FHBC Sermon Notes

How does it feel to travel in an uncertain place? If something goes wrong, where do you find assistance?  Where will we eat, what will we do?

Jim recounts traveling in Haiti, knowing nothing of the place, during a time when the State Department had given an advisory against going, yet he traveled with a seasoned veteran, surrounding by those he trusted.

The of Abraham is that and so much more. For Abraham, obeyed God, and went to a land completely foreign, with everything unknown, except for one thing: The one he was traveling with. Abraham was traveling with the Lord God. And he traveled under a promise.

As the story starts we only know a little of Abram.  He was from Ur, the son of Terah. But we see that God gives him a series of promises.

1. I will give to you and your offspring land.  The land of Canaan specifically.

2. I will make you a great nation.  Your offspring.  Note how old Abram is, over a hundred years old with a wife in her nineties.  How would they have children. 

3. I will make you a blessing to all the earth.  This is a hard one for Abraham.  He distrusts Pharaoh, and Abilimech telling them that Sarah is his sisters.  What he doesn't realize is that he is a blessing to all the earth, but also those who curse him will be cursed.  And so as they try and pursue Sarah as a wife, they dishonor Abraham, and are cursed because of Abraham's lie.

So one question here is why did God make these promises.  First it must be understood in the context of man's (our) rebellion at creation.  This is the follow up to the promises given to Adam and to Noah.  Ultimately, God would raise up a people for himself, for the glory of his name. 

So why Abraham… Is he special.  Abraham was a worshiper of many gods. He distrusted him many times.  Why then?  Because it was God's good pleasure to do so.  There is nothing special about Abraham.  Abraham's story is not his own, but God's!

But there was one thing that Abraham did do… He went! Despite all the uncertainty, he went. His faith in God leads him to submit to God's authority.

This is the promises given, but also the promise kept. What makes a covenant?  It is a promise from God, in which he has committed himself directly to the outcome.  Despite all the that has happened in history, God has made this to happen. 

To signify this covenant, God uses innocent animals as a sacrifice to show how serious this was.  God's Spirit passes between the pieces of the sacrifice and consumes them.  But to truly understand how serious God was for this to happen, consider that this first sacrifice was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice to come, of Jesus, the Son of God, killed on a cross. God sent not his flock, an animal, but his own Son as that sacrifice.

God also changes the name of Abram, to Abraham.  This is the same promise we have received, for in Christ we are also given a new name - an eternal name. 

God also gives the sign of circumcision.  As Christians, we are told that baptism is also this sign, the outward demonstration of our faithfulness and God's faithfulness to us. Faithfulness is more than a mental acknowledge, but a reorientation of Abraham's entire life.  Even his own son as a sacrifice becomes part of this.  Abraham though wasn't always faithful, he lies to save himself, he has a child by a concubine.  But even in his unfaithfulness God demonstrated His faithfulness and brought Abraham back.  God is so sovereign that he works despite our own sin.  Now that is a wondrous hope intend.

What is faithfulness if it is not fulfilled. So many times in Abraham's story is seems to Abraham that things will not be fulfilled.  But in old age, they had a son.  In a foreign land, they had land.  But it does not end there…

God was faithful in his word.  The child (Isaac) grows up,  and God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Again, God in this test provides and shows what is to come.  For God provides a ram in place of Isaac.  So, did Abraham see the end. 

Not yet, for in the person of Jesus all this was fulfilled.  Jesus is that sacrifice for all of us.  The promises God made have been fulfilled in Jesus.  Resurrected in Jesus Abraham will see the completion. For Paul tells us that it was Jesus that Abraham was looking for.  In him, all that trust in him will be saved from the judgment to come.  In Christ, all the people of the world are blessed, for from all the people of Earth, in Christ, God is making a people for himself. 

AMEN.