Lane Fusilier - Musings of a PastModernist

Gaining Joy Like Abraham

2009-04-26T18:56:00.000-05:00

Abraham’s Life Summarized: A Call To Joy

We conclude our study of Abraham’s life today…
Heb. 13:7 ¶ Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.
Psa. 102:18 ¶ This will be written for the generation to come,
That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.

Piper: God ordains that we gaze on his glory, dimly mirrored in the ministry of his flawed servants. He intends for us to consider their lives and peer through the imperfections of their faith and behold the beauty of God. [p. 17; Legacy of Sovereign Joy, 2000]
If we grasp the faith of Abraham, we may taste the joy he knew.

Joy: how do we get there?

I. Abraham’s story of joy…warts and all:
1. His first crisis: he left the land of promise, to which God had directed him.
2. His first words, revealing his character:
Gen. 12:13 “Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I may live on account of you.”
3. His first error, he repeated later, as if he had learned nothing.
Gen 20—deceived Abimelech, king of Gerar, in the same sort of way,
4. He passed on this pattern to his son, Isaac, who repeated his failure in Gerar.
Gen. 26
5. His evaluation in Romans and Hebrews, however, is surprisingly affirming.
a. Gen. 15:6 Remember the startling statement
Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

b. Romans 4
i. Rom. 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham Believed God, And It Was Credited To Him As Righteousness.”
ii. Rom. 4:12 and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.
iii. Rom. 4:13 ¶ For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.
iv. Rom. 4:16 ¶ For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham,
v. Rom. 4:17 (as it is written, “A Father Of Many Nations Have I Made You”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.
vi. Rom. 4:23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, Rom. 4:24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Rom. 4:25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.

c. Hebrews 11
i. Key verse: Heb. 11:13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
ii. Heb. 11:39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, Heb. 11:40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

6. Ultimately, he received the son of promise, though he did not live in the city with foundations, the same city we seek.
a. Isaac brought true laughter to the couple and grandchildren to the family.

What sort of means might we find to OBTAIN JOY OUT OF SORROW?
II. We obtain joy just as those who have gone before us.
Follow the lessons Augustine learned:
i. Love first then obey: John 14:15
1. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
2. If you love me, THEN you will obey, “keeping Christ’s commandments results from loving Christ (Piper).
ii. Love to the point of ease in obedience. 1 John 5:3
1. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
2. Piper: loving God means keeping his commandments in such a way that his commandments are not burdensome.
iii. Love God for His own sake.
1. “I call ‘charity’ [i.e., love for God] the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for his own sake, and the enjoyment of one’s self and of one’s neighbour for the sake of God.” [On Christian Doctrine, III, x, 16].
2. “If those things delight us which serve our advancement towards God, that is due not to our own whim or industry or meritorious works, but to the inspiration of God and to the grace which he bestows.”
3. Piper: So saving grace, converting grace, in Augustine’s view, is God’s giving us a sovereign joy in God that triumphs over all other joys and therefore sways the will.
4. Piper: The will is free to move toward whatever it delights in most fully, but it is not within the power of our will to determine what that sovereign joy will be.
5. LOVE GOD BY THE LOVE GOD GIVES US: Rom. 5:5 …and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6. If we do not respond to that implanted love, we have replaced it.

APPLICATIONS
1. Prayer in the pursuit of Joy.
a. Every sentence in Augustine’s Confessions, all 350 pages, is addressed to God. …Augustine is utterly dependent on God for the awakening of love to God.
Psa. 27:4 One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple.

John 16:24 “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

[It’s not merely to answer that brings us joy, IT’S THE DIRECT CONNECT WITH JESUS—as we know from writing letters, texting messages, then having someone RESPOND IN KIND.

b. On Confessions: “You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace till they rest in you.”

2. Study of Scripture in the pursuit of Joy
“…loving, or delighting in, what we know of God in Scripture will be the key that opens Scripture further. So study and preaching were, for Augustine, anything but detached and impartial, as scholarship is so often conceived today.” Piper, Legacy of Sovereign Joy, 69.

3. Enjoying the beauty of the world as a means of pursuing joy:
BETROTHED = PROMISED IN MARRIAGE, ENGAGED

“Suppose…a man should make a ring for his betrothed, and she should love the ring more wholeheartedly than the betroth who made it for her…Certainly, let her love his gift: but, if she should say, “The ring is enough. I do not want to see his face again: what would we say of her? …The pledge is given her by the betrothed just that, in his pledge, he himself may be loved. God, then, has given you all these things. Love Him who made them.”

Psa. 16:11 You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Sarah's Contagious Laughter

2009-04-26T07:23:00.000-05:00

Sarah’s Contagious Laughter

Intro—Laughter—not something we associate with Church, or …with God!
I hope today that God laughs out of joy and that we are made to laugh as well.

SUMMARY:
IN our present story, God hears a different sort to laughter from Abraham and Sarah, a laughter that VEILS TEARS.
Sara and Abraham laugh not because they are full of joy and delight, but because they are childless; the promises of God to make Abraham the father of many people have exaggerated their despair. Perhaps it might have been easier to accept their barrenness had God not spoken so certainly about their prospects for parenting.

However, God does not leave Abraham and Sarai in despair…

God transforms sorrow into joy, working His good intentions through the lives of real people, even those without faith(!).

I. God honoured his promises to Abraham.

II. Cynical laughter was changed into joy.
a. God is a God of joy.
i. God laughs.
1. Sarcastically—Psalm 2—“the nations plot against ME?”
2. Joyfully—Behold my Son, in whom I am well-pleased

ii. God stimulates joy and laughter in us.
Psa. 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
b. God worked in Abraham and Sarah to transform their sorrow into joy.
i. Abraham laughed at God’s promise.
1. Abraham believed God early on.
p. 10 Gen. 15:6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

2. Abraham lost heart after 24 years of waiting.
p. 11 Gen. 17:17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

3. Abraham did have faith.
a. He believed God’s promise.
b. He followed God to a new land and lived there as an alien.
c. He lost faith over time.
d. He regained his faith after Isaac’s birth, such that he was able to trust God to raise Isaac up.

p. 924 Heb. 11:8 ¶ By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Heb. 11:9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
Heb. 11:10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Heb. 11:17 ¶ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; Heb. 11:18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac Your Descendants Shall Be Called.”
Heb. 11:19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
4. Abraham’s faith waned over time, much time.

ii. Sarah had no faith; her pain had drained it away.
1. Evidenced by her cynical laughter:

p. 12 Gen. 18:12 Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

Cynical laughter is a veil for tears.
Cynical laughter happens when the tears are exhausted, when hope is dashed, after despair has set in.

Wikipedia: Bono's lyrics evoke helplessness and frustration:
“Running To Stand Still” Bono: “cry without weeping,
talk without speaking,
scream without raising your voice”

Sarah did not believe that God would fulfill His promise to be good to them.

LESSON--we must believe that GOD HAS GOOD PURPOSES FOR US, ESPECIALLY IN THE STORMS OF LIFE.
Sarah had no faith; her pain had drained it away.
Evidenced by her cynical laughter:

2. Evidenced by her lack of laughter:
a. No laughter left in their marriage.
b. No physical intimacy?
Gen. 18:12 Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

THEN…
3. God heard Sarah and Challenged her cynical laughter:
a. God challenged the cynicism.
b. God challenged the false laughter because He is a God of genuine pleasure and laughter.
Gen. 18:13 And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’
Gen. 18:14 “Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

iii. Sarah responded with some faith.
1. Hearing with faith was needed to experience conception…

Gen. 18:15 Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

2. Sarah believed God’s promise…
a. We know that because Hebrews says so.
Hebrews 11:11 By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.
b. We know that because she conceived the promised child

3. Sarah laughed again, transparently.
4. Sarah had a contagious kind of laughter.
Sarah wanted to share her joy with others.
p. 14 Gen. 21:6 Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
Sara understood little of the purposes of God swirling around her.
Sara’s anguish then Joy transforms US as we hear of it.

5. They name their son…Isaac = He laughs!
a. The Laughing Son
b. The Essence of Joy

Lessons:
1. We experience sorrow because…
a. We live in a broken world that brings us sorrow.
b. We are broken, which causes pain for those around us.
c. We break people and things, causing sorrow.
Therefore, We should not be surprised at sorrow, even long-term.

2. We worship a Laughing God.
a. God is pleased with His Son:
Matt. 3:17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said,
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Matt. 12:18 “Behold, My Servant Whom I Have Chosen;
My Beloved In Whom My Soul is Well-pleased;
I Will Put My Spirit Upon Him,
And He Shall Proclaim Justice To The Gentiles.

b. We can please God, we can bring God to laughter:
Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Heb. 13:16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

3. We can expect God to transform our sorrow into joy, if we are His.
a. God turns sorrow into joy in people whom He loves.
b. Does God love us?
c. Do we believe that He does?

4. Joy and tears happen simultaneously.

5. We can expect God’s joy if we are awaiting & fulfilling His good purposes.
a. God transforms circumstances in people whose purposes are His purposes.
b. God will create a world without tears, but we do not yet live in that world, that world where heaven and earth are intimately connected.
c. God only uses barren people, husbands and wives such as Abraham and Sarah, so that He receives glory for the offspring.
d. God worked in and through Sarah.
Another BARREN ONE lived a difficult life, died an ignominious death, left this life Bereft of offspring, Yet, for the JOY SET BEFORE HIM, ENDURE THE CROSS; His catastrophic end became the reason for our HOPE; His joy in US became our reason for joy.

6. We don’t laugh enough. We might laugh more if we knew the lengths to which God works daily in our lives to provide his good gifts, just in time.

a. He did provide Seed, giving us reason to hope.
b. God works in and through us…
i. To nurture Christ-like character.
ii. To reproduce according to His kind.
iii. To bring JOY to others as they see our anguish and relief.
iv. Romans 4—reason to laugh: We are no longer under the wrath of God.

CONCLUSION
Intro—quads laughing
Those babies laughed in response to their father and their dad enjoyed their laughter as much or more than they did.

REVIEW:
1. Sarai’s problem: no children and no prospects; she was without hope.
a. BARRENNESS AS CENTRAL to the story.
Waltke: Sarai is barren; she has no children (11:30)

Gen. 18:11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age;
Sarah was past childbearing.

b. Brueggemann: barrenness in any ancient text is the metaphor for HOPELESSNESS.

2. God’s exceptional blessings benefit ONLY the barren woman.
a. Abraham and Sarah
b. Rebekah and Isaac
Gen. 25:21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.
c. Rachel and Jacob
Gen. 29:31 ¶ Now the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
d. Hannah, mother of Samuel
e. Samson’s parents, Manoah and Zorah
Judg. 13:2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children.
f. Elizabeth and Zechariah
Luke 1:7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.

Abraham's Faith Extended in Prayer

2009-02-22T15:13:00.001-05:00

Abraham’s Prayer For The City

Series Theme: We participate in God’s covenant with Abraham by faith, as we respond to the divine call, are tested by God, enjoy His guidance, and enjoy the rewards of faith fulfilled in a transformed world.

2/8 Abram’s call and My Call
God called Abram to leave his family for the promise of a new and greater family, to leave his land for the promise of a new and greater land, to leave his lifeless gods to walk with the one, true God.

2/15 Abram’s faith stretched: a new family, a new land READ: Genesis 12:1-13:1
a. Abram & Jesus—called, tested, guided, rewarded
b. I am called by God: to a new family, a new home, a new vocation

Today…2/22 Abram’s Faith extended: a Prayer for the City, Gen. 12, 18:16-33
We pray most effectively when we approach God with his own words, appealing to his own attributes, seeking the extension of his righteousness to the unrighteous.

A. Abraham encountered challenges living in the Land of Promise that only God could resolve.
1. Abraham was charged to exhibit his faith, to enjoy the blessings of God’s promises to him, by living in righteousness and pursuing justice.
a. The unconditional promises of God to Abraham were also conditional in experience—God asked righteousness and justice from Abraham!
b. Abraham heard the outcry of Sodom and Gommorah, and knew that God heard as well.
c. God said within Abraham’s hearing: “shall I hide what I am about to do to Sodom & Gomorrah from Abraham, when I have covenanted with him to extend righteousness and justice to the earth? (this would require that)

Gen. 18:19 “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”
Gen. 18:20 And the Lord said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.

2. Abraham expressed faith in God by praying to God in response to God’s own statements.
Gen. 18:17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
GOD’S WORDS STIMULATED ABRAHAM’S PRAYER.
Would God have asked if he should tell Abraham if he didn’t intend to tell Abraham?

3. Abraham’s faith led him to boldly approach God for the preservation of the city.
a. Abraham challenged God to act righteously, appealing to His attributes, his character: 18:25
Gen. 18:25 “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
b. Abraham approached God humbly:

Gen. 18:27 And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.

c. Abraham prayed in line with God’s mission—
we pray to enhance our strength, have our needs met, etc.
Abraham is using his connection to God to pray for those in Sodom, victims of violent injustice. Poor people are being trampled in Sodom; urban society oppressing the marginal and the poor. God hears and responds. Abraham knows how wicked they are: he asks to spare/forgive them! His relatives are there, yes. But if he only wanted that, he would have asked to spare the kinsmen only. He prays that the wicked city would be spared, blessed, forgiven, pardoned.

Abraham encountered challenges living in the Land of Promise that only God could resolve.
We face people and circumstances that only God can transform.

B. Abraham prayed in this way because he understood God’s character.
1. Abraham focused on the attributes of God.
Gen. 18:25 “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Justice!
Grace! Gen. 18:19 “For I have chosen him,
God loves the undeserving.
2. Abraham took the next step of grace and understood that God would NOT only NOT condemn the righteous along with the unrighteous…

3. …but He might agree to spare the unrighteous because of the righteous.

a. In effect, condemning the righteous because they are in the city with the unrighteous would mean that unrighteousness is IMPUTED to the righteous.
The guilt of the many can be imputed to the few.

b. NOW, Abraham is asking for the reverse.
IMPUTE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE FEW TO THE MANY.

In one of the most shocking accounts in history…
c. God agrees.

Gen. 18:24 “Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?

Abraham encountered challenges living in the Land of Promise that only God could resolve.
We face people and circumstances that only God can transform.

Abraham prayed in this way because he understood God’s character.
We pray most effectively when we approach God with his own words, appealing to his own attributes, seeking the extension of his righteousness to the unrighteous.

C. We can pray as Abraham prayed.
1. Prayer is our response to what God does, what God says.
2. God is so much greater than we are, yet he forgives us.
3. Being good is not the key to answered prayer, or to divine intervention.
i. NOT: the good are God’s; the bad people are sent to hell.
ii. RATHER: all who will ADMIT they are evil are ready for Grace; the proud are without hope.
4. The Gospel helps us recognize evil, and simultaneously desire good for our entire city.

Keller: Many centuries later, someone came along who could walk this pathway …, who was righteous enough to transfer righteousness and spare the city.
Jesus took the divine wrath upon himself!
Jesus gave his life, praying for people who WERE killing him! “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Jesus took the divine wrath of cosmic justice into his own self.
God said that HE would accept the righteousness of one person for the many, if it were THAT man (Jesus).

APPLICATION:
a. Would you forgive the unrighteousness of the many for the righteousness of a few?
b. Fewer?
c. Very few?

Gospel: 10’
1. Abraham approaches God to deal for the imputation of righteousness to the many.
a. Approached as if in a court of law.
Nagash—a commoner approaching an exalted person with respect
AN enemy approaching for battle;
A defense attorney approaching the judge with a case.

b. Forgive the many for the righteousness of the few.
TWOT-- Yet clear examples of approaching God the judge are evidenced, i.e. coming into a courtroom prepared to argue a case (Gen 18:23).
This image of a courtroom is used forcibly by the prophet Isaiah to call Israel and the nations into account (Isa 41:1, 21; 45:20–21). The servant of the Lord boldly proclaims God as his advocate before his enemies. He has no fear of being proven wrong (50:8).
Note courtroom context!!

c. God accepted the concept of transference of righteousness.
d. God held out for the ONE Righteous human whose purity could be imputed.
2. Advocacy is key:
a. Abraham advocated for Sodom and Gomorrah
b. Jesus advocates for us daily, asking that the ONE death be accepted as sufficient for each person.
1John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
Heb. 7:25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

c. We advocate for our unrighteous neighbours.
i. We acknowledge that evil is real.
ii. We approach God over the evil around us.
iii. We humbly acknowledge our part in the evil. 18:27: “dust and ashes”
iv. We advocate for the imputation of righteousness to our evil neighbours.

APPLICATION:
Are my prayers like this?
Am I controlled by love for the people I don’t like?
How do I respond to the evil folk around me? In the next neighbourhood?
Can I pray for their forgiveness? Approaching Easter, this seems essential.
Jesus, the antidote to divine justice and wrath.

3/1 Sarai’s barrenness, Gen. 11
Series Theme: We participate in God’s covenant with Abraham by faith, as we respond to the divine call, are tested by God, enjoy His guidance, and enjoy the rewards of faith fulfilled in a transformed world.
Sarai’s barrenness was central to the story of Genesis:

Abraham's Faith Stretched

2009-02-22T15:10:00.001-05:00

Abraham's Faith Stretched!

2/8 Abram’s call and My Call
Why????? WHAT IS MY CALL? HOW CAN I ACKNOWLEDGE DIVINE PURPOSE IN MY LIFE??? HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT I AM FOLLOWING CHRIST AND NOT MERELY MY OWN IMPULSES?
God calls me in similar ways: I am called to love Christ more than I love all my relatives and friends, to live in anticipation of a new creation, and to worship God by enjoying Him forever.
God calls us in these ways: as a faith community, as the global body of Christ…
We leave behind what is comfortable for the sake of a new and greater family, a new and greater land, a new way of relating to the One Who made us.

2/15 Abram’s faith stretched: a new family, a new land READ: Genesis 12:1-13:1
Series Theme: We participate in God’s covenant with Abraham by faith, as we respond to the divine call, are tested by God, enjoy His guidance, and enjoy the rewards of faith fulfilled in a transformed world.
God’s call contains seven (i.e., the symbolic number of completeness) elements:
1. I will make you into a great nation’
2. I will bless you
3. I will make your name great
4. you will be a blessing
5. I will bless those who bless you
6. whoever curses you I will curse
7. all peoples on earth will be blessed through you (in the favored seventh position)

I. Abram was called to a new land, given a new family
a. Abram & Jesus—called, tested, guided, rewarded
i. Abram was called, as summarized.
God called Abram to leave his family for the promise of a new and greater family, to leave his land for the promise of a new and greater land, to leave his lifeless gods to walk with the one, true God.

ii. Jesus was called, anointed for his work by the Spirit.
Psa. 2:7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
b. I am called by God: to a new family, a new home, a new vocation

Abraham was called and we are called. RECOGNIZE? RESPOND!

II. Abram was tested by the call
a. Testing by the call to leave home, by the failure of crops in the new land, by the wait for the promise, etc. He failed the test of truthfulness when his first words were to coach Sarai to lie to the Egyptians (we often find ourselves challenged to bend the rules when we find ourselves in places we shouldn’t be).
b. Jesus was tested by Satan in the wilderness, by the many acts of obedience, by the cup of death on the Cross.
c. I am tested by the call to love Christ above all others, to treasure His companionship above my longings for all other friendships,
Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

d. I am tested by the call to love my neighbour as myself.
e. I am tested by the call to “make something of the world,” to its restoration to the Garden.
f. I am tested by the nature of my call:
i. I am called to walk with God—I will have a growing hunger for conversation with Him, by His Word, by prayer, by His Spirit.
ii. I am called to be a part of a larger family, in some ways alien to my nuclear family.
iii. I am called to make something of the world:
1. To preserve it, restore it, improve it.
g. I am tested and sifted for motives. WHO NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED? Doesn’t God know?
Abraham was called and we are called.
Abraham was tested and we are tested. Recognize the TEST? Embrace the TEST!
Savour the goodness of God toward you…Rom. 8:28—good life, health, work, friends,
Rom. 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Recognize none of these? [“Relative deprivation”] Take a trip with me!

III. Abram was guided…
a. Abram experienced the guidance of a good God.
i. He was guided to a new land.
ii. He was guided through that land, boundary to boundary.
iii. When he left the land out of fear and sought refuge in Egypt, Sarai was guarded from Pharoah and Abram was guided back home.
iv. To the rescue of Lot
v. To the resolution of the Ishmael conundrum.
b. I can experience the guidance of God.
i. I am guided by the Spirit as I look to the HS for strength and control (Eph. 5:18).
Eph. 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
Col. 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
ii. By my life choices, understanding my spiritual gifting and potential impact on the Body of Christ.
iii. Of a mate—more when we get to Isaac!
iv. Of a vocation.
v. Of A family of disciples.

Abraham was called and we are called.
Abraham was tested and we are tested.
Abraham was guided and we are guided. Recognize? Respond!!
Col. 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you
IV. Abram was rewarded…
a. Abram experienced the goodness of God in his lifetime.
i. With a son(s).
ii. With many offspring
iii. With the Seed (Jesus—Gal. 3:16)
Gal. 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

b. I enjoy the reward of God.
i. I enjoy Him and his goodness directly.
Psa. 34:8 O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

ii. I find nourishment and delight in His Word.
Psa. 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

iii. I find rest in Him and from Him.
Matt. 11:28-29 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and You Will Find Rest For Your Souls.

iv. I am rewarded by the call with enjoyment of
1. fresh fruit (Gal. 5:23),
2. new fruit (John 15), and
3. new hope (trust that God will be faithful to me at the end of days as he has been yesterday and today).

v. In the future, I will be welcomed into His presence without fear, to walk with Him and work for Him in a new earth, merged with heaven.
Abraham was called and we are called.
Abraham was tested and we are tested.
Abraham was guided and we are guided.
So, WAS Abraham rewarded?

Keller—“Abraham left but never arrived. Never sees it. Lives his entire life in the gap between vision and reality.”

Abram & me—called, tested, guided, rewarded

Recognize YOUR Reward???

GOSPEL Jesus had a call:
HE Left security in his father’s house, without knowing what it was like in the depths.
He lost his father ‘My God, my God, why hast thy forsaken Me?’ so we could gain His Father.

2/22 Abram’s Faith extended: a Prayer for the City, Gen. 12, 18:16-33

Abraham's Family of Faith 8 Feb 09

2009-02-22T15:09:00.001-05:00

Abraham’s Family/Abram’s Call

Why this story matters to us:
1. Abraham is referenced some 70 times in the NT!
2. Abraham is labeled the means of blessing to the whole world; that would include us AND our neighbours and relatives.
3. “Like Noah before him, is a second Adam figure.
a. Adam was given the garden of Eden: Abraham is promised the land of Canaan.
b. God told Adam to be fruitful and multiply: Abraham is promised descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven.
c. God walked with Adam in Eden: Abram was told to walk before God.
d. In this way the advent of Abraham is seen as the answer to the problems set out in Genesis 1-11: through him all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Gordon Wenham
4. We are said to be ‘grafted-into’ the lineage of Abraham, made to be his family.

Rom. 11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

5. Abraham was called by God to be the father of blessing to the whole world. We, too, are called.

Rom. 8:28 ¶ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Rom. 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
Rom. 8:30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

This is individual.
a. We are called individually by God into faith.
i. No call; no faith!
ii. No faith; no life, no belonging, no mandate.
b. We are grafted into Abraham’s lineage, a part of the whole.
c. We have our joy enhanced when we share life together…

John Piper: “our joy in all that God is for us increases when it expands into the lives of others”

WE ARE BOTH DISTINCTIVE INDIVIDUALS AND PARTS OF THE WHOLE.
I am Abraham’s son.
I am God’s means of delivery for blessing to the world.
Start school tomorrow morning with that in mind and see what happens!

This raises more questions than it answers…
The Call—leave the land of Ur/Babel; WHENCE?
The Land—never owned land to live on; WHEN?
The Son—but they were too old to conceive; HOW?
The Sacrifice—the son of promise was to be offered?! WHY?

I believe that his life is a magnificent story of God’s personal intervention, divine rescue, and infusion of character and faith.
Abraham is no hero. His faults and failures are all too real, too transparent. But, when Abraham heard God’s promises and believed Him, God launched a work in Abraham that has the globe still vibrating.

The story begins…as a story of family, “the generations”…
Gen. 5:1 ¶ This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
Gen. 6:9 ¶ These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.
Gen. 10:1 ¶ Now these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood.
Gen. 11:10 ¶ These are the records of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood;

Gen. 11:27 ¶ Now these are the records of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran; and Haran became the father of Lot.
Gen. 11:28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Gen. 11:29 Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah.
Gen. 11:30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.
Gen. 11:31 ¶ Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there.
Gen. 12:1 ¶ Now the Lord said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
Gen. 12:2 And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
Gen. 12:3 And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Gen. 12:4 ¶ So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Gen. 12:5 Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.
Gen. 12:6 Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land.
Gen. 12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.
Gen. 12:8 Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.
Gen. 12:9 Abram journeyed on, continuing toward the Negev.

“go”—12:1,4
“bless”—five times: vv 2-3
“land”—seven times: 11:31; 12:1, 5b, 5c, 6a, 6b, 7
“built an altar”—12:7b, 8b and again in 13:18

CONTEXT EXPLAINS THE NARRATIVE:
1. Adam & Eve thrived then crashed in the perfect Garden.
2. Their offspring became so brutally violent that God FLOODED THE WORLD to end the madness, saving only Noah and his family.
3. The Eden mandate was repeated, but Noah’s offspring refused, settling in Babel rather than multiplying in order to cover the earth as managers.

Now, generations later, Abram lives in Ur: 140 miles south of Babylon, between Baghdad and the head of the Persian Gulf; Sumerian, third millennium.
Worse, he is married and childless.
Gen. 11:30 Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Waltke: Sarai’s barrenness is the centerpiece of the story in Chapter 11…

A Introduction: Terah and his offspring (11:27)
B The family lives in Ur of the Childeans; Haran dies (11:28)
C Abraham takes Sarai as his wife; Nahor marries Milcah, whose father is Haran (11:29)
X Sarai is barren; she has no children (11:30)
C’ Terah takes (laqah) Abraham, along with Abraham’s wife Sarai and Lot, whose father is Haran (11:31a)
B’ The family leaves Ur of the Chaldeans and settles in Haran (11:31b)
A’ Conclusion: summary of Terah’s life; his death (11:32)

Keller Genesis 11—the race is spiraling down
One ray of hope in 9-11, a single family tree, the family of Seth
Seth called on the name of the Lord—true worship
Terah = moon; Ur was the center of lunar worship
The last family who knew anything about God disappeared.
Joshua 24—your forefathers lived beyond the river and worshiped other gods

Not only has the last family who knew about God lost its knowledge, but it is also about to physically disappear as well.
Garrett
The theme of God’s purposes overcoming symbolic barrenness (see 54:1) recurs with Rebekkah (Gen. 25:21), Rachel (29:31) and Hannah (I Sam. 1:2) and it foreshadows the virgin birth (Luke 1:26-38). All these women actively commit themselves to God’s grace.

This is a DOUBLE DISASTER: out of place, out of potency.
God waited until the crushing weight was felt fully.
God intervened with a call that required faith.
Abraham “amened” God.
God rewarded Abraham’s faith with blessing.
God promised Abraham.

APPLICATIONS:
a. Adam was given the garden of Eden: Abraham is promised the land of Canaan.
i. WE ARE GIVEN THE EARTH TO CARE FOR.
b. God told Adam to be fruitful and multiply: Abraham is promised descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven.
i. WE ARE TOLD TO MAKE DISCIPLES OF JESUS AND FILL THE EARTH WITH GODLY OFFSPRING.
c. God walked with Adam in Eden: Abram was told to walk before God.
i. WE ARE PROMISED THAT GOD WILL GUIDE OUR STEPS.
d. In this way the advent of Abraham is seen as the answer to the problems set out in Genesis 1-11: through him all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Gordon Wenham
i. WE ARE THE ANSWER TO THE PROBLEMS OF THE WORLD

Keller: The call reshapes so that you ask, ‘where can I most be a blessing.’
Live for the blessing of others and I will bless you.
Don’t wait until you have completed your coursework; found the ideal job; achieved promotion to a safe position…

Garrett: The Gospel of Abraham
The hope of Abraham and of the nations for salvation depends on God fulfilling his promises to give a son (Gen. 15:1-6; Luke 2:28-32). To that end, the births of both Isaac and Jesus are miraculous (Gen. 17:15-18; 18:12-14; Matt. 1:18-25). Paradoxically, however, both sons have to die and be raised from the dead before they can fulfill their missions: Isaac typically, Jesus Christ literally (Heb. 11:19).

Miroslav Vulf: “the courage to break his cultural ties was the original Abrahamic revolution. Christians depart from their original culture. Christians can never first of all be Asians or Americans or Russians or Tutsis and then Christians. Christians are Christians first. Christians take a distance from the gods of their own cultures and because they give their first allegiance to the God of all cultures and his promised future.…But, Now in Christ, departure is no longer a spatial category. It takes place within the cultural space one inhabits. It involves neither a modern attempt to build a new heaven out of the world. Nor a postmodern restlessness that fears to arrive anywhere. When Christians respond to the call of the Gospel, they put one foot outside their culture while the other remains firmly planted in it. Christian’s distance is not flight from one’s original culture but a new way of living in it because of a new vision of peace and joy they have in Christ.”

Abraham had to live out of faith in the arrival of a son.
Isaac points us to the real Son.

Keller: Jesus got a call:
Leave your father’s house.
Left ultimate security
Left not knowing where he was going: into the abyss
He lost his father so we could gain his father.
‘My God, my God, why hast thy forsaken Me?’

Praying The Purposes of God

2009-01-13T22:20:00.001-05:00

This is the concluding sermon to our Week of Prayer…

Praying the Purposes of God

What have we experienced and learned this past week?
• A definition of prayer
• We come to God in Awe & Wonder
• We give God Glory because He shows us His glory.
• We come to God many ways; for instance, in stillness—silencio
• We come to God desiring His holiness:
o He is complete; we are not.
• He intends to complete us, to fill in the missing parts.
o He is righteous; we are not.
• He makes us righteous by his indwelling Holy Spirit.
• We pray in order to MEET WITH GOD, not merely to obtain the things we want.

Today, we complete our WEEK OF PRAYER.
What motivates prayer?
I. We pray according to our needs.
a. We were created to enjoy Him.
Gen. 3:8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
i. He is personal enough to want to meet our needs.
ii. He is powerful enough to meet our needs.
iii. He is wonderful enough to satisfy our deepest longings to enjoy Him, to know HIM.
b. We were created needy.
Our needs include the basics of life.
i. We have a short list of basic needs.
1Tim. 6:8 If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.

Our need may turn us to God for help.
ii. We instinctively trust ourselves; Jesus teaches that we must learn to look to God to meet all our needs.
Matt. 6:11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread.

Our deepest needs require far more than food and clothing.
iii. We have greater needs than the physical ones.
Deut. 8:3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

c. We were created by a need-meeting God.
i. His delight is to hear our request for help and mercy, to hear us say that only God can meet this need of ours.
ii. IT’s the way He is.

Is there no limit to what we might ask God to do or to give?
II. We pray according to the will of God.
a. We pray according to God’s will.
i. 1John 5:14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
ii. John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
iii. John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

b. We pray according to God’s purpose.
i. He is God.
ii. His purpose is to highlight His own glory.
1. Is. 42:8 “I am the Lord, that is My name;
I will not give My glory to another,
Nor My praise to graven images.
2. Is. 66:18 ¶ “For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory.

c. We pray according to God’s plan.
Sidney Greidanus:
Redemptive-Historical Progression:
God placed the first human pair in a beautiful garden, Paradise, “the garden of God,” where they could live in the presence of God. But the human Fall into sin led to disastrous consequences: God drove them out of the garden; the close communion with God was broken. Human sin resulted in such violence that proper development of human life and culture became impossible. God sent a great flood to cleanse the earth and make a new start with Noah, who built “an altar to the Lord” (8:20) to rededicate the cleansed earth to God. But humankind again defied God at Babel, resulting in God confusing their language and scattering them across the earth. Then God called Abram to leave his father’s house and its gods. God would make a new start with him in the land of Canaan, which was watered “like the garden of the Lord” (13:10). Canaan was to become another Paradise—a beachhead on earth for the kingdom of God.

Antidote to Extravagance?

2008-12-22T11:56:00.001-05:00

Helpful essay by a thoughtful writer:

The Bare Necessities
Marketing Luxury Goods in a Bad Economy, by Christine Rosen

Welcome To Our World!

2008-12-21T21:29:00.006-05:00

Fourth Sunday of Advent @ Community of Grace, Hamilton, Ontario

Christmas Flesh: Welcome To Our World
Introduction
Today, our fourth look at a Christmas carol. First, Hark, The Herald Angels Sing. Second, God Keep You Happy, Gentlemen! Last week, Joy To The World.
This fourth lyric was penned in the past decade, by Chris Rice. The musical setting is more lullaby than hymn, so it’s not commonly thought to be a carol.
More than most all the carols, though, this song expresses the dramatic essence of the birth of Jesus in human form, simultaneously describing the purpose of his body.

First, Jesus came as an answer from God.
I. We cry out for a word from God.
Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God 
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
a. Tears are falling/Hearts are breaking.
b. We need to hear from God.
c. You’ve been promised.
d. We’ve been waiting.
e. WELCOME!

Scripture:
Psa. 130:5 ¶ I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope.

Is. 65:24 “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.

EBC,The greatest of all the blessings they will know, however, will be a relationship with God in which there is complete harmony between their prayer and his will, between his desire to provide and their dependence on him to give (v.24). Verse 25, taken almost entirely from 11:6-9, is a reminder that these blessings come only through the Messiah while the words “dust will be the serpent’s food” (alluding to Gen 3:14) remind us that the overthrow of Satan, the great serpent (Rev 20:2), is the result of the work of the woman’s offspring (Gen 3:15).

Rom. 1:1-4 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

Implication: The longings of our heart drew God’s response in Jesus; before we asked.

Second, Jesus arrived unexpectedly.
II. We welcome a Stranger we were not prepared to receive.

Hope that you don't mind our manger How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger Make Yourself at home  Please make Yourself at home

Rom. 8:26 ¶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
Rom. 8:27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

First, Jesus came as an answer from God.
Second, Jesus arrived unexpectedly.
Third, Jesus came as the answer to our deepest need.
III. The Stranger finds us full of violence, hungry for meaning, and awaiting word from heaven.
Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
a. Your peace/our violence.
b. Your food/our hungry souls.
c. WORD now breaking heaven’s silence.
i. The prophets had not spoken for 400 years!
ii. Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord—Isaiah
Is. 40:3 ¶ A voice is calling,
“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
iii. Jesus was called THE WORD by John.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

First, Jesus came as an answer from God.
Second, Jesus arrived unexpectedly.
Third, Jesus came as the answer to our deepenst need.
Fourth, Jesus came in a vulnerable body.
IV. The Holy Stranger is a fragile child.
a. Fragile finger—
i. tiny, as every baby’s.
ii. Healing, rather than needing another’s strength.
b. Tender skin—
i. Tender—in need of protection.
ii. Prepared to tear—The skin of this baby would be pierced & torn.
iii. Tiny heart whose blood would save us.
1. Scale—a baby’s little heart seems barely strong enough to pump blood to its body.
2. Jesus’ heart is pumping blood enough for us all.

First, Jesus came as an answer from God.
Second, Jesus arrived unexpectedly.
Third, Jesus came as the answer to our deepenst need.
Fourth, Jesus came in a vulnerable body.
Fifth, THE CLIMAX; Jesus came to die.
V. The body of this baby is designed to…
So wrap our injured flesh around You
 Breathe our air and walk our sod
 Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
 Perfect Son of God Welcome to our world!!!!
a. Wrap our injured flesh around you: COVER YOURSELF WITH US/COVER US WITH YOURSELF!!
i. Our injured flesh—symbolic of our suffering & our brokenness.
ii. Around You—vivid description of the Messiah’s burden, our own sin.

…Gregory of Nazianius (329-89 AD.) wrote: ‘If anyone has put his trust in Him as a man without a human mind, he is really bereft of mind, and quite unworthy of salvation. For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.

Gregory the Great (540-604), ‘first pope’, bishop of Rome: “…how could a man, himself stained with sin, be an offering for sin? Hence a sinless man must be offered.
But what man descending in the ordinary course would be free from sin? Hence, the Son of God must be born of a virgin, and become man for us. He assumed our nature without our corruption. …a victim without sin, and able both to die by virtue of his humanity, and to cleanse the guilty, upon grounds of justice.”

Is. 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Is. 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
Is. 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.

b. Breathe and walk as we do.
Jesus also breathed our air and walked the land as we do.
c. Take away our sin.
d. Make us holy. Phil. 1:6—Having begun a good work in you, he will carry it on to completion.

Welcome to our world!!!!

2008-12-21T21:29:00.003-05:00

Welcome

2008-12-21T21:29:00.001-05:00

Joy To The World!

2008-12-14T12:15:00.000-05:00

Advent, 3rd Sunday

Joy To The World!
INTRODUCTION
I. Background to the Christmas Carol
a. Isaac Watts, Reformed kid
b. Hymn-writer as a challenge by his father.
i. Bored with the Psalter-based singing
Mark Roberts: …many of the Psalms were not easily sung in their existing form. The meter just wasn’t right.

ii. Challenged by his father to write his own hymns.

Mark Roberts: Watts’s early efforts, however, were more in keeping with his Reformed background. In 1719 he published The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. In this collection of hymns, Watts used the biblical Psalms for his foundation. Then he rewrote the words, both so that the final result could be easily sung in English, and so that it reflected the reality of Christ.

iii. Isaac did: some 750 hymns!
1. Penned poems that restated, summarized Scripture, rewriting the Psalms as if David had known all that we know of Christ.
2. * Come ye that love the Lord
3. * Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
4. * O God, Our Help in Ages Past
5. * When I survey the wondrous cross
6. * Alas! and did my Saviour bleed

c. Wrote JOY TO THE WORLD as a translation of Psalm 98.
Mark Roberts: One of these reframed psalms provides the text for our carol “Joy to the World.” This was not meant to be a Christmas carol at all. In fact, apart from the fact that “the Lord is come” and the overall sense of joy, there isn’t anything “Christmassy” about “Joy to the World.”

d. NOT a Christmas hymn! Based on a melody by Handel.

Psa. 98:1 O sing to the Lord a new song,
For He has done wonderful things,
His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.
Psa. 98:2 The Lord has made known His salvation;
He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.
Psa. 98:3 He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Psa. 98:4 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.
Psa. 98:5 Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
With the lyre and the sound of melody.
Psa. 98:6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
Shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.
Psa. 98:7 Let the sea roar and all it contains,
The world and those who dwell in it.
Psa. 98:8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
Let the mountains sing together for joy
Psa. 98:9 Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world with righteousness
And the peoples with equity.

II. Psalm 98 is a Psalm of God’s rule over the earth.
a. Each of the psalms 93-100 expresses wonder and celebration of God’s present reign and impending rule over the earth.
b. God created the earth, and rules the earth.
III. Joy To The World rewrites Psalm 98.
a. Compare the two in Mark Robert’s table.

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room;
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n and nature sing.
And heav’n and heav’n and nature sing. 4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD. 7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it.
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ.
While fields and floods,
Rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy 2 The LORD hath made known his salvation (KJV)
8 Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy 9 at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming to judge the earth.
No more let sin and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found. Here Watts strays farthest from the words of Psalm 98.
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness.
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders of His love. 3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. (KJV)
9 . . .for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.

b. See the structure of the psalm.
i. 98:1-3 God’s deliverance in the past.
ii. 98:4-6 Worship of the Great King.
iii. 98:7-9 Anticipation of God’s Coming
EBC, Willem A. VanGemeren
Nature echoes and reverberates the joy of God’s people as they anticipate the coming of the Great King (cf. Isa 55:12). The rejoicing of animal and plant life in the sea and on earth (v.7) constitutes the totality of all of created life (cf. 24:1; 96:11), as does the contrastive pair “rivers” and “mountains” (v.8). The “groaning” of nature (Rom 8:19-21) will give way to rejoicing at his coming.

c. The Lord has come: the first time in Jesus to Bethlehem.
WBC, Marvin Tate
He has ‘remembered’ his commitments and obligations to Israel (v 3); that is, he has been actively involved in the implementation of his commitments …

d. The Lord has come: looking back from the visible rule of God upon the earth.
i. Let earth receive her king…
1. Acknowledge him as king.
2. Receive/Embrace him as king.
3. Prepare room for his rule in each heart.
a. Just as NO ROOM WAS FOUND THEN.
b. Room in each heart now,
c. Room in every heart then.
ii. Even heaven and earth will sing his praise.
1. Much is made in Scripture of nature celebrating God.
Psa. 47:1 ¶ O clap your hands, all peoples;
Shout to God with the voice of joy.
Psa. 98:8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
Let the mountains sing together for joy
Is. 55:12 “For you will go out with joy
And be led forth with peace;
The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

2. Robert Alter:
There is a concordance between the human orchestra—in all likelihood, an actual orchestra accompanying the singing of this psalm—with its lutes and rams’ horns, and the orchestra of nature, both groups providing a grand fanfare for God the king.
The thundering of the sea is a percussion section, joined by the clapping hands of the rivers, then the chorus of the mountains.
…the Israelites chanting the poem’s words of exaltation, to the accompaniment of musical instruments, are invited to imagine their musical rite as part of a cosmic performance.

e. Prepare yourself now for the glorious return of our Lord.
i. Enjoy the first arrival, which we celebrate this season.
ii. Anticipate the second arrival,
EBC, Willem A. VanGemeren
They who welcome their Great King need not fear, because they are the recipients of his victories. He has gone to great length to save them.

Psa. 98:9 Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world with righteousness
And the peoples with equity.

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen!

2008-12-13T21:48:00.000-05:00

Advent, Week Two

God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen!
INTRODUCTION
God rest you merry, gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour
Was born upon this day,
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
For Jesus Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas day.

• Centuries old, anonymous authorship
• At least eight musical settings.
• Many English villages had their own versions of the lyric.
• Many parodies, notably by G.K. Chesterton
• Used by Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, so it became even more important
• Long the most popular Christmas carol in the UK.

God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen too tipsy from partying?
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

Mark Roberts: “To rest someone merry” meant “to keep someone happy.”
In other words, this wasn’t a wish for happy people to rest, but for people to be and to keep on being happy because Christ is born.

DISMAY: The language is quite old and obscure.
What does it mean?
Dismay: consternation and distress, …caused by something unexpected

We live in a world that dismays us…
• …the challenge of Christmas shopping in a mad rush, seeking gifts that no one needs.
• …the frightening images we see on-screen each week, highlighting the awful status of life under an oppressive government, without its necessities.
• …frustrating scenes provided daily by those who would govern us, warring parties each punishing one another, while all insist that it’s being done for our good.

Yes, this Christmas season, there is much to be dismayed about.

CENTRAL IDEA: The birth of Jesus is the antidote to dismay.
This familiar Carol of Christmas reminds us that our consternation and frustration can be resolved.

How does the birth of Jesus provide relief from our dismay?
1. The birth of Jesus provided TRUE RELIEF
a. for the shepherds.
i. These may have been very special shepherds, just outside Jerusalem; many have speculated that these were the sheep and lambs prepared for the Temple sacrifices in the city.
ii. These shepherds, as Israel, found comfort in the promise that their lambs offered as Temple sacrifices would give them opportunity to worship God with a clear conscience.
b. for us… to “save us all from Satan’s power.”

I’m especially concerned about the evil I see demonstrated against the weak and the broken. That is truly dismaying, shocking.

i. Satan’s power is manifest in the wanton destruction of life, the expression of cruel might against the helpless of the earth.

The lyric reminds me that my concern about evil should include my OWN tendencies.

ii. Satan’s power is manifest in our own lives, “when we were gone astray.”
iii. We share in the problem, evil has infected our souls as well as the world’s major perpetrators.
1. Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition, “the banality of evil”
…the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.

2. Isaiah 53:6

Is. 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

Then Paul adds another Isaiah passage to several Psalms…
iv. Romans
Rom. 3:15 “Their Feet Are Swift To Shed Blood,
Rom. 3:16 Destruction And Misery Are In Their Paths,
Rom. 3:17 And The Path Of Peace They Have Not Known.”

Which leads ME to an essential insight…
v. My life is in need of radical transformation, as well as the lives of those whom I fear and am dismayed by.

So what’s the solution to spiritual DISMAY?
2. My dismay is aptly treated with “TIDINGS OF…
a. Comfort—treatment for dismay.
Hebrew-- delight, comfort, delight, enjoyment,
to find consolation, regret;

My dismay is aptly treated with “TIDINGS OF…
b. Joy—antidote to dismay.

Comfort & Joy: a baby cries out of boredom, then quiets when a jangling toy is dangled within reach; comfort then transforms into joy.
A mother receives a false report of the death of a son, then is transformed when the boy walks in the front door.
A secretary types out a memo ordering layoffs for all employees, then discovers that she will be retained for the duration. COMFORT & JOY

So, where do I find both comfort and joy in the Story?
Comfort—for Israel, as in Handel’s Messiah, “Comfort ye, my people, for your warfare is past, accomplished, your iniquity is pardoned. Isaiah 40

Comfort—for these particular shepherds in Israel…
Their need for sacrifice was about to be forever fulfilled.

Comfort—at the foot of the Cross, Jesus said to his mother, one of three Mary’s there.

John 19:25 …But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
John 19:26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He *said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
John 19:27 Then He *said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

Jesus gave COMFORT at the most unexpected moment.

Comfort for all—Matt. 11:28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
IF JESUS USED SUCH AN AWFUL MOMENT IN HIS LIFE TO GIVE COMFORT TO HIS MOTHER AND HIS DISCIPLE, THEN HE WILL NEVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO COMFORT TO YOU.

But the lyric highlights JOY as well…
Joy—at the gravesite, after discovering the tomb was empty, and the ‘gardener’ nearby.

John 20:16 Jesus *said to her, “Mary!” She turned and *said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher).
John 20:17 Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”
Jesus gave JOY at the most unexpected event, his appearance after death.

CONCLUSION:
1. Jesus gives comfort today. He gives comfort to all who come to him:
Matt. 11:29-30 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and You Will Find Rest For Your Souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen

Our rest, our merriment, our happiness is deeply rooted in the work that Jesus did for us, beginning with his humble birth, involving his life of teaching, healing, and concluding with his death for us all.
The resurrection of Jesus means that our happiness, is guaranteed for all time and eternity.

2. Jesus gives joy today.
John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

How might Jesus give you comfort today?
Dismayed about the pressures of this season?
About a disappointment in someone? In yourself?

Jesus gives comfort and joy; He is able to keep someone happy.
Come to the Cross!

Drama of Scripture: Church Takes Up Jesus' Mission

2008-11-16T15:11:00.001-05:00

Drama of Scripture: The Story in Six Parts

REVIEW:
Act One: God Creates His Kingdom
Act Two: Rebellion in God’s Kingdom
Act Three: Promise of Restoration of Kingdom: Israel’s Mission
Act Four: Kingdom Restored: Jesus’ Mission
Act Five: Kingdom Tasted and Displayed: Church’s Mission

I. Jesus has stunning intentions for the church.
a. He said that we were to finish his work.
i. His work was…
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
What was lost?
a. Adam, Eve and all their offspring.
b. Creation and all that Adam and Eve were charged to look after.

ii. His work is our work…
John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

iii. He said that we would do greater works than he.
John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

Matt. 28:18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Luke 10:17-19 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.

iv. He said that he would build his church.
Matt. 16:18 “…I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
1. We believe in Jesus as the king, Lord of all.
a. Our faith releases the resurrection power of Jesus in our souls.
i. We are transformed by the Spirit.
ii. We are corporately transformed by the Spirit.
iii. We fulfill the call of Jesus by the Spirit.
2. We believe in the Church.
a. If Jesus said he will build it.
b. then we know that he will do that through us.
3. We must be the Church. Acts 2:42ff
Acts 2:42-47 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need.
Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Goheen & Bartholomew
a. We are the church in our devotion to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer; in that, we experience the life of the KINGDOM.
b. We are the church when we live out the life of Christ singly and corporately.
i. Signs of saving power—2:43
ii. Justice and mercy—2:44-45
iii. Joy—2:46
iv. Worship—2:47
c. We know we are being the church when we see the Lord use his presence in us to draw others to himself.

Overlapping Story---G&B: This too fulfills OT prophecies about God’s kingdom. The prophets picture the drawing power of a renewed Israel (Isaiah 60:2-3; Zech. 8:20-23): “A decisive element of the prophetic conception of the pilgrimage of the nations to Zion is that the Gentiles, fascinated by the salvation visible in Israel, are driven of their own accord to the people of God. They do not become believers as a result of missionary activity; rather, the fascination emitted by the people of God draws them close.” This newly formed community of the early church is attractive to outsiders. The life of the believing community radiates the light of the kingdom and thus draws people from darkness (cf. Ephesians 5:8; 1 Peter 2:9).
…he promised to gather his people again one day, pouring out his Spirit on them so they might at last fulfill their calling. The prophets looked forward to the day when Israel would be regathered. Now, in Jesus, the regathering has begun. He has appointed twelve apostles, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, to be the foundation of his kingdom, the new nation of God’s people. At Pentecost, in response to Peter’s preaching and the power of the HS, three thousand people are added to that foundation. The remainder of the book of Acts tells the story of how this new community of believers continues Jesus’ mission of gathering the lost from within Israel, then moves beyond old ethnic and cultural barriers to gather Samaritans and Gentiles into the kingdom.

Jesus has stunning intentions for the church
This is the work of the church!!

Today, we wrestle to have faith in the church at all.
II. We fulfill the INTENTIONS of Jesus by being the Church.
a. The Apostles Creed says “I believe in the holy catholic Church.”
b. Our greatest challenge is NOT to convince people that there is a God, that Jesus was a real person, but that the church is trustworthy.
i. Many say that they are “spiritual but not religious.”
ii. Another way of saying this is “I don’t believe in ORGANIZED RELIGION.”
iii. Or, “I don’t trust the INSTITUTIONALIZED CHURCH.”
iv. All this to say that the church has let them down.
G.K. Chesterton—by far the most powerful argument against the truth of Christianity are Christians.

HOW CAN WE BE THE CHURCH? HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY DRAW PEOPLE TO JESUS WHEN THEY HATE THE CHURCH?
v. The way we live together makes the church believable.
John 21—placed here to show us what the church should be in the world.
a. Contrast Luke 5—put your net in over here, one more time.
b. He’s in the boat, now they find fish!
c. John 21—no fish; then Jesus says, try over here and they are overwhelmed. What’s the difference? Now, JESUS IS NOT IN THE BOAT [not even recognized], though he had been in the boat in Luke 5.
d. Keller: Even if you don’t recognize me, even if I am not physically present, I still want you to do my work in the world, and I will see that it is done.
i. I want you to bring people from one realm into another realm, not merely fish! You are a city on a hill.

* Jesus has stunning intentions for the church
* We fulfill the INTENTIONS of Jesus by being the Church.
We are to be the kind of community where people can see what they long to experience. We are called to be the Community of the King.

III. We as a congregation are on the front lines of spiritual & social combat; Jesus has stunning intentions for us.
a. What did Jesus do?
1. He offered himself for Israel and as Israel.
2. He gathered TWELVE DISCIPLES, a renewed Israel, and charged them to take the story of his Mission, his Redemption, and his Promise to all peoples.
3. He sent his followers into the world to be the Church.

b. What can we do? THE SAME: offer, gather, send
We could grow faster if we were to abandon the marginalized.
We could draw more middle class folk if we were in a safer place.
BUT,
God has sent us to Hamilton to make a beachhead in the struggle for lives.
We send others to dark places in the world where their quality of life is challenging, their possessions are stolen, for some, even their lives are threatened. Rather than shrink from our call, let’s make sure that we have not HIRED OUT others to fulfill God’s intentions for us.

What’s next?

Tonight: Rachel Tulloch, apologist with RZIM, Answering the Hard Questions

Next week: Act 6: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of Heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into Hell.
On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Drama of Scripture: Jesus Launches the Kingdom

2008-11-16T15:05:00.002-05:00

Drama of Scripture: The Story in Six Parts
Cf. Drama of Scripture by Bartholomew & Goheen
[check out the weblink for B&G's content and extras]

1. God’s mission is to restore creation.
i. God chose a people to embody God’s creational purposes for humanity and so be a light to the nations…the OT narrates the history of Israel’s response to their divine calling.
ii. Jesus comes on the scene and in his mission takes upon humanity and accomplishes the victory over sin, opening the way to a new world.
iii. When his earthly ministry is over, he leaves his church with the mandate to continue in that same mission.
iv. Standing as we do between Pentecost and the return of Jesus, our central task as God’s people is to witness to the rule of Jesus Christ over all of life.
v. What is the New Creation?
Luke 24:13-27
2. The Story…
a. Adam encouraged us last week to read the Scriptures as The Story of God. He summarized the first three acts of that Story…
i. ACT ONE--Creation:
1. The world was made by God as God intended it to be.
a. He provided all the shelter, food, and relationships that Adam & Eve needed to flourish.
b. He provided boundaries to ensure that harm would not come to his creation.
2. He came to the Garden himself, to enjoy his own.
ii. ACT TWO--Fall
1. Adam & Eve shunned the protection of God, the provision of God, and the personal experience of God for the right to make their own contrary choice.
2. God immediately responded by providing skins to cover their shame, demonstrating the first death, and foreshadowing sacrificial death.
3. God removed them from the Garden as an act of mercy, to prevent them from living forever in decaying bodies.
iii. ACT THREE--Israel, God’s chosen people.
1. God determined to reestablish his earthly presence by revealing himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob = Israel.
2. Israel was instructed in the Law of God, designed to explain the drastic steps required to deal with going one’s own way. Only the death of an innocent animal could delay the justice of God.
3. The nation Israel was in turn to tell the nations of the world of the grace and mercy of God; they did not.
iv. ACT FOUR--Today, we examine the fourth act of the Story: the CHRIST, Jesus comes on the scene and in his mission takes upon humanity and
1. accomplishes the victory over sin,
2. opening the way to a new world.
3. Introduces the story of how the history of God’s gracious dealings with his rebellious creatures comes to a climax in his own death and resurrection.
a. Takes up mission of Israel
b. Accomplishes redemption
c. Gathers renewed Israel: Commissions them to continue his mission

What did Jesus do?
1. He offered himself for Israel and as Israel:
a. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, as Israel had entered the Land to be a light for the Gentiles.
b. Jesus simultaneously healed and forgave those he encountered.
c. Jesus cleared the Temple in Jerusalem, declaring that this had been intended as the place for all peoples to gather in worship of the God of Israel; instead, those who controlled the Temple sealed it off from the Gentiles, and used the space to profit from the worshipers. Jesus declared HIMSELF TO BE THE NEW TEMPLE, THE PLACE WHERE ALL PEOPLE CAN FIND THE FATHER.
2. He offered himself for Israel and the world as the fulfillment of all the sacrifices of the past.
a. Jesus lived the same life that the God of Israel had expected of them.
b. Jesus died an innocent death, becoming THE LAMB OF SACRIFICE that had been central to the levitical ceremonies.
c. Jesus overcame death by resurrecting.
3. He gathered TWELVE DISCIPLES, a renewed Israel, and charged them to take the story of his Mission, his Redemption, and his Promise to all peoples.
a. Jesus called twelve men of Israel to launch a new Israel, modeling the life that he expected of them.
b. Jesus demonstrated to them that he has power to overcome death, subverting all social threats.
c. Jesus sent the Spirit of God to those disciples.

How should I respond to what Jesus said and did?
1. If God’s Story is alien and compelling to me, then I need to invite God to write my story so that I can participate in his Story.
a. At the Cross, I find forgiveness for having fallen short of God’s standards.
b. Through the Cross, I can see hope for the life to come, here and in the kingdom.
c. Because of the Cross, Jesus transforms me into a transformer; not for fighting space aliens, but to bring justice and mercy to the whole world.
2. If God’s story has been written into my soul, then I ask myself each day: HOW HAS THE RESURRECTION POWER OF JESUS BEEN VISIBLE IN MY LIFE TODAY?
a. Am I fully satisfied with all that God is to me in Christ?
b. Am I living at peace with all those around me?
i. “Be angry but do not sin, don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” Eph. 4:26
ii. Do the weaknesses of those around me call me to humble reflection or criticism? Matt. 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
c. Am I seeing that sort of power impact those close to me?
i. 2Cor. 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

Come to the Cross!

Communicating without a common language

2008-08-25T13:21:00.000-05:00

Hi Lane,

You probably will not read this until after your holidays, unless you take the computer along, but that doesn't matter for this note. I just thought about it during the sermon.

About thirty years ago my father-in-law came over with my mother-in-law. We lived in Burlington behind an apartment, right on the lake in the former stage coach stop-over between York (Toronto) and Niagara Falls, a huge mansion where we enjoyed being for four years. My father-in-law didn't know a word of English. In the apartment building lived Mr. Shepherd, a 96 year young man who of course didn't know a word of Dutch.
These two older men got together and "talked" for close to an hour. We stayed away from them because they would probably have felt embarrassed about however they were communicating. We did hear them singing together once in a while, each in their own language, various hymns and children's Bible songs. We later were told how many children each one had; somehow they had told each other that and other facts.

I had always found that an amazing event to have witnessed. They were serious at times, at times laughing. Both told us later that it had been easy because each had noticed the other one was a Christian. That must be an universal language!

Bram and Mineke van Overbeeke

Language An Expression of Community

2008-08-09T18:10:00.001-05:00

Babel & the Gift of Language

Introduction: We are a people made to belong. Many are conscious of a desire to be a part of something larger, something embracing, something beyond oneself. When you “belong”, you can be said to be part of a community; the larger the community, the more a part of it you might feel. If you are not “in community”, the crowd highlights your separateness, that you are NOT a part of what’s going on.
Today, we look at HOW we experience community. TURN TO GENESIS 11

Review Last look, we drew out an underlying idea from the Story…God has a purpose for the city:
a. A place of refuge for Cain, a similar refuge today for the poor, the minority, all in need of protection.
b. A place to shine, to maximize one’s giftedness to the glory of God. [technology gains allowed Babel to be built higher with brick and mortar than could have been done with stones and tar]
c. A place to seek and find spiritual life.
i. Gen. 11:14—“…with its top in the heavens…”
ii. Acts 17:27—God places all people where they are most likely to seek Him.

Compels spiritual searching: Cities were places built around the highest tower, worshiping the god of that city.
Today: Toronto’s tallest temples are built by banks and brokerage houses;
it’s a place where money is venerated.
Ottawa’s landscape is dominated by the towers of Parliament:
it’s a city where power and influence is central.

We learned that the core difficulty of urban life is that we gather in the city to make names for ourselves. That weakness can be treated by resting in the fact that God names us himself, and by seeking to know the name which God has given us.

We experience true spiritual rest as we discover the name God has given us.

Today, we take a second look at the story of Babel and will learn that…
Language is a gift from God that enables TRUE community life.

Gen. 11:1 ¶ Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.
Gen. 11:2 It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Gen. 11:3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
Gen. 11:4 They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
Gen. 11:5 The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
Gen. 11:6 The LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.
Gen. 11:7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Gen. 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.
Gen. 11:9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

This is a negative illustration of language as the means of community. Here the expression of our selfishness comes through our use of the gift of language.
We have all been victims of the selfish use of language. Our kids’ earliest words included the term: “MINE!”

I. We have Language because it is a gift from God and we are image bearers!
a. Language is a good gift from God.
b. Language marks us as made in the image of God.
i. This is one of those gifts that comes in the package.
ii. We speak, we understand, we think, we look to the future, we savour the present and the past, etc.
So then, how do we know that language is a gift from God?
Language comes from God:
he spoke and the world came into being; Gen 1
he spoke and gave a name to Adam Gen 2
Adam spoke and gave names to the animals Gen 2
he spoke and his people preserved his words for our benefit; Isa. 32
he names us and communicates his personal blessing by the act; Isa. 62; Rev.2
he gave us the gift of language as a means of reflecting his nature.
He names us/we name the animals and one another.
He speaks to us/we are to speak to Him and one another.
He speaks for all eternity/we speak and our words should endure through time.
Language comes from God.
We have Language because it is a gift from God as His image-bearers.

II. We best use Language when it glorifies God.
a. Our words express our thoughts.
i. Language gives us the ability to Express our thoughts.
ii. Our greatest thoughts concern the idea of God.

Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God,
and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God.
The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer.
b. God intends that language be used to highlight his glory.
1Pet. 4:11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

APPLICATION: Read the Psalms! The Psalms use words to give praise to God in every imaginable circumstance—for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.

We have Language because it is a gift from God, as His image-bearers.
We best use Language when it glorifies God.

III. Our Language glorifies God when it connects us.
a. When it connects us in true community.
i. True community begins in the Trinity.
1. John 17—as we are one.
2. John 17—may they be one.

From the Trinity, the exhortation of Paul derives its gravity…
ii. True community means we build one another up.
b. When it results in “building up one another.”

1Th. 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
Our words can be effective at weaving grace into another’s heart.
i. Mercy gifts transform a heart, convincing the hearer that God’s love transcends the pain of the moment.
ii. Exhortation gifts motivate a will to take action toward God and others where there is confusion and hesitation.
iii. Encouragement gifts move hands to obedience, where there is fear and paralysis.
iv. Admonishment gifts stimulate a mind to action, where temporal goals have overshadowed eternal good.

We have Language because it is a gift from God.
We best use Language when it glorifies God.
Our language glorifies God in true community.

IV. We misuse language when we seek to make a name for ourselves.
a. Thus, we are quite concerned that we not be misunderstood or that we appear blameworthy.
b. Thus, we think first about how our words might reflect on us.
c. We use language to glorify ourselves and to accumulate respect for ourselves.

V. Our problem.
a. Our problem is just like Isaiah’s.
b. We all need the divine solution given to Isaiah, who had seen the Holy One Whose Image Isaiah was to bear:
Isaiah 6:5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
6:6 ¶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
6:7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

a. 6:5 My lips are unclean
b. 6:7 this has touched your lips
c. 6:7 your guilt is atoned for.

COMMUNION: as the elements touch your lips, contemplate what they memorialize! You have been touched by the holiness of God’s own throne; you have been cleansed by the forgiveness of God through Christ’s death; you have been made new…your lips now release the very blessings of God.

Benediction:

Col. 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

LANGUAGE is a HIGH-IMPACT instrument.
May your conversation be motivated by grace, to develop the one with whom you speak.

City LIfe at Babel

2008-08-09T18:08:00.000-05:00

The City & The Tower of Babel

We’re in need of a break. It’s summer and many are away, losing themselves in cottage life, hoping to put aside for a time the hurry and stress of life here in the city. That raises lots of questions for a reflective mind:
• If we are all made in the image of God, then why do many of us find refuge in the forests of the north, rather than enjoy renewal by gazing at people in a crowded downtown?
• If we are made in the image of God, why do we need the city, to live near other humans; why can’t we spread out at the greatest distances possible?
• If the references to “the city” in Genesis are negative, then should we not view the city as a place to be abandoned rather than inhabited, to be demolished rather than rebuilt?

Let’s take these in reverse order…
I. The negative references to “city” in Genesis do not reverse the positive intentions of God regarding urban life.
Gen. 10:32 ¶ These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.
Gen. 11:1 ¶ Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.
Gen. 11:2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
Gen. 11:3 ¶ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
Gen. 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
Gen. 11:5 ¶ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.
Gen. 11:6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
Gen. 11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
Gen. 11:8 ¶ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
Gen. 11:9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

KA Matthews …unique in ANE literature.

a. There are negative references to “the city.”
i. Genesis 4:17—Cain built a city.
Gen. 4:17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.

ii. Genesis 11—Babel expressed the first urban rebellion.
1. Rebellion by gathering rather than scattering.
2. Rebellion by building a “gate” to the heavens, reaching God by human means, rather than God reaching humankind. YET …
b. The city plays a central, positive role in Scripture.
i. Abraham was “looking for a city!
Heb. 11:9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
Heb. 11:10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

ii. God sent Jonah to a city for the sake of its residents. Jonah 1-4
And in our destiny…
c. A city is the culmination of redemptive history.
i. The city comes down from God.
Rev. 21:1 ¶ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more.
Rev. 21:2 And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.

ii. The city has a river.

iii. The city has a tree.
Rev. 22:2 …On each side of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations.

God’s intention from before time was to build a city, a tree-inhabited city, a city where He himself would dwell, where the nations would come to worship, where all peoples would find life, where every nation would experience healing. The Garden of Eden was the first sprouting of that city.
It’s shocking, but : A REDEEMED LIFE IS AN URBAN LIFE.

#2 • If we are made in the image of God, why do we need the city, to live near other humans; why can’t we spread out at the greatest distances possible?

II. The city is intended to be a place for humans to thrive.
a. The city is a place of refuge.
i. Cain founded a city for his own protection. Gen. 4
ii. Moses established cities of refuge for those in need of protection.
Num. 35:6 “The cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to; and in addition to them you shall give forty-two cities.
Num. 35:11 then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there.
Num. 35:12 ‘The cities shall be to you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands before the congregation for trial.

b. The city is a place where people achieve their potential.
i. Cain’s offspring invented musical instruments, metalworking, etc.
ii. By Babel’s time, new technology was in evidence.
Gen. 11:3 ¶ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

iii. Cities today continue to be places for creative work.

c. The city is a place likely to stimulate spiritual seeking.
Gen. 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
i. In social, even rural, isolation, people tend to believe what they’ve been given.
ii. In a crowded place, people are often challenged to consider alien perspectives of life.
iii. God uses such settings to entice people to seek Him.
Acts 17:25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
Acts 17:26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
Acts 17:27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’

So, if this is all true, then what went wrong at Babel?
iv. All the good of the city intended by God was set aside by those who gathered on the plain at Shinar.
1. They gathered when they should have covered the earth.
a. To make a NAME for themselves.
b. God said that those who gave themselves to Him would receive “A PLACE AND A NAME.”

2. They conspired against God by their desire to build a “gateway to heaven.”
a. 11:5 Victor Hamilton …even though they build the tower, it is so far from the heavens that God must come down to see it.
b. Cities were places built around the highest tower, worshiping the god of the city.
Today: Toronto’s tallest temples are built by banks, brokerages; it’s a place where the power of money is revered.
Ottawa’s landscape is dominated by the towers of Parliament: it’s a city where power itself is central.

#3 • If we are all made in the image of God, then why do many of us find refuge in the forests of the north, rather than enjoy renewal by gazing at people in a crowded downtown?

III. We need time away to lower the pressure, slow the pace, before we forget how to rest.

There is a fourth question:
• What is the central problem that shows up here in Babel and in our own lives?
a. To make a NAME for themselves.

APPLICATIONS:
1. Naming: Set aside your former method of finding your name & significance…
a. Your family name
b. Your vocation
c. Your reputation, your character, etc.

2. Naming: Understand the Name that Christ has given you…

John 10: I know my sheep and call them by name.

Rev. 2:17—I will give a new name, known only to the one who receives it.

a. In serving…others (helping them to find their own name!).
Eph 2:10—good works, prepared for you to walk in.
YOU are God’s workmanship (poema, POEM); you are God’s work of art.

b. In being part of a new community…(too close to know what I’m really like)
c. In being intimate with Jesus… (Mark 3:12—“appointed to be with Him”)

Mark 3:14 He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach
Mark 3:15 and to have authority to drive out demons.
Mark 3:16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
Mark 3:17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder);
Mark 3:18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot
Mark 3:19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

3. RENAMING IS THE GOSPEL: God gives us a name of our own.
Isaiah: yad vashem, a place and a name, even for the faithful foreigner, the upright eunuch, otherwise without seed.
Is. 56:5 To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,
And a name better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.

4. Renaming prepares us for The END of all things:
The nations will be called to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to receive life.
Today, people are drawn to cities: over the past decade, we became an urban people [more than half the world’s population now lives in urban centres].
When the Kingdom of God is fully established, the New City will come down from heaven, and all peoples will find all that they long for as they come to that city.

Summary
a. In serving…others (helping them to find their own name!).
b. In being part of a new community…(too close to know what I’m really like)
c. In being intimate with Jesus… (Mark 3:12—“appointed to be with Him”)

Naoh & The Covenant

2008-06-01T13:31:00.001-05:00

Noah and The Covenant
Genesis 9 1 June 08

Covenants with Adam, Noah, Abram: be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.
Key verse:
Gen. 9:17 ¶ So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things that are on the earth.”

I. God confirms a covenant with the earth and all its creatures.

EBC, Sailhamer
As a result of Noah’s altar and offering, the whole of the state of mankind before the Flood is reestablished. Man is still fallen (9:21); but through an offering on the altar, he may yet find God’s blessing (8:21-9:3).

Turner:
The imperatives in 9:1,7 enclose a catalogue of statements governing relationships in the renewed creation:
a) Animals will live in fear of humans (v.2).
b) Every animal will be food for humans (v.3).
c) Blood must not be consumed (v.4).
d) Capital punishment for all humans and animals that take a human life (vv. 5-6).

Ross: This covenant through Noah declared that God held life sacred and that humankind too must preserve life in the earth.
…unfolds the continuing recreation theme with the comparison between Noah and Adam. There the study must retrace the original design of the Creator for blessing and commissioning humankind in the image of God. This passage alludes to the former by the use of “be fruitful,” “multiply,” and “fill the earth.” It also parallels the garden scene with the permission to eat any animal, but with a prohibition against eating blood.

Another theme that is important to the Levitical laws is the value of blood. The blood of an animal, according to Leviticus, belongs to God. Humans dare not eat it. Moreover, the blood of human beings are in the image of God. For the crime of murder, then, society would have the right to take the murderer’s life.

a. The covenant is plainly stated.
Summarizing…
Gen. 9:9 “Look! I now confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you
Gen. 9:10 and with every living creature that is with you, including the birds, the domestic animals, and every living creature of the earth with you, all those that came out of the ark with you–every living creature of the earth.
Gen. 9:12 ¶ And God said, “This is the guarantee of the covenant I am making with you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all subsequent generations:
Gen. 9:13 I will place my rainbow in the clouds, and it will become a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth.
Gen. 9:15 then I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures
Gen. 9:16 …the perpetual covenant between God and all living creatures of all kinds that are on the earth.”

b. The underlying point is God’s commitment to his creation and all its creatures.
i. We are not the first environmentalists!
ii. The divine commitment to the ecosytem is unparalleled.
iii. Our commitment to the ecosystem is distinct from that of secular commitments…
Freeman Dyson [physicist]
There is a worldwide secular religion which we may call environmentalism,

iv. Our commitment is based on God’s love for his creation, not our own need for the creation, not our own valuation of the creation, not our own reverence for the material world.
More narrowly…
II. God confirms a covenant with Noah and his offspring.

Gen. 9:9 “Look! I now confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you

Alter: … Perhaps the ban on bloodshed at this point suggests that murder was the endemic vice of the antediluvians.

Waltke: Blood is equated with life in the OT (Lev. 17:11). Here blood is equated with the animal’s ‘soul’ (i.e., its passionate vitality). By forbidding the eating of blood, this regulation instills a respect for the sacredness of life and protects against wanton abuse (see Lev. 3:17; 7:2-27; 19:26; Deut. 12:1-24; 1 Sam. 14:32-34). Adding meat to the human diet is “not a license for savagery”. [Sarna, 60]

Transition: the promise has no response from Noah…
Alter: …first instance of a common convention of biblical narrative: when a speaker addresses someone and the formula for introducing speech is repeated with no intervening response from the interlocutor, it generally indicates some sort of significant silence—a failure to comprehend, a resistance to the speaker’s words, and so forth.

III. God provides a sign for his covenant with a bow.
a. Not a rainbow! But a “bow,” a warrior’s weapon, a hunter’s tool.
b. The sign is a typical divine demonstration:
Waltke: God certifies his covenants by signs:
i. for the covenant with Abraham, circumcision (Gen. 17:11);
ii. with Israel at Sinai, Sabbaths (Ex. 31:13,17);
iii. with Christ and new Israel, the cup (Luke 22:20).

Gen. 9:12 ¶ And God said, “This is the guarantee of the covenant I am making with you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all subsequent generations:
Gen. 9:13 I will place my rainbow in the clouds, and it will become a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth.
c. The bow is upside down, not at the ready as a weapon.
d. The bow is most readily visible at times of chaos.
e. The bow is beautiful, reminding us of Psalm 19: “the heavens are declaring the glory of God!”

IV. God uses a rainbow to explain his grace.
a. The creation is sustained by God himself, alone unable to effectively resist the destruction of humankind.

Ross…establishment of an unconditional, unilateral covenant. From this point on, the God of Israel would be known as a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God.

b. The recovery of creation and of humankind is enabled by God.
i. God does this by coming to his creation.

Waltke: God unilaterally takes full responsibility to preserve the earth and its complete ecology forever in order to sustain his image bearer (8:20-22). The covenant confirms God’s preexisting relationship with all creatures when he blessed them at the time of their creation.

ii. God does this by focusing all his wrath on Jesus, his innocent, one-and-only-son.
iii. God has so intervened graciously many times…

Noah—a second chance, a set of rules to protect him and the earth
Abram—a second chance to have a family, a personal promise and the gift of a child
Joseph—after betraying his brothers and pushing them to homicidal anger, a second chance to bless his family and save them from starvation.
David—after proving extreme loyalty to an evil king, David betrayed his own loyal field general, so God brought David a true friend, Nathan the prophet, who carefully told the king the truth, bringing him to his knees.
Peter—the lead disciple, ultimately betrays Jesus, who then invites him to share breakfast at the beach, calls him to feed Jesus’ sheep-like followers, restoring him to servant-leadership.

iv. God is today intervening on your behalf…

My life/Your life… we are each rescued in our failures, reminded of the truth, comforted in our brokenness, reminded of the boundaries, and graciously restored to usefulness; the God of the second chance.

Violence in the publci sphere

2008-05-31T19:47:00.001-05:00

Paul,

You are right. I'm not sure that I mentioned this in the first service, but did remember to mention in the second service that I am NOT a pacifist. I do believe that there are circumstances, such as some of those you list, that require our intervention.

My condemnation of violence was focused on personal relationships, clan relationships, etc.

I do understand "the sword" referred to in Romans 13:4 to be physical reaction by social authorities (elected governors, etc.).

This does become quite problematic in the extreme cases. In fact, Adam Brown is attempting to schedule a public forum on pacifism vs. just war in the Spring. I will participate as a proponent of Just War.

Lane

Violence left to God alone? Paul A.

2008-05-31T19:46:00.000-05:00

Hello Lane,
I enjoyed your sermon, and the message that we must be patient and let God deliver justice, "though it may be late", and that only God's use of violence is justified. In the past many Christians have told me that, and every time the same question comes into my mind: What happens with continuing progressive violence? It doesn't seem morally correct for us to sit around and wait for God to do justice to end a crisis. Could it be that we are the "tools" of God to end a crisis? In particular, crisis in Darfur seems to be ongoing with hundreds of innocent people being slaughtered and raped in their home villages. If diplomatic initiative to end the crisis fails, is the use of violence (i.e. military deployment by foreign nations) to end the crisis justified? It appears that there are plenty of situations in which the use of force by humankind seems to be the only effective action to protect innocent people.
Similarly, the Myanmar is desperate for foreign aid in the aftermath of a cyclone. It has been projected that thousands more may die in the absence of proper food, water, sanitation, and medical care. To this day, Myanmar's ruling military junta is reluctant to allow outsiders in to distribute aid. If efforts to reach a timely diplomatic compromise fail, is it just for us to launch a humanitarian invasion (use of violence) to protect innocent people and prevent a possible epidemic?
Another general example is the case for various African countries. Is it just for citizens of the country to use force in an attempt to rebel against a ruling tyrant to fight oppression? I understand that unfortunately many successful rebellions against a tyrant lead to another tyrant, but the idea of using violence in an attempt to protect the freedoms of the people is there.

Is this an exception to what you said, or would you say there is always an alternative to violence? If you can help me clear up this moral dilemma or point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks a lot,
Kind Regards,
Paul A.

Noah and The Flood

2008-05-27T12:21:00.001-05:00

Noah and the Flood
Genesis 6-8; 25 May 08

The story…
If this story were made into a summer blockbuster, how would it be presented? Lots of CGI, no doubt!
You can imagine the images of screaming people, banging on the door of the ark as the waters rose, bobbing up and down in the water…
Strange that NOTHING is said about the deaths of those who were not in the ark. God is not after gratuitous violence!
God does not appear to relish the destruction of his own creatures; he judges in an effort to stop the madness.

Read the text Genesis 6:11—8:16

Resonance with what has gone before…

Waltke:
Noah had three sons. …to link Noah with Adam and his three sons, to present Noah as head of the nuclear family, to foreshadow the destiny of Noah and his three sons as the common ancestors of humanity.
Turner:
a) Earth covered by water 1.2a 7.24
b) Wind/spirit moves 1.2b 8.1b
c) Waters recede 1.9a 8.1c-5a
d) Dry land emerges 1.9b 8.5b

The Point…

I. God instructs the righteous to prepare to escape the judgment of the wicked. 6:9-22.
God prepares us to escape the judgment due the wicked by hiding within the Ark.

a. The righteous walk with God, but the wicked corrupt the earth, 9-12.
Waltke
…God wipes out the seed of the Serpent, which had become utterly corrupt. By means of a divinely specified ark God spares the righteous seed of the woman vis-à-vis Noah and his family, and with them his creation in miniature. Noah and his family, having survived the punishing and purging Flood, emerge from the ark to a renewed earth that will last to the end of time as we know it. Tragically, however, Noah and his family again give birth to the seed of the Serpent, though they also perpetuate as the seed of the woman.
…the character of the covenant partners drives the plot. The narrator feels no need to explicitly characterize God as just, merciful, and faithful to his word. God’s actions speak for themselves as he both unleashes the Flood on time and spares Noah in time. it comes as no surprise that God remembers Noah at the pivot.

Gen. 6:9 ¶ This is the account of Noah. ¶ Noah was a godly man; he was blameless ¶ among his contemporaries. He walked with God.
Gen. 6:10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Gen. 6:11 ¶ The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.
Gen. 6:12 God saw the earth, and indeed it was ruined, for all living creatures on the earth were sinful.
We walk with God by reversing the chaos/corruption of the earth.
God can speak and bring order out of chaos, but
We must be in the world in order to set the world back to order.
b. God resolves to make a distinction between the righteous and the wicked, 13-22.
Gen. 6:13 So God said to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy them and the earth.
Gen. 6:14 Make for yourself an ark of cypress wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and out.

Kidner: Ark: ‘chest’ not ship

Gen. 6:15 This is how you should make it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
Gen. 6:16 Make a roof for the ark and finish it, leaving 18 inches from the top. Put a door in the side of the ark, and make lower, middle, and upper decks.
Gen. 6:17 I am about to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. Everything that is on the earth will die,

Allen Ross:
Why would God use a flood to bring judgment?
First, God is sovereign over all creation and frequently uses nature to judge humankind. The sea has always been a symbol of chaos—something that human beings cannot control (Job 38:8-11). But God has power over it and all nature (see Psa. 29, which alludes to the flood).
Second, the great flood would be a most effective way of purging the world—certainly the most graphic. It would wash the earth clean, so that not a trace of the wicked or their wickedness would be found. God thus purified the earth of all but the remnant. Later the law used the terminology of washing with water as a symbol for purging before worship (eg, Lev. 8:6, 21). The NT also drew on these motifs (eg., Titus 3:5).
Third, the flood was used by God to start a new creation. The first creation with Adam was paralleled here by the second with Noah. Just as the dry land appeared from the waters of the chaos in Genesis 1:9, so here the waters abated until the ark came to rest on Ararat. Once Noah and his family emerged from the ark into God’s new creation, he was commissioned to be fruitful and have dominion as Adam had been. The use of a flood that enveloped the whole earth was thus God’s way of beginning again. The narrative of the flood, then, includes the uncreation/re-creation theme.

Gen. 6:18 but I will confirm my covenant with you. You will enter the ark–you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
Gen. 6:19 You must bring into the ark two of every kind of living creature from all flesh, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
Gen. 6:20 Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive.
Gen. 6:21 And you must take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten, and gather it together. It will be food for you and for them.
Gen. 6:22 ¶ And Noah did all that God commanded him–he did indeed.
We show our distinction from the wicked by our work of restoration.

II. The Lord destroys the wicked and their world but saves a remnant through the obedience of one man, 7:1-24.
The Lord suspends his judgment of the wicked while he saves a remnant through the obedience of his sons and daughters.
a. The Lord ensures the deliverance of the righteous from judgment 1-9.
Gen. 7:1 ¶ The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation.
Gen. 7:2 You must take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, the male and its mate, two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate,
Gen. 7:3 and also seven of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of the earth.
Gen. 7:4 For in seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made.”
Gen. 7:5 ¶ And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
Gen. 7:6 ¶ Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed the earth.
Gen. 7:7 Noah entered the ark along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives because of the floodwaters.
Gen. 7:8 Pairs of clean animals, of unclean animals, of birds, and of everything that creeps along the ground,
Gen. 7:9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah, just as God had commanded him.
b. The Lord’s judgment completely destroys the wicked and their world, 10-24.

Gen. 7:10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth.
Gen. 7:11 ¶ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month–on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
Gen. 7:12 And the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
Gen. 7:13 ¶ On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives.
Gen. 7:14 They entered, along with every living creature after its kind, every animal after its kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, everything with wings.
Gen. 7:15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life came into the ark to Noah.
Gen. 7:16 Those that entered were male and female, just as God commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.
Gen. 7:17 ¶ The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth.
Gen. 7:18 The waters completely overwhelmed the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.
Gen. 7:19 The waters completely inundated the earth so that even all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered.
Gen. 7:20 The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains.
Gen. 7:21 And all living things that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind.
Gen. 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
Gen. 7:23 So the Lord destroyed every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived.
Gen. 7:24 The waters prevailed over the earth for 150 days.

III. The delivered “righteous remnant” establishes order in the earth, 8:1-22.
a. God restores his creation after the judgment is complete, 1-19.
NIDOTTE, Gordon Wenham
But just as obvious is the parallel between the original process of creation and the world’s re-creation as described in Gen 8–9. The turning point of the story is 8:1: “God remembered Noah . . . and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.” Here the heaven-sent wind echoes the wind of God hovering over the waters before the first act of creation. And, as in Gen 1, there follows the progressive separation of water from the land: first the mountain tops appear, then the fresh growth of the trees, and eventually the earth was dried out. As God created the animals to swarm and multiply in the earth, so Noah is directed to send them out to do the same again (1:20–22; 8:17).
Waltke:
8:1 REMEMBERED
Unlike English “remembered,” which refers merely to mental recall and entails having forgotten, the Hebrew term, especially with reference to God, signifies to act upon a previous commitment to a covenant partner (see 9:14-15; 19:29; 30:22; Ex. 2:24; 6:5; 32:13; 1 Sam. 1:19; Judg. 16:28; Job 14:13; Ps. 8:4; 9:12; 74:1-3; 98:3; 105:8; 106:45; 111:5; Jer. 15:15). By acting on his earlier promise to Noah (6:18), God shows himself to be a trustworthy ocvenant partner. This crucial expression shows that the subsiding waters of the Flood are subject to God’s undisputed will.
By contrast, in the Babylonian accoutns “the gods were terror-struck at the forces they themselves had unleashed. They were appalled at the consequences of their own actions over which they no longer had congtrol.”

Kidner:
8:7-12 The raven and the dove almost ask to be treated as a parable; indeed the HS, by taking the form of a dove, probably pointed to this episode with its suggestion of that which is sensitive and discriminating, the harbinger of the new creation (this, rather than peace, is the promise of the freshly plucked olive leaf, 11 RSV) and the guide of those who await it. The raven, in contrast, content with its carrion, was no harbinger of anything: its failure to return was as uninformative…

b. The restored remnant acknowledges their gratitude to the Lord in worship, 20-22.

1 June 08 Noahic Covenant & Canaanite Curse
Covenants with Adam, Noah, Abram: be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.

Turner
A Noah and his three sons (6:9-10)
B Violence in God’s creation (6:11-12)
C First divine address: resolution to destroy (6:13-22)
D Second divine address: command to enter ark (7:1-10)
E Beginning of the flood (7:11-16)
F The rising flood waters (7:17-24)
GOD’S REMEMBRANCE OF NOAH (8:1a)
F’ The receding flood waters (81b-5)
E’ The drying of the earth (8:6-14)
D’ Third divine address: command to leave ark (8:15-19)
C’ God’s resolution to preserve order (8:20-22)
B’ Fourth divine address: covenant blessing and peace (9:1-17)
A’ Noah and his three sons (9:18-19)
[adapted from Anderson 1978: 23-39)]

Noah and the Wrath of God

2008-05-20T09:59:00.001-05:00

Noah and God’s Wrath, Gen. 5-6

Introduction:
Many people stop reading the Bible when they come to this story.
We can’t stand the idea of God as judge.
We tend to imagine God as we wish him to be, rather the kindly grandfather who winks at our failures and foibles.
With a little forethought, though, it’s not hard to understand why God’s judgment is an essential prerequisite to our happiness. Not because we are grim, dour Victorians, but more directly than that.

Today, I want to make two points;
first, the problem of human violence leads us to question the justice of God; second, God’s response to human violence is both frightening and reassuring.

Let’s look first at the central statement of the problem in the text.

Gen. 6:5 ¶ But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.

Central Point:
I. The problem of human violence leads us to wonder at the justice of God.
a. “Every inclination of the mind”.
i. That seems a little extreme because we are frogs.
ii. Frogs in a kettle, adjusting to warm, then hot, without noticing what’s going on around us.
b. “Only evil, all the time.”
i. Not me! I’m decent.
ii. Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.: “Treating yourself as your own first cause, and God is your accessory”. When things don’t go your way, you get angry, even with God. God lets you down when things do go as you wish.
iii. Even decent people get caught up in evil systems which have to be judged.
1. Christians were caught up in Nazism.
2. Today, we find ourselves as Christians tangled up in all sorts of enterprises that do harm as well as good.
3. Few Christians would ever say, “Yep, I’ll sell my soul for an extra few thousand a year,” or “Of course, I’ll advance up the banking ladder by excluding loans to the marginalized.”
4. Nietsche: if there is no god, then there can be nothing wrong with violence. If you object to violence, then you are a weak person and by objecting to violence you are doing a power play agasint the strong, putting them in their place. Moral outrage is a moral outrage against power plays.

c. God’s response to human violence comes from his wrath.
i. God feels the pain of our violence.

NIDOTTE
Hitpael form—“feel grieved” which is the basis for God’s action in judgment.

EBC, Sailhamer
In v.6—“the LORD was grieved [wayyinnahem ] that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain [wayyith ‘asseb ]“—the author describes the Lord’s response to man’s wickedness by making a curious wordplay on Lamech’s naming Noah: “He will comfort us [yenahamenu ] in ... the painful toil of our hands” (ume‘isse bon 5:29). Thus in both passages Noah is introduced with wordplays associating his name, “Noah” (noah ), with the “comfort” (niham ) from the grief and pain (‘asab ) caused by man’s rebellion (cf. Cassuto).
By making God the subject of the verbs in v.6, the author has shown that the grief and pain of man’s sin was not something that only man felt. God himself was grieved over man’s sin (v.7). In returning in this way to the role of “comforter” invested in the significance of Noah’s name, the author suggests that not only did Noah bring comfort to mankind in his grief, but also he brought comfort to God.

ii. God promises to take the violence on personally, on himself!

Miraslov Volf’s Exclusion and Embrace.
My thesis is that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance…
My thesis will be unpopular with man in the West…But imagine speaking to people (as I have) whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned, and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit…
Your point to them–we should not retaliate? Why not?
I say–the only means of prohibiting violence by us is to insist that violence is only legitimate when it comes from God…
Violence thrives today, secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take the sword…
It takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge. In a scorched land–soaked in the blood of the innocent, the idea will invariably die, like other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind…
if God were NOT angry at injustice and deception and did NOT make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship.

• If you think that you can forgive someone merely by saying, “I forgive” and you’re done with them, then you have NOT experienced true pain, you have not been truly harmed.
Those who have felt wrenching loss are unable to forgive with a mere toss of the head.

• If you believe that human violence comes from the belief in a vengeful God, then you live in a comfortable suburb.
You will pick up the sword unless you believe that God will.

Tin Keller: “Remove the Divine Judge, you then have no way to deal with human violence.”
You have no INTELLECTUAL DEFENSE, against the naturalness of violence.
No emotional defense against the poison of violence.
No means of preventing the cultural expansion of violence.

The justice of God is the only force that can bring an end to human violence. Of course, the prospect of a wrathful God also induces fear in us!

II. God's wrath is frightening, but reassuring.
a. God’s wrath is frightening because…
If He is God, then He is all powerful.
If He is God, then His judgments are beyond appeal.
b. God’s wrath is reassuring because His vengeance is expressed in justice.
i. If there is no justice, then we have much to fear.
1. God’s wrath is simultaneously present with his mercy.
a. We are complex beings: sometimes angry, sometimes nice; we’re complex, in a word: MOODY.
b. God is a simple being: His wrath and justice are inseparable from his mercy and grace. He is even-keeled, always merciful, always just.

2. God’s justice and God’s mercy must coexist, since he both recoils in pain when violence breaks out, and he acts in judgment at just the right time.

Gen. 6:5 ¶ But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time.

Gen. 6:6 The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

IVP Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
Having said this, however, Scripture makes it clear that God does feel sorrow, and it is in this respect that we turn to the second aspect of the use of this image.
The disobedient actions of people are described as making him sad. So the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was so “grievous” to him that he visited those places with his judgment (Gen 18:20).
The sins of his own people had a similar effect (Ps 78:40).
Isaiah describes them as grieving God’s Holy Spirit by their rebellion (Is 63:10),

ii. If there is justice, then we can forgive.
1. We can release our impulse for revenge.
2. We can find forgiveness possible.

If there is a JUDGE, who has the power, the knowledge, the right to give people what they deserve.
Only then, can you FORGIVE.

Noah and Genealogy

2008-05-17T18:25:00.001-05:00

Noah and His Genealogy
Quotes:
"History is indeed the witness of the times, the light of truth."
Cicero
"The past is never dead. It's not even past." 
William Faulkner
"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it."
George Santayana

The Power of Genealogy

Introduction
We are studying the Story, God’s Story. The story is told through a history of families; those families are grouped into genealogies.
• What are genealogies?
• Why are so many in the Bible? Do I have to read them?
Cain in Gen 4,
Seth in Gen. 5,
Numbers mostly genealogy, a listing of the clans of Israel,
Matthew and Luke: Jesus’

• How do genealogies help us?
Can a family line be changed?
Illus.: Living Rock mums: any hope to change the single mum lifestyle?
Can we help? What can we do when our friends make the same mistakes over and again?

• Why is this offensive or boring?

Why is this offensive or boring?
I. We find genealogies boring and offensive, because
1. Offensive because we are children of the Enlightenment, unbound by the past.
"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it."
George Santayana

2. Boring, because it is someone else’s genealogy, not our own! We are not conscious of the personal connection.

Rom. 11:17 ¶ But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,
Rom. 11:18 do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.

What are genealogies?
II. Genealogies are the record of a family.

Gen. 5:1 This is the record of the family line of Adam. ¶ When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God.
Gen. 5:2 He created them male and female; when they were created, he blessed them and named them “humankind.”

Notice the transition here:
Gen. 5:3 ¶ When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and he named him Seth.
Adam was created in the image of God.
Adam fathered children in his own likeness.

Gen. 5:4 The length of time Adam lived after he became the father of Seth was 800 years; during this time he had other sons and daughters.
Gen. 5:5 The entire lifetime of Adam was 930 years, and then he died.

Such large numbers!!
Refer to blog for discussion of life-spans: Hard Sayings of the Bible…
1. Human beings were created to be immortal.
2. As sin took effect, humans could no longer have children in old age.
3. The form that Genesis 5 and 11 use, with few exceptions, is a stereotypic formula giving the age of the patriarch at the birth of his son, the number of years that he lived after the birth of that son, and then the total number of years that he lived until he died. It is the question of the function of these numbers that attracts our attention here.

Gen. 5:6 ¶ When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh.
Gen. 5:7 Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters.
Gen. 5:8 The entire lifetime of Seth was 912 years, and then he died.
Gen. 5:9 ¶ When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan.
Gen. 5:10 Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan, and he had other sons and daughters.
Gen. 5:11 The entire lifetime of Enosh was 905 years, and then he died.
Gen. 5:12 ¶ When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel.
Gen. 5:13 Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he had other sons and daughters.
Gen. 5:14 The entire lifetime of Kenan was 910 years, and then he died.
Gen. 5:15 ¶ When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared.

Gen. 5:28 ¶ When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son.

Gen. 5:29 He named him Noah, saying, “This one will bring us comfort from our labor and from the painful toil of our hands because of the ground that the Lord has cursed.”
Gen. 5:30 Lamech lived 595 years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters.
Gen. 5:31 The entire lifetime of Lamech was 777 years, and then he died.
Gen. 5:32 ¶ After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
How would you describe your legacy to this time?
Six word biographies. Not Quite What I Was Planning
Scott Birch claims "Most successful accomplishments based on spite."
Quit booze, coffee, cigarettes, women, died.
Shower. Shave. Shine. Work. Sleep. Repeat.
I’m my mother, and I’m fine. K. Bertrand
9 year old Hannah Davies considers herself
"Cursed with cancer. Blessed by friends";

Why are there so many genealogies in the Bible?
III. Genealogies in the Bible are important because the remarkable stories recorded are historical.
a. Genesis is a genealogy:
i. Of the human species.
ii. Of the key people in the species: tables of family lines make the outline.
iii. Of the human condition.

How do genealogies help us?
IV. Genealogies are summaries of God’s purposes expressed through human lives.

Applications:
1. Understand how your genealogy impacts you.
Ex. 20:4 ¶ “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
Ex. 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Ex. 20:6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

EBC:
Children who repeat the sins of their fathers evidence it in personally hating God; hence they too are punished like their fathers.
Moses made it plain in Deuteronomy 24:16: “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.”
The effects of disobedience last for some time, but the effects of loving God are far more extensive: “to a thousand [generations]“ (v.6).

Turner The concluding refrain of each generation is ‘and he died’. Only two deaths have been recorded prior to ch. 5, and both of these were murders (4:8, 23). Here we learn that death is the common human fate, whether through murder or otherwise. The fulfillment of God’s prediction ‘you shall die’ (2,17) may have been delayed, but come it does. Yet not all die!

2. Genealogy matters to those whom we love.
Jonathan Edwards contrasted with a contemporary.
George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards, A Life
[500-01] One famous study…celebrated Edwards’ contribution to the moral character of America through his descendants. The work, published in 1900, contr4asted the character and intelligence of 1,200 descendants of one of his most dissolute contemporaries to those of 1,400 of Edwards’ heirs. The descendants of Max Jukes, a New York Dutchman whose name the researchers changed to protect the guilty, left a legacy that included more than three hundred “professional paupers,” fifty women of ill repute, seven murderers, sixty habitual thieves, and one hundred and thirty other convicted criminals. The Edwards family, by contrast, produced scores of clergymen, thirteen presidents of institutions of higher learning, sixty-five professors, and many other persons of notable achievements.

3. Genealogy is the visible manifestation of our faith.
a. Rom. 4:16 ¶ For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
b. Rom. 4:17 (as it is written, “A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

4. Genealogy cannot be changed from behind, but it can be transformed forward.

a. Cain in Gen. 4; Seth in Gen. 5: POINT: THERE IS ALWAYS A GODLY SEED!!

b. When we are born again, we are born into a new family, with a new lineage. All things are made new. By faith, we can change the trajectory of our family line. Many will rise up and call us blessed because the arc of the story turned in our lifetime.
2Cor. 5:17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away–look, what is new has come!

c. 5:1—made in the image of God,
born in the image of Adam;
being remade in the image of Christ.

Finding the Love of Your Life, Part II

2008-04-27T16:07:00.000-05:00

Finding the Love of Your Life, Part II

Bible is quite clear about marriage: it is difficult to be married, it is difficult NOT to be married.
Jesus didn’t say that fulfillment is only available in marriage!
We cannot find our ultimate fulfillment in marriage, or family, or friendship, or work.
We enjoy the greatest happiness and joy when we choose to Find Jesus as the Love of Our Lives. That was the point I attempted to make last week.
In fact, marriage is a challenging pathway.
* In Canada, the divorce rate is just under 40%.
* You might say, well, why not try it out first as a trial?
Of those who marry in our country, 60% cohabit first.
How do they fare?
Their divorce rate is fifty percent higher!! Just under 60%.
Well, why try? Why not just pair off, forget the marriage license, maybe the wedding itself spoils everything!
* Of those who cohabit without marrying, after 5 years, only 10% remain together.

So, then, what if we do insist on pairing off? How might we avoid catastrophe? Ah, now we can find some help in THE STORY, God’s Story. In that story, marriage is described as God’s invention for the welfare and well-being of humans.

I. Remember Cain:
a. Self-absorption leads to disaster
b. Marriage and children do not compel blessing and approval from God

II. Isaac did not find a wife, so his father, Abraham, sent a servant to seek one, successfully.
a. That marriage lasted.
b. The fruit of that marriage was problematic: Esau & Jacob.

III. Jacob also missed the direction of God in marriage.

NASB95
Gen. 29:9 ¶ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
Gen. 29:10 When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.
Gen. 29:11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept.
Gen. 29:12 Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.
Gen. 29:13 ¶ So when Laban heard the news of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Then he related to Laban all these things.
Gen. 29:14 Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month.
Gen. 29:15 ¶ Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”
Gen. 29:16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
Gen. 29:17 And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face.

NETBIBLE Gen. 29:17 Leah’s eyes were tender, but Rachel had a lovely figure and beautiful appearance.)

31 tn Heb “and the eyes of Leah were tender.” The disjunctive clause (introduced here by a conjunction and a noun) continues the parenthesis begun in v. 16. It is not clear what is meant by “tender” (or “delicate”) eyes. The expression may mean she had appealing eyes (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT), though some suggest that they were plain, not having the brightness normally expected. Either way, she did not measure up to her gorgeous sister.
32 tn Heb “and Rachel was beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance.”

Gen. 29:18 Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Gen. 29:19 Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.”
Gen. 29:20 So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

a. He saw and “loved” Rachel.
b. He was deceived by her father.
c. He would have been Leah’s ideal soul-mate, the fellowship of the unpreferred.

IV. Samson was deceived by his own impulse.
Judg. 14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye.
Judg. 14:2 When he got home, he told his father and mother, “A Philistine girl in Timnah has caught my eye. Now get her for my wife.”

a. He saw a woman from a distance and wanted her.
b. He asked his parents to secure her.
i. The work of the parents is not condemned.
ii. OT parents are commonly committed to seeking an appropriate spouse for their child.
iii. The problem here was that Samson’s parents submitted to Samson’s
c. He was embraced, deceived, shorn, and died for his confusion.

If we cannot find love through lust, then can we find it at all?
V. Paul gave us a remarkable list of traits to pursue as maturing Christ followers.
i. That same list can serve us, then, on our quest to find a mate
ii. That list can serve us as we attempt to guide our friends, our children, our grandchildren, in their quest for a spouse.
b. Titus
i. Older Men
Titus 2:2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in endurance.
ii. Older Women
Titus 2:3 Older women likewise are to exhibit behavior fitting for those who are holy, not slandering, not slaves to excessive drinking, but teaching what is good.

iii. Younger Women
Titus 2:4 In this way they will train the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children,
Titus 2:5 to be self-controlled, pure, fulfilling their duties at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the message8 of God may not be discredited.

iv. Younger men
Titus 2:6 Encourage younger men likewise to be self-controlled,
Titus 2:7 showing yourself to be an example of good works in every way. In your teaching show integrity, dignity,
Titus 2:8 and a sound message that cannot be criticized, so that any opponent will be at a loss, because he has nothing evil to say about us.

c. I Tim 2:8

1Tim. 2:8 So I want the men to pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without anger or dispute.

d. 1 Tim. 2:9
1Tim. 2:9 Likewise the women are to dress in suitable apparel, with modesty and self-control. Their adornment must not be with braided hair and gold or pearls or expensive clothing,
1Tim. 2:10 but with good deeds, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God.

e. What is NOT in the list?
i. Hot
ii. Looks, a “designer spouse”—bilaterally symmetrical
1. Cosmetics: $18Billion a year
2. Botox: $1.3B
iii. Weight
iv. Height
v. Intelligence
vi. Cool
Conclusion:
If we choose friends or a spouse on the basis of superficial elements, then we will be greatly disappointed and will do great harm to the one we “love.”
If we choose friends or a spouse on the basis of character and engagement in kingdom business, then we will find challenge, satisfaction and encouragement, along with the difficulty of living with a fallen creature!

Application:
1. What does this tell you about your quest for a mate?
a. Marriage is about friendship: not sexual intimacy, not having children, not being passionate toward one another. “It is not good for a man to be alone.”
b. Friendship is always about more than the two of you!
Therefore:
c. Physical, financial, social issues are set aside for Traits of character, focus on partnership in the divine Story, the extension of God’s Kingdom.
i. “IN LOVE?” Infatuation/Affection: does not lead to “BEST FRIEND” experience.
ii. SAME FAITH: required for best friend status; or, Jesus cannot be at the centre of your life.
iii. We need to find someone whose CALLING fits with our own: debi felt that she should be a missionary (this is as close as we could get!).
iv. You need to WANT to marry the person you marry. Feelings may follow later.

2. What does this tell you about your attitude towards your spouse?
a. When your spouse is a little slower, a little heavier, a little more unique than you expected him or her to be?
b. Solution: remember why you married, what drew you together, how you loved in the beginning? Chuck Swindol says it all in the title of a book he wrote on the topic: Strike The Original Match.

3. What does this tell you about your investment in your spouse?

4. How important is family & friends to the choosing of a mate?
a. In our culture, we think it best to marry for love; of course, then we can’t seem to stay “in love” so we have a difficult time staying married.
b. We need to get advice from people who know us well.
i. They can see companionship between us.
ii. They can recognize a common calling, compability.

Finding the Love of Your Life

2008-04-21T21:48:00.001-05:00

or. Becoming like the one whom you would want to love for the rest of your life!

Finding the Love of Your Life: Part I

Context: Cain murders Abel, and is charged by God.
He is not killed but cursed and protected by God.

We have much to learn from this narrative:
* As Adam and Eve were cursed, they discovered that blessings accompanied those curses. We, too, will find that the hard things God sends our way are also accompanied by grace. Which of your difficult circumstances might be accompanied by blessing?
* As Cain held back the best of his crop, he put the lie to his offering of dedication. So we, too, are measured by our condition of heart, not merely by the merit of our behaviours.
* We are self-centred, as was Cain; being self-centred is not satisfying, we have a god-shaped vacuum that we cannot fill. We want and need the approval, the blessing of…
Someone who is important to me.
Someone who knows me.

We cannot find the approval, the blessing that we need from another human.

INTRODUCTION:
The top three questions I have been asked:
What’s God will for my life?
Should I marry this person?
Where did Cain find his wife?

Outline:
Gen. 4:17 Cain had marital relations with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city, and he named the city after his son Enoch.

I. Cain found a woman to marry and produce children.
a. Interesting genealogy: his grandsons were the first metalsmiths, instrument-makers, etc., as well as being disreputable.
Lesson: everyone contributes.
b. Interesting question: Where did Cain’s wife come from?
i. No explanation is given in Scripture; that’s the right answer.
ii. Perhaps she was his sister: Whoa, what about incest?
a. Not mentioned here as incestuous.
b. Earliest prohibition called incest as that between parent and child.
c. Marriage between siblings was only forbidden in the Mosaic Law (Lev. 18, 20), centuries later, in dramatic contrast with the Egyptian practice among the Pharoahs.
IVP Hard Sayings of the Bible:
First, if the human race was propagated from a single pair, as we believe the evidence indicates, such closely related marriages were unavoidable. The demand for some other way of getting the race started is an unfair expectation.
In the second place, the notion of incest must be probed more closely. At first the sin of incest was connected with sexual relationships between parents and children. Only afterward was the notion of incest extended to sibling relationships.
By Moses’ time there were laws governing all forms of incest (Lev 18:7–17; 20:11–12, 14, 17, 20–21; Deut 22:30; 27:20, 22, 23). These laws clearly state that sexual relations or marriage is forbidden with a mother, father, stepmother, sister, brother, half brother, half sister, granddaughter, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, aunt, uncle or brother’s wife.
The Bible, in the meantime, notes that Abraham married his half sister (Gen 20:12). Therefore, the phenomenon is not unknown in Scripture. Prior to Moses’ time, incest in many of the forms later proscribed were not thought to be wrong. Thus, even Moses’ own father, Amram, married an aunt, his father’s sister, Jochebed (Ex 6:20). In Egypt, the routine marriage of brothers and sisters among the Pharaohs all the way up to the second century made the Mosaic law all the more a radical break with their Egyptian past.
The genetic reasons for forbidding incest were not always an issue. Close inbreeding in ancient times was without serious or any genetic damage. Today, the risk of genetic damage is extremely high. Since the genetic possibilities of Adam and Eve were very good, there were no biological reasons for restricting marriages to the degree that it became necessary to do later.

iii. She was created for Cain by God, as He had created Adam and Eve.
iv. For those Christians who accept evolution, Cain’s wife may have been one of many other humanoids, evolving toward full human form, as had Adam & Eve; of course, that raises more problems than it solves.
1. If Adam and Eve were the product of evolution, what made them distinct from the other hominids of the day?
2. If Adam and Eve were the first to evolve from a lower hominid, how did they find one another?
3. If this is what happened, then does that not require us to understand the Garden of Eden as only a metaphorical place? After all, why wouldn’t there be other such species, slightly lower, perhaps, who might find their way into the Garden?

II. Cain found a wife, though he was ill prepared to be a husband.
a. Remember that Cain had wrestled with God over his banishment.
i. Cain murdered his brother out of jealousy:
1. Cain had had the blessing of his Mum, Abel was named ‘Whatever.’
2. Cain was distressed by God’s rejection of his offering, compared to Abel’s.
3. God blessed Abel’s, not Cain’s.
4. That left Cain in blessing-deficit!
i. He’d had his mum’s.
ii. He missed God’s.
b. Cain now attempts to gain the blessing of God by taking a wife and producing offspring. The most obvious way to exhibit divine blessing was to “be fruitful and multiply.”
i. Cain found a wife and they multiplied.
ii. But the blessing was more precise than that:
1. Multiply AFTER YOUR KIND.
2. In Adam & Eve’s case, that would have meant godly offspring.
3. In Cain’s case, he reproduced himself biologically and morally, not a good thing.
4. Cain missed the point; sharing the external sign of obedience was not the same as the internal matter of obedience.
III. Cain has placed himself at the centre of his universe, rather than God.
a. He still needs the blessing of God.
b. He doesn’t know how to find it.
When sin entered the world, we became self-centred. Being self-centred does not satisfy the emptiness that we have.
c. Cain sought the blessing appropriate to the firstborn.
IV. What is the blessing of the firstborn? A blessing is not merely words!
i. Someone Important loves you.
ii. Someone Significant knows you.
iii. Someone Essential delights in you.
iv. Someone Central enjoys you.
v. Someone Powerful who embraces you.

Transition: There is nothing and there is no one who can make us whole and healthy besides God himself.
God uses friends, family, and partners to move us forward, to bring us happiness, but when we put one of them in that empty place in our souls, we make them an idol.

Isaac desired a wife, a wife he could not find. Finding a mate is a great thing.
Isaac’s brokenness was made plain by his helplessness in that quest. God directed his father’s servant to successfully find Rebekkah.

Gen. 2: It is not good for a man to be alone.

Prov. 18:22 He who finds a wife finds what is good
and receives favor from the LORD.

Jacob desired a wife; when he met Rachel, the fulfillment of his dreams seemed near.
Unfortunately, Jacob was seeking something more profound than merely a mate. He was seeking blessing, the sort of blessing that we all long for, but that can come only from God himself.
In Jacob’s case, God used his father-in-law, Laban, to highlight Jacob’s own brokenness. Jacob, who had deceived his own father to gain his father’s blessing, discovered that the blessing he had stolen was empty.
He is now deceived by his faith-in-law, who gave him Leah instead of Rachel.

Both of these characters were hungry for approval and blessing.
Both were looking for a mate to make them feel loved, secure, and significant., etc., all things that a first-born should know and experience.

Both were blessed by God, but they did not fully enjoy that blessing.

CONCLUSION
What about us? Many of us are looking for this blessing, this approval, this embrace, from a friend, a mate, a parent.
We are like Fievel: We are certain that there is someone OUT THERE, beneath the pale moonlight, THINKING OF ME and loving me tonight.

The only place you can find this blessing, this approval, this embrace is from God himself, no mere human can do this for you or to you. There is an experiential element to our salvation…

Rom. 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Rom. 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
This is our birthright. You can ask God for this confirmation.

When we come to faith in him, the scripture says that his spirit baptizes us into Christ.

When you come to that point, where you have set aside this self-centred quest, then you can say with the Psalmist…

Psa. 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
Psa. 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

That is wholeness, that is how healing feels.
That is the
Someone Important who loves you.
Someone Significant who knows you.
Someone Essential who delights in you.
Someone Central who enjoys you.
Someone Powerful who embraces you.

We go to the firstborn of all creation, we become part of his family. His family is the only one that consists of all firstborn children.

Heb. 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,
Heb. 12:23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,
Heb. 12:24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

The only way we can be a part of this church of the firstborn is to have our names written in heaven by the Firstborn of many brothers and sisters, Jesus himself.
Col. 1:15 ¶ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Application:
1. If you never received this blessing from your family, know that most of us who did have functional families still missed out on this most intimate of blessings, this deepest sort of approval that comes only from God himself.
2. If you are married, you have probably made the mistake of looking for blessing, soul-affirmation from your mate; back off, drop the demands. Acknowledge to them now that it’s not his or her fault that you are yet unfulfilled.
3. If you are not married, don’t think that this longing is wrong, God did make you for himself; singleness is okay since Jesus.
4. If you expect to marry, don’t be discouraged at your progress; a close friend, a life-mate can help you on your journey, you don’t have to be perfect in order to marry.
We will address that more next week.

So, who IS the Love of your life???
Speak in your heart of hearts, now to…
Someone Important who loves you.
Someone Significant who knows you.
Someone Essential who delights in you.
Someone Central who enjoys you.
Someone Powerful who embraces you.