Hebrews: The New Covenant Administration of Christ Max A Forsythe (c) Anno Domini 2005

From the Pulpit at Pilgrim's Rest Presbyterian Church in America

Abraham & Sarah
For the Lord’s Day:  the 5^th of June 2005 

Hebrews 11: 8-12

“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 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.  For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.  By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.  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...”

Introduction:  Commentator John Brown shows us the importance of this passage: “the object for which this instance of the power of faith is brought forward is obvious … Nothing but faith could have enabled Abraham to act as he did.  Faith made what would otherwise have been impossible, easy.  God was calling the Hebrew Christians to break through bands as strong as those which bound Abraham to Mesopotamia, in abandoning Judaism, and to take a course in a determined attachment to Christianity, the consequences of which were as apparently hazardous, and as completely unknown to them and beyond their control, as the circumstances of Abraham’s journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan.”

And I tell you today, that this same calling to enter the church and abandon the world in our time, is just as challenging and awesome as it was in the days of Abraham.  So well, does the Apostle here in these short verses demonstrate through the faith of Abraham and Sarah what every person must do by faith in every day and age. 

The key verse in this section is the tenth:  “For [Abraham] was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”  The story of Abraham is not like our contemporary text books which announce that the Pilgrims, who came to America from the Netherlands, were a people that liked to travel a lot.  The historic truths of our Pilgrim fathers deserves a better reputation than that.  It is never mentioned that the Mayflower was driven north from the Virginia coast by a strong wind.  It is never mentioned that a plague had emptied Massachusetts of violent and hostile natives.  It is never mentioned that one of less than half a dozen Indians who spoke English, just happened to travel into the neighborhood in time to show the Pilgrims how to plant corn.

Certainly, the Pilgrims came to this country to settle their own land, but they also came in order to teach their children apart from the European culture and the assorted variety of institutions that passed for churches there.  In England they had not the freedom they desired, and in the Netherlands, while they had the respect of the local Calvinists, they still were expected to meld in and not remain standoffish!  Religious freedom was the reason they hazarded the North Atlantic passage, and here in the “promised land” over half of them died before their colony was firmly established.

Speaking from that same European culture, John Brown suggested the pilgrimage to America as similar to that of Abraham from Mesopotamia to Canaan.

Development:  Yes, the pilgrims were similar to Abraham; they were looking for a city better designed by God than what passed for such in their day and time.  In Mesopotamia, Abraham left behind a culture that still remembered the tower of Babel.  There was another name for that tower which is strangely contemporary:  “Heaven’s Gate.”  You remember that suicidal group some years ago.  When that happened, Bob Stump suggested we establish a cyber portal with the same name and use it for evangelism.  It is still out there, and it contains three sermons related to the worldly theme which still enchants people three millennia later.

God was calling Abraham away from that parent culture which so misunderstood the nature of God and the purpose of His people.  Genesis 12: 1 records the initial calling:  “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

And so, by faith Abraham left his comfort zone, if I may use a contemporary phrase?  He left his extended family, his culture and a comfortable way of life behind.  J.R.R. Tolkien captures the fancy of his calling when in the course of his narrative he leads a nearly contemporary home body, Bilbo Baggins on an incredible journey “there and back again” as Bilbo’s story is sometimes considered.

Now, the life of Abraham, his calling and his obedience is an example used clearly throughout the whole of scripture to commend to us a similar spiritual calling to seek the City of God and to abandon the City of Man.  Abraham traveled to the promised land, there he remained a nomadic resident without property, without owning the inheritance promised to him.  F.F. Bruce describes Abraham’s situation.  “Year after year he pitched his moving tent amid the settled inhabitants of Palestine, ‘in them but not of them’, commanding their respect as ‘a prince of God’, but owning not a square foot of the country until he bought … a family burial-ground.”

We of course own land, houses and various possessions, but these are not permanent!  Their foundations are not in heaven but on earth.  John Brown commends this attitude of Abraham to us today:  “It is equally true now as it was then.  Nothing but the faith of the Gospel can induce a man to abandon the world and commence a pilgrimage towards heaven.”  And yet, all the time, the Lord leads people from their worldly background into the wider and grander fields of life in the faith.

At least it is somewhat easier for us today, because countless other brethren have traveled the spiritual trail into the heavenly kingdom down through the centuries.  And that is specifically why the Apostle wrote this eleventh chapter of Hebrews to encourage us in our faith.  If all that Abraham had done was to leave his home and family behind, it would have been an untimely adventure.  But, even more remarkable is the fact that while Abraham never obtained possession of the promised land, neither did his posterity until nearly five centuries afterwards.  As the Deacon Stephen noted in the New Testament:  “Yet [God] gave [Abraham] no inheritance in it, 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.”  (Acts 7: 5)

Today, when many people look at the government’s promise of Social Security – the greater majority realize that very many will never get any return on their investment.  And when they die, their children will be none the better for all the money poured into the system from their parent’s pockets.  In the name of security the New Deal absconded with any potential inheritance.  And the government wonders why people do not save more?  There is no real incentive because confiscatory taxes all but make it impossible for the majority to put something aside for a later generation.  And even if a princely sum is established – the government is first in line to profit.  But, I digress, our main concern today must be the better other worldly promises of a Sovereign God.

Application:  God intended to provide an heir for Abraham, one to be in the line of the Messiah when He would be born generations after Abraham was dead and buried.  Abraham’s son Isaac was considered a miracle at the time.  Abraham is described in our passage “as good as dead” and Sarah knew full well that “she was past the age.”

What a powerful urge comes our way, once we have children.  The next generation will need our help, our love and our guidance through many years.  And the most important thing they need is a knowlege of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Certainly, we well know that the second birth happens apart from our desire and control, and yet we have an obligation and a hope to pass the faith along.  Sometimes, it is our hope that our little ones may know us again in heaven.  Other times, it is our fear of a hellish future that motivates our concern for those who could potentially be lost.  The Apostle Peter appreciated the concern of parents when he announced that “the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”  (Acts 2: 39)

What better preparation can we give them than a life of faith similar to that of Abraham and all the saints recorded in this honor roll of the New Testament in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.  Here in this short chapter we have set before us the Covenant promise shared with countless saints before Christ and now after His first coming.  And people enter into that eternal promise by faith, counting the promises and call of God as real in a surreal world.  Now let me make it easy for you, and this is by, in and through the grace of God.  You are part of the covenant family if you are interested in the spiritual food given through the scriptures.  You are part of the covenant family if you believe the historic records of the saints recorded for your benefit in the Old and New Covenants of scripture.  You are part of the covenant family if you desire your children to benefit from the same faith that has come upon you. 

Now, as the Apostle and all the saints mentioned in this chapter realized, this faith is not an easy transition from the worldly kingdom to the city of God.  We have only to read further about the life of Abraham to realize that his life was challenging.  And yet through it all he remained firm in his convictions that God had spoken to him, called him and promised him a blessed home for eternity.  May we share that faith in this life and the next.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary:  Hebrews.
Bruce, F.F.  The Epistle to the Hebrews.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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