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Genesis 18-19 – Sermon Manuscript

-I grew up as a pastor’s kid, which meant we were dragged along to church people’s home ALL the time! What was hard was that not every one of these people had kids my age, and all the parents wanted to do was talk. Those afternoons where my parents spent talking to each other dragged on FOREVER. On top of that, we lived in Minot, ND, and people didn’t necessarily live close, so after sitting in a chair listening to the adults talk all afternoon, then we had at least a 30-minute drive BACK home!

-But here’s the thing: every single one of those people who had us over cared. They loved my parents, me, and my sisters, and still care about us to this day. In fact, I went back to this church shortly after Calvin was born with no warning, and one of the people whose house wasn’t so fun when I was younger took my family out for lunch again that day, and this time we were the ones talking while Calvin sat around waiting.

-It’s a long text today, so we’re going to jump right in, but as we read keep the idea of hospitality in the back of your mind.

READ/PRAY

  1. Abraham’s Intercession (18:1-33)

-We’re back to Abraham, the focal point of this whole story, and through whom the entire world will eventually be blessed. Lots to cover today, but since it’s 1 long story I thought it was important for us to keep it all connected, but this could easily be 3 sermons, so if I don’t adequately cover something that you have a question about, send me an email!

-Not sure how long this is after the events of last chapter, seems to be pretty close to the same timeframe, since the promise of Isaac’s arrival is the same time as last week, meaning Abraham is 99.

-Cultural norms didn’t allow a patriarch, much less one who leads a tribe to run, much less bow to anyone. Yet here is Abraham bucking all conventional norms and running, and he begs them to stay with him for a bit.

-Some debate/confusion about who these men are because if you look at vs. 1 it says “The Lord” but then in vs. 2 it says “three men,” and it’s easy for us who have the NT to look at this and jump to the Trinity, but that’s jumping ahead a little bit too far. And to make it even more confusing, sometimes they’re all described as talking (vs. 5b, 9), and sometimes it’s just the Lord talking (10), then to compound it even more when you get to 19:1 then there’s 2 men described as 2 angels. 

-My proposal (as of now and subject to change): God has come to earth in human form with 2 angels. The 3 together serve as a reflection of the triune God. My reasoning for that is based on a couple texts:  Gen. 3:8 says that the Lord would come down and walk in the garden with Adam & Eve in the cool of the night. The second is Ex. 34:29 where it describes Moses’ face as glowing because he spent time with the Lord, similar to Jesus when His glory is revealed during the transfiguration. What that shows us is those that spend time with God will end up reflecting Him, so angels who are in God’s presence all the time will similarly reflect the triune God. This would make sense that the 3 come to spend time with Abraham, then 2 of them go on to Sodom (the angels), while the Lord stays back to continue talking to Abraham. Another piece for us to realize is the divide between spiritual and physical is much less significant to Abraham. We tend to create this sharp distinction in our minds between “sacred” and “secular” (material vs. immaterial), but I would argue that’s not the way the Bible talks about spiritual matters. If you watched The Bible Project’s videos through the sermon on mount you’ve seen a glimpse of this, it shows people doing acts, but then creatively transitions to a different color scheme to show the spiritual reality of the physical event. All that to say, for Abraham it wouldn’t have been weird to have God visiting him.

-One textual note for you: if you look carefully at your Bible you’ll see that in some places the word “Lord” is in all caps but smaller font. There are a few different ways in Hebrew of referring to Lord, so when it’s all caps it’s the divine name “Yahweh,” if you look at vs. 3 Abraham uses the word “Adonai,” and those 2 terms will be used pretty often in this section!

-Abraham sees these men and immediately throws open his doors to them, inviting them to not just eat with him, but he throws a feast!

-Has Sarah make the best bread they can, he gets a choice calf, the pick of the lot for these men. Then he adds to it with curds and milk, and notice who the waiter is: Abraham. “He served them.”

-The conversation goes back to the same topic the Lord has been having with Abraham throughout the story: the children of the covenant. And remember what I said last week about laughing? Now Sarah hears the Lord’s promise (doesn’t note if she didn’t know, or if she didn’t believe Abraham), but now she laughs, note “to herself”.

-And since she’s in the presence of the Lord, he asks why. And Sarah lies! To the Lord, the one who knows everything! And then she doubles down on it, and He calls her out again!

-After this exchange between Sarah and the Lord, the men go look over to Sodom with Abraham.

-And here the Lord asks (almost to Himself) if He should hide His plans from Abraham. Remember what we just saw in Sarah? Lying. Remember what we’ve seen in Abraham’s life before? Lying! The Lord is modeling for Abraham what it means to be in covenant with God: no lying. Be open and honest with each other in a way that allows for a close relationship.

-So God tells Abraham that the outcry is terrible, their sin is very great, so He’s going to go observe for Himself, which means He’s going to send His angels as His emissaries to scope it out, leaving Abraham and the Lord alone.

-Since Abraham has just seen the Lord demonstrate the need for honesty in His covenant, Abraham decides to be honest with the Lord. Look at vs. 25: God is the judge of the whole earth, but He’s also just. These 2 things together bring comfort because God doesn’t grade on curve, but every single one of His actions is completely just. God doesn’t just destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because He’s heard they’re terribly sinful, He goes to see for Himself if it’s true. Think of what David says in Psalm 103. God isn’t fickle, He’s not sitting back waiting for us to mess up, He’s slow to anger and overflowing with faithful love.

-But at the same time, sin MUST be dealt with! It’s committing cosmic treason against the Holy God, and what’s amazing is the scales of sin vs. righteousness are completely unfair, but not in the way we tend to think. Let’s follow the passage here:

-Abraham begins by asking about 50 people, which the Lord says He would spare the city for 50, then down to 45, 40, 30, 20, 10 and the Lord acquiesces each time. 

-I don’t know about you, but as I read this growing up I was always amazed by the boldness of Abraham. Who does he think he is?! But the reality is Abraham knows God better than I do! And Abraham didn’t go low enough. See, in God’s plan for the salvation of the world, it only take 1 righteous person to cover the sins of the world. Abraham knew that better than I do, and I live as the recipient of that new covenant reality!

  • Lot’s Lot (19:1-38)

-The story now shifts to the story of the 2 angels who make it to Sodom, and Abraham’s nephew Lot. Remember the trajectory we’ve seen of Lot: he chose to live near Sodom because it looked beautiful like the garden of Eden, then in Gen. 14 we read that Lot was living IN Sodom, and now he’s in the gateway (entrance to the city), where the leaders of the city would conduct their business. 

-Lot proceeds to coerce these men to stay in his house, and there’s some scholars that argue this description of a feast should be in scare quotes, because Lot doesn’t even take the time to bake real bread for them. Then after this “feast,” it says the mean of the city surround Lot’s house and demand Lot send out these 2 new men, and his response is fascinating:

-Instead of looking to protect and preserve his family, Lot throws out his 2 daughters to be abused by this crowd. Just as Abraham had offered up his wife, Lot is demonstrating where his heart is.

-But the crowd won’t take the offer: they call him an alien who’s sitting in judgment on them, and now suddenly Lot is in the crosshairs of this mob. 

-So the angels intervene, pulling Lot back in and striking the crowd with blindness (again see the thin line between physical and spiritual here, the crowd had just been pushing against the door and the angels somehow prevent them from being able to find what was literally right in front of their eyes). Then warn Lot about what exactly is going to happen, and we learn something else about his daughters: they were engaged, and despite Lot’s warning these future sons-in-law think Lot is a big jokester (perhaps Lot has been influenced by Abraham’s lying previously, too?).

-And these events are taking place over the course of a night, because as soon as the next morning begins Lot is encouraged to flee the punishment that is about to come, and look at Lots’ response in 16

-This is a picture of the way we dabble with sin. We hesitate to completely obey God because we’ve become enticed by the sin, blinded (like the mob) to the ways it’s destroying us. And as we’ll see explicitly in just a few verses, by placing himself in Sodom, Sodom had begun to place itself in the heart of Lot making him desire the things of Sodom instead of desiring what God wants for him. So the angels shake Lot out of his stupor and take Lot and his family outside the city and command them to run away, to not look back and not stop or else they will be punished like the city.

-But just like Abraham questions God, Lot questions the angels and asks if he can flee to a nearby city, Zoar which means “little place”

-And as soon as Lot reaches the “little place” Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, along with the entire plain, all the people, and everything that grows on the ground, complete and utter destruction. And unfortunately, Lot’s wife looks back (1 translation: longingly), and just as the land of Sodom and Gomorrah becomes a salt plain, she becomes a pillar of salt.

-There have been some big questions today about why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it’s literally where we get the term “sodomy” from after all! 

-But the current cultural winds have attempted to throw doubt on these cities being destroyed because of sexual sin, in fact some have even attempted to argue that we’ve been translating vs. 5 wrong this whole time. The verb is “to know,” which doesn’t have to mean sex, but if you look at vs. 8 I think that argument loses some steam. 

-There are other texts that say they were punished for their lack of hospitality, particularly Ezek. 16and Luke 10. Yet Jude 7 reminds us of this truth, so it was certainly for more than sexual perversion, but it wasn’t less than that. That was a marker of a whole host of other sins they were committing, of which homosexuality was just one.

-The story then shifts back to Abraham and sees the destruction of the cities that the Lord had warned him about, demonstrating that there weren’t even 10 righteous people found, God only found 4 (and then 3)

-This is a brief glimpse at the blessing that comes to others through Abraham. Lot is saved because of the intercession of his uncle, Lot is blessed because of Abraham.

-Unfortunately the story doesn’t end here, because this would have been a great ending. But Lot doesn’t stay in the city that he fled to, instead he goes up to the mountains alone with his daughters. Maybe he fears the destruction of this city as well, maybe he’s grieving, the text doesn’t say. What it does say is what the consequences are:

-The daughters (had been engaged), decide to take matters into their own hands, getting Lot so drunk that he is able to be taken advantage of by his oldest daughter.

-And then the same thing happens the next day! I don’t know how drunk you need to be to not know what happened, but Lot reached that point 2 nights in a row! The sin that was prevalent in Sodom had followed his family even to the mountains. And the sin that marked Noah as a failure (drunkenness) had been passed down to Lot, too. Failures all around! I do wonder if this was some sort of twisted revenge from them after he had offered up his daughter to the mob.

-And the consequences of these actions are that both of the daughters become pregnant by their father, so Lot becomes the father of his grandsons. 

-Yet what is an absolutely disgusting story and evidence of the failure of Lot becomes the means by which salvation will come to the world, because this is where the Moabites originate from, and later on in the OT we have an account of a very specific Moabite woman named Ruth who was the great grandmother of King David. Then if you turn to Matt. 1 you’ll find the Ruth’s name appear again, but this time in the genealogy of Jesus. So if you didn’t have this incestuous relationship here in Genesis, you wouldn’t have David, and you wouldn’t have Jesus. Isn’t it amazing how God can take the broken and sinful things in the world and redeem them? 

-So what in the world do we do with a story like this? Definitely not going to be made into a Disney film and has some incredibly depraved things that take place in here. 

-I think first of all we need to remember how broken and depraved we are apart from God’s work in our lives. God’s redeeming love can bring beauty out of the most horrendous stories and situations. That doesn’t mean it’s easy or that the sin doesn’t have consequences, but these stories are in here to depict the realities of sin and the ways people willingly chase after and live in it. But praise God that there is a way to be righteous: to have Jesus’ righteousness given to us on our behalf. In 2 Peter 2:7Lot is described as righteous, but we’ve seen in this text that he was anything but! His righteousness had to come from someone else, someone who didn’t hesitate.

-Which gets us to the second piece to take away, don’t become complacent in your fight against sin. Lot looked at the world through a purely materialistic lens and chose the place of sin to plant himself, which then got worse and worse in his life to the point where he loses his wife and becomes his grandkids father. Friends, how often are we placing ourselves in situations where it’s easier for us to give in to sin and that slowly eats away at us? Really practically, I see this taking place with people’s relationship to the church. It takes time and effort to remain involved and invested in the family of God, yet how often do people not even consider the church when they think about where they’ll live or work? We had a family at the church I was at in CO decide to move to a small town in Idaho for a better job with better pay, and after they moved they couldn’t find a church and a year later started calling one of the other pastors on staff for help in their marriage and family because they had no support system around them. And they’re not that unique, unfortunately. A book came out 2 years ago titled ‘The Great Dechurching’ that did one of the biggest surveys of people who left church and the biggest reason was because people got busy and then never got plugged back in. The good news is most of the people who were asked said they would love to go back if someone invited them! So friends, invite your neighbors! Easter’s coming up, that’s a great time to invite others to join you!

-Third and finally, we’ve seen the example of the need for Christians to be hospitable. Many people believe the author of Hebrews is alluding to this passage in Heb. 13. But this command is also repeated by Peter and Paul, so when you add all these passages together, you’re left with an explicit command: be hospitable! Look for ways to be a blessing to others, even your home isn’t supposed to be just for you, it’s supposed to be a refuge for those battered by the storms of life. There’s a lot of needy people out there, and not just materially! People can be spiritually impoverished but materially wealthy, and God care about them too. So what are you doing to be hospitable? What is 1 step you can take today to be more hospitable and be a blessing to those nearby you? Arrive ministries needs financial help, youth group who made blessing bags to hand out to homeless people when they’re driving 

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by mikethestrand on March 16, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on March 16, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/03/16/genesis-18-19-sermon-manuscript/

Genesis 17 – Sermon Manuscript

-Have you ever been a part of a club that had a secret sign? In my early 20s, I found out I accidentally had joined a club that had a specific sign, but no one told me what that sign was, so I kept getting dirty looks when I was participating in it and didn’t realize. Shortly after I graduated from college I bought a motorcycle, and no, my mom was NOT happy about it!

-But I soon discovered that there is this thing called a “motorcycle wave” but it’s not at all like a normal wave, there’s a very specific way of waving whilst driving the motorcycle (and keep in mind how many things you’re also trying to manage: throttle in the right hand, brake with the left hand, shifting with your foot, another brake with your other foot), the motorcycle was is 2 fingers angled down at 45 degrees, like this. Once I learned the “code” I was off to the races, and an official motorcycle driver! Since then, I’ve learned that Jeeps have wave, VW Bugs have little flowers in their cars, and Texas Tech Red Raiders like to shoot em up.

-Today’s text is like learning the code to enter a club, but this club is being a part of God’s chosen covenant people. Let’s read:

READ/PRAY

  1. God’s Commitment (1-8)

-Left off last week with Abram being 86 when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, now we’re jumping ahead 13 years to another pivotal moment in Abram’s life. But once again, don’t forget that we’re reading a condensed account of his life. We moved 1 verse and jumped ahead 13 years!

-And based on what we read last week, I’m guessing they weren’t the easiest 13 years of Abram’s life: contention between Hagar and Sarai, trying to care for and raise his son, who’s not related to his wife. Yikes!

-So Abram’s closing in on his centennial birthday, and God once again appears to him. Some weird phrasing:

-Begins with who He is (God Almighty) proceeds to an ethical command for Abram, literally tells Abram to walk before Him and be blameless. This phrasing has been used before to describe someone else in the Genesis story:

-Noah was described the same way, so Abram is following in the line of God’s chosen people: being called by God, declared righteous, blameless in character, and walking with God. 

-I want to take some time to think about that reality, because I think it’s a piece that has been glossed over or dismissed in our world today, and that is the imperatives of the gospel. I would argue that we’ve nailed the indicatives, but to the neglect of the imperatives. And if you didn’t realize you were coming to an English lesson today, just wait and it will make sense!

-An indicative is a fact, imperative is a command, and the Bible has both. An example of an imperative is: Jesus died for you, or Noah was a righteous man. The imperative is seen with Abram: walk in front of me and be blameless. And that’s also true of us today, because if we are saved, then we are declared righteous, we are made holy, but then we also are commanded to live differently, to live lives that are marked by that righteousness. I love the way Paul talks about this in Gal. 5: Do you see the indicatives and imperatives here? Just as there are some truths given to Abram, there are some truths given to us: those who have been saved belong to Christ Jesus, we have crucified the flesh, but the imperative is: walk by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit.

-I don’t know about you, but when I hear that, I think of my kids whose steps are significantly shorter than mine. When I take them shopping with me I regularly need to look back and encourage them to keep up! That’s not at all what is intended by Paul here, the imagery isn’t us running to keep up, a better picture would be when I go on walks with just Cara and don’t have to try to prod our kids to hurry up! We are able to keep in step with each other, enjoying the company, the time, the conversation. That’s what Paul means here: working together for the same goal, which in the case of the Spirit is becoming more like Jesus. I think you even see that with Abram here, God tells Abram to walk in front of God, which means God has his back, Abram can’t get away from Him, but there’s also the imperative to Abram: be blameless. Live a holy and set apart life. The indicative LEADS to the imperative, but the imperative will never get you to the indicative. Friends, we are all called to live a blameless life, but if you try doing it in your own power and strength apart from the Spirit you’ll constantly be falling short. Live a holy life, but do it by relying on God. This is why the outline to this sermon is so important: it begins with God’s commitment, but then moves to see what He commands His people to do. You can’t separate those 2 things, if we are saved it must lead to holy living.

-Why does God then go on to say He will set up His covenant, hasn’t He already done that? Yes, but He continues to reiterate and further explain the implications of the covenant. And Abram responds correctly: falling facedown in worship (this time), and God promises Abram that he will become the father of many nations, which requires a name change.

-Abram means exalted father, Abraham means father of a multitude. His first name looks back to his past, most likely the exalted father was Abram’s father Terah, but now God has picked him out from all the other peoples of the earth and is shifting the focus from his past to his future as now every time someone calls out his name it’s a reminder of God’s promise to him.

-Not only that, but God will fulfill His promises: Abraham will be fruitful, nations and kings will come, and this covenant will be passed down to the generations that come from Abraham, nothing can change that! Abraham’s blessing will happen: land, seed, and blessing. Just like what Adam & Eve were given back in the beginning: a perfect garden to care for, offspring to help them fill the earth, and the blessing of everything they could need in perfect relationship with God and each other. Abraham is supposed to be a new Adam, starting over with a new people in a new place to be God’s representatives on earth.

-But just as in Eden, there are stipulations, requirements that God has for Abraham:

  • God’s Commands (9-16)

-Here the stipulation isn’t to avoid eating from 1 tree, it’s to practice circumcision. If you don’t know what circumcision is, I’ll let you ask someone sitting nearby you!

-Circumcision is meant to be the marker of God’s people here. Every male is commanded to go through the process, and there’s even a time stipulated: 8 days. This is meant to point us back to creation because what happens on the 8th day? Correct, nothing! It’s meant to signify a new creation (which is also why Jesus is raised on the 8th day, reinterpreting even this act). And it’s supposed to be an act that everyone does who is brought into this people, slaves, family members, no one is left out.

-And the Lord goes on to say why this is significant. Yes, it’s a physical act, but that physical act signifies a spiritual reality. Just as God’s covenant with Abraham is permanent, so the sign of the covenant is permanent. 

-And there’s also negative implications to anyone who doesn’t obey these markers: just as the foreskin is cut of in the act of circumcision, so anyone who does not obey this sign of the covenant will be cut off from his people. If someone refuses to identify themselves with God, God will refuse to identify Himself with them. The marker that you belong to God is circumcision.

-And just as Abram’s name was changed, now it’s time for his wife: Sarai to Sarah, not a major change and both words mean the same thing: princess or queen. What is unique is there is some evidence that Sarai would have been the spelling in Ur, Sarah would have been the spelling in Canaan, shifting their focus from the past to the future. God is changing their primary allegiances and planting them in a new land so that they can have their children and be blessed.

-And remember, the most important thing we’ve learned about Sarah so far is that she’s barren, but now God says specifically that she will give birth to a son.

-How does Abraham respond? This is where we go back to God’s commitment to Abraham:

  • God’s Commitment, Part 2 (17-22)

-Once again, Abraham falls facedown, but this time he laughs, and that laughing idea is going to be a minor theme to pay attention to for the next couple of chapters, so find some way to make a note in your mind about laughing for the next few weeks. 

-This time, Abraham laughs and mutters under his breath instead of talking to God, because Abraham is looking at his life and realizing that what God’s promised here seems impossible. Abraham is almost 100, his wife is a young and spry 90.

-Let me tell you how absolutely miserable that sounds! After surviving the sleepless nights of babies, I have zero desire to go back to the infant days, and I can only imagine that will be even more true the older I get! Having babies is a young man’s game. And I can only imagine how Abraham felt about that idea! So then Abraham says to God: what about my son?

-And God answers that taking matters into his own hands isn’t the correct way to receive God’s blessing. Not only will Sarah have a son, but his name is also supposed to be Isaac, which means “he laughs,” so where Abraham laughs in disbelief, his son will be a constant reminder of God’s provision. And the laughing son is the one who will continue the covenant line, not Ishmael. Ishmael will still be blessed by God, but only materially.

-And that’s an alarming place to be, and something that God threatens throughout the rest of the OT: His people can have His blessing, but He won’t go with them. And friends, is that ever true of you too?

-How often do we only consider our Christianity in comparison to all the other things people could try? That’s some of where our evangelism is difficult today because we’re just 1 in a myriad of competing options. The way people often respond is “I’m glad that worked for you, but here’s what’s working for me.” And how often do we just fall into that same temptation? We’re following Jesus because it seems to just work for us. But what do you do then when things get difficult, or following Jesus no longer seems to be working? Don’t forget that Jesus is the King, we spent an entire year last year looking at that reality in Revelation, where we see the point of this story, what it’s ultimately pointing to is a child coming from Abraham who will be a blessing to the entire world because He provides a way for people to be reconciled to the one true and living God! But that doesn’t come about through our efforts or work, it’s only by being obedient to Him. Ishmael serves as an example of God’s blessing apart from His presence, which isn’t worth anything in eternity, and is a reminder that what the world chases after isn’t the same as the things God wants for His people. And then God leaves after this promise.

  • God’s Commands, Part 2 (23-27)

-And Abraham obeys, at least this time! And one thing to note about this process is that Abraham is completely entrusting himself to God for this to work out. The very means by which Abraham will be able to have descendants is at risk of being cut off with an errant stroke of a knife, but he’s slowly learning to trust God.

-Now I’m not sure how this conversation would go with the rest of his people, but Abraham convinces them all to be obedient, I can just picture every guy going “you want us to do WHAT?!” But they’re all obedient to Abraham, and ultimately to God’s commands which is a good example for us to follow too: we should look to obey what God commands us to do, even if it doesn’t make sense.

-But that gets us to 2 primary responses for us from this text: the first is that you can do all the things God commands without being a part of God’s covenant people, and the second is the command for all to be circumcised, just not a physical circumcision. We’ll look at both of those ideas in turn

-First, the need to obey God as a fruit and not as the root.

-The temptation for every human is to obey God to try to get something from him. We look at the rules as a burden instead of a gift, as the means by which we stay as God’s covenant people, but that’s not the intent. The rules are the way God has ordered the world so it’s His gift to us to help us understand how to function and flourish as God intended the world to operate, and the reality is until our hearts are transformed it’s going to feel like a heavy burden. But when Jesus comes, He tell us that His yolk is easy and His burden is light, and it is, but only when you’ve been brought spiritually from death to life. Then those rules that felt like an unfair burden suddenly become our desires, meaning they’re the fruit of a transformed life. And that’s what we see in Ishmael: his obedience doesn’t make him a part of God’s covenant people, nor does it lead to a transformed heart.

-The second is the command for all of us to be circumcised, but not in the way this passage talks about!

-The point of circumcision wasn’t just the physical act, because just a few books later, look at what God commands His people: Deut. 10

-Again, we see God’s commands to be holy and walk in the ways of the Lord, and the way to do that is by obeying God’s commands. But then notice what God says about circumcision: don’t circumcise your body, circumcise your hearts! This tells us the point of circumcision has always been to have a transformed heart (in the OT that’s referring to your inner most being). That is being sensitive to following and obeying God.

-And Paul picks up this idea in Rom. 4 when he talks about righteousness not coming through external observance of the law, but through faith! Notice that Paul makes an explicit connection to the timing of Abraham being declared righteous and circumcision, and the reason Paul states this is because of the division in the early church. The early church became fixated on circumcision as the sign of the covenant, to the point that unless a male was circumcised he was viewed as not truly being a part of God’s people.

-Which leads to Paul getting so frustrated in Galatians that he says this: Gal. 5. Friends, at this point in salvation history, circumcision has no bearing on anything. What matters now, and what Paul says is “faith working through love” other translations state this as “faith expressing itself through love.” 

-When we’re tempted to look to our external obedience, or add markers to be “better” this is a reminder than nothing we do adds to our holiness, what we’re called to be is circumcised in the heart, and just as this was meant to be a permanent marker, so is our salvation meant to be a permanent marker where we now live differently because of the faith we now have.

-Because circumcision doesn’t matter anymore, we now have new markers of God’s people, which Paul summarized here as faith expressing itself through love. But God has also given us new habits that mark us out: baptism and communion.

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by mikethestrand on March 9, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on March 9, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/03/09/genesis-17-sermon-manuscript/

Genesis 15 – Sermon Manuscript

-One of the amazing things about having kids is realizing that they are born sinners! It’s not something I teach them, apart from my own sinful struggles! And you start to see the way they each have their own unique temptations from a young age.

-For example, my twins are currently learning how to disobey at 16 months! It’s been slowly building up in them, but as of now, Thomas is GREAT at throwing fits when he doesn’t get exactly what he wants, and what he wanted all weekend was to be downstairs where I’m still trying to finish it, so if the downstairs door closed with him on the other side of it he went ballistic! Throwing himself on the floor, screaming, crying.

-Charlie is our adventurous twin who loves climbing up on everything, the problem is he also often falls down from where he climbed, or gets stuck between two things (like the chair and the table) because he can’t think further ahead than right now. Where it gets hard is when we repeatedly tell him NO and he continues doing whatever he wants! All of this means that in addition to learning how to disobey, they’re also starting to learn Newton’s third law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction! Climbing means you may get stuck, disobeying means there will be discipline.

-And the hard thing to communicate to children is that it continues even for adults! There are consequences to everything we do, some of the consequences are positive while others are negative. Each decision brings us either closer to the Lord or further away from Him. Today’s text demonstrates for us the means by which God saves His people: by taking all the negative consequences on Himself.

READ/PRAY

-If you haven’t been here for this series, here’s what we’ve learned of Abram so far:

-Grew up as an idol worshipper, yet was called out by God to begin a new people, which started with Abram leaving his friends, family, and lands, and going to a new place

-God promises to bless Abram with land, seed, and blessing, and that through Abram the entire world would be blessed. So far we’ve seen the land become barren, his wife is barren, and the blessing is supposed to come through seed.

-Last week was Abram’s Aragorn moment: let’s go hunt some giants! Rescued Lot and his family from destruction, is blessed by Melchizedek (Christ-like figure)

  1. The Reward of the Lord (1-6)

-After these events: doesn’t say how long after, we know from Gen. 12 that Abram was 75 when the first call came, then in 17:4 he’s 99, so these events are occurring sometime over a 24-year period. 

-Friends, have you ever wavered in your faith or confidence in God over the last 24 years? 24 years ago I was living in ND, unaware that I’d be moving to MN in a year and have my entire life upended! (I was 12, so it didn’t take much to upend my life) But I say that to keep in mind that we’re seeing decades of life over the course of just a couple chapters here, it’s good to see the ups and downs of his life, but don’t jump to judging him (at least too quickly, next week is a pretty dark moment in his life)

-The word of the Lord came: this becomes a theme in the rest of the OT, Abram is the first in the line of prophets who receive words from the Lord Himself! This is pointing to one of the ways we’re supposed to see themes emerging as we read Scripture where God gives His people glimpses or pictures of what’s to come. Jesus comes and fills the 3 roles necessary to approach God: prophet to speak on His behalf, priest mediate the way between God and humanity, and king to rule over God’s kingdom. Here we’re seeing Abram in the line of the priests, but we’ll also see God promise to have kings come from him, and Abram’s priestly role in just a couple chapters where the Lord tells a pagan king that Abram can interceded on behalf of this king.

-But what God says is emphasizing that God is giving Abram Himself, in light of the deliverance from the kings of last chapter (who may be tempted to come back again, which would be normal at this time!) 

-That’s why God begins with shield. God will protect and preserve Abram from even future invading forces. Abram doesn’t need to be afraid if God is on his side

-But there’s still some doubt in Abram’s mind. How would he receive a reward if he has no children?

-One thing to note is that Abram isn’t chastised for these questions. In some cases when people question God it’s called out as a negative thing, a demonstration of a lack of faith. But that’s not this case. One of the best prayers recorded in the Bible is in Mark 9:24. A father brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus and says “If you can do anything, please help us!” Jesus replies, “If you can? Everything in possible for one who believes.” The father replies: 

-Friends, what areas of your life are you struggling to believe that God is good and wants good for you in? Where do you need to cry out to the Lord and ask for Him to help your unbelief? There’s a reason God meets here with Abram to remind Him of His promises, and many times God will meet someone at whatever their deepest hurt or perceived need is.

-Abram here is worried about being childless, that’s a major issue in the 2ndmillennia BC. No nursing homes, no social security to depend on, who’s going to take care of Abram and Sarai in their old age? It was the custom to choose an heir, in response to them caring for you, they would receive your inheritance after they died, which is what they had done! How does God respond?

-Nope! That’s not what I said! “One who comes from your own body.”

-Some debate about how many covenants are in the Bible, what events should be included, who did God make a covenant with? Adam, Noah, Abram, Moses, David. But as careful readers of the text, this language will come up again:

–2 Sam. 7:12 “come from your body,” aligning David’s covenant with Abram’s covenant, they all keep building on each other! What this tells us is God always keeps His promises. God is a covenant making, and a covenant keeping God. Whatever God says He will do! So trust Him!

-To demonstrate just how expansive his generosity to Abram will be, God invites Abram outside and tells him to count the stars.

-Last week was trying to count dust, has anyone ever tried to count stars? Quick Google search tells me that the most you can see on a dark night would be about 2,000 stars, but we so often can’t see the stars because of light pollution, but if you’ve even gone up north you’ll see some incredible views! Here’s one I took at Shamineau this Fall. If we took enough time we could count them, but that’s not what God is saying, He’s saying His plans are far greater than Abram could even imagine, and the promise to Abram even continues down to us today! We’re included in that numbering. See Abram’s only thinking about 1 generation, WAY too small! Instead he should be thinking of hundreds of generations that would come after him!

-But he believes, and I would assume asks God for help with his unbelief. And this verse becomes a key theme for the argument Paul makes in the book of Romans. Paul is working to answer the question: if we’re all sinners, how are we justified (made right) before a holy God? It can’t be through our works, because we could never do enough good works to achieve salvation. Instead it has to come from outside of us, an alien righteousness that is given to us, or as this text says “credited to him.” The means by which this righteousness is given is through belief. That’s the only way to be credited as righteous, it comes through faith, that is belief in God alone. 

-And Paul uses this example in Abram to tell us that this promise is as true for us today as it was for Abram 5,000 years ago. Being in right standing before God hasn’t ever changed, the means by which you are able to approach Him has always been by faith. All the sacrifices and rules of the OT are meant to demonstrate that no one can perfectly obey God through their own works, it demands someone else obeying perfectly for us, then taking the penalty for our inability to obey on Himself so that His righteousness could be given to us. But there is a hinge point: faith. 

-I never want to assume that everyone in here has taken that step and put their faith in Jesus, AND this gospel message is just as needed for those who believe as those who don’t yet believe. For those who don’t yet believe, what are you waiting for? This text is showing us the way to become righteous, the way to find comfort and peace in a broken and chaotic world, take that step! And for those who believe, Paul tells us this truth in Gal. 3:

-And this is something I’ve been praying for us: to realize that we can do nothing to save ourselves or keep ourselves saved. We begin and end by the grace of God. Even our spiritual disciplines won’t by themselves change us, the Spirit is the one who grows us. Now, as I shared a couple weeks ago, we’re commanded to work out our own salvation, but recognize that it is God who wills and works in you.

-Friends: pray daily that you would believe and that God would help your unbelief! That’s how you can be counted among the righteous.

-Because the Lord is kind and gracious, He goes on to solidify this promise with Abram:

  • The Evidence of Things Unseen (7-21)

-As careful readers of the Bible, this first phrase should have special significance for us, can you think of another place where the Lord says something eerily similar? After delivering His people out from Egypt in Ex. 20. Abram is serving as the prototype of what’s to come for God’s people, we’re seeing glimpses of a divine design, an intent behind all the events that take place in this story. Because of the divine author of this text, we should expect to find repetition, glimpses of the story coming together throughout it, themes emerging, and we do! But at times I worry that we miss the bigger story for the individual little stories, we become far too granular in our approach, which is why I always try to show us where we see God’s story unfolding in the text.

-While the nation of Israel is in physical slavery, Abram was in spiritual slavery: worshipping false gods, then God saves Abram and delivers him out of bondage. Similarly for us, we were once slaves to sin, but through faith we can become slaves to righteousness (which is the way to find life). This isn’t a story about being a better person, or a list of 5 ways to grow your faith, it’s a story about God’s good plan to redeem a people for Himself and then using those people as His ambassadors of reconciliation – healing in a broken and divided world.

-And just as Abram was unconvinced about the promise to provide an heir, he’s also unconvinced by this promise to possess the land. So he asks the Lord how he’ll know. And the Lord accommodates Himself to something Abram would understand.

-This whole thing sounds like a bloody spectacle to us. Why is Abram cutting all these animals in half? What’s the point of any of it? When’s the last time you even saw an animal butchered? For me it was when I was about 10, and that was enough to last me the rest of my life.

-Number of ANE documents that talk about it, but this idea comes up again in Jer. 34:18. The way covenants would be enacted is you make a verbal agreement, then cut apart animals and both parties walk through the bloody middle of the carcasses, as a symbol of the curse you’re calling up on yourself if you break the covenant. Essentially, it’s saying that you’re agreeing to follow through on everything you’ve agreed to, or else you forfeit your right to life. This feels so foreign to us because we have ways of breaking out of everything! The closest parallel we have is marriage, but even in marriage with the rise of no-fault divorce that doesn’t come close to the way covenants were held to here!

-And I think the accommodation piece is something we miss: God could have just told Abram what He tells Moses “I am who I am” that’s sufficient for people to trust in Him, but He doesn’t. He uses the typical method people used to make a covenant, a promise with each other. He meets Abram just where he is instead of forcing him to adopt to something completely new, which is what God does for all of us! He meets us where we’re at, but doesn’t leave us there. He moves us (often far more slowly than we want) closer to Him, step by step. 

-After Abram takes care of the animals, he has to ensure they’re not eaten! Birds of prey are used throughout the rest of the OT to refer to other foreign nations, potentially signifying the way God would protect Israel in the future. A deep sleep descends.

-This has been used previously in Genesis, back when God created Eve for Adam and then brings them together in the covenant of marriage. This time the covenant is between Abram and the Lord, but the idea of marriage permeates the rest of the OT as God is pursuing His people, His bride. 

-Something unique about this experience with the Lord, because it’s the first time Abram is seen as being scared to be in the presence of God. Adam was scared, Jacob gets scared, Moses gets scared, the nation of Israel is scared, but Abram hadn’t been until now. Doesn’t say why, but it could be connected to what God proceeds to say:

-The land will most certainly belong to Abram’s descendants, but it’s going to take a while. A few things to note:

-Resident aliens where they will be slaves. This is setting us up for the Exodus account, where this book will end with Israel in Egypt, just like Abram’s journey. And just as Abram came out wealthy, they too will come out wealthy.

-But this doesn’t apply to Abram: he’ll have a long and healthy life. And why this time of waiting? Because the sin of the Amorites. They’re the people who are currently living in Canaan. And this verse is incredibly important! Because there’s all sorts of accusations today that God is genocidal! The book of Joshua tells the story of Israel destroying all the inhabitants of the promised land. And this verse tells us exactly why: they were a sinful people! Which means the destruction is just. It’s not like they were completely innocent bystanders who get stuck in crossfire, these are a brutal people! On my trip this summer, I got to go to the British Museum, here’s a glimpse of the Assyrians victory: the slaughter of children. And they put these on the gates to “welcome” people in. Amorites would have done the same thing! It’s a brutal world! So when we read about the conquest of Israel, these are the kind of people they’re defeating.

-And as Abram continues sleeping deeply, a theophany (appearance of God) walks through the divided animals, but not with Abram. That is incredibly important! This is why we spent so much time on the faith part at the beginning.

-A covenant is an agreement between 2 people that says if they break it they will be just like the animals, but if God made a covenant with Abram (or any human) it would never work. We’re sinners all the way down so we would never be able to uphold our end of the deal, and God knows that! So he makes the covenant by Himself, and tells Abram the length of his promised land, but the point is the covenant is dependent only on God keeping His word.

-Just as we’ve seen in many previous weeks, the author of Hebrews picks up on this idea in Heb. 6. Who else could God make a covenant with? No one else has more power, no one else will completely obey every component, no one else will do except God Himself.

-Which means when the consequences of breaking this covenant are inflected, God Himself will be torn apart like the carcasses. Do we see that happen anywhere in Scripture? When Jesus’ body was ripped apart and hung on a cross. If you didn’t know, this year is the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, a statement of what all Christians throughout history have believed, and I love the way they summarized what Jesus did:

-Friends, Jesus bore the consequences for humanity’s repeated breaking of God’s covenant. But because of Jesus, we now have hope, which the author of Hebrews goes on to summarize:

-Friends, our freedom from sin is as guaranteed as the tomb is empty. Jesus is right now in heaven interceding for us, preparing a place for us, and the means by which we access it is faith. Either saving faith, or continual faith that prays “I believe, help my unbelief.”

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by mikethestrand on February 23, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on February 23, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/02/23/genesis-15-sermon-manuscript/

Genesis 13-14 – Sermon Manuscript

-Grew up loving jokes, discovered you could find whole books full of them! I know I drove my parents nuts with them, but I even took it a step further and compiled all my favorite jokes into a book that I printed and gave to my parents (I was homeschooled, we had to come up with our own kind of fun)

-What’s frustrating is my mom stole one of my jokes, and now tells it as her 1 joke that she knows: who’s bigger, Mr. Bigger or Mr. Bigger’s baby? Mr. Bigger’s baby is a LITTLE Bigger. (next time she comes make sure you laugh if she tells you that joke)

-But another one was: what’s worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm in your apple. And that joke has a bite to it, because I’m sure many of you have had an experience like that at some point in your life: bite into a delicious apple only to find out it’s rotten, take a big swig of milk before you realize it’s curdled on you. Or maybe you’ve gotten into that Netflix show “Is It Cake?” where the contestants compete to trick judges with their cakes that look like their real-life counterparts, yes one of those objects is a cake.

-How many times do things that appear wonderful at first glance just prove to be a veneer hiding something rotten underneath? I remember growing up idolizing Michael Jordan (in addition to being homeschooled I grew up in the 90s and my name is Michael, come on!) I wanted Air Jordan shoes, I had his jersey, watched as many games as my parents would let me stay up for. Turns out the guys a royal jerk! Trash talking, belittling teammates, gambling problem. I wouldn’t want his life for all his money! Sounds absolutely miserable! I’m sure you have someone like that: celebrity, influencer, hero, maybe even someone sitting next to you who seems like they have their life together (spoiler alert: they don’t!)

-You’ve probably heard the old phrase: grass is always greener on the other side, but that’s only true from the outside looking in! And you’ve probably heard the other old phrase that should go along with it: appearances can be deceiving.

-Friends, one of the realities about us is we need to meet together every week to be reminded what’s really real, what’s truly true. The world looks enticing, the world appears wonderful, but it’s fake! The church is here to remind us to look at the world from a heavenly perspective, and that changes the way we can engage the world. Today’s text reveals that truth to us in Abram’s life as we look at the difference between looking at the world through eyes of faith, or eyes tainted by sin.

READ/PRAY

-Summary of last week: Abram’s been promised land, seed, and blessing from God, but he’s not completely trusting in that plan. Barren wife, barren land, flees to Egypt where he throws his wife to the whims of a Pharoah (all while not calling on the name of the Lord or building altars), so then we’re up to this week’s text where we’ll continue to see the development of Abram’s faith:

  1. Return to the Promised Land (13:1-18)

-Return back to the same place he left from (southern Canaan)

-Reminder that Abram had become very wealthy (remember how?), but his wealth didn’t extend to children, just livestock, silver, and gold. 

-Egypt was a parenthesis, he’s now back where he’s supposed to be, the land promised to be his from God, and he’s back to calling on the name of the Lord again. Do you think he learned his lesson? (Not completely, as we’ll see later!)

-Lot, Abram’s nephew, has also been traveling with Abram, and has his own wealth that he needs to take care of. But they reach the age-old place of “this town ain’t big enough for the two of us.”

-2 things I think we should take away from this as careful readers of the text: first is the land once again appears to be barren, at least in provision for what Abram thinks it should be. Remember that God has promised to give this land to Abram and his descendants, but now they’ve reached a place where the land isn’t able to support 2 groups of people. Abram has become the leader of a multitude of people already (we’ll see that again in a few verses) but Lot is a tag-along at this point. God hasn’t promised Lot anything! It’s ONLY through Lot’s proximity to Abram that he’ll be blessed.

-Second is the question (again) of whether or not they have enough faith in God’s provision. The land was barren once before, and Abram fled to Egypt and gave up his wife to protect himself. Now, God had provided for Abram despite his disobedience, but will that continue? 

-Starts to affect their families: herdsmen begin to fight. And it’s not just an empty land their dealing with, there’s also others living there that they’ll also need to deal with! 

-Abram determines to deal with the problem: we have the whole country ahead of us, there’s no reason to continue fighting and staying here, so Abram gives the choice to Lot

-As the older, he had every right to tell Lot to beat it! But he doesn’t. Are we starting to see Abram’s faith growing as he’s starting to trust that whatever choice Lot makes, God will continue providing for him? I think so! And I think the text demonstrates that as we continue

-Lot looks out to the East and sees where the grass is greener and decides to pursue it. Can you think of any other places in Genesis where something appears beautiful at first glance?

-When the world fell apart in Gen. 3, look at the way the tree is described. Yes, it may look appealing at first glance, but the consequences are horrible! 

-But not only is the grass greener on that side, Moses describes it very intentionally: ‘like the Lord’s garden” recalling the very beginning of this book, but notice the parenthetical note, because for the first readers this would have made no sense. The destruction of these cities is coming rendering this area useless. How could it be described like the Lord’s garden? Because it hasn’t been destroyed yet!

-Now, just as I said at the beginning, appearances can be deceiving, look at vs. 13. We can assume Lot would have known at least something about Sodom, they’d been in this area before, but Lot doesn’t care, he just wants the choicest land for himself. 

-Journeyed eastward (vs. 11): East has been a theme throughout Genesis, and it’s never been positive. 3:24, 4:16, 11:2 – always negative, not moving towards the way God wants the people to go

-Lot is moving towards the sinners, we know where this story will end: the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and notice the trajectory of Lot as we continue through this story: he begins “near” Sodom, keep that in your mind because his proximity to Sodom will come up again

-One of the pieces to keep in mind throughout this whole thing is that we’ve seen that God will bless whoever blesses Abram, so why wouldn’t you figure out a way to be near him? It reminds me of what my parents used to ask me when I was growing up: who are you spending time with, what kind of people are you in proximity to? Because it will affect the way you live.

-Lot chooses what appears to be the choicest spot, looks fantastic, but unfortunately it’s the land of evil. After Lot leaves, the Lord tells Abram that nothing will be left out of his possession. This land will be his in every direction. And now the promise is expanding: offspring more numerous than dust.

-Have you ever tried counting dust? I can’t even try counting the dog hair that ends in our house! No matter how much we vacuum there sems to be more dog hair than we can track! And here God is telling Abram to try counting the dust of the entire earth!

-This section ends reminding us that Abram is once again following in the steps of the Lord.

  • The Chase (14:1-16)

-Every single one of our choices has consequences, sometime the consequences are positive and sometimes they’re negative. The story shifts here to a story about a group of kings that sound like they’re coming out of LOTR.

-Many scholars believe this was a well-known story that Moses was borrowing from when he recounted this story in the Bible, because if you look at vs. 13 it describes Abram as a Hebrew, but the Hebrew people didn’t exist yet!

-Not much is known about these kings, not a lot of other content outside of this text written about them so we have to make some speculations about them (some from other texts in the Bible)

-The focus is what would take place frequently in the ANE: kings would conquer other kings and subject them to their service. Then there would be rebellions and infighting, territories won and territories lost. And all this background is to lead us to a battle that includes the king of Sodom (where Lot had pitched his tent). Some notes about these kings:

-Shinar- plain where Babylon is, last time we heard of Shinar was with Nimrod, mighty hunter, warrior

-Arioch – name that most likely means tall

-Chedorlaomer – leader of this group, king of kings

-Tidal is described as “of Goiim” – Hebrew word that means nations, which means he most likely runs an entire empire

-All these kings defeated the Rephaim (vs. 5), this means nothing to us, but the Rephaim turn up in 2 other places in the Bible: Deut 2:20, Deut. 3:11. These dudes are HUGE!

-All this to say that this is a formidable force that Abram is deciding to attack. Giants, multitude of them.

-And what does it say about Lot? (vs. 12) He went from living NEAR to living IN Sodom. The world tends to corrupt! I wonder if the Psalmist was reflecting on this idea when he penned Psalm 1 (which I preached on in 2021) but notice the progression of the wicked: walk, stand, sit. You progressively become more comfortable in the company of the wicked, they start to wear you down, so you end up planting yourself among them, which it seems Lot is doing. He moves near, then moves in, and in a couple chapters will continue living among them and understand their entire custom.

-But that doesn’t change Abram’s approach. He’s committed to Lot’s welfare, so he assembles his mighty men – if there’s 318 fighting men, Abram has assembled a significant force of people most likely numbering in the thousands. But think of where else in Scripture we’ve seen people facing these exact same odds:

–1 Sam. 30 – David has the city of Ziklag attacked, 400 men pursue and defeat their enemies. 400 isn’t much more than 318.

-What about Gideon? Started with 32,000 men, but the Lord kept whittling them down, and he ended with 300 men, and he also ambushed his enemies by night

-Moses sees the theme here of a conquering hero who puts himself at risk to “take captivity captive’ (Eph. 4:8)

-This is pointing forward to Jesus, where Jesus describes his ministry as binding the strong man, to bring back His bride, the church. And this whole picture is beginning here back in the early chapter of Genesis.

-Abram’s Aragorn moment – defeats this unstoppable force, just like Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli at the end of FOTR

–Psalm 110:5 – this Psalm as a reflection of Gen. 14, destruction of kings and meditation on Melchizedek. This descendent will shatter kings and crush leaders (roash head SINGULAR, the seed of the serpent) picking up Abram’s defeat over kings, and then focusing on Melchizedek (we’ll get there)

-But what’s fascinating about this is the response of all these leaders of the 300ish people: Abram uses the wealth to worship God, David uses the wealth for the building of the temple, Jesus uses the wealth to build the church, Gideon uses it to build an idol.

-Friends, what do you do with the gifts of the Lord? God’s gifts are meant to be things that point us to Him, that we can use to worship and glorify Him, or they can become idols that distract us from Him and turn into tokens that we use to worship ourselves instead. What do you do with God’s provision in your life?

  • The Reward (14:17-24)

-Abram is blessed, but 2 kings are contrasted here (city of God, or city of man?) Is he going to follow the king of Sodom or the king of Salem (peace)

-Bread and wine (communion?), tithes are taken, almost reads like a church service!

-Abram is recipient of the blessing of God, but there are other God worshippers who are also blessing Abram, which is exactly what God had predicted earlier.

-These two elements that Mel brings out have previously been connected to the curse. 

-Bread (Gen. 3:19 eat the bread because of the curse) 

-Noah gets drunk wine (Gen. 9:21), now it’s reinterpreted as a blessing, 

-Then there’s the Passover meal where the God’s people take bread and wine together

-Finally, Jesus reinterprets it in light of his death, burial, and resurrection, AND His future coming. Friends, when we celebrate communion, we’re not just doing a meaningless celebration, we’re connecting it all the way back to Melchizedek who uses theses implications of the curse as a blessing for the people who worship the one true God. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus uses bread and wine, the implications of the fall, as his marker of celebration for those who are His people in the new covenant. The strong man has been bound, the captives have been taken captive, and He’s declaring to Satan that He is in charge.

-Then the king of Sodom (in contrast to Mel) offers earthly riches to Abram, but Abram denies him. He’ll have no part in earthly pursuits, his aim is to follow after the 1 true God, and he’s starting to trust that God will provide for him.

-As we conclude, the big question from this text is how are viewing the world? Lot shows us the depravity of looking at the world through human lenses, and Abram shows us the blessing that comes from looking at the world through a Godly lens. One leads to life, and one leads to death.

-Friends: stop comparing yourself to those around you, or even sitting next to you, God has different plans for them. Stop comparing yourself to your neighbors, your job is to be a representative of the one true God to them. Stop trying to achieve things the world wants, and instead work to build the things that will lead to an eternal reward. That’s what Abram eventually builds towards that’s what Lot should have built for, and it’s what we have the opportunity to build for today.

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by mikethestrand on February 16, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon

Posted by mikethestrand on February 16, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/02/16/genesis-13-14-sermon-manuscript/

Genesis 12 – Sermon Manuscript

-Aesop’s fables, one of the ones that stood out to me growing up was the boy who cried wolf. Shepherd boy is a big jokester, and thinks it’s hilarious to alarm the town that a wolf is coming after the sheep and each time they come running they find this boy laughing at them. After repeatedly being warned to not do it, he continues until one day a wolf actually does come! But because of what had happened in the past, no one comes to help, and the boy is eaten by the wolf too.

-As an adult, it’s alarming just how many of Aesop’s fables end up with children being eaten! But the point remains: the consequences of lying are terrible!

-Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that with God! God always keeps His word, will never trick someone or lie, the question is how do we respond to a God who is always faithful? Do we obey His word or not?

READ/PRAY

  1. Promise (1-3)

-Remember last week: people, place, possession (land, seed, blessing)

-God’s design is for His people to be living in a specific land, to receive His promised blessing, that’s going to be a running theme throughout Abram’s life, and how frequently all those promises are threatened.

-Requirement is: go! Leave everything behind. If Abram obeys, then the blessings from God come. Doesn’t say where, just says to go.

-Think about how difficult that would be, and keep in mind what I said last week about this world where violence was the norm. The way you had protection was through aligning yourself in a family/clan unit, so if you leave your family you run the risk of almost certain death. What God calls Abram to is leaving his earthly family to align himself to the family of God, and that invitation continues down to us today. Think of what Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3: in order to be saved you must be born again, which Nicodemus thinks is a weird phrase, how could he enter into his mother’s womb as an adult? He needs to be born into a new family, which is the message for us today! Are you a part of the family of God, or are you a part of the family of the serpent?

-There are 2 sections to this call from the Lord – 1 call to Abram (which we just looked at), and a second section on the consequences that come from God.

-Consequences are plentiful, but begins with “great nation,” but how is that possible when what we know about Abram so far is that his wife was barren? Remember that from last week? This already sounds impossible to Abraham, if you look down a few verses you’ll see how old Abraham is here: 75. So the first thing the Lord promises to Abram is that he will be a great nation, but that requires children, so we’re already in a difficult place with this first consequence, God’s going to need to do something miraculous in Abram’s life to make this first one happen.

-But then it’s a blessing and a great name. Contrast this language with the tower of Babel(on). God had just prevented a people from creating a great name for themselves, but here we see Him promising to bestow a great name on Abram, but Abram didn’t seek it out, it comes from being obedient to the Lord.

-Friends, how much of our world is focused on following the ways of Babylon in trying to build a name for yourself? “Influencer,” building a platform, curating a following, or even the attempts to keep up with the Joneses in the neighborhood: 

-The pressure of trying to have the perfect family, the perfect house, the perfect yard. What we see in this text is an intentional contrast with the ways of the world (/serpent) How much posturing do we see taking place around us because we’re trying to build a name for ourselves instead of being obedient to the Lord and finding our greatness only in Him? 

-One of the things I wish that all of you could come to understand is that God loves you. God loves you today, not some future version of you. When you understand that He loves you it changes the way you see yourself. You start to worry less about what other people think of you, you find freedom and joy! But it’s only possible when you lose yourself.

-Think of what Paul says in 1 Cor. 1. God saves through foolishness, God saves through weakness. God’s story repeatedly has surprises: the younger child is chosen, the smallest clan is blessed, the least impressive one is called out by God. God’s standards don’t look impressive to us, because we’re too trained to think worldly.

-All peoples blessed through you

-What does that mean? How will ALL peoples be blessed?

-Think back to last week, as we traced the seed of the women vs. the seed of the serpent, this is continuing to trace the seed of the woman down through the line of Abram, where the gospel message that has been proclaimed to Abram will find its’ fulfilment in Abram’s later son Jesus through whom the serpent’s head is crushed. And in response to this promise from God:

  • Obedience (4-9)

-We had some friends who shared with us when we became parents: “Delayed obedience is disobedience.” Abram doesn’t pursue “delayed obedience” the text says:

-So Abram went…

-Came to Haran with his father Terah, Lot is his nephew (who will play a pivotal role in the ongoing story)

-Here’s the route Abram took

-Wasn’t until Abram arrived in the land that the Lord appears to Abram. This chapter begins with the Lord speaking to him, this time it says the Lord appears to Abram.

-Regular theophanies throughout Genesis: God appearing to someone. All sorts of discussion/debate about: is it a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus? Does God appear as an angelic being? Does He appear as a human? Does He appear as a voice? Text doesn’t say, so don’t speculate beyond what the Bible say, the point remains: God appears to Abram (and He’ll appear again later)

-How does Abram respond after meeting the Lord?

-Built an altar, a way to remember where the Lord meets with Him

-Pattern throughout Genesis – meet with God, move to build an altar there as a way to denote where you meet with the Lord. I think some of what we need to recover today is a way to commemorate God’s work when He moves in our lives, we live with the tyranny of the urgent today, without enough rootedness tethering us to the past 

-I got to attend a breakout session this past week on the early heresy of Gnosticism, argues that there is a separation between the physical and spiritual, and friends, we can’t divide ourselves like that. We are embodied creatures, God intended it that way, if the Lord tarries and we’re separated from our bodies is referred to as an unnatural state. As he often does, CS Lewis summarizes this well: God likes matter, he invented it. Matter matters to God, and we would do well to view matter as Christians who are tasked with caring for the matter God made.

-And then as he continues, he builds an altar to the Lord to continue worshipping Him, and the journey continues.

  • Disobedience (10-20)

-Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end on a high note.

-Think back briefly to last week as we enter this, remember that one of the things we see is God meeting with people, calling them to Himself, and then the disobedience of the people. And it all goes back to Gen. 3: did God REALLY say? The difficulty is that humans so often don’t actually trust God, or take Him at His Word, we don’t live as if what God has told us is true.

-At this point in the story, we’ve seen the failure of humanity over and over and over again. Each time we think that this might be the right seed, they fail. Abram here has met with the Lord, built an altar to Him, continued worshiping Him, and now we’re at a place where the land God has promised to Abram is barren (maybe similar to the way Abram has been promised to have many descendants but all we know of his wife is that she is barren), the question we should be asking is: will Abram trust that God will provide for Abram and His family no matter what else is going on? Because this theme will come up again, Abram is forced to face the question: do you trust God?

-And friends, how often is that true of us, too? Do you trust in God, or yourself? And I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s what God calls us to do. I got to listen to one of my favorite professors from seminary this past week, and one of the things he regularly pointed out in our class, and again this week, is one of the biggest theological questions we have to wrestle with is the chasm between God and us. God, hard line, us.  How do you fix that hard line, do you build a ladder to climb up, or does God need to come down? There’s some irony to us being in Genesis as I share that idea, because there’s some funny wordplay in the tower of Babel story in Gen. 11. Remember the previous verse we saw the people saying they were going to build a tower up into the heavens (literal), the plan was to enter the realm of the gods, and what does God need to do to see it?

-I’ve been spending the last 6ish months contemplating the way we talk about sanctification (growing in holiness), and how much of our spiritual growth is viewed through a Pelagian lens. (5th century monk who argued that you could achieve salvation without God’s grace being given to us). Friends, there is NOTHING you can do to earn salvation, and your growth must begin outside yourself (Holy Spirit). There are practices that can help, but it’s completely dependent on God to work in you, which feels like a tension, but this is exactly what Paul says in Phil. 2:

-Work out your own salvation, that’s on you! You need to do something (like Abraham had to obey), but who is the who does it? God! Both to WILL and to WORK, it all comes about only by God, our job is to obey and keep in step with the Spirit, and the consequences of obedience is God’s blessing.

-Abram’s initial obedience falls apart in this section, he begins by leaving the land God had given to him. Text doesn’t explicitly say that this was wrong or bad, so don’t go too far with this, but I would argue that the first problem was Abram didn’t trust and obey God, he didn’t actually believe that God would provide for him. But more importantly (and this is in the text) the barrenness is spreading. The seed is already in doubt because Sarai is barren, but now the land has become barren so only 33% of the promise seems to remain. How can God expect Abram to be the fulfilment of these promises if all the promises continue becoming barren? The Bible doesn’t say whether this was bad or good, but it does denote the severity of the famine. But then the story gets even worse:

-“My life will be spared on your account.” How do you think this makes Sarai feel? Once again, don’t forget that these are real people! Abram’s role as the husband is to love and honor his wife, and here he is hiding behind her.

-Just like his first father: Gen. 3: Adam’s role was to raise others to join with him in extending God’s rule over the earth, but instead of working with his wife he stands idly by and lets her be tempted by the serpent. Abram is taking the same pattern as his first father and stands idly by as his wife is offered up to the seed of the serpent.

-The drift of the human heart is toward sin and selfishness, trying to be served by others instead of looking to serve, but that’s not the way of God. God’s call is to serve others, not to be served, so even Father Abraham, who eventually is lauded for his faith in Heb. 11 begins his journey by being selfish, and it seems as if God’s entire plan is in doubt.

-One thing I want you to notice in this section is the shift that has taken place. In the previous section Abram is continuing to travel and build altars to the Lord, He’s working to continue being obedient to God, but suddenly now the focus has slightly shifted from the Lord’s guidance to Abram, who no longer has the Lord appearing to him, is no longer building altars to the Lord, can we suspect that maybe his faith is waning? How do you respond when it seems as if the Lord isn’t near?

-One of the things I love about the biblical stories is they’re not sanitized or safe. They recount the ups and downs of real life! 

-Again, I don’t want to go too far into speculation here, but Abram is trading 1 bad situation for another: fleeing the famine, but running to a depraved people, and sacrificing his marriage for the sake of himself. One of the themes throughout Scripture is the way God’s people are supposed to be marked by care for the sojourner and stranger, God’s people are supposed to be hospitable. Yet Abram is worried that as a stranger and sojourner this godless people won’t care for him.

-The one redeeming thing about this is he at least admits that his wife is beautiful, because unfortunately this isn’t the only time Abram does this exact same thing, but the next time he doesn’t even say she’s beautiful. 

-So they continue on down to Egypt and things go exactly as Abram feared, Sarai is so beautiful that she’s taken into Pharoah’s household. And what’s the outcome for Abram?

-Abram becomes wealthy: flocks and herds, donkeys, slaves, and camels. One of the aspects of this story that is a bit of a spoiler alert is that this becomes a picture of the Exodus account, which becomes a theme for the rest of Scripture, and points to Jesus who also flees to Egypt. And one of the biggest themes in the Exodus is the plagues that God sends against the Egyptians (if you’ve seen The Prince of Egypt you’ve seen a beautiful musical montage of these plagues!) 

-Severe plague descends upon the house of Pharoah, and in this case the man who is supposed to be righteous, the man who is supposed to be representative of God on earth fails to be honest, and the godless idol worshiper reads the situation better than Abram.

-I’m going to cheat a little bit here and go into next week’s text, because I think it concludes the story, but the outcome of this story is the provision of God, despite the lack of faith from Abram. And the section concludes with Abram calling up on the name of the Lord. 

-So what do we do with a text like this? What should our takeaway be? I’ve got 2 things:

-First is that God always keeps His promises. Despite Abram’s lack of faith in Him, God never wavered in His commitment to Abram. So if or when you’re going through a season where it feels like God isn’t answering you or responding in the way you would like, remember that God will always keep His word.

-Second is the reminder that obedience is always better than disobedience. Even if your life feels barren, even if following God doesn’t seem to make sense to you, continue being obedient, remember that it is God who both wills and works in you according to His purposes. Continue being obedient to Him.

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by mikethestrand on February 9, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on February 9, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/02/09/genesis-12-sermon-manuscript/

Father Abraham – Sermon Manuscript

-One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is getting all the Christmas cards.

-We don’t do it because my wife doesn’t believe in them, she just likes looking at them and seeing all the people we know (is it a Midwest thing?)

-We got what I’m guessing will be our last one this past week from a family friend of my parents, with kids my age (best friend from when we lived in ND), and it was amazing looking at all the grandkids and easily being able to tell which of the kids they belonged to! Many of you have commented to me that you can very easily tell who my kids are and that they’re siblings!

-But the reality is the similarities don’t just stop at the physical because the habits and patterns of my kids are also a reflection of me and Cara, and my kids regularly do things that I hear and think “I remember this one!”

-And as you get older, you start to realize just how many of your reactions are the exact same as your parents! And if you were to talk to your parents you’d hear similar stories! One of the most helpful things you can do is sit down and trace out your family lineage to start to see some patterns develop (just like every time you go to the Dr and they ask your entire family medical history)

-For those of us who are in Christ, we have our biological family, but we also have a spiritual family that we’re a part of, and just as it is helpful to trace your biological family history to learn more about yourself, it’s vital to trace your spiritual family history to learn more about yourself (and God)! One author I’ve read has said “Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa’s still in your bones!” So let’s read about our spiritual family:

-READ/PRAY

-Why study Abraham right now? (because it’s in the Bible!) Because Abraham is the origination of the story of God’s people. 

-One of the keys I hope you take away from this sermon series is that God is always at work, even while we wait. Nothing is wasted, nothing is careless or pointless in God’s plans. As we read the biblical stories (like Abraham), we learn that God uses incredibly broken people to accomplish His purposes. We see things we should copy and things we should never do!

-Each year I pick a new word that I focus on for ministry that year, and my word for this year is “slowness” which I think is modeled in Abraham’s life. He was 100 before he had his child that was promised to him. Imagine waiting all those years! And a podcast I listened to this week was saying that the promise came when he was 75, meaning he waited 25 years! Our world today pushes and trains us to expect everything IMMEDIATELY! In the technology class, we heard an author say that technology has trained us to want things easier and everywhere-er, but God’s plans don’t always go along with easier and everywhere-er, do they? How often do you find yourself getting frustrated that your growth is taken longer than you wanted? Or that your prayers aren’t being answered as quickly as you expected? Abraham will teach us the way God works in people’s lives isn’t according to our timeline.

-This will be a bit of a different series, compared to what we’ve done over the past year! How should we read and interpret a story about someone (narrative), and how do move from faithful interpretation to faithful application in our lives?

-First, we should read this as history. I believe what the Bible records is true: real events that took place in time and space. We can become so accustomed to these stories that they lose their humanity and become almost like fairy tales for us. Abraham lived and walked on earth! He had hopes, dreams, desires and he was called out by God to start a new line to bring about redemption.

-Second, we should be reading this story as Christians, which means looking for hints of Jesus in them. Walking on the road to Emmaus. All Scripture points us to Jesus: either in preparation of or looking back to. Paul tells us all the promises of God are yes (fulfilled) in Jesus, so we respond “amen.” The other piece of reading it as Christians is what Paul writes in:

–Gal. 3:7-9: what we see here is anyone who puts their faith in Jesus is now a part of Abraham’s family, so when we read the story of Abraham, we’re getting a picture of our spiritual family history, and one of the realities I want you to walk away with is no matter how broken your biological family history is, God’s family history has the potential to redeem and restore whatever has been broken.

-I preached through Genesis 1-11 in the Fall of 2021, so if you want to go back and listen to those you can for more detail, but we’re going to take today to situate ourselves in this book with an overview of the first 11 chapters. 

  1. In The Beginning…

-Many of you may have this memorized: in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Another way of translating the Hebrew here is: WHEN God began to create, which changes the focus of this a little bit. The focus of Genesis 1 isn’t how, it’s a who and a why. 

-Who creates? God does, He speaks and it appears, creation bends to His will. This is contrary to all the other religions of the day when Moses was writing this. The fact that the stars are a throwaway line in the midst of everything else is significant, because in the other religions the stars are gods! But this God is unique because He creates the stars with a passing word. Don’t miss that the focus is God.

-The second piece is why? For things to be very good, for creation to be in relationship with God, out of His love and plan comes this creation to acts as God’s ambassadors on earth, and there’s order to the creation where 3 days build out the areas, and the corresponding 3 days fill those areas. What we get at the end of Genesis 1 is this beautiful declaration from God:

-Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it. Adam and Eve are given a job: to work to extend the borders of the orchard of Eden until it eventually fills the entire earth! In order to do that, they’re going to need more people (multiply). God has given them everything they need! Think of this in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: God has given them air, food, water, shelter, there’s nothing to harm them so they have safety, He is in relationship with them (Gen. 3 talks about God walking in the garden at night), self-esteem because they are naked and unashamed, where Maslow gets it wrong is that the top is worship, it doesn’t come from within us, it comes from outside us, from God. God provides all these things for Adam and Eve, and where God intends it for good, humans use it for evil.

-God’s intent: People, place, possession (land, seed, blessing)

-What we’re going to see is the initial shrinking of this blessing, to the eventual fulfilling of this blessing in the new heavens and earth (Revelation). Humans are created to be like God, spreading His rule across the world.

-But God’s intent goes askew in Gen. 3. The 1 rule God gave was to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which they do when tempted by Satan. But the fallout from it isn’t what you would expect, instead of being cursed, the serpent is cursed, and the ground is cursed, and God continues caring for His creation. A key to understanding the rest of the OT story is the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the women (children of God vs. the children of man) Remember we’re looking for glimpses of the gospel message being preached here: think of these wounds – how bad is a heel wound? What about a head wound? But think about what we saw in Revelation last year – how is Satan described there? A dragon, a huge serpent, and can trace that theme throughout the rest of the Bible: are you a descendent of the serpent or a descendent of Adam, the son of God?

-This section ends with banishment from the garden, which is a gift, because if they had remained in there and eaten the tree of life they would have stayed in their state of rebellion, but God cared about them enough to send them away “east of Eden” to provide an ultimate way for them to approach Him. 

-And the story just keeps getting worse. After sin breaks their relationship with God, then we see the way sin breaks the relationship between humans, and Cain kills his brother Abel. And it continues spiraling out of control until Gen. 6:5 says “every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time.” Wow! What a fall from the state of perfection that it was before! 

-Then we get the account of Noah, where God determines He needs to wipe out every creature because of their wickedness. Noah and his family are the only ones who survive, on a floating zoo, as the world breaks down around them, and the description God gives to the flood through Moses is as if the world is being de-created. The waters that were separated come together, the lands that were parceled out are covered, and the creatures are destroyed, except for the ones called out and protected by God. And Gen. 8 begins saying “God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside.” Which should make us think of the very beginning where the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Moses is telling us this flood is a major reset, where God is starting fresh with a new people in a new place to have possessions and blessings from God.

-And once again, we have an epic fail. Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk. Once again, the fruit of the vine leads God’s chosen one into sin, just like Noah’s first father had done.

-God’s good plan each time seems to be spoiled! And then Noah’s descendants decide that they want to try to become like God, just like Adam and Eve did, so they build a tower that you’ve often heard referred to as Babel, but it’s the same word for Babylon later in the Bible, and if you were here last year for our Revelation series, that word should also have special meaning for you! Think back to what we saw of God’s commission to Adam and Eve: fill the earth and subdue it, spread out so God’s kingdom covers the world like the water covers the sea, and what do the people want to do? NOT scatter. Throughout the Bible, Babylon (the city of man) stands in for all those who are opposed to God’s ways and instead pursue idolatry. So right at the beginning we see the ways humans continue running further and further away from God, and in the Babel story there’s no one who’s righteous, up until this point the story had been tracing 2 lines, this is almost as if everyone forgets about God. And in His mercy, He confuses their language so they can’t continue building against Him.

-There’s another theme that emerges in throughout these opening chapters of Genesis:

  • The Family Records of

-While God’s plan is the entire world being blessed by serving and ruling with Him, that plan needs willing and obedient partners, so some of what we see taking plan in Genesis is tracing the seed of the woman down through generations, and each time the reader should be thinking “Is this the one?” 

-Each primary section of Genesis has this phrase “the records of,” translation of the same Hebrew word, signifies the way the storyline is being traced forward, almost like a fast forward button, then it pauses on one person in the story to focus on them.

-But what’s important to note is the way God continues propagating the human race: through children. So the seed of the woman is continuing to spread down through the centuries, you can trace the way the family line goes. One thing to note is these kinds of lists aren’t the same way we do genealogies today, so some generations can be skipped to make a point (Adam to Noah is 10 generations, Noah to Abram is 10 generations, intentionally connecting the 2 lists) I say that because throughout the Bible the generation lists aren’t exactly the same, and there’s a reason for that! Doesn’t mean the Bible is wrong, but it isn’t trying to answer the same questions we’re asking in the 21st century!

  • Abram

-Now we can finally get to today’s text about Abram! But I wanted you to have all that history, because we’ll see some of the same patterns emerge in Abram/Abraham’s life (spoiler alert, there’s a name change coming!)

-What’s unique here is this seed of the woman is specifically called out from all the families of the earth. Even as sin continued corrupting, God was preserving a remnant for Himself, even people who weren’t faithfully following after Him, which is a reminder for us that grace, God’s gift, isn’t something any of us can earn. Look at what we read in Joshua 24

-So God takes an idol worshipper, and begins stirring in his heart to move, there’s some debate about where Ur was, but here’s the general trajectory of their journey.

-One thing to note is that the ANE was a BRUTAL place! Violent, depraved, dangerous, everything including your survival depended on the tribe you were in. Didn’t have police, national guard, laws to follow, it was survival of the fittest (or most connected). To leave your clan meant almost certain death. So Tarah setting out from his family connections meant something significant was going on. That’s the first piece to note – God works even in people that aren’t following after Him!

-The second piece to note is what does the text say about Abram’s wife? Unable to conceive. What had we just read about the seed of the woman? It means that you need kids to continue the line! So what is God doing here focusing on a barren woman? Much less a barren woman, living in an idolatrous place, worshipping idols instead of the one true God?

-Friends: the primary point from today’s passage is nothing and no one is outside the reach of God. God picks a seemingly insignificant man in a seemingly insignificant place and accomplishes His perfect plans with this guy and his barren wife. 

-This is a small picture of someone else who is born to a barren woman (a virgin) who also accomplished God’s plan. The mother is an insignificant woman in an incredibly insignificant place who God uses to accomplish His perfect plans. This also tells us that if you’re still breathing, God’s still not done with you or anyone you know! Continue trusting God, continue walking with Him, and trust that His plan is better than anything you could come up with anyway (which we’ll see throughout Abraham’s life!) This is going to be a wonderful series learning about and from one of the great patriarchs of our spiritual family, with gospel glimpses of a perfect patriarch to come and set the brokenness right.

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by mikethestrand on February 2, 2025  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, History, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on February 2, 2025

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2025/02/02/father-abraham-sermon-manuscript/

The Practices of the Church – Sermon Manuscrip

-Family habits/practices

-Christmas was a BIG deal in my family growing up! We’d have a whole services before we were allowed to open presents. This was in addition to whatever church services we were also a part of. In my younger years, I latched on to this and planned out the whole thing (mostly so I’d know exactly how much time was left before I could open presents). 

-Got together with my cousins this year, we pulled out the same lyric sheet we’ve used since before I was born.

-Summer time at the cabin, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, every family has celebrations that mark the changing of seasons, but in the family of God, what are those things? How do we mark time according to God’s plan?

READ/PRAY

-Last week we looked at the reality that God has always had a people he’s called out from the world to be His representatives to the rest of the world (Jesus says we’re supposed to be salt and light: preserving and shining into the darkness)

-3 markers that must be in place to be considered a church: preaching the gospel, regular celebration of the sacraments (or ordinances, we’ll get to that), and church discipline. 

-Preaching of the gospel is commitment to the Word of God, church discipline is something I’ve talked about before (Matt. 18 gives clear instructions), but what are the sacraments of the church? And how many are there? Because if any of you have any Roman Catholic friends, they would tell you there are 7 sacraments (the word matters greatly, but hold on to it): 

-When Protestants came along, and with it a renewed focus on God’s Word alone, the question became how many did Jesus give us? 2 (very small minority say 3, based on John 13:14 “So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” Most Protestants have argued that’s a call to service, not an ordinance)

  1. What is an ordinance? 

-What term should we use? Historically, it’s been either a sacrament or an ordinance, and I use them interchangeable, although generally Protestants have preferred ordinance to sacrament to distinguish our beliefs from RCC.

-Sacrament refers to a mystery, the mysterious way grace is given from God to his people. Ordinance refers to “ordained” and attempts to bring the focus on the things Jesus ordained for His followers to do. 

-The other piece to note is what makes these sacraments effective? Is it merely taking a shot of grape juice and tiny cracker getting grace? RCC would say yes, we would say no: it’s connected to the Word & faith

-What does the EFCA say? Here’s statement 7 of our SOF, notice the later half of this statement: 2 ordinances, express the gospel (connection to God’s Word), requirement of faith, and they both “confirm and nourish” that is they do something. 

-There are spiritual realities/implications to literally everything we do, that was one of my biggest takeaways from the series in Revelation last year, we’re either actively living out the realities of heaven, or we’re actively living out the realities of hell.

-And we see this playing out in real time around us right now! Rise in people who say they’re “spiritual but not religious” or I was just reading this past week about people who believe in miracles has gone up for the first time in America in years! That’s where Paul will say “whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God,” we’re supposed to do everything as a way of living as citizens of heaven, not citizens of earth. 

-This should excite you! It excites me! Because it means everything we do has a deeper meaning and significance than any of us realize. We have the opportunity to live holy, set apart lives which has bearing on our eternal existence. That’s why what we do on earth matters! Friends, the way you spend your time, the way you spend your money, the way you spend your words all are loaded with eternal significance. 

-Which is also true of the sacraments or ordinances. Seemingly normal, insignificant things that are loaded with massive spiritual implications and meaning. Things that God has chosen to bind His people to each other and to Himself! Practices that Jesus began and connect us all the way back to Him, practices that tie us to all of the church throughout all of history.

  • Baptism 

-First is baptism, because it’s meant to be one of the first steps of obedience for a Christian. If you read through the NT you see faith connected to baptism repeatedly, and it all starts with Jesus in the great commission at the end of Matthew.

-What’s the sign that someone is a disciple? Baptism! Notice that it gives us 1 instruction too: in the name of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)

-Initially, baptism was immediate. As soon as someone was saved, they looked for water to dunk them in. As time went on, they started realizing that some people were claiming conversion for cultural influence, so they added a season of catechesis, education and training in Christianity to ensure that those who wanted to be baptized were truly saved and walking with the Lord.

-However, because of this intimate link between salvation and baptism, one of the debates was whether or not someone who wasn’t baptized was actually saved! One debate was imagine that someone confesses that Jesus is Lord, and on the way to the waters of baptism, they fall and break their neck and die, will they be with Jesus? Yes – salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone apart from anything else, BUT that doesn’t mean that baptism is an optional tag on for a Christian. 

-Gregg Allison quote. To be a Christian means working to obey and follow all of Jesus’ commands, one of which is baptism, and just to be frank, it’s probably the easiest of all of Jesus’ commands! How many of you have perfected “turning the other cheek.” Or perfectly “love your neighbor just as you love yourself”? 

-Just as I shared last week that church membership isn’t essential to be saved, I’ll say the same thing about baptism, it’s not essential to be saved, but it is essential to be obedient to all of Jesus’s commands (which Jesus also says in the great commission)

-What should baptism look like, and who should be baptized? EFCA is an anomaly here, because historically this has been a divisive issue in the church, and it breaks down between credobaptism or pedobaptism (creedal vs. infant), should we baptize babies or is it for believer’s only?

-EFCA statement

-That being said, I am convictionally a credobaptist and wouldn’t be comfortable baptizing an infant for a few reasons. First is the word “baptize” means “to immerse,” which is also what we see with Jesus. He was laid all the way under the water, then brought back up to a heavenly affirmation of His calling.

-Second is because of what we see throughout the rest of the NT in the connection between salvation and baptism. If it’s a picture of salvation, then it should take place after salvation. Think of what Peter says in Acts 2 after his incredible sermon where 3,000 people are saved, “Repent and be baptized.” That connection must remain together.

-The third reason is the picture baptism serves, which we see in Romans 6. Here Paul tells us that as we go down into the water, it’s like we were buried with Him, signifying that we have died to our old ways of living. The early church even went so far as to have the person being baptized take off their clothes in the baptistry, and then put on new clothes after their baptism to signify that they have crucified their old selves and put on a new person following after Jesus. And that’s the significant part, is that you don’t stay under the water (even though my son told me the last time we had a baptism that he didn’t want to be baptized yet because he was scared I’d leave him under the water), we are raised with Jesus, which gets us to a final picture of being washed clean.

-So why does the EFCA allow infant baptism? Because VERY quickly the early church moved to adopt infant baptism as a sign of the children being a part of the household of God. And since true, orthodox Christians have differed on this issue, the EFCA allows both. I have dear friends that are pastors who were baptized as infants and I could allow them to be full members of South Suburban without changing their baptism position, which I think is a gift!

-The last reason I still hold to believer’s baptism is because of the baptism instructions we read in one of the oldest writings on church order called “The Didache” (Greek for “teaching”)

-We see the Trinity command, notice “living water” which means moving, natural water. So important that in excavations under St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva (4th cent), they’ve found this baptistry: notice the water coming in, and a pipe to let it out

-Then cold water, but warm is acceptable. If none of that is good, get a water bottle on the head! AND fasting leading up to it! Not something to take lightly!

-So who should be baptized? Any and everyone who has put their faith in Jesus!

-Summary: baptism is the first marker, signifying that you have been buried with Christ, had your sins washed away, and raised up to the newness of life. But there’s 1 additional piece to it, that we get as we trace the continual development of Christianity. Nicene Creed (happy 1700th birthday!) says: one baptism. 

-Meant to signify the entry into faith, thus it’s only supposed to happen once. How many times is a baby born? Once! Supposed to be the same thing with baptism. Unlike the next one, which is a regular and ongoing act meant to look back to our baptism.

  • The Lord’s Supper 

-The first thing I want you to note is the connection between baptism and the Lord’s Supper (we’ll get to the names). The earliest instruction to the church says that only those who have been baptized are to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Why is that? 

-Because the Lord’s Supper is meant to be done carefully and sequentially. Remember, as Protestants we believe that there are 2 ordinances, and they are meant to be done in order: baptism as the entry, the Lord’s Supper as the ongoing reminder of the baptism we have celebrated, but it doesn’t make sense to celebrate one if you’re unwilling to celebrate the other, so baptism should happen before you take the Lord’s Supper, as far as the passage quoted, I’m not sure that’s the best verse, but the ordering does make sense!

-So let’s think about this further. First, the name. What should we call it? Communion, the Lord’s Supper, the eucharist, the breaking of bread? Our SOF calls it “Lord’s Supper”, but the what does that mean, and what do all the other names mean?

-Communion refers to “sharing” or “participation,” we are sharing together a cup and bread, we are participating in what Jesus told His followers to celebrate

-Lord’s Supper refers to the language in the Gospels that say after supper Jesus instituted this new rite that His disciples continued practicing together

-Eucharist refers to thanksgiving, which is what we’re supposed to do as part of this celebration together

-Breaking of bread is picked up from Acts 2 where it describes the practices of the early church

-All of these refer to the same event: where Jesus on the night before he was betrayed took bread and wine, elements of the Passover celebration that he shifted in focus from the Exodus to Himself. 

-3 components: past, present, future. Past: tied to the Passover, the most significant even in Israel’s history. Celebrated annually to remember how God provided for His people in the midst of their slavery to Egypt. Each year, Israel was commanded to celebrate the night that God passed over their sins and brought death every firstborn son of Egypt. This was to point forward to the day when God would bring death on His own firstborn at the cross.

-Present: it’s a way of reminding of what God has done in our lives to save us and redeem us, and bring us together as 1 body and people.

-Future: Jesus also told us that He wouldn’t celebrate this again until He returns

-But what does it take for us to actually celebrate the Lord’s Supper? Can we use Oreos and Mountain Dew or do we need bread and wine? Let’s see what Paul says:

-The issue is divisions, which he says means what they’re celebrating “is not the Lord’s Supper.” (20) Which means one of the purpose of this celebration is unity.

-One of the purposes of communion is to demonstrate that we are united together in 1 body, even though all of us come from completely different backgrounds. Just think of what the church is supposed to signify: people from different background, countries, cultures, demographics, sexes, vocations all gathered around 1 thing: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet how often are we divided over things that don’t matter in eternity? Money, politics, house, cars. Friends, none of that matter when we approach the cross. 

-But what’s the main thing about this celebration? Jesus “in remembrance of me” Do you remember Jesus as we partake of these otherwise ordinary things together?

-Spiritual things are taking place around us regularly, but we don’t have the eyes to see them. And somethings (Lord’s Supper) are meant to be spiritual realities of the gospel and do we realize that? Even in partaking in this celebration or thanksgiving, we’re proclaiming the realities of the gospel!

-But Paul goes on to explain what else we need to consider when we celebrate this:

-Unworthy manner. Growing up I always thought this was general sin, but Paul gives more instructions:

-Examine, recognize the body. Yes, sin is a part of it, but particularly Paul is talking about sin that leads to division in our body. Each time we celebrate communion we’re supposed to think about how this unites us together as a body and continue working to preserve the unity among our body. This isn’t just a “me and God” thing, this is supposed to be a “we and God” thing. 

-This gets to something I said last week: that church discipline is a subset of the ordinances, because the practice of excommunication is meant to be disinviting someone from participating in the means of grace God has given, including the Lord’s Supper. Historically, some pastors would interview the entire membership of the church before the Lord’s Supper and give tokens to those who could come, more could be said but I need to keep moving: 

-Sick and ill: something more than just a spiritual thing, it has physical implications too. Yes, this nourishes us bodily, but in the same way it nourishes us spiritually, it gives grace to us.

-Real celebration: 

-Welcome one another

-Gather together

-I don’t know about you, but if there was something God had given to us that we would allow be to receive God’s grace on a regular basis, I’d want to celebrate that as much as I could, wouldn’t you?

-Been thinking the past year about “Holidays” (Holy-days) and the way we think of time because of my trip to Geneva this summer. In Geneva, the church bells told people what time it was. Who tells us what time it is today? Apple? Google? Target? Amazon?

-What habits or practices help to shape and form us into followers of Jesus? What clocks do we keep to help us in following after Him? What if we started to arrange our schedules and practices around God’s plans instead of our own? Think of the way the early church changed their worship practices: Saturday to Sunday. If you’ve ever been a part of a church that changed service times you know how big of a deal that is! (Cheyenne moving 30 min back) 

-If the Lord’s Supper is supposed to be a marker of God’s people, wouldn’t you want to celebrate that more than 1/month? Moving forward, we’re going to be celebrating 2/month, and we’re going to change some of the ways we practice it, because historically people would come forward and receive the elements (more in Sermon Scraps)

-One last piece to note about the sacraments is who recognizes and affirms baptism and the Lord’s Supper? It’s not meant to be an individual act that is meaningful to 1 person, it’s meant to be done by THE CHURCH. 

-You can’t baptize yourself, it’s done as a sacrament of the church. You can’t take the Lord’s Supper by yourself, it’s meant to be a practice (marker) of the church, which means it can’t be done by yourself

-COVID conversation about celebrating communion alone with your family

-2 sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s supper as markers of His people. Have you participated in them both, and if not what are you waiting for?

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by mikethestrand on January 12, 2025  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on January 12, 2025

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End Time Ethics – Sermon Manuscript

-Spend some time giving thanks together for the ways God has worked among us over the past year, but before we look back, I want to take a minute and help us look forward into the next year. 

-Saw an Apple commercial this past week that was talking about the need to get an Apple Watch to motivate you through “quitting Friday” (the 2nd Friday of January)

-As we look forward to another year, what things has God been impressing on you to focus on in your spiritual life? How are you going to take 1 step closer to Him over 2025? It can be easy to assume your spiritual life because it’s less tangible. With physical health you can tell – you can lift more, you can run further, but how do you measure growth in love toward others? How do you measure being more holy?

READ/PRAY

-Begins “The end of all things is near” we’ve spent the last year studying Revelation together, and this is another reminder that we’re living in the last days, and have been living in the last days since Jesus ascended to heaven. But what do we do with that reality? Peter tells us 4 things we should do because we’re living in the last days:

1. Pray 

-How do we pray? The opposite of “The Gentiles” in the previous verses – self controlled and sober minded.

Juan Sanchez 1 Peter For You “We are not to lose our heads; we’re to think clearly. We’re not to set dates; we’re to be ready. We’re not to withdraw from society; we’re to proclaim God’s excellencies. We’re not to panic.” (148)

That is: to pray more effectively

-How are you planning to grow in your prayer life over the coming year?

-Asked at seminary: how’s your prayer life? I’ve always felt like I’m “supposed” to say “it could be better” here’s the thing: God takes the little and makes it that much better. Think of the 5 loaves and 2 fish. A little lunchable. So don’t give up! Keep praying with all you’ve got! As much or as little as you can, God loves when you engage with Him! There’s always room to improve, but don’t give us just because you’re not where you want to be. Start where you’re at and take 1 more step.

2. Love.

Alluding to Prov. 10:12 “hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.”

In a sense, it’s true that love covers EVERY sin! 1 John 4:8 “God is love” John 3:16 “For God so LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” It’s because of God’s love that sin our sin is payed for! And it’s only through God’s love that we can be forgiven.

“Above all”…this is the root of everything we as Christians are called to do

-We are commanded to love each other. Period. No ifs ands or buts. 

-These verses are very similar to 1 Cor. 12-14 where we’re reminded that love is the supreme virtue. You can be as gifted/talented/charismatic that you want, but if you don’t love you’re as helpful as a clashing cymbal. 

-We’re actually commanded to love each other in the same way that Jesus loved us. 

-Poster of the “one another’s” Again, no one is perfect at this, but what can you do to take 1 step closer to loving like Jesus loves over the coming year?

3. Be hospitable

-An article I shared before titled ‘Why Hospitality Beats Entertaining’ has been quoted back to me numerous times by people in the church (you should go read it) but the point is that this doesn’t mean our houses need to be perfectly cleaned to be hospitable.

-In the 1st century this would have involved a lot more intrusion into their lives because they didn’t have hotels, so as Christians traveled this was a command for people to open their homes to each other. 

-Friends, hospitality is supposed to be the norm for Christians. Whether your good at cooking or not, whether your house is perfectly clean or not, look for ways to invite people in, because the point is to be involved in each other’s lives. We’re supposed to love each other like family, and engage each other like family. 

-“Without complaining” Individualism leads to complaining. Individualism leads to NOT being hospitable. Individualism is a sin that needs to be repented of. Think of Mary and Martha. What was Martha’s response? 

4. Use Your Gifts

All spiritual gifts are a form of service. Remember, these are done IN LOVE

The point of your gifts isn’t to build yourself up, it’s so “serve one another.” 

My wife has a gift of discernment without being condemning. I don’t know how she does it! 

“as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”

James 1:17 “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.”

You, ALL of you, have been given a gift by God to serve others. How are you doing at stewarding that gift? Maybe you have the gift of encouragement. Maybe you have the gift of setting up tables. Maybe you have the gift of hospitality. Maybe you have the gift of teaching.

Peter specifically mentions 2 gifts: speaking and serving.

“If anyone speaks, let it be as one who speaks God’s words” the message, the words of God. Everything we do is supposed to point people back to God. We’re called the aroma of Christ. I LOVE that imagery

C.S. Lewis “You have never encountered a mere mortal. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”

Every conversation you have either points people to or away from God.

“if anyone serves, let it be from the strength God provides.”

We’re all commanded to serve in some way! But remember it’s serving from a never ending well that God supplies. 

Proverbs 21:31, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”

Galatians 6:9-10 “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” 

“so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”

Benediction (in many letters)

Everything we do is meant to be an act of worship. Our entire lives. 

“through Jesus Christ” Jesus as our only worship leader

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by mikethestrand on December 29, 2024  •  Permalink
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 29, 2024

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Jesus Did You Know? John 1 – Sermon Manuscript

-End of our series, looked at Mary, Joseph, Herod, and we’re going to end this week looking at Jesus. 

-Not a lot about Jesus’ life to be able to accurately or fully answer this question, the Bible tells us a bit about his birth, we have 1 account of him as a 12 year old in the temple (Luke 2), but then all the accounts jump straight to Him as a 30 year old adult, so we’re somewhat in the realm of speculation when we try to answer this question.

-But I do think it’s important for us to talk about Jesus! If you haven’t figured it out yet, He’s going to come up every week here! He’s literally at the center of all of creation, He’s literally at the center of history, and He’s literally the center, the focal point of all of Scripture. One of the commentators I was reading this week was saying that the fulfillment of the OT isn’t the NT, it’s Jesus. The OT points forward to Jesus, and the NT looks back to Him.

-What’s hard today is what do we do with Jesus? You may have heard this quote attributed to Gandhi:

-On the one hand, this is disappointing because the name “Christian” is meant to signify “Little Christ” aka little representatives of Him, but this is also at the crux of Christianity: we can’t completely be like Christ, which is why He had to become like us! 

-But the other component to this quote is that obviously Gandhi wasn’t a Christian, but he liked what Jesus taught. I have yet to meet or talk to anyone that doesn’t like Jesus, or the Jesus they have in their mind, because often people haven’t actually studied much about Him, they go on what other people say, and it’s amazing how much of their interpretations tend to be more of a reflection of themselves than Jesus Himself! So today I want to look at what Jesus’ plan was, what did He know, and why did He enter into His creation? Because the reality is we can’t separate Christmas from eternity!

READ/PRAY

  1. The Word (1-3)

-“In the beginning”

-I hope by now you’re starting to learn that in order to interpret the NT correctly, we need to know the OT. 1 story from beginning to end. Pointing back to Gen. 1, almost as if he knows the other Gospel accounts that start with Jesus, this one tells us the story of Jesus goes back even further than his birth. John is saying: you think the birth is amazing, let me tell you the true beginning!

-Friends, this is what I said earlier: the reality is that the Christmas story begins before the dawn of creation. Our kids often ask where they were at various events in our lives before they came and we tell them it was before they were born, and Cara has trained them to say “When I was just in God’s mind?” That’s exactly right! Before the earth was here, when it was just in God’s mind, Christmas, the arrival of Jesus, the one and only God-man was the plan. This tells us that even when we go back and read Genesis 1 we should read Jesus in that event, which is where John goes next:

-“was the Word.” What word? What is meant by the word “word”? A whole lot, it turns out, because once again that single word contains a host of OT allusions that we need to understand! 

-First, the immediate context: what did John mean when he used this word? 1st cent. context can be essentially distilled down to basically 2 things: inner thoughts of something: some have argued translating this word as “reason” where we get science, bio-logy (study of bios created things), psych-ology (study of the psych) the-ology (study of God). Second option is an external message or speech, like we use WORDS. 

-And then, as always, what is meant by this throughout Scripture? How does God use words? Since we’ve already been there, and John’s readers would already be thinking about creation, how does God create? Through words. God’s act of speaking has consequences and demands a response! Out of nothing comes something, it can’t help itself since God spoke it, is MUST happen. God speaks, it happens, there’s no waiting, no fighting of anyone else. Have you ever considered how violent other creation myths are? Think of the Big Bang, the beginning of EVERYTHING is an explosion! Other stories talk about various gods fighting and the wreckage of that fighting is the creation. Here it almost is like someone sitting in a La-Z-Boy playing armchair QB, but in this case the creation actually responds!

-Throughout the OT there’s also references to God revealing Himself through words (prophets), and delivering His people (think of the whole Egypt story where God tells Moses “Go TELL Pharoah MY WORDS”)

-But then the most significant place where we see God’s Words is when God reveals Himself to Moses. They’d been led out of Egypt, God had called Moses to the mountain to tell His words and commands to him (10 commandments written by God on stone), Moses comes down to the people partying and worshipping a golden calf, so he goes back up the mountain to meet with God and beg Him to not destroy the nation. During his conversation with God, Moses asks “Let me see your glory.” 

-Does that seem a bit weird to you? What does Moses want? He’s looking to see God fully instead of mediated or clouded (pillar of fire or cloud). Think of the way Jesus is described during the Transfiguration: whiter than the whitest bleach can cause, the disciples can hardly look at Him! And that’s small stuff compared to the full glory of God!

-But notice, how does God say his goodness or glory passes by Moses? By proclaiming His name. God is connected to His name, you can’t separate God from His name, so then when we think of John describing Jesus as the Word, you can hardly find a better word (pun intended) to describe the God! I like the way Carson summarizes this idea:

-All this biblical background with just 1 word! And we’re only on the 6th word of this whole section, and John goes on to identify this Word as being with God and being God. So not only is there all this wealth of allusions in this word, but John leaves no room for interpretation or misinterpretation about what he’s talking about, he’s clear that this is the 2nd person of the Godhead, God the Son, who was the agent of creation, which means everything only exists because of Him, apart from Jesus everything would go back to nothing. Yet many people don’t realize all that is contained in this word, which is why John goes on:

  • The Light (4-13)

-We’ve had the Word to describe Jesus, but says that in Him is LIGHT. Well that has different connotations than the Word!

-John here says that light and darkness can’t coexist, which is true! He is the true light that shines, that reveals where there is darkness.

-Darkness did not overcome: master, comprehend. Darkness can’t comprehend the light, it doesn’t have a way to understand it, the light seems like foolishness to it. So how can the darkness be made aware of the light? Need a witness.

-John: witness, used 3x! “He came as a witness to witness about the light. He came to witness about the light.” I love that word! What are you a witness to?

-Think of that quote from Gandhi that I shared earlier. Does your witness make much of Christ or do you get in the way? Look at the sun (don’t actually look at it) but how can you see anything in the world? Isn’t it because of the shining sun? The sun is so bright that it’s literally the way we see everything in the world, apart from its light we would live in darkness.

-But what about when something gets in between the sun and the earth? Something like the moon? We call that an eclipse, and it’s an eerie experience! We were living in CO when the eclipse came through in 2017 and it was odd to experience darkness during the day! But I think that’s a picture of what we can tend to do with the light of the gospel. How often do we get in the way and refuse to let God’s light shine out because we’re too scared, or because our lives aren’t actually marked by the light of the gospel? Or what about when we add things to the gospel message, things that God didn’t say we needed to do? Look down at vs. 12 – it’s very simple: believe in His name. Trust that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world who came to earth as a baby, but grew and completely and perfectly obeyed God, letting the light of God shine perfectly into the world.

-The Word (that gives light) was in the world, the world only exists because of this Word, but the world wanted to be their own god instead.

-A.W. Pink. (pastor in the early 20th century) This is what we see in Gandhi! He’s blind to the fact that the Messiah, the Savior who came to save the world from their sins has come to the world. Friends, are you blind, or do you see and acknowledge that Jesus is God?

-This is where we’re already seeing that it’s not enough to just like Jesus as a cool dude. Like if you’ve ever heard the icebreaker question: what 3 people would you have dinner with, dead or alive? Jesus is almost always on the list, right? The thing is we already have a whole bunch of stuff that Jesus said about Himself, and God thinks what we have is enough! 

-His own people: we saw that last week. Scribes, rulers knew the right answers, but didn’t follow through on the correct response.

-All those who were supposedly watching completely missed it. If you’ve ever seen a street “magician” (really illusionist) performing you’re aware of this. The whole goal of those people is to distract others from what they’re really doing, which is why it’s often called sleight of hand, they’re essentially forcing you to focus on one thing while they do something else.

-What’s ironic in the Christmas story is that’s not what God did. It’s not like it was a massive secret! He sent angels to shepherd, He sent wise-men to Herod, He sent an angel to Mary and Joseph.

-Children of God: comes only by belief, demands a response “To all who did receive Him.” What’s amazing about that is the only thing it takes is receiving Jesus! Think about the Christmas carol ‘O Little Town’ “Where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.” Then you become children of God, that’s all it takes

-What is this birth thing John talks about? He’ll expand on it in chpt 3 (which we don’t have time to go to), but he contrasts it here with 3 things, that feels unnecessarily repetitive and redundant, don’t they? We get it John, it’s only “of God” but what do you think all these things John’s talking about mean? 

-Natural descent: this is referring to genealogy. In Jewish circles, genealogy was literally make or break for you! Either you were Jew or you were of the “ethnicities.” So if you were of the wrong blood-line, you weren’t a part of God’s people. But this thought continues today! The assumption that you’re a Christian because you’re American (less so today) or that you’re good because your parents took you to church. Friends, I hate to say it, but your bloodline has no bearing in the kingdom of God.

-Will of the flesh: this has to do with sincerity. Originally, this is a husband and wife coming together to produce a baby, there’s desire there for children, earnest to earn the gift of a baby. But friends, all the sincerity in the world can’t make you a child of God. You see this with people who assume they’re good because they went through the right motions: I went to church all growing up, I went to Awana all the way through, I did confirmation. Once again, John is telling us here that none of those things can save you, which gets to the third one:

-Will of man: effort. No matter how hard you try you won’t become a child of God. I listened to a podcast this week that was comparing Christianity to other world religions, all of which have some element of effort required to achieve salvation, but Christianity doesn’t have that, which is why so many people struggle with it and add works to salvation. 

-There’s only 1 way to become a child of God: But of God. God redeems you and adopts you as His child. That’s it! It’s only by believing in His name! But what did it take for it to be that simple? 

  • The Flesh (14-18)

-Back to the Word, but this is weird, he became flesh and tabernacled (moved into the neighborhood) How can the eternal Word step into time? 

-To understand this one, we need to understand both tabernacle and (tabernacling) God dwelling among His people. Throughout the OT, God’s manifest presence was confined to the tabernacle (then the temple), so that His people wouldn’t die. Just as light can’t coexist with darkness, God’s glory can’t coexist with sin. So when we read that the Word, who was with God and IS God, became flesh that would have made NO sense, much less tabernacling among us, if God is with us we’re done for! But John keeps going:

-And we SAW his glory! Remember what we saw with Moses back in Exodus, no one could see God’s glory and live, and here John says WE SAW HIS GLORY! Suddenly, the God who was completely separate, unobtainable, unapproachable is here, walking and talking with us. Do you see why Jews struggled to believe Him?

-Full of what? Grace and truth. We need BOTH! This is the amazing thing about the gospel – we get the truth that we are far worse than we ever dared imagine, but we also get the grace that we are far more loved than we could ever dare to hope. Christianity is the 1 religion that can deal with the complexity of the world, because Christianity is the 1 religion that is true.

-From Him, we have received grace upon grace, better translated as grace instead of grace, grace on top of grace, but it only comes through the truth, the truth that Jesus is God and came to take away the sins of the world, which includes you if you’ve believed in His name.

-Jesus is better even than Moses, which is another reason we should be thinking back to Ex. 33-34 when we read John 1

-Jesus reveals the unseeable God in seeable form. John’s epistle begins this way: beginning, heard, seen, observed, touched, then passed down, JOY

-One of my favorite Christmas songs begins with “Joy to the world the Lord is come.” Joy is possible, but it only comes about be believing in Jesus, who had planned from all eternity to come to earth as a baby boy. To live the perfect life that we could never live, and die the death that we all deserved to die to give us joy and the opportunity to hear Him, to see Him, and to some day touch Him. Joy that nothing can take away, joy that lasts even when you don’t get the Christmas gift you wanted. Joy that can and will last into eternity all because the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood, which means we now can become children of God.

-And now, as we look forward to celebrating Christmas this week, we have the reminder that we are now the ones who are supposed to move into the neighborhood and shine as lights in the darkness. The Christmas story, the story of Jesus first coming culminates in a second coming where we’ll be with Him forever! And until that second coming, our job each Christmas is to continue overcoming the darkness, through joy.

-So church, by joyful, always.

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by mikethestrand on December 22, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 22, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/12/22/jesus-did-you-know-john-1-sermon-manuscript/

Herod, Did You Know? – Sermon Manscript

-I shared 2 weeks ago how I feel like a bit of a Grinch at Christmas because it’s so easy to just become numb to it (especially when they put up Christmas decorations in October) But last night, I had a visit from 3 ghosts and I’m now a new man! If you haven’t watched or read A Christmas Carol, that comment makes no sense to you! The best version is the Muppets, and it’s not even close

-Every good story needs an antagonist, a bad guy. Scrooge, Voldemort, Sauron, Thanos, even the new Barbie movie needed the enemy of “the system” (cleverly disguised as Mattel) to fight against! 

-And the Christmas story is no exception, except this story is real, with real stakes! No CGI was used in this production. This bad guy is Herod, and he’s really a bad dude!

READ/PRAY

  1. Some Righteous Dudes (1-15)

-Last week we saw the righteousness of Joseph, who was thought to be the father of Jesus (Luke 3:23), he took Jesus and Mary’s shame on himself, willingly. 

-We’ll get to Herod after we look at these “wise men.” 

-Magi (where we get magic, sorcery), men who were in the upper realms of society and gifted in astrology.

-“From the east” where is the east? We’ve spent a lot of time over the past year tracing how the Bible fits together and the way it alludes to previous stories that we should hear, so when we come across this phrase, Matthew’s picking up on previous themes.

-Daniel tells the story of siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon. Where’s Babylon? To the east! The Jews were taken into exile into the east, but even when they’re in exile God still blesses them. Daniel 1:17 (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, also known as Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Lion’s Den and fiery furnace), 2:2 (additionally, what was a common practice in Babylon? Magi) Many scholars believe these Magi are in the same lineage as what we see in Daniel. After centuries of oppression of God’s people, those nations who were oppressing them are now coming to worship the one true God.

-Balaam was talked about a few times in Revelation, he’s the one who had a donkey talk to him after being beaten by Balaam. Balaam was hired by the king of Moab to curse Israel, but instead of cursing them, the only thing he can do is bless them. Look at what he says to the king of Moab: Num. 24:17. And where does Balaam come from? 23:7 FROM THE EAST.

-And the last thing we need to know about the east occurs all the way back in Gen. 3:23-24. The Bible begins with everything being very good, in harmony with each other and with God but then our first parents disobeyed God, committing treason against Him and were banished from Eden, but notice which way they were banished, drove the man out, and as he was sent out a cherubim was stationed to prevent him from returning into the garden, they’re sent “East of Eden” as John Steinbeck summarized it. So the significance of wise men coming “from the east” is that God is finally bringing harmony to what was broken all the way back in the beginning.

-Matthew writes this Gospel to demonstrate the way Jesus fulfills all of God’s promises, hence so much quoting of the OT here.

-“Star-led wizards” (Douglas Sean O’Donnell), from the east (where the enemies of God’s people are) who are coming to worship the king of the Jews. That’s a reversal of fortunes from what had happened to the Jews! God’s way of saying that even these wizards can worship the one true God.

-Why did they come to Jerusalem? Apparently they knew some of the OT promises, but not all of them, so they came to the capital of Israel

-Contrast the response of these wizards with the response of the chief priests and scribes.

-Religious and political leaders of the day, they had the right answer, but what did they do with it? Nothing. 

-Friends, this is one of my biggest concerns with our world today is ambivalence to the realities of Jesus. I could understand Herod’s response of anger because Jesus means everything changes, what I don’t understand is not caring, and my concern in the church is our hearts aren’t led to worship when we think of Jesus, we check a box that we go to church, or we’re here because our parents made us, but it doesn’t actually affect us. If Jesus came and lived on earth (which he did) then everything in our lives has to change.

-C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity. Something about us has to change, which is true for these Wizard/magicians

-Something different about this star unlike a normal star that we see in the sky: sounds more like the fire that led the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings, something supernatural that God used to guide these people.

-Just as we don’t know much about Joseph, we don’t know much about these guys, but we know they were wealthy, and that they were obedient, they responded with worship. 

-Gifts were kingly gifts! Much better than the diapers and blankets babies get today! Not only did these guys understand the stars, they also understood dreams, and when they left they didn’t go back to Jerusalem.

-Just as we saw last week with Joseph’s obedience to the first angel appearing in a dream, same thing here when an angel appears to him in a dream. It seems that he woke up as soon as the dream was done and fled!

-Don’t miss the humanity of this: left home, vocation, extended friends and family, become refugees to save his adopted son. And how do you think they paid for this move? Most likely with the gifts from these wizards.

-Even when it seems like a powerful ruler can thwart God’s plans, he can’t. (Psalm 2) Nations rage and people’s plot against God and His anointed, but God laughs.

  • An Unrighteous Dude (16-18)

-Did you notice how many times Herod was called a king: vs. 1, 3, 9, contrasted with the king of the Jews

-Herod was a vindictive and jealous man. Killed wives who crossed him, sons who crossed him, as well as any enemies he didn’t like. Was referred to as “The Great” but that was just due to his building programs. Rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem (where Jesus would preach from)

-Look at vs. 3 “Deeply disturbed” better translated as “greatly agitated” or “in turmoil” how would “all Jerusalem” be bothered by this?

-2 proposals: leaders of Jerusalem, or people would be terrified that Herod would go into a rage and kill someone (which he does)

-Herod’s response should have been to actually do what he tells the Magi he’ll do: worship. But that’s not what he does, he responds differently to Jesus: (vs. 16)

-The irony is if Herod was the true king of the Jews, what he should have done was searched the Scriptures and obeyed. See Herod wasn’t even a Jew, so if someone was born who was the in the correct lineage they would have a legitimate claim to the throne – more than Herod would, which is why he flies into a rage, he’s livid!

-So he does exactly what he’s done before – kills any and all potential threats to his power, in this case all boys 2 and younger. Just imagine the implications of that: a city where the little boys who used to run around and play in the streets are gone. Boys ripped from their mother’s arms to be killed.

-Once again, I want to point out that you can often tell who the enemy of God is by how they treat the youngest of us, because God is on the side of most vulnerable, which is who we as Christians should care for as well. Just think of God’s commands throughout the Bible: to not pursue power and wealth, but to look to how we can care for others, literally the opposite of what we see here in Herod! 

-What’s most ironic to me is that he’s known as Herod the Great, and what does Jesus tell us greatness looks like? Greatness is service in God’s kingdom. If you want to be truly great, it means humbling yourself and looking to serve others instead of looking to get from others and how you can be served.

-Because Herod isn’t living as God intends people to live, the response for this part of the Christmas story is weeping and mourning (quoting from Jer. 31:15)

-I understand some of you may feel this way as we approach Christmas. It’s hard to be joyful when you’re weeping and mourning, and part of the reason we have an Advent season is to remember that in between Jesus’s 2 comings is waiting and longing and mourning. Friends, the Lord knows! Trust in the Lord, He hears every cry and knows the mourning that you’re walking through, so bring it to Him

-One of my favorite components of Christmas is it’s the 1 time of year where we listen to music in a minor (sad) key. It’s (somewhat ironically) the 1 time of year where it’s ok for us to admit we’re not ok.

-I often think of Psalm 23 when I’m struggling: “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me.” Even when we’re in the depths of despair, God is with us. His rod and staff both protect us from enemies and help to guide us on the right path, but that means we have to trust in His plans for each step along the way.

  • God’s Plan (19-23)

-What happened to Herod the Great? He died. How great is a king who ends us as a footnote in the introduction to the story about the true, everlasting King of kings?

-Herod died in 4 BC, and his kingdom was split among 3 sons and his sister (another Herod Antipas who was around during Jesus’s ministry)

-An angel appears to Joseph again and tells him it’s time to move back to Israel, and once again Joseph immediately obeys, but settles in a different place than before: Nazareth.

-We know from Luke 1 and 2 that this was where Mary and Joseph were originally from, but there’s no OT passage that Matthew quotes here, but what he’s most likely doing is pointing out how despised Jesus would be, he’s taking the sum total of how the prophets talked about the coming Messiah and summarized it as “being from Nazareth.” Nazareth was scorned even by people who lived nearby. No one would willingly claim that as their hometown, kind of like when people show up to churches in MN wearing Packers jerseys, they’re asking for the scorn of the people!

-Remember, God’s plan has always been to take seemingly insignificant people and places and use them for His ultimate purposes. He didn’t choose Israel because it was the biggest and best, He chose them in spite of all their external attributes, and it’s the same for us. God chooses what the world despises and then transforms and glorifies it to magnify His name.

-Think about the Christmas Carol – Scrooge is the one who seems to have everything the world wants: money and power. Yet how does that work out for him at the beginning of the book? Not so well! In this story, Herod is the one who has everything the world wants: money and power. And how did that work out for him? 2 words: Herod died. And despite trying to stamp out his opposition, the king that he was aiming to kill is still alive today.

-What we see in the midst of this entire story is the way God’s perfect plan can’t be stopped. Even when it seems like evil has the upper hand, even when it feels like everything is failing around us, God is still at work. Think of what Joseph says to his brothers at the end of Genesis: What you meant for evil God meant for good. What Herod meant for evil, God used for good, the ultimate good or providing salvation for the world!

-Eucatastrophe – a good catastrophe, everything sad will come untrue. God takes even what is intended as evil and somehow and some way uses it as good in our lives, but only if we’re trusting in and walking with Him. Friends, this reminds us that even when it feels like our lives are falling down around us, keep walking with God, because it’s worth it receive God’s gifts at the end.

-We’ve seen 3 responses to Jesus in this story, and as we come to the end the question in front of us is: which response do you have to Jesus? Anger, apathy, or adoration

-Anger: some people are legitimately angry about Jesus, but that isn’t the trend today. You saw that quite a bit in the early 2000s with the so called “4 horsemen of the new atheism” but even they are far less angry now than they used to be! In fact, one of them (Richard Dawkins) has recently come out saying he is a cultural Christian! He said he appreciates much more of what Christianity has brought to the world than any other religion, and he enjoys the cultural trappings, particularly at Christmas and Easter (hymns, decorations, etc)

-And maybe you’re not angry at Jesus broadly, but are there areas in your life where you harbor a “Herod spirit” against Him? This is more than being a Scrooge, this is an area where you’re not completely trusting that He cares about you and you’re angry at Him for not fitting within your plans, refusing to realize that His plans are far better than yours. Tim Keller. Keep praying!

-Apathy: this is knowing about Jesus but not letting it change anything about you, and I think this is the most dangerous place to be. You can see this with people who have almost been inoculated against Jesus – they know about Him, they’ve read the Bible, but it hasn’t actually changed anything about their lives. They view Jesus as an optional add on instead of the essential component to everything in life.

-Think of the difference between the Operating System and the Apps on your phone. Without the OS your phone is an expensive paperweight, AND without your OS the apps are pointless. Similarly in our life, without Jesus, everything else in life is pointless. It can seem enjoyable, but that joy only goes so far and eventually you’ll need to chase something else to find that same hit of joy. With Jesus, He literally changes everything about us so that we can finally make sense of our lives, of our joys and sorrows, and help us understand what our lives should look like:

-Adoration: this is what Jesus wants from everyone, and will someday demand from everyone when He comes back again. When we understand who Jesus is, this is the only way we can respond! He helps us to appreciate the gifts He’s given us (food, drink, books, nature, friends, family), He helps us understand that those things aren’t ends in themselves, but they help us to understand His love and care for us.

-There can be a tendency this time of year to shame people for enjoying the sentimentality of Christmas with the reminder that “Jesus is the reason for the season” and while that’s true, the way we experience Jesus today is through the gifts He’s given us, so friends, this Christmas season it’s ok to be sentimental and enjoy all the experiences that come with Christmas, but view those as opportunities to adore Jesus because He came to earth for you!

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by mikethestrand on December 15, 2024  •  Permalink
Posted in Bible, Blog, Church, Life, Sermon, Worship
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Posted by mikethestrand on December 15, 2024

https://pastormikesmusings.com/2024/12/15/herod-did-you-know-sermon-manscript/

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