Abraham Catch Up

 Abram Catch Up

Read Genesis 11-19

Note:  Genesis chapters and verses are noted not linked.

The 11 am service will have the main story from chapter 20, so for now, I want to do a quick flyover of the 9 chapters about Abraham that we have covered so far.  Don’t miss the 11 am service as it will address what happened in chapter 20.  I will put a few questions in here for those who remember the story. Here we go…

Abram comes from the line of Shem one of Noah’s sons. 11:10-26

Abram’s family lived in the land of the Chaldeans.  This was pagan country. 11:27-28

Abram’s father was named Terah . 11:27

Here’s a question for you. Abram’s father, Terah, had three sons.  Two of them were Nahor and Haran.  What was the name of the third son? Abram.  11:27-32

Lot was Abram’s Nephew.  Haran was his father. Haran died while everyone was still living in Ur in the land of the Chaldeans.

Abram’s father took his family from Ur in the land of the Chaldeans and moved north to a place called Harran. 11:27-32.  Terah, Abram and his wife Sarai, and Terah’s grandson, Lot, made the journey. We don’t hear anything about Nahor.

While in Harran, God called Abram to leave Harran and his father’s household and go to a land that God would show him. This is what will come to be known as the Promised Land, but that’s yet to come at this point. 12:1-3

How old was Abram when he left his father’s household? He was 75 years old.  Imagine living at home until you were 75.  If mom keeps doing your laundry that might be a sweet deal. 12:4

What other male relative came with Abram? Lot.  We don’t see that God called Lot to go with Abram, but he went anyway and will be part of several stories in the chapters ahead. 12:4

Abram next went to Egypt.  Why? There was a great deal on an AirB&B—No, that’s not it.  There was a famine in the land.  Turn your biblical clocks ahead to the story of Joseph and think on that one for a while. 12:10

In Egypt, Abram tried to pass his wife off as his sister for his own safety. 12:10-20

Pharoah discovered the deception as a result of serious diseases inflicted on him.  He sent Abram and crew packing but with great wealth. That’s quite the trick.  You deceive the Pharoah and surely are not much of an ambassador for the one true God, but you make out like a bandit. 12:10-20

Now we come to a point where Lot and Abram went separate ways.  Both seemed to be successful and had many flocks and their servants were always fighting over who got what pastures.  So Abram said to Lot:  You go where you want and I will go somewhere else. Who settled in the land around Sodom and Gomorrah?  Lot did.  It was that greener pastures sort of thing. 13

Here’s a cool fact for you. Abram had an army.  How many men composed his army? There were 318 men in Abram’s army and they defeated 4 undefeated armies.  Why did Abram go to war?  Because Lot was captured and taken away by these armies as part of the spoils of war. 14:1-16

To whom did Abram make a tithe following his victory? The tithe was made to God but Melchizedek was the priest, and also the king of Salem, which you know better today as Jerusalem. 14:17-20

Following this meeting and blessing, to whom did Abram say he would take nothing from him? The king of Sodom. Abram somehow knew that this whole Sodom business was ugly and he wanted no ties with it.  He probably couldn’t figure out why his nephew still wanted to live there. 14:21-24

Abram had been in the land for a while and still didn’t have any kids. He was worried that his estate would go to Eliezer of Damascus because Abram was childless. 15:1-3

God told Abram that his heir would be of his own body.  Abram believed God and God counted his belief (faith) as righteousness. 15:6

How was the Promised Land defined in this covenant? God promised Abram many descendants and told Abram that they would reside in a land promised to them. What land?

When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” 15:17-20

I think he left out the gigabytes and terabytes and the smaller tribes of the megabytes and kilobytes.

What creative solution to this childlessness business did Sarai and Abram concoct? Sarai told her husband that he should do the deed with her maidservant and make a child.  He did and Hagar, Sarai’s servant, got pregnant.  Hagar started pressing her luck and there was animosity between her and Sarai.  Sarai came to Abram and told him it was all his fault. Abram told Sarai to do what she wanted with her servant.  She mistreated Hagar and she ran away. 16

What name was to be given to this child? Ishmael.16

Was this the child of the promise? No.  God will fulfill his promise.

Did God tell Hagar that she was on her own? No.  The angel sent her back to Sarai but promised to provide for her and her son. 16

How did the angel describe this child that was to come? A wild donkey of a man. 16:12

Was Abram circumcised? Not until chapter 17.  This was not a medical procedure.  It was a sign in the flesh between God and Abram and all his Abram’s household and all of Abram’s descendants.  The covenant was that God would make Abram the Father of Many Nations.

God did one more thing that was a sign of things to come in short order.  He gave Abram and Sarai new names, names appropriate for the Father of Many Nations and his wife.  They were Abraham and Sarah. 17

Three visitors came to see Abraham.  They were the Lord and 2 angels.  They said that Abraham and Sarah will have the promised child in about one year.  Sarah laughed.  God heard her.  She said that she didn’t laugh. God said, “Yes you did.”  Imagine getting into a back-and-forth about what you did or didn’t say with God. 18

The two angels headed towards Sodom and the Lord told Abraham that he would destroy the city and surrounding area because of its wickedness.  Abraham bargains with the Lord for the city, asking will you destroy the righteous along with the wicked.  Abraham asked the Lord if he would spare the city if there were 50 righteous men in it.  The Lord said for the sake of the 50, he would spare the city.  A negotiation of sorts ensues.  What about 45. OK.  What about 40. OK.  At the end of this dialogue, the Lord said if there were 10 righteous men in the city, he would spare it, and he left. 18

We might wonder why Abraham cared about Sodom.  When he met with the king, he didn’t want to have anything to do with him.  Why did he care?

We don’t know for sure, but it might be because Lot lived there, and he had a family now.

Little did Abraham know that God had already set in motion a rescue for Lot and his family, at least those who were willing to be rescued.

The short version of this story is that Sodom and Gomorrah and much of the surrounding area were toast.  Burning sulfur started raining down at sunrise.  On that day, the best part of waking up might have been Folgers in your cup because the rest of the day was nothing but destruction.

The two angels had rescued Lot and his wife, plus the two daughters that were unmarried and lived at home.  There may or may not have been other daughters that were married.  Genesis only tells us of the two.

During the night, the angels grabbed these 4 people and got them out of the city, then set them loose with instructions.  Run for the hills (actually the mountains) and don’t look back.  Both parts of this instruction were important.

Lot convinced the angels that he couldn’t survive in the mountains and they let him take shelter in a small town near the mountains which would be named Zoar, which means small town.

Lot’s wife ran away for a while but at some point, after dawn, she looked back and became a pillar of salt.  There is plenty of speculation on why she looked back and why she turned into salt, but from this chapter we just get the account.  She looked back and turned to salt. 19

Most people remember the story up to this point, but there is a little more.  Lot and his daughters moved to the mountains.  That was where the angels originally wanted to send them, but Lot thought Zoar would be better.  As it turned out, he was afraid to live there.

So, they moved to the mountains and lived in a cave.  Apparently, they had no neighbors.  The solitude might have been good for Lot, but the 2 young women felt it was the end of the world.  They had no prospects for husbands or for children.

They could do something about the second part, so on consecutive nights, they got dad drunk and had sex with him and conceived.  Apparently, Lot was oblivious to the process.  That must have been some wine!

The older daughter had a son and named him Moab and the younger had son and named him Ben-Ammi. 19:30-38

And that little soap opera brings us up to chapter 20 and a story that sounds a lot like one we heard before.

So, that is the 10,000-foot overview—a quick flyover of 9 chapters with the son of the promise and the testing of Abraham’s faith yet to come.

Keep on reading.

Amen.

Our First Glimpse of Mercy

 Read Genesis 17

Have we ever seen this sort of language from God before?

Adam and Eve were created good, very good.

There were consequences for disobedience.

Cain killed Abel.  There were consequences for disobedience but also protection from harm.

Noah found favor with the Lord.  We don’t get all the details, but Noah and his family were saved from the judgment that came upon the earth.

Abram has been promised many descendants and a land for them to live in.  There were other people living in the land at the time of this promise and Abram and Sarai were childless.  Abram did have a son by his maidservant, but this son is not the one through whom God would deliver on his promises.

So we come to chapter 17 and God reaffirms his promises to Abram—descendants and a Promised Land, but this time is different.

Yes, God will change Abram’s name to Abraham and he will command that Abraham and all males in his household and in his promised lineage be circumcised—that they receive a sign of this covenant in the flesh.

But God did something else.  He commanded Abram, who by the end of this chapter we will call Abraham—to walk faithfully before him and be blameless.

God said to live in faith and be blameless. Realize that God has already credited Abram with righteousness because of his belief—his faith—but Abram has not always lived in accordance with what he believed.

He has been obedient to what God told him to do, but he has had some difficulty believing that God will follow through on his promises.

There was a kid named Ishmael running around to prove it.

So, God has finally told Abram—told someone—to live a life that brings glory to God.  Live faithfully and be blameless.

God commanded Abram to do what no human flesh could ever do—be blameless.  We all fall short and this is not just a modern-day thing.

Only Jesus who was God in the flesh could live a blameless—and unblemished life.  He did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it and he did.

Neither Abraham nor Moses did this.  They were not blameless before the Lord.  No one was!

Now, we know there will come a time when we will be blameless, where the good work that God began in us will be complete. But we are not there yet?

We also know that we cannot stray so much that God’s grace will not cover those sins as well.

So should we even try knowing that we can never fully succeed?

What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound even more?

We know the answer is no, by no means, but what’s the point of trying if we know that we cannot never achieve walking blamelessly before the Lord?

Why don’t we just say whatever and chill out in this righteousness that we have been given?

C’mon.  We will never score 100%.  We will always fall short. And if we don’t keep the whole law then we are guilty of breaking all of it.

We are studying Abram.  We haven’t even got to the law yet.  We have not yet studied be holy as I am holy.  We are just to walk blamelessly before God.

But it can’t be done, so why try?

You may or may not like this answer, but don’t argue with me.  Argue with God.

Remember that God’s ways are higher than our ways.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  Do you remember those words from Isaiah?

Now hear these words from the apostle Paul.

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

What?  God knew that we couldn’t score 100% and yet he told us to live blamelessly anyway, really?

Really? Yes!

We should live fully doing our best to please holy God, rejoicing when we do and shouting hallelujah when we tried but fell short, for in our shortcomings we see the mercy of Almighty God.

OK, Tom, you are just making this up as you go along, right?

Should we not try to do our best to walk blamelessly before God?  Yes we should seek to live righteously, justly, and without fault.

But when we fall short, we truly know the mercy of God.

There should be no dichotomy between seeking justice and loving mercy.

Seek justice.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly before your God.

All come to God and his salvation out of disobedience.  Our human minds think that we should score 100 on every test.  God wants us to seek to please him by doing our best to be blameless but he values mercy more than living without mistakes.

When we know his mercy, we are better equipped to show mercy. God desires mercy over judgment. He desires mercy over sacrifice. 

God called Abram to be faithful and to live blamelessly.  In this we see the beginnings of the mercy of God that we know so fully now.

Keep the faith.

Seek justice—to live rightly and blamelessly.

But love mercy.  Learn to be merciful.

Then, we can walk humbly with our God.

Amen.

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

 Read Genesis 17

Thirteen years have transpired since the last chapter.  Abram—we won’t be calling him that for much longer—is now 99 years old.  His wife is almost a decade younger but surely the season for making children has passed, or not.

The scripture reads: the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty, walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

God appeared to Abram.  God was still promising descendants to Abram.  This time God directed Abram to walk in faith and to be blameless.  God has plans for Abram and God wants Abram to live up to his part.  He is about to begin the journey to becoming the Father of Many Nations.

Abram realized that this was God and he fell down before him but the words sounded all too familiar.  This time, however, God told Abram that he was getting this show on the road.  He changed his name from Abram to Abraham.

If we look to the original language, both Abram and Abraham mean the same thing—exalted father, but God said that the name Abraham meant more.  It was appropriate to this man whom he had chosen for this special purpose.  So Abraham it was.  Sarai became Sarah, and both were given a name for the child.  The name was Isaac.

This child would come soon.  The time frame gets more specific in the next chapter but for now, Abraham was told to be faithful and walk blamelessly. 

He was also told that this covenant would be formalized in Abraham’s flesh, and the flesh of every living male 8 days or older.  God had begun carving out a people for himself out of all the peoples of the world.

Circumcision would be the sign.  Every male in Abraham’s household was circumcised including his son Ishmael and himself. 

The consequence for failing to do this was that the person would be cut off from this family of God. This directive would be in effect for a very long time.

Perhaps we can understand why in New Testament times, many Hebrews who said they also followed Jesus insisted that the pagan people be circumcised.  This was a big-time deal.

This was all very formal and reverent, but Abraham who was credited with right standing with God for his belief wondered to himself just how this could be.  He was pushing 100. Sarah was 90.

C’mon God.  Let’s get real.  Could you not just bless my son Ishmael?  He is already 13.  We could gain a little time here.  My wife and I are no spring chickens. Would that not be easier?

Yes, this whole Hagar and Ishmael thing was a crazy plan, but if you were to bless it, then maybe this whole father of many nations thing might work out.

But God was not looking for easier. He would do things his way.  In fact, when God does it his way we see that it could only be God at work.

God would take care of Ishmael and make him and his line great, but the promise to Abraham would come through Isaac.

Abraham and every male in his household sealed this covenant with a sign in the flesh.  They were all circumcised. 

Abram was given a new name—Abraham.

Abraham was given a sign in the flesh that formalized this covenant.

And if we don’t stop reading here, Abraham and Sarah will be given the promised son in short order.  That time was drawing near.

We talked about believing in God and in his promises and about regressing to our own understanding as we looked at the life of Abram. We know that we struggle between what we say we believe and how we live out that belief, or sometimes don’t live out that belief.

We struggle. God knew that Abraham struggled.  God gave him 2 tangible things to help him with his struggles.

He gave him a new name.  Abram had made a lot of mistakes, yet God kept him for his purpose.  This new name would mark a time when Abram—now Abraham—might begin to walk blamelessly before the Lord. 

We might see a parallel between that time and our own and view it as being a new creation. It was an impossible task to walk blamelessly, but Abraham got a fresh start.

He gave Abraham a sign in the flesh of his promise to him.  Abraham had to put this sign there himself.  This was a very tactile and kinesthetic process and the effects continued for all of Abraham’s life.

And God would fulfill his promise of a son, who we now know will be called Isaac.

Wouldn’t it be nice, if we too had signs that reminded us of God’s promises?

Well, there is the rainbow.  God will not destroy the world by flood again.  OK, but I was thinking more along the lines of signs that might help us get through the day when it seems like the ways of the world are just racking up one victory after another.

It would be nice to have a sign from God every once in a while, wouldn’t it?

How many of you have more than 1 cross in you household?  How many have a wall or two full of crosses?  We have made the cross into a collectible.  It’s an ornament.  It’s an accessory.

The cross is a sign to us of God’s love.  If we think of the original cross, it was surely not ornate.  It was likely a rough-cut tree, neither sanded nor varnished for visual appeal. It didn’t have a light behind it.

It was an instrument of death, cruel death.  What kind of people would want such a sign as part of their faith?

People who want to remember how much God loves us.  People who want to remember the price paid for sin.  People who want to remember that the wrath that God had for sin was poured out on that cross and satisfied.

This sign which was the trademark of human brutality of an age past, is a lasting sign to us that God did everything needed to make us right with him.  Wrath against sin was satisfied.  Justice was satisfied. The wages of sin were satisfied, all in the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us.

Oh, yes, we have a sign to help us through our days.

The world behind me.  The cross before me.  No turning back!

How about the bread and the cup.  How about something more than a visual sign?  How about something in which we participate?

It’s more than just words.  This is my body broken for you.

It’s more than just a visual.  This is my blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

It’s more than a sacrament.  It is how we are to remember Jesus and we do it not by observation but by participation.

How about the Lord’s Prayer.  We know the words so it’s just recitation, right?  No.  Again, it’s participation in a model given to us by Christ himself.

It’s not all of our prayer life, but it reminds us of how Jesus taught us to pray.

And we have God’s holy word available to us all of the time. Who has more than one Bible?  Who has a dozen?  Who reads their Bible every day?

We are told that this word is alive and active.  It can judge the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts. These words can speak directly to us even though many were spoken thousands of years ago.  Ancient words speak to modern problems and concerns. 

Words from long ago lead us to decisions for today. Sometimes we look to the heavens and ask God for a sign when we should put our noses in the book and see what he has already told us.  He is not confined to linear time.

I love to return to the words of the prophet Isaiah.

Before they call I will answer;

    while they are still speaking I will hear.

There are other words that we know well.  For God so loved the world…

But I need something that helps me live from moment-to-moment.  Seek justice. Love mercy. Walk humbly with your God.

But I need a reminder that I have given up the ways of this world and seek God first.  I am crucified with Christ.  Christ lives in me.

But I need something for my whole family to get behind.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

We have signs.  We have affirmations.  We have reminders.  Most of us have received the sign in the Spirit which is baptism.  God lives in us.

Many of us can look at a sunrise or sunset and get a glimpse of the Creator through his creation.

We have the body of Christ and we should be signs and affirmations and reminders to each other of how much God loves us and that God does fulfill his promises.

We are not promised a trouble-free world.  We are told quite the opposite.  We will have trouble in the world but we are to take courage for Christ Jesus has overcome the world.

The body of Christ should encourage all of its members to remember this.  Christ has overcome the world.

We have ventured quite a ways from Abram’s new name and his sign in the flesh, but I think it is important to realize that we have signs and affirmations and things that help us to remember that God loves us.  He is for us. He has good plans for us. He will never stop loving us. He has overcome the world and he holds all of our tomorrows.

Receive the eyes to see and ears to hear that God has given us and know by what he has said and shown us that God will fulfill all of his promises to us.

God is always faithful.

God fulfills his promises.

Let us live in expectation of his faithfulness and fulfillment of what he has promised us.

We too have signs.

Let us live in expectation of God’s faithfulness and in anticipation of the fulfillment of what he has promised to us.

 

Amen.

When the fullness of time had come

 Read Galatians 4

How many creation stories are there in the Bible?

There is, of course, Genesis 1.  In the beginning, God created… We all know that one.  It describes the creation on a cosmic or universal level.

Genesis 2 is a continuation of that account but at the same time it is an account all its own. This account gives us the order in the world that we know.

The two accounts were not reconciled into one when the oral telling of them was put into writing, probably at the time of the Babylonian Captivity. With a brief segue, one account transitions to the other.

 There is something of a third account in Genesis 5. 

When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.

The purpose of this account seems to be less about creation and more about the continuation of humankind. It’s the first genealogy in the Bible that goes beyond one generation.

There is one more creation story.  Actually, there are several stories about the creation that offer different aspects, but just one more that covers it all.  You know it.  It begins like the first one.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And of course, we look forward to the New Creation.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

That’s a look at the creation stories, but how about the Christmas stories?

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke are where we see those that we know best. We need both to get a good picture of what happened, but Luke’s gospel usually gets center stage in the Christmas play.

Mark’s gospel skips the creation entirely. What about John? We find a very succinct Christmas story in verse 14.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Merry Christmas!

So, there are our Christmas stories, or could there be yet another?

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

 Merry Christmas!

So why all this business about creation and Christmas?  I thought we were talking about circumcision and feasts and salvation by the law—which is no salvation at all.

Consider these words: But when the fullness of the time had come.

When it was just the right time.  When God’s clock said, now.  When all of the cosmic pieces fell into place…

We are self-aware beings.  That is, we know that we exist and we search for our purpose, at least some do. Because we know we are living creatures, we often examine ourselves.  We have a perspective on our lives. We are in awe of everything when we are young.  We know everything when we are a teenager. Sometimes, we find out that everything hurts when we get old.

For many of us, our minds tell us that we are still in our twenties and thirties.  Our bodies often disagree. One of my grandsons, Levi, likes to remind us that he’s big.

If we can be honest with ourselves, we know that we were totally dependent upon our parents for a long time.  Then we were allowed to do some things on our own.  We got a job.  We got a car.  We got a girlfriend and discovered it’s expensive to have a car and a girlfriend. But one day, we were pretty much making it on our own. Our parents were always there to help, but we wanted to make it on our own.

There came a time for us to leave the nest.

Mankind—humankind has also grown.  We were under the law for a time. The law was like a parent or guardian, but when the time became right, we were ready to live to the full.

The advent of the Messiah marked that time.  It was time for humankind to truly live. It was time to step out from under the law.  The law would no longer be a guardian who made the important decisions for us.  The law became a mentor—a lifelong guide—to help us navigate this world.

There was no longer a subordinate relationship to the law, for where there was such a relationship, we were also governed by sin.  The law is not bad and there is still sin in the world, but neither has power over us now.

I am crucified with Christ.  Christ lives in me.

Paul notes a parallel between Ishmael and Isaac.  Ishmael was Abraham’s son, but not the son of the promise.  That son, came through Sarah.  We know him to be Isaac.

God still took care of Ishmael, but the promise of the Seed that would save humankind came through Isaac. Let’s hear Paul explain it.

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.  For it is written:

“Be glad, barren woman,

    you who never bore a child;

shout for joy and cry aloud,

    you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman

    than of her who has a husband.”

 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.  But what does Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Consider Paul’s Christmas story once again.

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

God sent forth his Son who was born under the law.  Christ Jesus was born under the law.  The law was guardian over humankind until Christ came.  Christ fulfilled the law just as he said he would.

We are liberated from the guardianship of the law, not to ignore the law but to receive the law as our mentor and friend.  God gave I for our own good and now because of the promise that we see first with Abraham and delivered through Jesus, we are no longer under—subordinate to—the law. 

The law is our mentor.  The law is our friend.  The law shows us where we fall short of the glory of God, but the law is not our governor.

We are made right with God by grace that we have been given by the blood of Jesus.  It is truly a gift that we receive by faith.

Now that we are God’s children, we know that he will not orphan us.  We will not run away and return to the governance of the law—the slavery of the law.

The commands of God are good and for our own good, but not our master.  We should obey them in response to this grace that we have received.  If we live to the full, we will fulfill his commands by loving one another.

The law will show us where we fall short.

The law will guide us in holy living.

The law will never get us to right standing with God.

The law will show us how much we need the grace of God that has been offered freely in the blood of Jesus.

The law is neither master nor governor of our lives.  We have been set free of the law’s mastery over us and now that we have received salvation by grace through faith, the law is our friend and mentor, but not our governor.

We live in an age—a wonderful age—where neither the law, nor sin, nor death, nor anything else on earth can separate us from the love of God that we know in Christ Jesus. I’m wrapping up with Paul’s words to the Romans.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we get to Ephesians, we will talk more about what we have in him—Christ Jesus our Lord.  For now, start thinking of the law as your mentor or friend, but never your master.

We have not kicked the law to the curb.  The law is in our inner circle with the Spirit of God that lives within us as well as the full biblical witness that we know.

The time became right not only for us, but for the law as well.  The time was right for the law to become our guide to Godly living.

Now that we are set free from sin and death and know that nothing can separate us from the love of God that we know in Christ Jesus, we can seek to bring glory to God with the guidance of the Spirit, the law, wisdom, and with the support of the body of Christ.

The law is not our governor and it is not a burden.  It is our friend and mentor.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Before Abraham was, I Am

Read John 8

What do you do when Jesus tells you that your father is the Devil?

You fire back that he is a demon.  He is a Samaritan.  He’s a Longhorn.  He’s from California.  He does drink Dr. Pepper.

The problem was that Jesus spoke the truth and the Jews were grasping at straws.  The Jews wanted to claim God as their Father but Jesus had called them out.  He said that God sent him, he did the Father’s will, and you dishonored him.

I will give you the same theological term as before:  Ouch!

Jesus told them again that life—eternal life—was in him.  Believe and you will not die.  He did not come to condemn the world but to save it.

That set them off.  Everybody has died.  All the patriarchs died.  Are you greater than them?

Jesus told them that Abraham rejoiced at seeing his day.

That set the sparks a flyin’. Now we know that you are possessed by a demon.  You are not even 50 years old.  Abraham lived a long, long time ago.  You are saying things that you can’t possibly know. We gotcha now!

Jesus said:  Before Abraham was, I am.

There is no subtlety here.  This is not the non-confrontation approach we saw at the beginning of the chapter with the woman brought before Jesus.  This is in your face:  I Am!

Now they were ready to kill Jesus for sure.  He could not say this unless he was indeed the Son of God and they were not going to believe that.

Jesus slipped away before anyone could do anything.  We know from our other reading that his time had not yet come.

Think on these words:  Before Abraham was, I am.

We often think of the 7 I Am statements in John, but there are many more.  The 7 statements are metaphors that Jesus used, but he used the words egō eimi or I Am more than within those 7 statements.  Each time they speak the words that God spoke to Moses. 

Jesus is proclaiming his divinity.  He is affirming he is of the Father and sent by the Father.  The truth that could set these men free from sin stood before them as the promised Anointed One, but their hearts had already been hardened and all they wanted to do was kill him.

What should we receive from this pericope?  It should give us a great perspective on Philippians 2 for one thing.  Jesus has always been.  He stepped out of heaven to live as a man, even from birth, to fulfill the law and the prophets, and go to the cross as the unblemished Lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

Later in John’s gospel, Jesus confided in his disciples that he is in the Father and the Father in him.  If you know Jesus, then you know the Father.  They speak the same language:  I Am.  They go by the same name:  I Am.

The Jews were so wanting to claim God and Abraham as their Fathers.  They wanted to be counted righteous because of their efforts to follow the law that came through Moses, yet they were blind to the truth and he was standing right in front of them.

Jesus gave them the name that his Father sent with Moses to deliver the slaves from Egypt.  It did not resonate with the Jews because they were not seeking after God.

For some time, the Jews had been asking:  Just who is this man?

Is he prophet?  Is he demon?

Does he come in the name of God?  Does he come only on his own behalf?

Is he the Christ?  Is he an imposter?

How can one from Galilee be who he says 

he is?

He is the carpenter’s kid, right?

Why have we not been able to trap him with our questions?

Can he be from God and be at work on the Sabbath?

Just who is this man?

In two words, egō eimi, know that Jesus is exactly who he said he is.

In two words, I Am, know that he was, is, and forever will be God.  He is the God who made us.  He is the God who has and always will love us.  He is the God who has redeemed us from our sin and has made a place with him for ever and ever.

Amen.

The promise, the law, and a sign in the flesh

Read Romans 4

Paul is writing to the church in Rome, in the very capital of this pagan world, and yet the topic of Abraham seems essential to him.  Were he writing to believers in Jerusalem, he surely couldn’t leave out this connection with Abraham, but for believers in Rome we might ask was this really necessary?

Paul was just getting started on the topic of grace and now he jumps to Abraham?

But there was a group or actually several groups of Jews who said they followed Jesus who actually seemed to be following the followers of Jesus trying to persuade them to follow the law and take the sign in the flesh.  If Abraham had been central to you all of your life, it had to be hard to put him on the back burner and just put all of your faith in Jesus.

If you were a Jew the sign in the flesh was very important. Many believed that this was what made you right with God.  Many would argue that God commanded Abraham to be circumcised and his obedience and his actions made him right with God.  Paul said, that’s not exactly how the story goes.

There was faith then there was the sign in the flesh. Faith came first.  Paul notes that just as we have nothing to boast about in being made right with God; neither did Father Abraham.  The sign in the flesh came after he was made right with God by faith.

We understand this a little today.  We have faith then we receive the sign in the Spirit.  We call it baptism.  Paul wanted his readers to understand that faith is where we begin our journey.

Paul jumps from Abraham to King David and the first part of Psalm 32. 

Blessed is the one
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
 Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord does not count against them
    and in whose spirit is no deceit.

Blessed is the one who is made right with holy God.  Note that we translate this in what we might call the passive voice with the implication being that we did not do this for ourselves.  The forgiveness is totally from God.

Now back to Abraham and circumcision and the law, an interesting combination since the law was not fully promulgated by God to his people for another four and a half centuries or so after he selected Abraham to father his chosen people.

Paul had already noted that it was not by the law that Abraham and his seed would realize the promises of God.  In this chapter he adds that it was not by his circumcision that Abraham would realize the promises of God.  These promises would come to fruition through faith.  If everything rested on the works of Abraham, God would have just gone to the next resume.

But he didn’t.  God credited Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness.  Abraham was as messed up as most human beings but he had faith in God and what God had told him.  God credited this faith to Abraham as righteousness.

What had God told him?  What was the promise?  That he would be a great nation and that he would be the father of many nations and that God would greatly increase his numbers.

What was the problem?

Abraham and his wife were old and childless, but Paul notes that against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and became the father of many nations.  What does this mean?

Abraham believed that what God had promised was not possible but believed it anyway because God does what he promises to do.

Cognitive dissonance is where we have two conflicting beliefs in our minds that cannot be resolved.  Abraham knew that what God had promised could not happen; yet he believed that it would happen.  Abraham had no dissonance.

The promise was realized by faith and came by grace and not works.  Grace prevailed even before our own church age.  The favor and promises of God were poured out on Abraham not because of his works or because he took the sign in the flesh prescribed by God but they came by faith.

So those, wherever they were and whatever their agenda, who claimed Abraham as their father and whose compliance with the law that would come of his descendants would struggle with grace. 

And those who had never known the law or attached righteousness to God as a birthright as a son of Abraham were now also considered his offspring by faith.

To which all of God’s people said, “Do I really need to know all of this?  I want to study my Bible and follow Jesus and be God’s love, but do I really need to connect these dots?  Do I really need to know Abraham that well?”

It is not about knowing Abraham, but the God that chose Abraham for he is a God of forgiveness and love and is faithful to his promises.

He is a God who longs to pour out his favor upon his children.  He is a God who sees our hearts and desires our faith.

He is a God who doesn’t write report cards but signs his birthday cards to us saying, “I love you and always will.”  He signs them with the blood of Jesus.

He longs for us to be born into his kingdom and enjoy all that he has stored up for us since the beginning of the world.

It is not about getting to know Abraham.  It is about getting to know God.

God wants us to believe in him and in his promises.

God wants us to trust in him and in his promises.

God wants us to know the love that sent his Son to the cross to make that atoning sacrifice for our sins and he wants us to receive the justification he has in store for us.

God wants us to live in his promises.  Let’s go to a very familiar place.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

How many of us live completely in the first half of verse 5?  How many in the second half?  How many feel like they are the ball in a ping pong match going back and forth?

If you travel through Oklahoma City or Dallas or Houston and get off of the interstate, you might just believe that there are a whole lot of people trusting in the Lord with all of their hearts because the light had been red for a full two or three seconds before they sped through the intersection.  In reality, most just think, “I can make it.”

It's a good thing that many of us old timers grew up learning to “look out for the other guy.”

Most people that we know including many, many Christians live in the “Leaning on our own understanding mode.”

God wants us embracing his promises to us.  God promised Abraham that he would be the “Father of Many Nations.”  That’s quite a title to lay upon an old man with an old wife and no kids of their own.

But God lived up to his promise.  He also lived up to his promise that the whole world would be blessed through the seed of this man.  While the Hebrew people were not very good at blessing the world; Jesus fulfilled this promise as our ultimate blessing.

What has God promised us?

Many things, but for now I want us to think upon life, life abundant and life eternal.

Do we really live? 

“I exist therefore I must live, right?”

Breath and a heartbeat—that’s living, right?  In combat triage, it might get you to the doctor instead of just some morphine while those casualties that might have chance go first.

But we know there is more to life.  Even the world knows there is more to life than just vital signs.  The world seeks after things and pleasures and vacations and job titles and the list goes on.  Tom T. Hall summed up the list in 4 things:  Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money.

For those who don’t know who Tom T. Hall is, well, you just haven’t lived.

There is more to life than vital signs but there is an even fuller version of life that comes when we accept the gift of salvation and really commit to following Jesus.  This is abundant life.  This is something that Jesus said he wants us to have.

Jesus said that he came so we could not only know life but live it to the full, to the max, to the extreme limits of this sacred thing we have been given.  I would call it a promise.

I have come so that you may have life and have it to the full.

That sounds a lot like something that God says he has for me that I want.  How many live an abundant life?  How do you measure that?  Let’s look at things that fall short of abundance.

The word of the day, of the week, of the year and decade is fonly.

Don’t look it up in the dictionary.  The definition there will say foolish or fondly but that’s not what it means.

Fonly is how we say, “if only.”  People say it so much that it blends into a single word.

Fonly.

How should we define this contraction of if only?

·     The death of initiative

·     A perennial excuse for inaction

·     A procrastinator’s self-pardoning phrase

·     Cowardice by any other name

·     Having a tight grip on hopelessness

·     An excuse addict’s score

·     The kingpin of inaction

·     Addicted to one’s current state

·     Fear

The list could go on.  Add two or three of your own.  It should be easy because you have seen these two words—if only—kill recovery from drug addiction, marriage reconciliation, qualification for scholarships or competitive jobs, and so much more.

Fonly has been the death of many dreams.

What are the antonyms of Fonly?

·     Action

·     First steps

·     Just Do It

·     Courage

If you want to know abundance, get rid of these two words as a good start.  Believe the promises of God and start living in them.

God wants you to have a very full life.  As we will encounter in the next chapter, that doesn’t always mean we walk the primrose path without any struggle or suffering.

But we are called to faith.  We are called to believe.  We are called to live in what God has promised to us and for the limited point of this part of the discussion, that is abundant life.

We are also called to believe in the promise of life eternal.  We are to believe in the promise of everlasting life.

So what does that mean?  Are we supposed to sing When We All Get to Heaven every week?  We could, but it means that we live this day as if tomorrow is not promised but eternity is.

What?

We live without fear, never denying God.  We live fully, never shrinking back from life.  We live thankfully, knowing the price that was paid for our life abundant and eternal.

We live running our race with our eyes fixed on Jesus not worried about what we get so much as what we give.

We live out our salvation trusting fully in God’s forgiveness. He is faithful and just to forgive.  We are called to confess with this assurance of his pardon.

We are called to live knowing all of God’s promises to be true. 

There is another example of Abraham that Paul did not mention in this chapter, mainly because it was not tied to the sign in the flesh but is surely speaks of faith.  God called Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.  Other than the gut wrenching task that was before Abraham, realize that God had told Abraham that the promise he made about being the father of many nations would be fulfilled through his son Isaac.  Abraham was willing to do this but God stopped him at the last minute.

In this whole faith business, realize there is a little difference between Sarah saying, “I have a headache,” and Abraham responding, “This might be the night that God fulfills his promise,” and dragging your son to the top of a mountain ready to sacrifice him.  You had to know with certainty that God would still do the impossible even if you did the unthinkable thing that God had asked of Abraham. 

Put yourself in Abraham’s place.  It all came down to faith.

Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.  Our faith brings us into the promised right standing with God.  Isn’t time that we started living out our faith?

We don’t’ contend with birthrights and signs in the flesh today.  People don’t follow us around telling us that we had better follow the Law of Moses.  Most of the things that Paul was knee deep in don’t impact us much in this century.

But are we trusting in God’s promises?

Are we living in God’s promises?

Are we looking for tangible rules—putting God’s promises into the box we call our own understanding—when God just wants us to live fully and to his glory?

He wants us trusting in him and in his promises.

Paul has taken his readers and us from everyone should have known there is a God to everyone falls short of God’s standards and his glory to God’s grace; but now he finds it necessary to remind us that faith is essential to realizing God’s promises.

God’s grace has saved us but we need to exercise our faith to realize his promises.

Let us live as people of faith.  Let us live trusting in and living in and growing in God’s grace and in his promises.

God has done everything that had to be done to be right with him.  Now let’s live in faith and realize all of his promises.

Amen.