Hebrews: End-times Exhortation for a Pilgrim People

Dear Church Family,

Our present Sunday morning sermon series is entitled “Hebrews: End-times Exhortation.” In the first introductory sermon, I explained the meaning and reason behind this title. In case you missed it, or by way or reminder, here’s where the title of the sermon series comes from.

A Brief Word of Exhortation (Hebrews 13:22)

Technically, the book of Hebrews is an epistle, a letter written most likely to Jewish Christians living in or around Jerusalem. Yet, the letter to the Hebrews may also be classified as a sermon because the author follows a basic pattern of most sermons. He quotes the Old Testament, interprets it, applies it, and then exhorts his readers to believe or behave accordingly.

In fact, in the final verses of the letter, this is the way the writer of Hebrews describes what he has written: “But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly” (Hebrews 13:22). The author of Hebrews calls what he’s written a brief “word of exhortation” for how Christians ought to believe and behave as Christians in the new covenant.

These Last Days (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Next, consider the first two verses of this letter (Hebrews 1:1-2):

¹ God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
² in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

That phrase in verse two – “these last days” – is a somewhat technical phrase taken from the Old Testament and then employed in the New Testament to speak of the eschaton (e.g., Hosea 3:5; Micah 4:1; Ezekiel 38:16; James 5:3; 2 Peter 3:3). The English word “eschaton” means the final events in the divine plan, or the end of the world. We have another English word like it: eschatology, or the study of the last days. In the Greek, that phrase in verse 2 is literally, in these “eschaton” days.

Here’s why that’s important: the author of this book is giving us – in this letter – a word of exhortation as to how Christians ought to believe and behave in the end-times, or the last days.

The Church as a Pilgrim People

One of the major themes of the book of Hebrews is the author’s insistence that God’s people, the church in the new covenant, consider themselves to be on a pilgrimage. This world is not our home. We have already come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22), and we are looking forward to the future consummation of the kingdom of God when Christ returns.

Consider the example of Abraham (Hebrews 11:9-10):

⁹ By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
¹⁰ for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

God actually brought Abraham to the land that He had promised him. Yet, by faith Abraham, who was already living in the Promised Land, recognized that the Promised Land was not ultimately what God was talking about. Abraham didn’t get to the promised land, settle down, and then say, “This is it. This is our final destination. This is what God promised to us. OK, let’s set about making this place to look more like heaven!” No, while living in the Promised Land, Abraham lived in tents and lived like an alien and a foreigner because he was looking for that heavenly city which is not of this world, that city which only God could build.

This understanding that believers are simply sojourners in this world is reinforced a few verses later in this same chapter (Hebrews 11:13-16):

¹³ All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
¹⁴ For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
¹⁵ And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.
¹⁶ But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

All these examples of faith (i.e., Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob) thought of themselves as strangers and exiles on the earth. They recognized that the Promised Land was not the fulfillment of what God had promised. This is the kind of language that the New Testament writers use to speak of the present situation of the church in the new covenant as well. For example, Peter refers to Christians living in the new covenant as “aliens and strangers” who are looking forward to Christ’s second coming, the “day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:11-12).

Conclusion

O. Palmer Robertson wonderfully ties together these themes as he summarizes the teaching of Hebrews, specifically with respect to how Christians ought to understand our present pilgrimage:

“If the church of today could grasp the eschatological nature of its present pilgrimage, it could be saved from many current disillusionments. Bodily health and material wealth, an abundance of creaturely comforts, should not be the promise held out to believers today. Escape from troubles and troublous times should not be the church’s expectation. To the contrary, the spoiling of material goods along with the society’s rejection that leads to a life ‘outside the camp’ should be openly presented as the norm for the disciples of Jesus. At the same time, the simplified philosophy of ‘pie in the sky bye and bye’ cannot properly represent the Christian’s perspective on the present life. Instead, currently living out life within the inner chamber of God’s Most Holy Place, constantly communing intimately with the three persons of the one triune God, fellowshipping in daily life and worship with the loving brotherhood, while all the time anticipating the final rest, perfection and realization of consummate hope – these are only a few of the elements that describe the eschatological lifestyle of believers in Jesus Christ. As the church of today discovers its true identity as God’s People in the Wilderness, she may find the fullness of life that only the Christ of God can give” (O. Palmer Robertson, God’s People in the Wilderness: The Church in Hebrews (Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 2009), 112).

The Lord be with you!
Pastor Peter M. Dietsch