Good morning again and welcome and I do apologize that it's so warm in here normally the air will come on for us It's not it's not coming on this morning. I don't know if they've made a change to the program But we'll get that address this week, so please bear with us But good morning and happy Easter to those you who are all regulars here at South Baton Rouge It's good to see you all again Those who may be visiting with us or continuing to visit with us We want to say that we're glad that you're here and we hope that you'll come and worship with us again as often as you're able Now while there's a very real sense in which every Sunday for a believer is Easter Sunday in that The Lord's Day is always a celebration of Christ's death and resurrection It's nevertheless it's still good and right that we set aside a particular day each year on which we remember The in particular this historical event that took place the resurrection that's not just a spiritual truth for us It's a historical fact the thing that we celebrate here Christ's death and resurrection it actually happened in space and time Which is vital important since as the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15-17 if Christ has not been raised Your faith is futile and you are still in your sins Easter Sunday is a celebration of the truth that in fact Christ has been raised and therefore our faith is not futile and Those who belong to him are no longer in their sins that is we are no longer burdened with the penalty of our sins and we are Reconciled to God That's what the Easter message is about in this morning. We want to look at that message in this particular at some of the Old Testament background by revisiting Genesis 22 verses 1 to 19 Now these verses as some you will know are a smaller part of a larger portion of the book of Genesis which starts in chapter 12 and Deals with the life of Abraham And while this reading in particular may not actually be a familiar one to you in terms of Easter or Easter readings It's one that actually remains as part of the traditional readings in the Common lectionary which many of you may be familiar with from your own upbringing And it's been read for many years as part of the church's Bible readings at this time of the year and So that's sort of the introduction before we actually look at the passage. Let's pray for our time together. Let's pray
Father in heaven Please hear us now as we Plead for you to come and speak to us In and through these words that you have authored and preserved Make them clear to us and with that make the implications of it clear to us and Then father follow us home from this time with these truths Put them into our hearts and minds in a way that is permanent that works itself out throughout the week and Beyond as these deep deep truths of our faith Take hold of us take root. You look forward to the fruit that you're going to produce from this and we pray this in Jesus name Amen Now in Genesis 22 it's amazing and some ways bizarre account Which we're about to read we find ourselves really at the high point of Abraham's story and And it is an amazing story Abraham's a fascinating character who at times has shown great faithfulness great trust in God Other times he's been very unfaithful faith less in his responses and He would not hesitate at different times his life to deceive or manipulate people in order to protect his own interests Never the lesson in spite of Abraham's ability to still misbehave and The evidence seasons of great doubts and faithlessness and he certainly grew and he changed over the course of his life Such that there really is no question that the Abraham of Genesis 22 is a very different man From the one we first meet when his story begins To be sure and as I've already indicated Abraham was not a perfect man But he definitely grew and he changed for the better as many trials and troubles used by God were used by God to mature him And in ways that people Maybe not my not a thought would be a side of maturity, but they actually were Abraham's growth didn't result in a kind of maturity that made him More independent as a person it didn't cause him to be less and less aware of his need of God's grace and sort of more and more likely Just to stand on his own two feet on the contrary as Abraham went along. He demonstrated a growing sense of Dependence upon God a greater willingness to rely on God to be faithful to his promises and Trusting God to fulfill his promises meant that Abraham was increasingly more willing to make decisions and That reflected that trust he was more frequently willing to follow the path of obedience rather than resorting to his own Cleverness or relying upon his own ability to bring about by human manipulation the things that God had promised to bring about in His own way and his own time So just to be clear If you read right through the story of Abraham by the time you get to the end of Genesis 21 right on the doorstep of Genesis 22 You find a different man and the one you first read about in chapter 12 You find a maturing settled much steadier Abraham You find a man who'd finally received a Long promised and long awaited son You find a man who'd now settled in the land of promise was worshipping the Lord again in peace with no threats from without and No threats from within Everything was just right At the end of chapter 21 all systems for Abraham were go For a moment, but then something happened And as it turned out there was still one threat to be dealt with there was still one trial that lay before Abraham and he did not see it coming It came to him out of the clear blue sky from what to him had to have been the most unbelievable and unlikely source of all It was a threat that came from God himself
Genesis 22 One to two After these things God tested Abraham and said to him Abraham and he said here am I he said take your son Your only son I said whom you love and Go to the land of Moriah And offer him there as a burn offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you
Wow good morning to you God I mean this must have caught Abraham completely off guard It's kind of like kind of like One of those suspense movies where you follow this hero through this series of dangers and adventures and then right at the end When you think the crisis is over and the heroes Write it when you think everything's gonna work out one of the heroes companions that you thought was with him all along Suddenly turns on him and threatens to undo everything and the hero doesn't expect it and gets completely blindsided That's what happens with Abraham years not exactly like that, but it's sort of like that The God who'd been promising this child for years The God who went to great lengths to make sure that he the child was protected and insured its arrival That same God now issues this bizarre and unthinkable command that Abraham is now to take this child to a designated spot and all As a human sacrifice Not just a human sacrifice, which is bad enough, but a child sacrifice
Surely this has to be the biggest challenge of Abraham's life. So Abraham rose early in the morning Saddled his donkey took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac And he cut the wood for the burn offering and rose and went to the place of which God had told him On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar Then Abraham said to his young men stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you And Abraham took the wood of the not burn offering laid on as Isaac his son He took in his hand the fire and the knife So they went both of them together and Isaac said to his father Abraham my father he said You know my my son he said hold the fire in the wood, but where's the limb for a burnt offering? Abraham said God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son So they went both of them together now what is at least as amazing as This command that God issues is the response that Abraham makes to the whole thing. I Mean with a calmness And an acceptance that almost defies belief Abraham responds to God's instructions seemingly without even flinching There's no indication of any response or reaction whatsoever other than He's immediately gathering together the people and the supplies that he's gonna need to make this journey to the place where he's gonna carry out these macabre instructions and That frankly is mind blowing Could you have done that? Let me think about that. This is the same Abraham who when God announced that he what he was going to do with Sodom and Gomorrah back in chapter 18 and made this announcement to a bunch of absolute strangers With the exception of lot wouldn't when that happened what did Abraham do in that situation? Well, Abraham bargained with God in order to see God's mercy toward these unspeakably wicked people But now when God's command involves his killing his own flesh and blood this son he's waited for for 25 years On this matter Abraham is silent
Seriously, he doesn't bargain. He doesn't say a word He simply receives this breathtaking command from God and a response grabs his son and some others and he heads off To carry out God's will Now it seems clear from the passage that Abraham has not shared the complete purpose of this journey with his son or with his servants at least not yet And it seems doubtful that he would have shared this with Sarah But I believe his purpose in doing so was not to deceive as he'd done in the past nor was it to avoid carrying out God's will But simply to keep his son I think from bearing the burden of What had to be done any longer than absolutely necessary? I don't think he wanted his son thinking about this for three days. I Think this is a compassionate silence on his part But there's more to make this challenge even greater not only has God commanded Abraham to carry out this heartbreaking task But he sends him to a place. It's gonna take three days to get to In other words, he's got three whole days to think about this thing Three days to grieve in silence about what was going to happen Two nights to lay in his bed stare at the stars of promise and perhaps wonder how on why on earth God would have him do this crazy difficult thing
Surely these had to be the most difficult days of his life and yet it needs to be said That is difficult as these things were It seems clear from scripture that whatever Abraham felt He did not wonder and grieve as one who was completely without faith or hope And the reason we know this is simply because we have the new testament's own Infallible commentary on this event in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 verses 17 to 19 which reads by faith Abraham when he was tested Offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son of whom it was said through Isaac Shall your offspring be named He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead Which figuratively speaking he did receive impact. That's what the writer of Hebrews is telling us. What's he saying? He's saying that as Abraham was walking through this trial He did so as a man who was firmly Convinced of two undeniable and humanly speaking contradictory realities humanly speaking On the one hand he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had promised that through his son Isaac Descendants would come On the other hand, he also knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had commanded him to take this same son and offer him up as a sacrifice He didn't know why all this is happening, but he could not deny the reality of either one of those truths And so he did the only thing a man of faith could do in that situation He obeyed God And he concluded that since God was always true to his promises that if in fact he did end up killing his own son And somehow some way God would bring that same son back to life Even though he had never seen such a thing or heard of such a thing
Even though that kind of thinking was completely outside the box That's the only place he could go But it tells you something doesn't it It tells us something about the character of Abraham's faith at this point in his life I mean that's some kind of faith This is a believing what cannot be seen kind of faith a believing what had never been seen kind of faith This is sheer faith. This is all your eggs in one basket. No pun intended all your eggs in one basket Sort of faith Faith with no backup plan Faith with no safety net and it is this insight for the writer of Hebrews It helps us understand more fully the response that Abraham gave when his son quite astutely asked Where's the sacrificial animal dad?
After three days they got to the appropriate side prepared to set out to make the sacrifice just Abraham and his son They had the wood had fire, but they had no lamb No ram they had nothing suitable for making a sacrifice and to the son's question Abraham somewhat cryptically responded that God would provide a Lamb But what was Abraham thinking? Well when you take into account what Abraham said at the time and you combine that with this later insight from Hebrews Which we just seen it seems that as Abraham headed into this situation He was counting on one of two things happening either God would provide a substitute in Place of his son or if not he believed God would actually have him go through with it and that he would bring him back to life That or something like it must have been what was going through his mind That's where the evidence points at least and that's pretty amazing stuff When they came to the place of which God had told him Abraham built the altar there and And laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood The Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son But the angel of the Lord called him from heaven said Abraham Abraham and he said here am I He said do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God seeing you if not withheld your son your only son from me And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son And so Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide as it is said to this day on the mount of the Lord It shall be provided and the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said By myself I have sworn to Claire's the Lord because you have done this and have not withheld your son your only son I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies and in your offspring Shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you obeyed my voice So Abraham returned to his young man and they rose and went together to Birshiba and Abraham lived at Birshiba We noted previously the amazingly Resolute manner in which Abraham accepted God's instructions to sacrifice his son And here we see the description of Isaac's response It which is similar in nature. We hear of no shouting No struggle No additional questions No pleading It's possible that some of these things may have occurred But I think it's notable and I think it's on purpose that we get no description I think likely it didn't happen. Why? Well perhaps he was stunned into silence Perhaps his father assured him that whatever happened he'd be all right in the end. We can't say for sure But the one thing we know Is that the scene that is portrayed here is one of resolute? Absolute acceptance of the will of God without fighting without resistance without hesitation The significance of which we'll see in a moment The son bound and placed on the altar Abraham raises the knife and he prepares to carry out the sacrifice when at the last moment Is he's about to strike the death blow at that point God intervenes stopping Abraham and instead points him to a substitute that Provided a ram had appeared seemingly out of nowhere gotten itself tangled up in some brush and Abraham no doubt with immense joy and relief Goes and retrieves this ram and then together with his son completes the sacrifice that they came to make and The text tells us at this point That the reason why God prevents Abraham from going through the sacrifice as originally commanded was because he now knew That Abraham feared God Now this phrase now. I know is not saying that God is in this moment realizing something that he hadn't previously grasped God's not gaining new information here This is as one scholar puts it. It's an anthropomorphism It's a language which depicts God as thinking or acting From within a very human perspective in order to better communicate a particular truth Of course God knew before any of this happened what was in Abraham's heart But God said what he did because Abraham's faith was in a sense incomplete until it had been demonstrated by actions which proceeded from that real faith In other words It was not enough that Abraham might have faith in some kind of abstract sense It needed to be seen It needed to be worked out in a concrete way not so much for God's sake as for Abraham's sake and for ours actually See Moses in recording these events in this way Has preserved for all time the truth of this crucial connection that exists between faith and obedience A reality that's highlighted much later in the book of James when he writes Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness And he was called a friend of God and so again It was not until Abraham's faith was realized in the extreme act of obedience that it was fully known or revealed for The genuine faith that it really was Now you may wonder was it really necessary? For God to go through all this I Mean if he knew and could this whole event been avoided perhaps We could have gotten to the end of the previous chapter chapter 21 and instead of this whole account of The sacrifice it might have been one simple statement made and Because God knew Abraham's heart that he would be faithful to even the most extreme command Then he was pleased with him and he lived happily ever after Or something like that, but if God had done something like that We would have missed out on this real life picture of What faith and sacrifice and obedience are about? If God had done things in the silly way that I just suggested Then we might well have understood the connection between faith and works But we might sorry we might well have misunderstood the connection between faith and works that's so clearly depicted here We could have missed out on this great portrait of a father's love for his son being superseded only By his greater faith and trusting God We would have missed out on this demonstration of the nature of Substitutionary sacrifice in a way that now is almost impossible to forget because of this story We would have missed out on all those things that now and for all time will stand as pointers To the connectedness and the purpose and unity between what God was doing in the Old Testament and what he did in the New Testament through Jesus So God in his great wisdom chose not to give us merely Abstract declarations about Abraham's faith, but instead Through his providential purposes chose to show that faith in action And now that Abraham's faith has been proven by his extreme obedience God assures Abraham once again of the blessings that he's Already sovereignly committed himself to bestowing upon Abraham and his descendants For his part Abraham responds to all this by memorializing the occasion Giving the place where these events occurred the name the Lord will provide a name Which actually spoke more truly than even Abraham knew Why because the place where they were on a mountain and land of Moriah was as a number of scholars have pointed out to be The future side of the temple in which the sacrifices would take place and by which the people of God for decades to come would also see God's provision for them In and through the Old Testament sacrificial system You know when a writer puts together a novel or play There is typically a certain end or conclusion Toward which he or she is working and because he or she's trying to move the story toward this particular end There will be any number of events and signs and indicators along the way Which point the reader toward that conclusion even if these signs and clues are not always fully appreciated until the end However, when you actually do get to the end and you look back across what has happened All of those things take on a much deeper significance looking back across Then they did initially and very many ways This precisely what happens and what ought to happen we look at Genesis 22 in the light of Jesus's death and resurrection We read this Genesis account through the lens of the gospel We can see all sorts of things here that Anticipate what God was planning to do later on in and through the events which we celebrate today as Easter As we look at the characters of Abraham and of Isaac and even look at the ram that is eventually sacrificed in the story But if we look at all these things we have this conflation of Images as all three of these entities point beyond themselves to other realities that we find in the account of Christ's death Did you see them all as we read through? Because when you start to tally them up, they're pretty staggering actually Verse one and two God commands Abraham to go and sacrifice his son whom he loves we get to the New Testament We hear the echo of that command in a number of places including Luke 1426 which says if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters Yes, and even his own life he cannot be my disciple. What was Jesus saying he was saying that love for him supersedes the love that we have Even for our own flesh and blood The very thing that Abraham demonstrated indeed the very thing that God demonstrated when because of his commitment to his own holiness and Justice and merciful purposes he willingly gave up his son When we see the stark and sheer resolution of Abraham to carry out God's will whatever that might mean for him We see the echo of that in Jesus the seed of the woman the son of Abraham when he set his face Resolutely to go to Jerusalem and endure God's will for him in that place whatever that might mean We see this traveling party arrived the designated place and we see Abraham in verse six Take the wood to be used for the sacrifice place it on his son Isaac's back We see here the anticipation of the time when Jesus the son of God would take a wooden cross on his back to be used in his own Sacrifice we hear the words of Abraham in verse eight saying that God will provide a lamb We see there the anticipation of Jesus described by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world And who as the right of Hebrews puts it is the one final all sufficient sacrifice that was acceptable to the Father When we see Isaac bound and laid on the altar with no word of protest or resistance We see the anticipation of the prophecy concerning Jesus in Isaiah 53 which reads he was oppressed and he was afflicted Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent So he opened not his mouth when we see Abraham in verse 10 raise his hand to slay his own son We see the anticipation of the time when God the Father would Providentially speaking raise his hand to slay his own son as his purposes were being worked out We see God Stayed the hand of Abraham so that his son is spared my Reminded of the time when Jesus in the Garden of Gessimini Ask his own Father if his hand might be stayed if The cup he was about to drink might be foregone and yet I'm further reminded that Jesus was also more concerned That the fathers will be done even if that was God's will to crush him and It was The Jesus God's hand was not stayed, but the echo is still there We see Abraham in verse 13 take the substitute ram provided by God and offer him up Sacrificially in the place of Isaac we see the anticipation of the time when once again God's justice would demand one thing our death and His mercy would accept another a substitute his son Jesus and Finally when you think about the fact that Abraham arrived at the place of sacrifice on the third day That it was then after grieving and contemplating the loss of his son for three days that he as the writer of Hebrews says received back this Same son on the third day. I cannot help but think of our Lord's resurrection When God the Father received back his own son and we received our risen Savior on the third day That we know is Easter morning Simply put the gospel messages all over Genesis 22 Indeed, it is only because of the gospel message that we even have a Genesis 22 The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus are the solid reality of which Genesis 22 Is a faint foreshadowing The very real agonizing heart-breaking events of Genesis 22 pale In comparison to what God the Father faced as he saw the destruction of his own son as one writer puts it Abraham's love for his son is a pale shadow of the father's love for his son and The heavenly father is saying here When you see my son ascend to Calvary, don't you dare think that you love him more than I do and when you see Abraham's hand raised to slay his son the Father saying don't you think that I'm some passive Standby witness watching from a distance. What's happening at Calvary? I am the one who is bringing this to be and I'm doing it because it's the only way That you can be spared From your sins. I'm not standing back in the shadows and watching my son suffer. I am the one bringing it about I am the one with the knife in my hand and that knife is there because it is Absolutely necessary that a substitutionary sacrifice be given for you if you are gonna be with me Forever and that is what he says about That is what he's just about let's pray father for this kindness that we have not deserved but which has been Showered upon us in your love in this sacrifice That we are only beginning to appreciate and understand We can only stand before you and say have mercy on us and thank you for having mercy on us We thank you father That accompanying that mercy and grace and kindness is a promise to bring to fulfillment
Everything that was initiated there at the cross the complete reconciliation of all things to you the restoration of all things Father, we thank you for that day Which truly was the best day ever and we thank you that we because of Jesus we can look forward to the benefits and the promise And the glory that you have for all those that are yours. I Fall out pray that this morning if there's some that do not yet The gospel who've never gotten the gospel I pray that today of all days might be the day That they understand your kindness to them in the cross And we pray this for family and friends and for those we don't even know and we pray this in Jesus name Those are picking up the morning offering will come forward. We'll receive that at this time