We Seek the Better Country - Pastor Tom Loghry
Christians are ultimately citizens of a better, heavenly country promised by God, not any earthly nation—so while we love and serve where we live, our deepest hope and allegiance belong to Christ's coming kingdom.
Transcript:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on Earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country-- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
Let us pray as we come before God's Word.
Dear Father, as we come before your word this morning, as we hear the testimony of the faith of those that have gone before us, we pray that the Holy Spirit would work within us so that we might share in their faith, so that we may share in their hope, and persevere in the way that they too have persevered.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. You may be seated.
As most everyone knows, the United States has been playing host for many of the games of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Playing host has not only brought foreign teams, but also their fans to our shores. So if you've been on social media at all, you know that many of these fans have been struck with awe by the many good things our country has to offer. Air conditioning, free refills, large portion sizes, and yes, also the friendly qualities of the American people, too. Amidst all the negativity that pours forth from our regular news cycle, these anecdotes remind us of how blessed we are to live in a country like the United States. Any time that I've gone overseas, I've always returned with a renewed sense of gratitude for being able to call this place my home.
In celebrating the 250th anniversary of this country's founding, we are reminded of our family histories and how we got to be in this country and call ourselves citizens of these United States. In my own case, a man named William Loghry and his wife, Nancy Purdy, emigrated from Northern Ireland to Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s. The family later moved to upstate New York, then Illinois, then South Dakota for several generations, until my grandfather bounced off the West Coast and sunk down his roots here in New England. That story, and the story of all who made their way in this country, is a story of pioneering. It's a story of seeking a better life, of seeking a better country, even long after our ancestors first arrived here.
Even if you have lived in one place for generations, there's a certain restlessness in our bones that seeks a better situation. We might call it especially American, but we could also just call it simply human. From one country to another, we all yearn for a better world. Some have believed we can perfect this world, and this belief has inspired some people to lead political revolutions in pursuit of utopia. To their credit, I don't think the American founders envisioned a utopia. They were not naive- they understood our sinful, selfish condition, which led them to desire an entire system of checks and balances. It's not the most efficient system of, of power. Monarchy, the rule of a king, is most efficient. But they set aside that vision of a perfect efficiency because they understood the reality of human brokenness, of corruption, a reality which extends to all earthly kings. They understood that even at our best, we cannot produce utopia. But we could have an improved political arrangement in the meantime.
But if we're honest with ourselves, our spirits sink at the thought of resigning ourselves to relative improvement, marginal gains, and temporary successes. That desire for something more abides within us. And so the question returns: Will the satisfaction of our desires come from ourselves or come from beyond ourselves? Both the Bible and our own experience teach us that it's foolish to trust in ourselves because we are, in fact, the problem. It begins with us. Instead, the Bible turns our gaze to God as the one who can save us from ourselves. The words of promise, spoken by the prophet Micah in Micah 4, resonate with us.
In that chapter, he talks about how all people are gonna be streaming to the mountain of God, streaming to God's presence. Of how swords are going to be beaten to plowshares, and spears are gonna be turned into pruning hooks, that there's going to be a real peace, a lasting peace. In Micah 4:4, he says, "Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken."
When we hear those words, there's something that resounds deep within us because we want that peace for ourselves. We want that better country. And we are not the first to desire it. And this takes us to our central passage this morning, Hebrews 11:13-16. Hebrews 11 is the New Testament's iconic passage about faith, in which the writer of Hebrews does a roll call of all the great figures of faith that are set before us in the Old Testament. He takes their example as being instructive for us. Verses 13 through 16 especially draw from the example of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm gonna read those verses once again for us. Hebrews 11:13-16. "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."
To grasp the full import of what is being said here in these verses, we have to remember the general story of, of these patriarchs, of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Jacob. We recall that God called Abraham out of his homeland, out of the city of Haran, with the promise that he would inherit a land for himself, that he would become a great nation, that through him the whole world would be blessed. And this is a promise that belonged not only to him, but to his family. It was a promise given to Sarah, and it was given to Isaac and to Jacob, his son and his, and his grandson. But when he was first called, Abraham and Sarah didn't have any children of their own. They were called to set forth in faith, and in time, the promised son, Isaac, was born to them.
But still they did not see all that God had promised to them. They were never able to permanently settle into the land. Their family was not as countless as the stars or the sand on the seashore. They still seemed quite small in the world. And ultimately, Jacob finds himself outside the land of Canaan, outside the land of promise, in the land of Egypt, and that's where he, he dies. And so God had given these, them these promises, and yet they had not been able to see them come to pass. But they were content to persevere. They were content to continue traveling onward as nomads in this world because they were looking forward to the fulfillment of God's promise, even if they would not see it in their immediate lifetime.
And in fact, what the writer of Hebrews here is saying is that they were actually longing for a better country than even that which their immediate descendants would eventually inherit in the land of Canaan. Verse 16 says, "Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." What they were desiring was nothing that they could construct themselves. It was nothing that they nor their descendants could bring about by the dint of their own efforts, by their own strength. It was something that could only be God-given, a heavenly country, a city prepared by God Himself. And we see Jesus speak in a similar manner in John 14, verses two through three, of this promised city of the, which is to come. Very often when we think about what is the hope of the Christian, we think in terms of us dying and going to heaven. But this is not the vision that is set forth in scripture. Rather, it is a vision of this city which is to come. And we see Jesus actually speaking along these lines, even though we, we so often easily miss it in this passage.
In John 14, verses two through three, he says, "My Father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you, you that I'm going to, there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." So we have this promise from Jesus to his disciples that he's going to go and prepare a place for his, for his disciples, for the believers. And then what does he say in verse three? That he's going to come back. He's going to come back and take us to be with Him.
So we see how everything is looking forward towards the return of Christ for the full realization of this, of this promise. And what we actually here, have depicted here is this, this kind of imagery of a bridegroom going to prepare a home for his bride, and then coming back for his bride to bring her into his home. What we're, what we are looking forward to, because it is not of this earth, is something which comes from heaven and which will actually transform the face of this Earth. It's something which will actually transform us. And so when we look at 1 Corinthians 15, the words of Paul kind of give us a, a point of reference in imagining what God has promised to us as far as the Earth is concerned, by reference to what he has promised concerning ourselves, our own bodies. In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 47 through 53, he says, "The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who, who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man." He's talking about Jesus here. "I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-- in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality."
What Paul is promising us here is that we are going to share in the resurrection of Christ. Jesus had raised people from the dead in the course of his ministry, but those people went on only to later die because they had not yet been transformed. The body with which Christ is raised is imperishable, and when he returns, we too shall be raised with the, with that same sort of body, body imperishable in nature, heavenly in origin. And so when we're talking about a heavenly country, when we are talking about the city of God, we can anticipate that that same sort of transformation is going to occur here on Earth. There is a continuity between what is now here and what is to come, where the, the Earth is not disappearing.
Recall what Jesus promises his, his disciples in his Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:5, he says, "Blessed are the meek." Now the meek are those that don't try to possess things from the, themselves by their own violent strength. He says, "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the Earth." It's a wild idea, 'cause usually it's only those who are violent and who am, and who are ambitious who take over the world for themselves. But what Jesus is promising here is that rather, those who are meek are going to inherit the Earth. And that promise is going to come to pass. The disciples of Christ truly will inherit the earth. And we see Jesus give promise of, of a sense of a real substantial inheritance which is to come. It's not all clouds and ethereal.
In, in, in Matthew 19 when his disciples, when, when Peter asks him, "What, what, what then will there be for us because we've left everything to follow you?" Jesus promises them in verse 29 of Matthew 19, he says, "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive 100 times as much and will inherit eternal life."
We know we don't receive all that in this, in this lifetime. There's more which is yet to come, and it will appear when that better country is revealed. What we are looking forward to is a better kingdom reigning here on Earth. In Daniel 7 verses 17 through 18, a passage filled with all kinds of apocalyptic imagery foretelling the future, it says, "The four great beasts are four kings that will rise from the earth. But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess, possess it forever-- yes, forever and ever."
Now, these kingdoms that this passage is talking about all occur on the face of the earth. What is being imagined here is that the Kingdom of God is going to come upon the earth, and we as members of that kingdom, as citizens of that kingdom, will come to possess it forever and ever. So there's continuity, but there is discontinuity. It's not the same earth, it's a new earth. In 2 Peter 3:13, the Apostle Peter says, "In keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells."
Well, among, besides anything else that you might imagine as, as to how the new earth might be different than the present earth, one thing is named here which is precisely different. In that new earth, righteousness will dwell across the face of the earth. True justice will be, will reign across the face of the earth. We don't see that today. Instead, we see sin and injustice thriving across the face of the earth. This will come about when Christ returns, when he comes for his bride. We see a fuller vision of this in Revelation 21, verses one through five. The Apostle John is shown this revelation, and he says, "I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth,' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.' He who was seated on the throne said, 'I'm making everything new.' Then he said, 'Write down, this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'"
When the new earth arrives, when the new earth comes, the old order of things passes away. Contained in the old order of things is is death, is pain, is sorrow, is sin. All these things pass away in the new world which is to come because God is making all things new. Yes, it is God who is making all things new. It is not us. It is not us who are going to be able to save this world. Going on into the next chapter, we see it emphasized that this life, this life in which we will share comes from God himself. It does not come from ourselves. God stands at the very center of everything.
In Revelation 22:1 it says, "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever."
All sorts of vivid image, imagery here. And again, we don't have to take it all at face value, but we should see its deeper meaning, which is meant to be communicated to us here, which is that we are going to live with God, that our life is gonna be drawn from him as we dwell together with him in his presence, that a curse is going to pass away, that everything will in fact be truly healed. There will need, there will be no need for any further supplements, no further programs, no further policies. Everything is going to be set right. The darkness is going to pass away. The light will reign. And so in anticipation of this promise, in anticipation of this better country, this perfect city which is to come, what we need to ask ourselves is how are we going to live today?
Now, the coming of that city, the come, the coming of the new heaven and the new earth brings with it, yes, judgment and destruction. It brings the exposure of, of all those who are standing in opposition to God. So in anticipation of that judgment which is to come and the promise which approaches with it, we ask ourselves, how do we live today in the midst of the imperfection, in the midst of the waiting?
The Apostle Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells."
So you see how you have an intermixture here of, yes, there is a destruction that is, that is coming, but that's not what we're looking forward to, except that it gives way to the new creation. We live holy and godly lives looking forward to the day of God and speeding its coming, urging that it would arrive because we are looking forward to this new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells. Like Abraham, like, like Sarah, like Isaac, like Jacob, like all of the Old Testament saints, we are called to seek this better country, to look forward to the day of God, and to live accordingly. If we are desiring a new earth in which righteousness dwells, shouldn't it certainly be the case that the righteousness of God dwells and reigns within each one of us? Shouldn't it, shouldn't, shouldn't it certainly be the case that righteousness dwells within the congregation of God's people? This is what it means to live towards that better country, towards the city of God.
And so it's in this sense then that we would say that we live as foreigners and strangers here on the earth just as the patriarchs did. They weren't setting down roots because they were seeking something better which is to come. And so too for ourselves, we do not put our trust, we do not set our hope on the things that this world can provide. Because none of them can give us what our heart is truly longing for. Now, we might ask then, does this then mean that we should live our lives kind of aloof, apathetic to the things going on around us? Does it mean that we should live with our head in the sand or in the clouds as, as it might be?
There's a common saying, an accusation really, against Christians that they're sometimes too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good. But any Christian of whom that might be said has truly misunderstood the life to which we've been called in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has not called us out of the world. We remain in it, and we are called to live in accordance with Christ's ways within the world. In John 17, verses 15 through 18, in His prayer for His discip- His disciples, in His prayer for us, Jesus says, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world."
Jesus says, "No, I want them to be in the world." I want, he wants every one, one of us to be involved in this world. But he does not want us to partake in the evil ways of this world. We should be like Christ, in the world but not of it. His prayer is that we would be sanctified, that we would be made into a holy people, and he prays that we would be sent into the world actually on mission. So not only is it that we are to be in the world, but we are to be in the world in a purposeful sort of way. And our purpose is this: is to make mankind ready for the coming of the Kingdom of God. That every man, woman, and child might hear the good news. That if they would turn to Christ in faith, they might have a better, might have a place in that better country.
Jesus is very clear in, in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. He says that we are to be the salt of the earth, that we are to be the light of the world, that we are to shine our light before others so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven and, and thus be drawn near to God in Christ. And so In the meantime, as we seek that better country, we nonetheless seek the good of the earthly city in which we live.
And we have this example for us in Jeremiah 29, in which the people of God, they've been sent into exile into Babylon because of their sinfulness. They, they've been removed from the promised land. And, and being removed from it, you might be led to think they could just do whatever they want or that they might be led into despair. But God sets a hope before them, and instruction, instructs them to do good, to seek good, even in the midst of Babylon, a city that was known for its waywardness and opposition to God. Jeremiah 29, verses fourth, four through seven, and then jumping to verses 10 through 11, it says, "This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 'Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.'
This is what the Lord says: 'When 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will come, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'"
Different circumstances, but the same promise applies to us today. We have a hope and a future that will be revealed at Christ's return that it outstrips anything that Babylon might give us. There is a better country coming, a perfect city, heavenly in origin, that will descend upon the earth. Christ's word to the church in the ancient city of Philadelphia speaks to us today as he says in Revelation 3, verses 11 and 12, "I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God, and I will also write on them my new name."
So yes, we, we live in Babylon, but we are not of Babylon. We look to Christ and to his kingdom, not to the crumbling citadels of this world. We are citizens of the United States, and as true patriots, we seek the peace and prosperity of our country. But America is not the ark of our salvation. America will not save the world. America is not the city of God. Those in Christ have a better citizenship. We who believe and belong to King Jesus have become citizens of God's kingdom.
This is why Jesus can say to us in Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." We mourn the present condition of our world, it grieves us. But we do not despair because we know we shall be comforted. Not with empty sentiments, not with sympathy cards and well wishes. We will be comforted because there's a better world approaching. Something real, something more real than anything we've ever known is coming. We will be comforted because each of us will sit under our own vine, under our own fig tree, and none will make us afraid. We will be columns in the house of God, he will write His name on us, he will ever be with us, and we will ever be with Him, and we will never again be separated from our Creator.
This is the hope. This is the hope which invites our faith in Christ- that we would persevere today, trusting in the reality of that which is to come, even while we do not yet see it with our own eyes. That we would follow in the footsteps, footsteps of Abraham, the father of faith, that we would walk in the way of Christ, the perfecter of faith, as it said in Hebrews 12, that we would follow the lead of the apostles and the generations of Christians who have come before us, who lived, suffered, and died trusting in this promise. If it's not real, they're all stupid fools. But if Christ rose from the dead, if we too shall be raised from the dead, if there is a better country that awaits us, then we best set our face like flint and press onward to the city of God. Yes, God bless America, stand beside her and guide her, but more than this, we cry, "Come, Lord Jesus." Come, Lord Jesus, bring heaven to earth. We seek the better country.
Let us pray.
Father We thank you for the many blessings you've given us, among them including this home that we have here in America.
But Father, even while we reside here, we know, Father, that we seek a more permanent home.
Father, we seek a better country.
Because we recognize, we confess that even the United States is just a city of the earth, broken and unable to bring about that perfect condition, the perfect life which we desire. Father, we thank you that your kingdom has come upon us. We thank you that you've sent your son, Jesus, to be our king, Father, we thank you that we have the hope of a better country which is to come. And so, Father, in light of these things for which we are thankful for, we pray that you would make us a people of faith who persevere, marching towards that promise, that we would not be distracted by the false promises of this world but that we would live towards that kingdom which is to come by being, becoming the righteous people you've redeemed us to be in Jesus Christ.
And so Father, we pray too that you might use us to be a light in a dark, in the darkness in the world as it is, that we might point others to this better country which is to come, so that they too may put faith in Christ and have a share in it. Father, be glorified in us today. And Father, we pray that Christ would come and that we would share very soon in that city which is promised.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we worship God and hear the preaching of his word. It's our joy to welcome you into our community
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)