We Seek Our Permanent City Series

I. EXORDIUM:

Do you desire to live in Jerusalem some day?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show that GOD has prepared both an eternal body and eternal place for us to be with Him in eternity.

IV. TEXT:

Hebrews 13:14 (Amplified Bible)

13:14 For here we have no permanent city, but we are looking for the one which is to come.

V. THESIS:

Praise, worship and thank You very much LORD JESUS because You have prepared an eternal place and eternal body for us to stay for eternity with You.

VI. TITLE:

We seek our permanent city

Subtitle: Study on the Book of Hebrews

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Date of writing: Before AD. 70

B. Style of writing: Best Greek style

C. Authorship: Not specific, but generally attributed to Apostle Paul. Can be also ascribed to Barnabas, Luke, Apollos

D. Audience: Hebrew Christians

E. Theme: Christ is superior to the prophets; Christ is superior to angels - J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible

F. Purpose: The chief doctrinal purpose of the writer was to show the transcendent glory of the Christian dispensation, as compared with that of the Old Testament.Thompson Chain - Bible Book Outlines

VIII. MAIN BODY:

Motivational:

Colossians 3:1-3 (Amplified Bible)

3:1 IF THEN you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

3:2 And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.

3:3 For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.

1 Peter 4:7 (Amplified Bible)

4:7 But the end and culmination of all things has now come near; keep sound minded and self-restrained and alert therefore for [the practice of] prayer.

2 Peter 3:13-14 (Amplified Bible)

3:13 But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness (uprightness, freedom from sin, and right standing with God) is to abide.

3:14 So, beloved, since you are expecting these things, be eager to be found by Him [at His coming] without spot or blemish and at peace [in serene confidence, free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts].

A. Here on earth is not our permanent city

"For here we have no permanent city,"

Hebrews 4:9 (Amplified Bible)

4:9 So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God;

Example of Abraham:

1. By faith he dwelt as a temporary resident

2. In a strange country

3. He lived in tents with Isaac and Jacob

4. He was waiting, looking forward to that city

5. He know this permanent city has GOD as Architect and Builder

Hebrews 11:9-10 (Amplified Bible)

11:9 [Prompted] by faith he dwelt as a temporary resident in the land which was designated in the promise [of God, though he was like a stranger] in a strange country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs with him of the same promise.

11:10 For he was [waiting expectantly and confidently] looking forward to the city which has fixed and firm foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God.

Hebrews 11:12-16 (Amplified Bible)

11:12 So from one man, though he was physically as good as dead, there have sprung descendants whose number is as the stars of heaven and as countless as the innumerable sands on the seashore.

11:13 These people all died controlled and sustained by their faith, but not having received the tangible fulfillment of [God’s] promises, only having seen it and greeted it from a great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth.

11:14 Now those people who talk as they did show plainly that they are in search of a fatherland (their own country).

11:15 If they had been thinking with [homesick] remembrance of that country from which they were emigrants, they would have found constant opportunity to return to it.

11:16 But the truth is that they were yearning for and aspiring to a better and more desirable country, that is, a heavenly [one]. For that reason God is not ashamed to be called their God [even to be surnamed their God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob], for He has prepared a city for them.

We, sometimes, complain at places where we live and we complain with neighbors, people around us, environment and the way how things are working in our city. We have good news from GOD, this is not our permanent city, we live here partially the eternal life GOD has given us, then we live it all out in the permanent city: Jerusalem where we will stay for eternity with GOD.