.” Following is a summary of his story.

A janitor had worked for the same company for 40 years. He did good work.
When people asked him why he did so much more than was necessary he would tell them that he was doing his work for Jesus, his best friend. Some laughed and just passed on but others were curious and let the janitor explain.

In the same company another man had also worked for 40 years. He had risen from salesman to CEO. The CEO was often asked to tell the story of his success to groups and organizations. His story emphasized that in our wonderful country success came from hard work, believing in yourself, and giving your all.

The CEO was active in civic organizations and government advisory panels. He was a member of the board of regents of the university and a member of his church, which he attended regularly, always sitting near the front. But church was not a major interest in his life. He remembered his father’s advice: “Son, two things you cannot mix with your business: politics and religion. They are like oil and water.” The CEO never gave it much thought because he was so busy with his business, his cottage at the beach, his golf and tennis clubs, board meetings and ski trips that there wasn’t much time left for much else, and the time flew by.

It happened that both men died the same day. And, as the scripture promises, each man in turn went to stand before the Lord Jesus and give an account his life.

The CEO went first. The Lord said to him, “My son, you have done well with your life. I gave you intelligence and opportunity. You worked hard and you took advantage of all that I set before you. You accomplished much. But son, all that you built must remain behind. Your homes and cars, your company and clubs were good, but they are not a part of my kingdom. The university you loved and served refused to honor me and it will burn up and be destroyed. Your money is not needed here. My son, you labored long and hard, but unwisely. You have gained the good, but missed the best.”

The janitor was downcast, fearful and in awe. If a CEO could receive no commendation from the Lord, what were his chances?

Then the Lord put his hands on the janitor’s shoulders. “Son, lift your eyes,” he said.
The janitor looked into the face of the Lord.
The smile on Jesus’s face gladdened his heart. “Look around,” said the Lord, “and tell me what you see.”

The janitor turned. To his amazement, he saw crowds of jubilant people coming toward him. Their expressions reflected a pure love and joy that astonished him. He turned to the Lord. “Lord, I recognize only a few. Who are the others?”

The Lord said, “Those you recognize are the ones you told of my love. The others are those they told. They are here now to thank you. Enter into the joy prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

Nearby, angels sang “Glory to God and to the Lamb” as the janitor was reunited with his friends and stepped into Paradise.