City of Faith
Text: Hebrews 11:8-19
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, Utah
February 16, 2025
For the past six weeks we have been focusing on the life of Abraham. I hope you have learned more of who Abraham was. Maybe everything was new. Maybe you knew some things about Abraham but now see him better.
What a figure was Abraham! He is mentioned in 26 different books of the Bible. And though he is an Old Testmanet figure, Abraham’s name comes up 76 times in the New Testament.
God is sometimes identified by Abraham as in “the God of Abraham.” The Hebrews slaves are freed from Egypt because, it says in Exodus, God remembered his covenant to Abraham. Time and time again, it says, the Lord acts for Israel because he remembers the promise he made to Abraham. People prayed for Israel on behalf of God’s promises to Abraham. Mary, in her song and prayer when she is told she will give birth to the Son of God, speaks of God’s promise to Abraham. Matthew begins his Gospel by showing that Jesus descended from Abraham.
Jesus healed a woman who was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight and calls her a “daughter of Abraham.” Zacchaeus has a life-transforming experience when Jesus comes to his home and Jesus says that today salvation has come to that home because Zacchaeus too, is a son of Abraham.
Hope was kept alive because people banked on how God dealt with Abraham. Do you remember the promise God made, what is sometimes called Abrahamic Covenant? It starts the account of Abraham. It is in Genesis 12. The Lord says,
“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
And Abraham did go. And God did lead him. Sometimes Abraham did it well. Sometimes not so well. He kept faith in God but it wasn’t easy. God eventually gave Abraham and Sarah a child. God tested Abraham and Abraham showed his love for the Lord.
Sarah died and there is a whole chapter in Genesis on Abraham grieving her and burying her. Then Abraham finds a wife for his son, Isaac. And finally, Abraham dies. He is buried with Sarah.
But here’s the thing: Abraham never saw his descendants become like the stars in the sky. He never really settled down in his own land. He never saw that great nation.
The writer of Hebrews said Abraham went by faith, not knowing where he was going. He made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. But he – like Sarah, Isaac and Jacob after him – was still living by faith when he died. He did not receive the things promised. What?!
No, Abraham only saw and welcomed them from a distance. Abraham was called in faith, lived by faith, died by faith, never receiving it all.
And Hebrews says Abraham did this because he knew he was but a foreigner and stranger on this earth. This place was not his ultimate home. God’s blessing transcended the journey of faith on this earth. Abraham was looking for a better country than what he had here. Abraham was looking for “a heavenly one.”
It says, “For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” God has prepared a city for those who, like Abraham, walk with God by faith.
Abraham was a pioneer traveler. His journey required a deep trust in the One sending him. His life uprooted him and his family for generations. Abraham was never really at home but was a stranger, a foreigner. He was dependent on God. He was always moving forward. But he died in faith without having seen the promise. Tom Long, one of my old seminary professors who wrote and preached on this asked, “Is this just a story of faithful people who journeyed in faith but never got to their destination?”
In the New Testament letter 1 Peter, Peter calls Christians foreigners and exiles on this earth. This isn’t our ultimate home. No, we who walk by faith in Jesus Christ know this is not our home. Don’t we remember that every time we stand by the graveside? We are here for a time but not forever. Where is forever?
If you don’t like wars and planes crashing and hunger and people being treated terribly and school shootings and arrogant world leaders and divisive politics and loved ones dying and suffering it’s because this is not ultimately our home. Even though we also know many good and blessed things here, all we know here will pass away.
But “we have a God who keeps promises, a God who sent another pilgrim, the heavenly Son, whose journey of faith led him into the valley of human suffering into the place where Abraham and all who share his hope” walk through before coming to the end of our road…In Jesus the journey is complete.
Everyone who turns to God in faith is on a walk of faith. The Apostle Paul makes it a point in some of his letters that all who walk by faith with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ are sons and daughters of Abraham. He writes in Galatians that God “redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” A life with God now and forever.
New Testament faith says that if we want to see what was really promised to Abraham, we have to look to Jesus. All those promises are fulfilled in him.
The writer of Hebrews says Abraham was looking forward to a city whose builder and architect is God, meaning it is a city designed by the working of God. What of this city? It is heaven. The kingdom of God. It is the place where all who have lived this life by faith will be gathered to God to be with God.
That’s the way it is pictured in the book of Revelation. Listen:
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
That was what Abraham was looking toward. That is what everyone who comes after him is looking toward. Ultimately everything we know here will be gone and all that will be is the city of God.
There was a day when people thought about heaven more than we do now. They were more accepting of death and that our lives here are not forever. People talked about heaven as a way of keeping hope. We sang hymns about it. Believers sought it.
But we don’t always hear as much about the hope of heaven. Maybe the comforts and riches of our present lives have blocked and deadened our vision.
It is true that we can become too focused on heaven at the expense of ignoring the great needs of the present. God does not want us to just sit and wait for the future, but pay attention to how God’s love can be shown in this world now. We are to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God, loving and serving others in our daily lives. We don’t step away from this world just because it is temporary. We care for it and do the good works of faith while we are in it.
But let’s never forget that, again, this is not our ultimate home.
We are all just travelers right now. There is a greater destination. We see it by faith. In that great hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” we sing “And Lord haste the day when the faith will be sight.” Someday what we only know now by faith will be tangible to our eyes. But not now and not yet.
One time Jesus said, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” A feast with Abraham in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus pointed people to what will come beyond this world. Be clear: he didn’t ever preach escape from this world or not living responsible lives of faith here. But he very much held before everyone the life to come.
When John the Baptist showed up in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming of Jesus, many people came to him. He warned that people can’t presume to be children of Abraham. He preached that God could take rocks and make people children of Abraham. He as speaking primarily to those of Israel. Then John said that what God wants is lives that produce fruit – lives that show the things of the Lord.
Those who are children of Abraham, who walk by faith in God, show it with their lives. Like a fruit tree that has fruit on it, so the person of faith in God has love, goodness, and grace in their lives.
Like Abraham and Sarah we are longing for a better country. I love Utah. I love so much of my life. I am blessed by God’s goodness in many ways. But there is also pain, frustration, and so many things that are wrong. And praise be to Jesus that this isn’t all there is or the last stop.
Abraham and Sarah and others learned to look beyond death for a larger fulfillment than that which their own lifetime and earthly experience could afford. They came to realize that this life is not an end in itself but a pilgrimage towards a heavenly goal beyond it.
So keep walking. Keep believing. Keep praying. Keep serving. Keep loving. Keep forgiving. Keep getting back up. It’s all part of going forward in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are on our way. We are not perfect. Our lives of faith are not perfect. As we travel there will be bumpy spots, detours, some uphill spots and some downhill places. Parts will be smooth and some rocky.
When we get frustrated remember this is not our home. Tears, pain and suffering tell us we are not made for this. It is for now and we need to do what we can to make this life livable for all. But a city awaits.
And the more we seek God, the less we will feel comfortable here. We will always know there is a place where who we were made to be and what God has always wanted will be fulfilled.
The point of Abraham’s story is not Abraham. The point of Abraham’s life is God. We are called by the same God. We follow the same God, the God of Abraham. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God who promised he would bless all nations through the people who came from Abraham. And while that people came to be Israel the Apostle Paul reminds us that all those who live in faith are the people of Abraham. That being the people of Abraham is not by birth but by faith, with hearts circumcised to love God.
And the God of Abraham came to us in Jesus Christ, who said before Abraham even was “I am.” Yes, the pre-existent eternal Son of God was with the Father even before Abraham came to be.
And now we continue to walk by faith looking to him, with one eye on our steps in this world but the other eye on the city to come, whose builder and designer is God.
Prayer: God of Abraham and Sarah, thank you that when our life on this earth is down we have an eternal home with you, a city not made by human hands. We long for the peace, love and rest we will know then. But until then help us to live lives that honor you here.