Hebrews 11, 13-16. This is the first passage that I preached here at Cosmostale, and I hope that I still agree now with what I said about it then. I no doubt think that is the case, but we're returning to this passage because we've been recording on these Wednesday evenings, the series in Hebrews 11, so that we can incorporate it with the other messages from Hebrews. And so we've dedicated these Wednesday evenings, when I have the opportunity to teach you, it will be from this chapter until we get to the end, as we're unpacking each section, giving it due attention. And the section tonight is Hebrews 11, 13 to 16, and it's kind of an interruption in the by faith flow. And did you see that in verse 8, there's by faith Abraham, verse 9, by faith he, still meaning Abraham. And then we saw last time together, verse 11, by faith Sarah. It seems that verses 13 to 16 are an interruption because in verse 17, he goes back to Abraham. And then he goes to Isaac in verse 20. In verse 21, Jacob. It makes you wonder why he didn't just wait until he got through all of those statements before he then tacked on this passage. But one of the strengths of keeping it where it is, is that it's actually in the very center of the second section of names. The second section of names goes from verses 8 to 22, and right in the middle you have what's not an interruption like a parenthesis might be. If you're reading along in a book and you see something in parenthesis, apparently the author did not think it was as prominent or dominant in importance as what's not in parenthesis, and maybe you can just skip right by it. That's not the case here. Don't think of this as maybe a long movie that they used to show in olden days when they would have an intermission where you could then return to what really the main thing was after the intermission is over. This isn't an intermission. This is actually interpreting what you've just seen in the previous passages. This is a lens. He's giving you a lens and he's saying, look at these stories through this. So he's actually giving you great help here by showing that in the old days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, They were characterized by a kind of faith, and you need to see with the lens he's providing you how to read the Old Testament. One of the great things the writer of Hebrews does is show you how to read these Old Testament stories. And Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are characterized by a kind of faith that he wants to observe with you. So there's three parts to the little passage tonight. Verse 13 shows us that they died in faith, not in fulfillment. They died in faith, not in fulfillment. And all I mean by that is, the promises had not yet come to pass in fulfillment. So when they died, they were still looking forward, still anticipating. And they died without what they were anticipating coming to pass. Verses 14 through the first part of 16, they died as exiles seeking a homeland. So they're looking forward and they're anticipating, but they're looking for what? Well, a place God has prepared for them. and he calls it a homeland, he calls it a better country, later on he calls it a city, he's already in fact called it that, and will again in chapter 13. Then the last part of verse 16, God is not ashamed to be their God. Now that's an amazing statement. That's the sort of statement that you just want to stop at for a moment because it could be breathtaking if we understand the wonder of it. That God is not ashamed to be called their God. And I think all of these verses tonight have to do with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So in verse 13, these all died in faith. I know Abel has been mentioned, Enoch has been mentioned, Noah has been mentioned, but we're in a different section of names. Verses 8 to 22 is a different section of names, and I think this little interruption in the flow is about those patriarchs and Sarah as well, since she has been named. A couple things that vouch for this. is because this is about a traveling kind of description here. They were exiles, they were strangers, they were seeking a land. They had gone out from a land that they could have returned to. This sounds a lot like the story of Abraham leaving Mesopotamia and he's got his heirs who were his children and grandchildren with him. That doesn't really apply to Abel, Enoch, Noah. Those weren't really traveling stories. You know, Noah was in an ark and Enoch and Abel's story before them. There aren't any stories about them traveling in lands and having to return to homelands or anything like that. Also, it says in verse 13, these died in faith. Well, one of the reasons we know it really doesn't have in view the first section of Hebrews 11 is because that can't be said of Enoch. Enoch didn't die. So he certainly wouldn't have died in faith. So I'm simply wanting to narrow the focus of these names in verse 13. Who are these that died in faith that didn't receive what was promised? I think he's mainly thinking of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now they were mentioned in verse 8, Abraham. In verse 9, he lived in tents with Isaac and Jacob. And then in verse 11, Sarah. So here are these people traveling and they're nomadic. They're looking for what God has held out for them in His promises. And in verse 13 it says they died in faith. What this means is that their faith was looking towards something, believing God was going to bring to pass things. God had promised them a land. What you need to know, though, is Abraham didn't receive that land. God had promised him the land in Genesis 12, but he considered himself an exile in it, not yet a possessor of it. He considered his children and grandchildren heirs of it, but not yet possessors of it. In fact, it doesn't seem to be the case in the history of Israel that they were considered possessors of this land until they crossed the Jordan River in the book of Joshua. to then bring to pass the subjugation of all those other peoples that they could live, destroying the idols and all the rest and conquering the cities and living as citizens. So, rewinding back in biblical history to Abraham's time, I don't think we should consider himself an heir or possessor of this land at all. He was still in faith, looking toward what God had promised. What else are the things God had promised? Well, God had promised him a son. So, as Abraham and Sarah are going forward, they don't have an heir yet, but it's going to happen. In fact, the very next story, in verses 17, 18, and 19, talk about the heir. God had promised that Abraham was going to have a line of descendants, and they would be heirs of God's promise as well. This seems to be mainly focusing on the idea of land, because the writer is going to take up homeland language in verse 14 and 15, and then in verse 16, the idea of a better country and a city. So of the promises, what seems to be the focus that they did not receive? Territory, land that God was going to have for them to dwell in. In verse 13, they therefore died in faith. How do we know that? Because the writer says they did not receive, he says, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar. This is really language of great excitement as if they were seeing somebody from a distance and saying, Hey, hey, hey, I'm so excited you're coming. I'm so excited you're coming. Keep coming this way. You know, they're just really excited. They're greeting them from afar. You ever been so excited to see somebody that they're not even close to you yet and you're just like yelling out at them, you know, yelling out at them. Hi, hi, welcome, welcome, you know. They're looking at this promise from afar. Now, of course, this isn't a spatial metaphor. They don't actually see something. It's a way of saying that by faith they saw it. By faith they believed it. This is all about Hebrews 11, 1 and 2. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the convictions of things not seen. So what were they seeing it with? Well, they weren't seeing it in reality in terms of actually possessing it, but they had walked through this land, at least Abraham did in Genesis 12, and he believed that God was going to bring it to pass. So he, by faith, was seeing that this was going to be fulfilled in the lives of his descendants. at some point. And so in verse 13, it's as if he was greeting the promise. Hello, land! Hello, territory! You know, from afar, he is just greeting this with enthusiasm. That's the picture here. It's not somebody that's indifferent. This is something he's looking forward to, and he is excited. He is greeting it from afar, having seen it by faith. Now, in verse 13 it ends with saying that he acknowledged, or that they acknowledged, that they were strangers and exiles on earth. And it's worth asking, did they anywhere in the literature of Genesis say such a thing? And they did in Genesis. I want to show you Genesis 23 for a moment. The writer is probably thinking of this verse according to New Testament scholars, and I think they're right. seems correct here, that Genesis 23, 4 could be in view. And the writer says, by the way, Genesis 23, Sarah has died. Abraham's wife has died. He's going to bury her. And in verse 3, Abraham rises up before his dead wife. And he says to the Hittites who are in this land, he says, I am a sojourner and a foreigner among you. Give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight." What did Abraham possess in all of the Promised Land when he died, or when his wife died as well? It was burial plot. Burial plot! This was his possession. That is no great claim when God had promised the land. So by no means does Abraham consider himself a possessor of it. In fact, he tells the Hittites, I'm a foreigner among you. Now, you don't say you're a foreigner in a land if you are a citizen there. You can't be both a citizen and a foreigner in that territory. So Abraham does not consider himself a citizen of it. He sees himself as someone who will inherit it, but for the time being, he's in exile. He's a foreigner. He's a foreigner. The writer picks up on this language, doesn't he? Hebrews 11, 13. They acknowledge that they were strangers and exiles on earth. This picture of being a stranger and a sojourner in land is taken up by the New Testament as well. The New Testament portrays the people of God as people who have not yet arrived in the place God has promised for them. The letter of Hebrews picks this up in Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4. It says that we have not yet entered into God's rest that he has provided fully. Yes, in part already in Christ, but there is more to come because the idea of resting in God has connected to that a place. Well, yes, we've come to Jesus for rest from our sin and from bondage and death and condemnation. But the place that God has prepared, we are still seeking. So there's an already and a not yet tension here where some has has come to pass, but not yet all. Well, in verse 13 here, it says that Abraham is greeting this promise from afar because he knows he's an exile and a stranger. And this becomes a model for the people of God. How is this going to encourage the Hebrew readers here? Well, the readers of Hebrews are suffering. They're going through great trial. And one of the things they need to keep in mind is, I am not a citizen of this world. I'm a citizen of heaven. I'm a heavenly citizen in Philippians 3. And from heaven I'm awaiting a Savior. Now, that means my citizenship is going to experience a merging in this world because heaven and earth are going to be married, if you will, in Revelation 21 and 22. And so God's going to make all things new. But until then, what's our status in this world? Well, we're a kind of sojourner, aren't we? We're a kind of pilgrim. When John Bunyan wrote the book, The Pilgrim's Progress, that's the idea here. Somebody who is passing through, somebody who is on a journey, somebody who is not yet a citizen of what he sees around them. This just reminds us that our identity as the people of God is not something the world grants us. It's not granted to us by the culture or by society. Our identity is given by another. By God and from His Word and from the community of the saints through the ages. And now when we're in this world, wherever the Lord has us in His providence, and here we are in Louisville, Kentucky, we are pilgrims. And we are pilgrims in progress and in process. And we are on a journey together as the people of God. We are exiles. Now, we are exiles not from the home we've come to, We are exiles heading toward the home that we belong to. This is what's so different, because in verse 14, he says, for the people who speak thus, or in other words, people who identify themselves as exiles, they recognize that they're seeking something that's a homeland. They're not in a land that's theirs, but they want a land that's theirs. This has always been true for everybody. People want a place to belong. They want a place to call home. They want a place where they belong and that is theirs. This was true in the ancient world as well. Where people grew up was a big deal. And many times, if they moved away from where they grew up, the idea of returning home was appealing. It was that label of, this was my home. So maybe Louisville wasn't your home, but you can think in your mind, you know, my homeland in my past was this. What's interesting in verse 14 is he says, they are seeking a homeland. And he says in verse 15, if they were thinking of the land they'd gone out from, they could have returned. Now, what point is he making? He's saying they're seeking a homeland, but it wasn't something in their past. It was something in their future. After all, if we're thinking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what was Abraham's homeland in his past? It would have been Mesopotamia. It would have been that country that God called him out of in Genesis 12. So if Abraham really was seeking that place, well friends, he knew where it was and he could have gone back anytime he wanted. Right? He could have gone back anytime he wanted if he wanted to go back home. But for Abraham, that wasn't home any longer. God called him from there. He redefined him as a people. He gave him great promises and promised the land that he was taking him to. So for Abraham, Mesopotamia was not his home. It was something in the future that God was bringing him to. And what's remarkable is remembering that in verse 13, he died in faith, not having gone home yet. So in other words, he didn't receive the homeland, though he was in the land at one point, sojourning through in Genesis 12. And because in Hebrews 13 it tells us that we're still seeking a city, it reminds us that Jerusalem and the land of Canaan all around it, that was not ultimately their home either. That was not the rest that God had ultimately prepared. That was not the main city. All of those things were just pointing forward. All of those things were just signposts. They were just signposts, earthly signposts, pointing to a heavenly destination. In verse 15, if they had been thinking of that land from which they'd gone out, they would have had opportunity to return, which is a way of staying by implication. Therefore, Abraham's seeking a land, it was not what was behind him, it was what was before him. Which reminds us, in verse 13, what it meant for him to die in faith. He was dying in faith because faith is forward looking. Faith is believing in what is not yet seen and come to pass. And God had not yet brought that to pass, and therefore when He died anticipating it, He died in faith, not in the time of fulfillment. Look at the beginning of verse 16 here. Verse 16 says, But as it is, they desire a better country that is a heavenly one. So that's what makes it better. What makes it better as a country is that it's a heavenly country. This is the same kind of language Hebrews has been using all throughout the letter. What makes things better in Hebrews is the heavenly counterpart. What's better than the earthly temple? Well, a heavenly sanctuary. What's better than an earthly sacrifice and an earthly high priest? A heavenly mediator and a heavenly high priest who is seated at the right hand of God. What's better than an earthly city of Jerusalem? A heavenly city of Jerusalem. You see, it's all about the counterpart. But it's not as if they're going from something on earth that's real to something that's not real. The counterpart is more real than anything they experienced in this world. It's the earthly things that were copies, and types, and shadows, and signposts. What they're heading to, and what they were experiencing as promise, was more real than anything as an earthly counterpart. Those heavenly realities, that is reality. That's more real in the world right now as we know it. And when God makes all things new, the heavenly city as it will be experienced by the people of God, this new land, this new world, It will be more real and more glorious and joyous than the world we know now. In verse 16, here are several synonyms. The heavenly country is the same thing as a heavenly city. In verse 16, he ends with the word city. The city and the country is the same thing in verse 14 as the homeland. They're all talking about the same place. Now why is he talking about a city at the end of verse 16? God is preparing them a city because many of these readers would have had a Jewish background, and for them, the idea of an important place for God's people had everything to do with Jerusalem. That was a city. So he's not saying God's actually prepared a new metropolis with a limited population and limited space. He's picking up on the image of Jerusalem as a place, and then Canaan as a land, and he's casting that forward as a hope, saying God has something better. And so when you see these Old Testament promises and Old Testament prophecies about the land and about the city of Jerusalem, you have to see it in light of the New Testament hope. And you have to see it in light of the Gospel. It's all about what God is promising in His new creation. It's never been only about that geopolitical territory. That's a blip on the radar screen in God's territory. Because in the beginning, God had a creation and God had a garden and a land. And then they were exiled from that land, Adam and Eve were. And then he brought the people of God through the wilderness to the land of Canaan. And they were exiled from that land, from the Babylonians, and then they returned. They were a people who never had reached what God had promised for them. So it's never... Jerusalem and the land of Canaan are this picture in Old Testament history that were really important for the people of God, but they were signposts. And even the prophecies that the prophets had in their place in redemptive history, they were still pointing forward. And so when we see these things coming to pass, we see these things being fulfilled in Christ and we see them being fulfilled in the new creation, because that's what all of those that city and that land was pointing to. And I don't think I'm pulling that from from just the sky. I think it's what the writer is saying. I think he's saying they're seeking a better country and a better land. That's that's what all of that was a counterpart for. He says in verse 16 at the end, that He has prepared for them a city. So that's what you want. You want that city. You want the heavenly city, the heavenly Jerusalem, the heavenly homeland, all of that. Now that doesn't mean there isn't a physical element to it because God's going to make all things new and the new creation will be a physical place. But as it is right now, we die and go to be with the Lord as Christians, and we don't have bodies in heaven, and it's not a physical place as it will be when God makes all things new and brings heaven to earth, raises the dead, new creation, and renewed cosmos. That's the hope, but again, when we die not having received it, the same thing that was true of those people is true for us. We will be people who die in faith. You want it said of you. This is what you would want in your obituary. This person died in faith. They were forward looking. They believed in God. They believed in what God had promised. They believed in His Son, Jesus Christ, that through Him and all that God had accomplished, God was going to bring that about. They died in faith. That's not A pithy generality that, eh, there could be better things said. That's an incredible thing to be said of someone. That they died in faith. They were exiles and they knew they were exiles. They knew they weren't home. They didn't live for this world. They weren't defined by this world. Their life was meant for something greater and something more and in a bigger story that God was telling. Abraham knew that. He had a sense, even as a patriarch and with his children and grandchildren, that they were part of something bigger. In verse 16, Therefore, because they had such desires, because they had such longings, listen to this, friends. Here's what is true for all the people of God when they are characterized by this kind of thing. God is not ashamed to be called their God. And that's a way of saying negatively what you can say positively this way. God is proud to be called their God. God is glad and feels that it is a positive thing to be associated with them. Now, how is He associated with them as their God? He was called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know, I mean, maybe it seems like it would be too far reaching to say the God of Chris and Mike and Evie and Ruth. Maybe it seems like, oh, but that's Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But see, these are models for us of what is true for the people of God when we are by faith. God is not ashamed to be called your God. You can say, He is my God, because I believe in Him, and I'm trusting in Him, and I'm trusting in His provision that He has given in Christ. And I'm looking forward, and I am gladly receiving from afar, eagerly, the promises He's made. And you need to know that over you it can be said that He is your God. Not just that He's God, that's true, but that He's your God. That He's your God. That's an amazing statement. So dying in faith, It said of them in verse 16, God is not ashamed to be called their God. And we know, it says here, He is explaining how we know He's not ashamed, because He's preparing for them a city. So God is at work preparing for them their dwelling place, which is a way of tying together the hope for a new creation, I think. In chapter 13, if you'll peek ahead for a moment, in chapter 13, it says in verse 14, here we have no lasting city. So there's that city language again. We have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. We seek the city that is to come. There is a permanent place to come. This is not a permanent situation. This world, Louisville as we know it, is not a permanent situation. That's a good thing, right? I mean, we don't want the broken, fallen world we're in to be something the writers look at and say, this is the lasting city. Welcome to the world. This is how it's going to be. The Bible says it's not how it's going to be. The things in this world and the promises God has made are signposts, and you've got to follow where they're leading, and they're leading to a city, and the people of God will find themselves at that gate, and they will be granted entrance into eternal life. In Hebrews 12, we'll see that we saw this a couple Sunday nights ago, in Hebrews 12, 22, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city, the heavenly Jerusalem, in a sense already, because we have access to the Father through Christ. And so in his presence, we've already drawn near. And we also at the same time seek the city that is to come because we want God's saving redemptive work and all of its fullness to come to pass. This means we are citizens and your citizenship in this city of Louisville is not the most important citizenship you have. Amen? Absolutely. Our citizenship is in heaven. And therefore, we can rightly identify ourselves as exiles who hopefully will die in faith. That's what we want. This was an exile who died in faith, believing that God was going to bring to pass what He had promised. What a wonderful thing to be said. What a wonderful thing to be said. There are irrelevant things that can be said about somebody after they pass away. What a wonderful thing to be said of someone. If you die, may it be that you die in faith, knowing your identity in this world as an exile, not home yet, but God will bring to pass what He has promised. this new Jerusalem, this heavenly homeland, this heavenly city. May we seek it. The writer wants the readers to be encouraged because, friends, in times of great trial and suffering, the writer wants his readers to zoom out a bit from their very confined situation, with the state of the health of their body, and the frustration of their family, and the difficulty of their job, and the frustration of life in general. And He wants them to zoom out and to recognize, all that I'm going through, what am I? I'm an exile. That's what I am. And I can't forget who I am in the midst of all of this. If I think I belong here, then my life as a believer will be characterized by misery, because if these things are what's going to define me, then what a terrible lot has been cast for us. But, if we are defined by what is not of this world, and if there are promises that have not yet come to pass, but that we can hope in, because our God will bring them to pass in Christ, then there are reasons to hope and there are reasons to endure and to be steadfast and to be faithful. And so the writer wants his readers to be encouraged in that. They should be like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They should look forward and they should wave from a distance. Hello, new creation. I know you're coming. It's like I already see you, you know. Hello, time where there will be no tears on my eyes and all things wiped away and all things become new. Hello, new world. We're to greet it from afar with zeal and faith, believing that it's going to come, for it will. God is preparing for you a city.