Hebrews 11 - The Path of the Pilgrim

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Hebrews 11 - The Path of the Pilgrim

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Hebrews 11 - The Path of the Pilgrim

MP4 Video - 720p (92.84 MB)
MP3 Audio (1.35 MB)
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A pilgrim is one who never arrives and is always moving toward a destination... the Kingdom of God.

Transcript

 

[Darris McNeely] When you hear the word pilgrim, what do you think? Turkeys? Thanksgiving? People with kind of black and white garb on and a kind of a pointy type hat? Well, the Bible talks about pilgrims in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. It comes to a point in the story, the narrative here, where it describes these people, Abraham, Noah, Sarah, and others, as people it says in verse 13, "Who all died in faith not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" (Hebrews 11:13).

Pilgrims are those people who are always on a destination. They're always moving toward something. And they really never stop in their path, in their journey. The way God talks about it here in Hebrews 11, they are looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. It goes on to say that, "Those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out they would've had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them" (Hebrews 11:14-16).

These individuals, and any who take up the calling of God and begin to move toward the Kingdom of God, are described in the Bible like these as pilgrims. Always on a journey. Strangers in their time. Strangers in their own setting at home in the land in which they are calling. This is not our ultimate destination, this life. This life is a preparation. It is a journey through which we are moving toward God's Kingdom.

It is that hope, it is that promise of a future, a better city, and a better place, which is God's Kingdom that is described here toward which we are always moving. And it's when we adopt and understand that to our life today that we begin to really have a framework in which we live. And recognize all that we might have to deal with as strangers: upsets, trials, some of the afflictions that come, and even, yes, as it says here death, death without having fully achieved those promises, but having seen them a far off, and dying in faith and embracing those and confessing that we really understand our life and our calling at this time.

To be a pilgrim, that is what God has called us to, that is faith. This is a movement that it ultimately takes us to God's Kingdom.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.