Series: Secondhand Sermons
AKA: Hand-Me-Down Homilies
From: The Expositor’s Antique Shoppe
Sermon #2: Colonists in Christ
Introduction:
“The Colonies” and Colonial America
Planting the flag in the name of a King and/or Queen
Planting the flag on the moon
A colony on Mars?
Outline:
I. Our Identity
as Colonists in Christ
II. Our Residence
as Colonists in Christ
III. Our Mentality
as Colonists in Christ
Transition:
“Christians therefore are colonists, living in the dispersion
in this present world.”
— Geerhardus Vos, The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956; Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1998),
pg. 51.
I. Our Identity
as Colonists in Christ (Heb. 6:5; 9:11; 10:1; Phil. 3:20; Eph. 2:6; Gal. 1:4;
Rom. 12:2)
Heb. 6:5 — And have
tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Heb. 9:11 — But Christ
being come an
high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Heb. 10:1 — For the law
having a shadow
of good things to come, and
not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they
offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
1. Christians
as Eschatological Creatures
“…believers are in actual contact with the world to come
and its blessings. They are eschatological creatures….these good things to
come are regarded as realized by the death of Christ. The writer affirms this
not only in terms of time, but also in terms of place.”
—Vos, op. cit.,
pg. 50.
2. Christians as Colonists
“Christians therefore are colonists, living in the dispersion
in this present world.”
— Vos, op. cit., pg. 51.
Phil. 3:20 — For our conversation is
in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ:
Eph. 2:6 — And hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Gal. 1:4 — Who gave
himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world,
according to the will of God and our Father:
Compare the following:
1) The salt of the earth and
the light of the world —
Mt. 5:13-16 — Ye are the salt of
the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?
it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under
foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on
a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven.
2) Ambassadors for Christ
—
2 Cor. 5:20 — Now then we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in
Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Eph. 6:20 — For which I am an
ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
3) Strangers and pilgrims —
Heb. 11:13 — These all died in
faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
1 Pet. 2:11 — Dearly beloved, I
beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against the soul;
4) Strangers in a strange
land —
“Stranger in a Strange Land is
a 1961 science
fiction novel by
American author Robert
A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes
to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and
raised by Martians.
The novel explores his interaction with—and eventual transformation
of—terrestrial culture. The title is an allusion to the phrase in Exodus 2:22.
According to Heinlein, the novel's working title was The
Heretic. Several later editions of the book have promoted it as "The
most famous Science Fiction Novel ever written".”
“In 2012, the US Library
of Congress named
it one of 88 "Books that Shaped America".”[1]
Ex. 2:22 — And she bare him a son, and he called his name
Gershom:
for he said, I
have been a stranger in a strange land.
Ex. 18:3 — And her two sons; of which the name of the one
was Gershom;
for he said, I
have been an alien in a strange land:
3. Christians as Chronological
Phenomena
“The Christian therefore is a peculiar chronological phenomenon.”
— Ibid.
Rom. 12:2 — And be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
“To Paul, the death and resurrection of Christ are the
beginning of the world to come, and of the eschatological process.”
— Ibid.
II. Our Residence
as Colonists in Christ (Heb. 12:22)
Heb. 12:22 — But ye are
come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
“We miss the writer’s meaning of this if we regard this
as a mere metaphor. Christians are really in vital connection with the heavenly
world. It projects into their lives as a headland projects out into the ocean.”
— Ibid.
“And in the
second place the Christian virtue of patience is something that can spring only
from true vital connection with the spiritual heavenly world. It is something
entirely different from stoical apathy or resignation. If the Christian
patiently endures, it is because he sees the invisible; because there is a
counter-power, a counter-principle at work in his life which more than offsets
by the joy it creates, the pain of tribulation. This is naught else but the
power of the spiritual, heavenly world itself to which through faith he has
access. Although in one sense the inheritance of this world lies yet in the
future, yet in another sense it has already begun to be in principle realized
and become ours in actual possession. The two spheres of the earthly and the
heavenly life do not lie one above the other without touching at any point;
heaven with its gifts and powers and joys descends into our earthly experience like the headlands
of a great and marvelous continent projecting into the ocean.”
— Geerhardus Vos, “A Sermon on Hebrews 12:1-3” (delivered 6 APR 1902 at Princeton Theological
Seminary), Kerux 1:1 (MAY 1986), pp. 4-15; on Kerux at http://www.kerux.com/doc/0101A1.asp [accessed 28 AUG 2015].
III. Our Mentality
as Colonists in Christ (Heb. 13:14)
Rom. 12:2 — And be not
conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
“To Paul, the death and resurrection of Christ are the
beginning of the world to come, and of the eschatological process.”
— Vos, The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews, pg. 51.
Heb. 13:14 — For here
have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
“In principle, but in principle only, the coming age has
already arrived.”
— Op. cit., pg. 52.
“This may be called a semi-eschatological state of mind.
The chronological aspect of the new age is only expressive of intense
conviction of its reality on the part of the early Christians. We of the
present day, having lost the realism, have also lost the sense of the soonness
of its culmination. To be indifferent in regard to the time of this culmination
is to commit a chronological sin. The normal Christian state of mind
is to pray: “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”
— Op. cit., pg. 53.
[Sermon preached 30 AUG 2015 by Pastor John T. “Jack”
Jeffery at Wayside Gospel Chapel, Greentown, PA.]
Appendix: Resources by Geerhardus Vos on Hebrews
Geerhardus Vos, “Hebrews the Epistle of the Diatheke,” The
Princeton Theological Review 13:4
(OCT 1915), pp. 587-632; on Princeton
Theological Seminary at http://journals.ptsem.edu/id/BR1915134/dmd003
[accessed 28 AUG 2015]; reprinted in Geerhardus
Vos, Redemptive History and Biblical
Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos, ed. Richard B.
Gaffin, Jr. (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1980),
pp. 161-192.
Geerhardus Vos, “Hebrews the Epistle of the Diatheke,” The
Princeton Theological Review 14:1
(JAN 1916), pp. 1-61; on Princeton
Theological Seminary at
http://journals.ptsem.edu/id/BR1916141/dmd002
[accessed 28 AUG 2015]; reprinted in Geerhardus
Vos, Redemptive History and Biblical
Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos, ed. Richard B.
Gaffin, Jr. (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1980),
pp. 192-233.
Geerhardus Vos, “The Priesthood of Christ in the Epistle
to the Hebrews,” The
Princeton Theological Review 5:3
(JUL 1907), pp. 423-447; on Princeton
Theological Seminary at http://journals.ptsem.edu/id/BR190753/dmd004
[accessed 28 AUG 2015]; reprinted in Geerhardus
Vos, Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation:
The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos, ed. Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.
(Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1980), pp.
126-143.
Geerhardus Vos, “The Priesthood of Christ in the Epistle
to the Hebrews,” The
Princeton Theological Review 5:4
(OCT 1907), pp. 579-604; on Princeton
Theological Seminary at http://journals.ptsem.edu/id/BR190754/dmd003
[accessed 28 AUG 2015]; reprinted in Geerhardus
Vos, Redemptive History and Biblical
Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos, ed. Richard B.
Gaffin, Jr. (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1980),
pp. 143-160.
Geerhardus Vos, “A
Sermon on Hebrews 12:1-3” (delivered 6
APR 1902 at Princeton Theological Seminary), Kerux 1:1 (MAY 1986), pp.
4-15; on Kerux at http://www.kerux.com/doc/0101A1.asp [accessed 28 AUG 2015].
Geerhardus Vos, “A
Sermon on Hebrews 13:8” (delivered 11 JAN 1903 at Princeton Theological Seminary), Kerux 4:2 (SEP
1989), pp. 2-11; on Kerux at http://www.kerux.com/doc/0402A1.asp [accessed 28 AUG 2015].
Geerhardus Vos, The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956; Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1998).
See also the following works by Vos for further relevant
content:
Geerhardus Vos, The
Pauline Eschatology. (Princeton: Princeton University, 1930; reprinted
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952).
Geerhardus Vos, Grace
and Glory: Sermons Preached in the Chapel of Princeton Theological
Seminary, with Introduction by R. Scott Clark (Vestavia Hills, AL:
Solid Ground Christian Books, n.d.; from 1922 ed. by The Reformed Press, Grand
Rapids). This paperback
reprint is available on Solid
Ground Christian Books at http://www.solid-ground-books.com/detail_829.asp [accessed
9 FEB 2014].
The 1922 edition by
The Reformed Press is available online or as a digital download on Google
Books at http://books.google.com/books?id=Wm5GAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
[accessed 3 FEB 2014]; and on Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/graceglorysermon00vosg [9 OCT 2014].
A 1994 revised
print edition by The Banner of Truth (Carlisle, PA) is available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Grace-Glory-Geerhardus-Vos/dp/0851516637 [accessed 9 OCT 2014].
The Banner edition includes
all fifteen sermons printed individually in various editions of Kerux
at http://www.kerux.com/Author.asp?id=1 [accessed 9 OCT 2014].
End Notes:
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