“Pilgrims and Strangers”

Hebrews 11:13 NKJV “These 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.”

One of the greatest hardships in sharing the gospel today is that we have a particular mindset about Jesus, the church, and sharing the gospel. We want everything laid out perfectly, cut and dried, and are set on the idea that the bigger you are the better you are. Just look at the theology of today that is being preached from our pulpits.

We have specialized the church to such a degree that Jesus probably would not recognize many today if He were invited to speak. Somehow or someway we have got to get back to believing and living like the Bible says as “pilgrims and strangers just passing through this weary land.”

A pilgrim according to Webster is “one who journeys in foreign lands.” Sadly many believers in our culture have become natives of this present world and love it. The eternal perspective of the believer has been replaced by a temporal one. Our love for the good life has obscured any dream of a better place because we have forgotten Philippians 1:21“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

When you study the lives of those in Scripture you will find they were on a pilgrimage to a better place, not just in theory but in practice as well.

-In Psalm 23:6b David said “And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

-In Hebrews 11:26 it was said of Moses “…esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”

-Daniel 3:16-18 “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

(1) Look at the story of Abraham!

-He was obedient to the call of God.
Hebrews 11:8-10 “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

-He believed the promises of God.

Romans 4:20-22 “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

-He never got comfortable with the philosophy of his day.

Hebrews 11:17-19 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”

 (2) We are a different breed.

2 Timothy 1:12 “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.”

Can the world look at us today and say, “Now there’s a different breed?” There was a time in the early church when the lost world was deeply impacted by the lives of Christians. But does the contemporary world view us in that way”

(3) The gospel of Christ is still the message  of hope for our world.                                   
-We cannot be ashamed of the message of Christ.                                          

Romans 1:16, 17 NKJV “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”


CEV “I am proud of the good news! It is God's powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith. It is just as the Scriptures say, "The people God accepts because of their faith will live."

-We cannot be ashamed of where we are going.                                                   

Hebrews 11:15, 16 NKJV “And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have 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.”

-We cannot be ashamed of who we are as believers.                                                 
1 Peter 4:15-17 NKJV “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”