Pastor: Pastor Horton

Date: August 10, 2025

Passage: Hebrews 11:1–3,8–16

Three summers ago we began to receive the first images from the James Webb telescope.  It is unique because it’s in orbit and therefore free from earth’s atmospheric interferences.  And what has this powerful telescope been able to see?  Hundreds of billions of stars both, for the lack of better terminology, being born and passing away, massive black holes, and galaxies even beyond where human science assumed to be the border of the big bang.  This telescope has allowed us to look forward through traveling light years, and see the illuminated expanses of the created universe.  We’re told today that “By faith we know that the universe was created by God’s word.”  It’s humbling to look forward through the cosmos and to be able to see what God has done. 

The people of the Hebrews were being asked to look forward as well.  They didn’t have a telescope, but rather they had the inspired word of God, which was more powerful and more useful when it came to their salvation.  They were to fix their eyes on Christ by faith, and look forward to salvation won through Jesus alone.  And yet we’re told: that came with hardships for them.  Because they had an Old Testament way of life with its regulations and cultural heritage and family traditions all attached to the past.  To look forward instead to all that they had in Jesus was a much needed reminder.

In this famous chapter from Hebrews 11, the listeners are asked to consider the founding father of their people, Abraham, as he looked forward by faith.  There must have been hardships for Abraham as well.  After all, as the reader was reminded, his family and his heritage was not that of a native believer from Israel, but rather he was the son of Terah from a place called Ur, beyond the Euphrates River.  His religion?  The family already had at least one.  Scripture tells us that his father’s house already had “other gods.”  And his wealth?  He had earthly means and didn’t need to relocate or restart or rebuild his life.  To ask Abraham to blindly go wherever God would send him and become a tent-living traveler and stranger and foreigner in the land?  That’s a big request!  I may have been tempted to say “no thank you, I’m okay right where I am.  I know what I have here and it’s a lot, but out there, who’s to say?”

And yet marvel at our words for today, “By faith Abraham obeyed.  By faith he lived as a stranger in the Promised Land, as if it did not belong to him, dwelling in tents along with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”  Home, as he knew it was no longer behind him, but ahead of him in heaven.  Home in heaven wasn’t going to be temporary or transient – as if it’s something one hopes for one day and gone the next.  No!  Home in heaven was secure in the promise of his coming Savior.

And did you notice that these timeless truths were passed on to the future generations in his family?  Promises echoed to Isaac and Jacob and later Joseph and beyond.  God had Abraham look forward by faith and see that his wife would conceive at an old age.  “Impossible!” shouts human reasoning, for this senior citizen and his barren wife!  But not impossible when it comes to God.  Abraham “considered him (God) faithful who made the promise.”  And from God’s faithfulness in fulfilling the fullness of that promise came a numerous people, and a spiritual Israel as vast and diverse as the galaxies in the sky (you are part of that promise fulfilled), and that promise included a Savior for the world.  That’s an impressive sequence of fulfilled events illustrating God’s faithfulness – all in that promise made to a man who was “as good as dead” and standing under the starry sky.

We find in those early patriarchs people whose faith continued to look forward to their heavenly home.  Far from perfect people they lived in a far from perfect world with sin and died.  “One by one, all of these died in faith, without having received the things that were promised, but they saw and welcomed them from a distance.  They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth….Instead, they were longing for a better land—a heavenly one.”  We have the same God they do, and the same Word full of truth, and are given faith like they were.  But what about those days when I feel like my faith can’t compare to theirs?   

What exactly is this faith given by God?  Faith is not merely a human hope or a human feeling.  As in “I have faith that the Brewers win the World Series since they have the best record in baseball and swept the Dodgers twice.”  That kind of faith is based upon my wants and wishes.  Faith, as described in the Bible, is far better than that.  Faith is assurance in God’s Word as the Holy Spirit has converted your heart and drawn you closer to Jesus through the saving gospel.  Faith is trust and confidence that God is and will work all things out for the eternal good of his children.  And faith is based securely upon Christ Jesus, who is today risen, living, ascended, and in total control of all things and who dwells actively in your heart.  This is faith according to Scripture, a gift from God graciously given to you and to me and to Abraham.  And faith points our focus forward and to Jesus and throws wide open the promise of heaven.

There with God in heaven is that “better land” the early believers longed for.  There is the goal of our faith.  There is an eternal country beyond our best dreams.  The leader there is never corrupt or tyrannical, but selfless in serving and providing for all our needs.  There our enemies have no voice – fear and sorrow gone forever.  There in that land exists the very best health plan where we will be completely free from sin and death and all that disturbs the body, mind, and heart.  There in that heavenly land, constructed by God with you in mind, we will have perfect relief, perfect contentment, perfect stability, perfect joy, and perfect love.  This is what the believers of old, by faith, “saw and welcomed from a distance” and is ours through Jesus.

Like those Hebrew believers we need that constant reminder to look through the lens of the Word at what is coming through Christ.  How often do we try to convince ourselves that we can have that better land right here and now apart from Christ by thinking, “if only that family or financial situation was fixed, or I have that new job or new relationship, or the country improves – then everything will suddenly be better!”  Maybe sometimes better, but not perfect.  And we become so earthly minded that we forget where our true home is and where our true treasure is.  Pastor Lauersdorf, the People’s Bible commentator, wrote beautifully, “‘I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home,’ we love to sing, but in life’s reality it is often so different. “Eyes that should be raised heavenward are riveted on earth.  Feet which should be marching toward Canaan’s shores are mired in earth’s swamps.  Hands that should be reaching for eternal treasures are wrapped around gaudy marbles.  Backs that should be straining in effort for the kingdom are bent over in valueless pursuit of earthly wealth and gain.”  And yet try as we might, this place will never be our real home.  The gift of faith in Jesus helps you and I to look forward.

By faith Abraham and the fellow believers, our brothers and sisters in the Old Testament recognized this fact. They lived in mobile tents and in earthly bodies.  These men and women passed away without receiving the Promised Land and without meeting the Savior.  Yet they died knowing he would come to earth, knowing he would die and rise for them.  Why?  Because God is faithful.  That’s why the author says, “Faith is being sure about what we hope for, being convinced about things we do not see.  For by this faith the ancients were commended in Scripture.”  And there the Bible, in both Old Testament and New, Jesus is held up, who is the foundation of our faith.

Consider all that your God-given faith sees and knows.  Faith sees Christ lying in a manger.  Faith sees Jesus living a sin-free life in your place.  Faith sees Jesus being heavenly-minded all the time – he even speaks that way: “the kingdom of heaven/God is like, I want to be with my Father, etc.”  Our heavenly-minded Savior set the wants of the world aside, he went to the cross to win forgiveness for you before God, he gave you his perfect life, he covered you in his righteousness like a glorious dress, and he rose from the grave so that heavenly land is yours one day.  That is what our faith sees and believes.  Like Abraham, faith sees a glorious heaven and looks forward to it.  Faith understands that in this day of grace, we have work to do in sharing Jesus, and yet faith also longs for that day when we will pass over the threshold of death to life, and say, “Thank you, Jesus, I’m finally home.”

Dear brothers and sisters, as you take that final summer camping trip, or find yourself under a starry sky, remember God’s promises to Abraham.  We have a God who is faithful, we can do the impossible, and who gives us a faith to hear, believe, and rejoice in his promises.  Press on, share the good news with those inside and outside your home, and keep your eyes on the coming Christ.  The good land and heavenly home awaits.  And by faith we look forward.  Amen.