[To download the sermon, right-click on this link and select "Save As": A Letter to the Exiles - Seek the City to Come]

REVIEW:
Seek the gospel (think gospel, think Kingdom, think Kingdom, think King)
Seek future generations
Seek the city…by engaging and enlarging our spheres of influence,
We’re seeking New life for the Oldest City
not seeking to change the city, not take it over

But to faithfully live and serve in such a way that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Finally and ultimately, we’re called to seek the city TO COME

Follow up:

READ Jer 29:10-14

Setting our sights on the Heavenly City, Kingdom
Setting our hearts on our Heavenly King

Being HERE and not HOME requires
Hope-filled Endurance
Longing Labor

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Though the people are in exile, Jer 29 is laced with words of hope and promise

“a hope and a future” really means “a hopefilled end.”
That God not only had plans for the exiles, but BIG plans
True blessing awaits

Restore your fortunes
Gather you
Bring you back to the place from where you were exiled: Jerusalem

And the Israelites took this as not only a return home
And not just a return to the glory days
But it sounds as if the long awaited Kingdom of Promise might be right around the corner!

Remember what had God promised the people of Israel
to make them a great nation
to give them a king
to give them an inheritance
give them a Land

In many ways, their identity as a people was wrapped up in Jerusalem
And so they held out Jerusalem as the great destination

>>>>>>>>>>>

“Mockumentary” Waiting for Guffman > The city of Blaine, celebrating their 150th birthday.
High school drama coach writes a musical for the celebration, that chronicles how the intrepid explorer Blaine Fabin (town’s namesake), led the people to the Westward.

And the actors are portraying the settlers arriving at what would be Blaine, and their trusted explorer reporting to them that his nose was twitching with the smell of salt air.

The he welcomes everyone to California, and they begin a hoe-down dance where the girls sing “take yer fella by the hand, welcome him to the Promised Land.”

One problem: the city of Blaine is in Missouri…it’s not even half-way to their destination.

>>>>>>>>>>>

The Israelites will find much the same to be true of them

They get back to Jerusalem as promised, released under Cyrus King of Persia?

Ezra 3 rebuilding the temple, laying the foundation
All shouted with a great joy, b/c the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid (3:11)

3:12 but the old men who had seen the first temple, the temple of Solomon, (OLD, more than 70 y.o.) they wept with a loud voice, so that the people could not distinguish b/w the shouts of joy and weeping

Contrast here b/w joyful shouts and weeping

Many were shouting “this is IT!”
While others were crying “this is … disappointing!!!
This doesn’t measure up!!!
What of the promise of God?
What of the glory and splendor of the Kingdom?

They had returned to the land, but not to a Kingdom!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Prophecy: a (or many) near fulfillment and an ultimate, far fulfillment

These words look to taking the people back to Jerusalem, but ALSO FAR beyond that as well.

This can cause a couple of opposing reactions:
We get too overheated, as if what’s going on around us is the end all.

Or we are at risk of being undone, despairing that the promises of God are failing
Things don’t turn out as we expected or hoped!
In our own lives or the lives of those we know and love

A call to seek the city that is to come leaves us in this tension of what is NOW and
what is NOT YET
There’s this simultaneous rejoicing for what is NOW,
and weeping for what is NOT YET
This tension only heightens with Jesus:
Jesus has inaugurated the kingdom, he’s started the Kingdom, begun the kingdom,
Mt 12:28 If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom has come upon you

but we don’t see a completed kingdom
Heb 2:8 “at present we do not see everything subject to him”

And so you have the Corinthians living this crazy life as if the rez HAD happened not just to Jesus but to them… everything is permissible, we’ve been freed from sin in this rez life!

And you get the Thessalonians down and depressed b/c they think they’ve somehow missed out on what Jesus is doing, fearful that the rez will never happen!

One (Corinthians) is living TOO MUCH in the NOT YET
The other (Thessalonians) NOT living enough in the power of the NOW

But we’re called to live in the NOW in anticipation of the NOT YET
Endurance for the NOW, Hope of the NOT YET
Laboring in the NOW, Longing for the NOT YET

>>>>>>>>>>>

One incredible passage that illustrates this is Colossians 3

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that “someone is so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good.” Can actually be the case?

READ 3:1-17 selected

Can you see that what starts out as heavenly mindedness, seeking the city that is to come, is of incredible worldly good?

AND will radically determine how you live in the here and now!?!?

your life is hidden in Christ
Safe, secure, protected IN CHRIST

Then you are to clothe yourself IN CHRIST
You are to live a Christ-like life

We call this holiness
A life set apart for God, by his grace and in His power

Desire for holiness, not simply happiness
These are not mutually exclusive
We’re so keyed into thinking that a holy life is somehow a ruinous, unjoyful, repressed life…when in fact to live set apart for God, holy, is the most fulfilling life you can possibly live

>>>>>>>>>>>

Such verses don’t just call our eyes heavenward, but our hearts to focus on God
We’re to seek with our hearts our heavenly King

What (WHO) were the exiles suppose to SEEK with their whole heart? Jer 29:13

Jer 29 fulfillment and expansion of Dt 4:27-30

We often lose sight of the Kingdom b/c we’ve lost sight of the King!
I think this was a dilemma with the Israelites as well
They had the land, they had the temple
But they didn’t have the King

>>>>>>>>>>>

We have a King! And so we have to ask ourselves about what or who we are seeking

Is it God that we’re seeking? Or some benefit of him?

There are many today who are so focused on getting “their best life now”
Whether that’s THE land, the temple, success, wealth

So fixed on the Kingdom particulars that the King doesn’t seem to factor in

John Piper et al: “if you could have heaven and all that it is, but God would not be there, would you still want it?”

God is what makes heaven, heaven

Remember, the Kingdom is NOTHING if the King isn’t EVERYTHING

If we remember this, we’ll keep in mind that the city that we’re being called to,
the Kingdom that we are a part of, is ultimately NOT of this world.

There are outposts, there are glimmers, there are foretastes, there are teasers
But the hope and the future and the plans that God has for us are not ultimately OF this world.

>>>>>>>>>>

The faithful saints of the OT were NOT looking to the earthly Jerusalem as their hope and future

The NT interprets the OT

READ Heb 11:8-9
Abraham was called out to an inheritance, and went and lived in the land of promise. But is THAT what he was looking for? NO

READ Heb 11:13-16

Seeking the city to comes calls us to a life of faith
What is faith? READ Heb 11:1

We will NOT receive the things promised in this life and on this earth
b/c what is promised cannot be contained in this life nor in this earth

Keep 1st things 1st: we must be God-centered in our seeking of the city to come
Not place centered, not experience centered, not anchored to the tangible and visible

We have the fulfillment and perfection of what was promised:
READ Heb 11:40 … we have JESUS

>>>>>>>>>>>
In Jesus, as we seek the city to come, there are some things we require:

HOPEFUL ENDURANCE: The city to come is NOT YET

Jer 29 … 70 yrs: (also mentioned in 25:12) … That’s a long time

Many who heard these words would not live to see them fulfilled
Those who did live would have a long haul to endure, as captive people

Seeking the city to come is an endeavor FOR a lifetime

Seeking the gospel and seeking the city can leave you tapped out
Sometimes you stop and ask “what good are we doing? Is there really any change, is there any use, is there any difference?

Is there any change in ME?!?!

You have to set your sights on the Promised END and your heart on the Promiser

Swimmer (Randy Alcorn’s book “Heaven”) Florence Chadwick in 1952
Swimming from Catalina Island to mainland
Swam for 15 hours, begged to be pulled out

If I could have only seen the shore…swimmer within ½ mile

Fix the eyes of your heart on Jesus, who for the joy set before Him ENDURED

Heb 12:1-2

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We need this Hope-filled Endurance, b/c we’re called to a life of fruitful labor

Our culture calls us to give up and cash in our chips
It calls us to seek our rest here and now

Retirement communities: The Villages
Work less, retire early … for my enjoyment now
But there is a joy set before us, a joy far greater yet to come

Talking to one man who has labored hard all of his life
“thinking about retirement?”
“I’ll retire when I die!”

Our rest is NOT here b/c our home is not here! Our resting place is not here.

Life is a vapor (Ps 90:9, Jm 4:14): fleeting, here and then gone

Ps 39:4,12 make me know my end … for I am a sojourner

Gal 6:9 let us not grow weary of doing good, we will reap if we do not give up

>>>>>>>>>>>>

Let it drive you to seek out and know the promises of God and the heart of God:

How many of you have been away from a loved one, receiving letters
They don’t get one read and tossed away

You find yourself reading and rereading those letters with greater and greater anticipation of your reunion

So too see God’s word as letters He has written to draw our eyes to heaven and hearts to Him

Daniel did this (Dan 9)
He did some research, 70 years about up, and prayed for fulfillment:

What did his search of the Word reveal
1. Showed: GOD’s greatness, awesomeness, covenant keeping, steadfast love,
righteousness, mercy, forgiveness, deliverance, who brought his
people out of the land of Egypt

2. Led to Confession: OUR sin, wrong, wickedness, rebellion, turning away (9:5)
Not listened, treacherous, disobedience, transgressed your law, refused to obey your voice.

9:13 in the calamity and curse of exile, they needed to “entreat the favor of the LORD our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth.”

As we endure in hope and labor in longing, we need to be repenting and believing:

9:18-19 “We do not present our plea b/c of our righteousness, but b/c of your great mercy. O Lord, hear and forgive, O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, b/c your city and your people are called by your name.”

>>>>>>>>>>>

Asked the question a while back: how strange and alien are you?
Are you living like a stranger in a strange land?

Are you longing for a better country, a heavenly one?

While we’re in this tension of the NOW and the NOT YET
Set your sights on heaven and your hearts on the LORD

READ 13:12-14
Jesus calls us outside the camp, outside of earthly protection, acceptance, standards and hopes, to find all in Him

13:14 for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come!

So, with hopeful endurance and longing labor, let’s set our sights on the city to come, and our hearts on the King, Jesus.