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Hey everyone good morning to you thanks so much for joining us here today at the chapel we're
glad that you have. My name is Jonathan Drake and I'm one of the pastors here. We're a church in western
New York on mission to reach every man woman and child with repeated opportunities to hear
and see the gospel of Jesus Christ today were continuing the series that we've been in that we call
red as we look into the Old Testament to see pictures of Jesus a clear pictures as the
people in these stories that we've been looking at are looking ahead through the lens of faith
we're able to see what they saw and today's no exception I'm excited that in a few minutes
you'll hear a message from our lead pastor Jerry Gillis a message called Abraham and
Isaac it's a familiar story to many of us and one that typically we've avoided just
because maybe we weren't sure what to do with it in our modern context if you're going turn ahead
to Genesis Chapter 22 as will be parking most of the time that we have together this morning
but I'm confident that in this in this time that we have that we set aside here weekly
to explore God's word together that God's got something specific that he wants to say to each
one of us so thanks again for joining us this morning let's listen in to what he has for
us today
okay for those you that have a Bible's if you'll turn to Genesis chapter 22 you'll need to put on
your big boy pants and your big girl pants because we'll be diving in and I'm just asking God to
just help me bring clarity to what we're talking about but this won't be a 101
lesson this will be more in the 401 category so but there are some there are some passages of
Scripture that oftentimes people leave alone when they teach and they dialogue and they
discuss because they get so bogged down in the minutia of those particular things that
it gets real complicated and complex things like the creation narrative or things like
the Cain and Abel story or things like the story of Noah all of which we've touched on
but we touched on them for a different reason not to try and explore every single piece
of minute detail or to try and import scientific thinking or Western mindsets on text that
aren't really built for that but instead what were trying to do in this series that we called Red
is that we're trying to see, we're making the argument, that the whole Bible is about Jesus
and even though we don't meet him until about halfway through when we meet him physically
in a little town called Bethlehem that actually even the Old Testament is giving us pictures
of what is to come in the person of Jesus and so that's what we've been doing in looking
at these particular scenarios and today is one of those are stories that often times
communicators are teachers have a tendency to want to avoid simply because of what the
story says and I will read the story, the story speaks for itself it doesn't over dramatize
it just simply tells us what occurred literally at this point probably in the neighborhood
of close to 4000 years ago in the time of Abraham so here's what he says in
Genesis chapter 22 beginning in verse one sometime later God tested Abraham and he said
to him Abraham here I am he replied then God said take your son your only son whom you
love Isaac and go to the region of Moriah and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering
on the mountain I will show you early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his
donkey and he took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac and when he cut enough wood
for the burnt offering he set out for the place God had told him about on the third
day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance and he said to his servants stay
here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there we will worship and then we will come back to you
Abraham took the wood for burn offering and placed it on his son Isaac and he himself
carried the fire and the knife as the two of them went on together Isaac spoke up and said to
his father Abraham father yes my son Abraham replied the fire and wood are here Isaac said
where's the lamb for the burnt offering Abraham answered God himself will provide the lamb
for the burnt offering my son and the two of them went on together when they reach the
place God told him about Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it he bound
his son Isaac and laid them on the altar on top of the wood then he reached out his hand
and took the knife to slay his son but the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven
Abraham Abraham here I am he replied do not lay a hand on the boy he said do not do anything
to him now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son your only
son Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a RAM caught by its horns and he went
over and took the RAM and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son so Abraham
called that place the Lord Will Provide and to this day it is said on the mountain of
the Lord it will be provided you read that story and you can think to yourself maybe
as you read it and maybe it's your first time reading the story you think to yourself you
know what I'm not good with child sacrifice I'm not okay with that I don't feel good about
it is not cool here's the good news you're not alone I have yet to meet any human being
that I'm aware of that is in favor of child sacrifice right now here's the struggle is
that people that are people of faith for instance like Richard Dawkins who's a Professor and who's
an author and whose an avowed atheist he wrote a book a number of years ago called the God
delusion I referenced it actually a couple of years ago and he kind of tries to deprecate
God somewhat he certainly an atheist and so he makes light of some of the the weird things
that he thinks people of faith embrace particularly Christians and in one of those aspects of
his book he actually referenced the story of Abraham and Isaac and here's what he said
it was on page 265 of the book and he said any modern legal system would have prosecuted
Abraham for child abuse and if he actually carried through his plan to sacrifice Isaac
we would have convicted him of first-degree *** okay well "duh" right of course I would
hope that Prof. Dawkins is much better at applying the scientific method in his discipline
than he is as an interpreter because this is incredibly uninformed and weak statement
from him as if Abraham lived in the 21st century Abraham lived in what we would have to back
up and say is the 19th or 20th century Before Christ so we're backing up almost 4000 years
and were looking into a story of a man who is surrounded by what we would know to be
or called paganism in his world a belief sometimes in certain gods were in many gods
at the same time and these gods were very fickle and they had to be placated in certain
ways you got a remember that Abraham grew up in this world because he was the son of
a pagan idol maker this was the world he was in and now he's being shuffled into
a place called Canaan and Canaan is a place wrought with the worship of various gods
and among the things that these pagan people did around these pagan gods is to appease
these pagan gods because their infant mortality rate was so high they realize that maybe if
we could somehow offer say our first healthy child back to the gods that maybe we would
be able to have many more children after that this was their mindset and so they would do that
very thing and you might be thinking to yourself that's an incredibly primitive kind of idea
kind of barbaric and primitive idea to think that if they sacrifice maybe their firstborn
child that the gods would be appeased and not so angry and would give them healthy children
after that well it is primitive but we're talking about 4000 years ago but let's not mistake
the fact that there is primitive thinking even in our day and age to in fact when I
was in South Africa a number of years ago I was there are speaking in a number of
different places to pastors and to people who just came at various events and I happened
to be in one city as they were bouncing me all around and I happen to be in one city and
in that day in that city they were having a large gathering for world AIDS Day of course
that's a sensitive and big issue on the continent of Africa and
so I happen to be in that town on world AIDS day and literally 20 minutes before the gathering
started the mayor of the town asked me to speak at world AIDS day in their city you're a
special guests we'd like to have you speaking I'm thinking you know I don't have an AIDS
talk I'm not a medical professional I don't have any of those things but I do have the
gospel and I will communicate the gospel is that okay and he said yeah we know who you
are go ahead and do it and I was like okay I like carte blanche at world AIDS day in this city
in South Africa to just preach the gospel and I was like I do that so I did but what I found out
in a world AIDS day as I found out that there was a way in which some certainly not all
and probably not even the majority frankly but there were some in the South African culture
that believed that the only way because this is a rampant disease in Africa they believe that
the only way to get rid of *** is to engage in *** intercourse with a *** child
that was the way that you are eradicated the disease now you're going I can't believe that
I'm telling you that to help you understand that it wasn't just 4000 years
ago there were some primitive thinking there is still sometimes in our world primitive
thinking when it comes to certain things because obviously in in their mind of seeing that to
be the cure all they're doing is facilitating and spreading disease all the more right so
I say not simply to say we have to understand the cultural context of what we're reading
here as Prof. Dawkins really gave absolutely no attention to and I hope he gets more attention
to a science than he does to his interpretive skills and we haven't met so if you tell them
that then that'd be fine here's what you also have to keep in mind you have to keep in mind as well
that Abraham is a learning of God a piece at a time it's what we call in theological
in the theological world progressive Revelation in other words God says to Abraham here is
a piece of my character that you can get to know and then through that other things happen
later on in certain situations that Abraham since God reveals himself in a different way
to say here's another piece of my character that you can get to know it's called progressive
revelation he's getting to know this God and he's really not sure fully in the way that
we are sure of the kind of the full scope of who God is so to speak he's just getting
to know that and so he's not sure what this God who has said go and sacrifice your child
that is not foreign to Abraham at all he lives in that culture that is common occurrence
so he's not shocked even though we read it and gasp Abraham was not shocked at all this isn't something
that's taken him by storm God is actually working in the context of his own culture
to show him something quite unique so I've tell you all of that in terms of cultural context
and when I read this story obviously it's not really difficult for us to see a picture
of Christ substitutionary death for us at some point is it when you read the story it just jumps
out at you there are some other stories like the Noah story of Cain and Abel story of the Adam and Eve
story that we had to kind a reach and dig in but this story is like right his one and only
son but he provides a RAM in place of the one and only son and the ram gives its innocent
life so to speak so that this one can go free we see this picture we're like man this is
a really clear picture of Jesus in this Old Testament story and since we can see that
so easily and I did I could walk through this whole thing and could point out similarities
and all that from a different lens to let you understand the big
picture the story speaks for itself you can see clearly a picture of Christ in the story
and I don't even need to explain it to you really you just it just jumps it right screams
at you what I want to do is I want to pause for just a moment and actually ask maybe a different
question how did the people of, because the story kind of screams about what Jesus was ultimately
going to do I'm curious how the people of Jesus time specifically the Jewish people
would have looked at the story of Abraham and Isaac because when we see that I think
it will help us a little bit see that they were processing this maybe different than
the way we process it if we're going to look at how the people around Jesus time specifically
the Jewish people would've looked back at the story of Abraham and Isaac then the best
place for us to be able to understand that would be in one of the Gospels because one
of the Gospels of Matthew Mark Luke and John is really Jewish Matthew's Gospel and so if
we were to look at Matthew's Gospel and we were to understand some things about the audience
written around the time of Jesus just after the time of Jesus if we were to understand
kind of the cultural landscape of that group of people we would start learning maybe some
things about what they thought about the story of Abraham and Isaac and how Matthew might
have retold that story somewhat in the Gospels maybe without I western eyes being able to see it
but to do that we need to understand a little bit about the cultural encyclopedia of Matthew's
audience when I use the term cultural Encyclopedia let me pause for just a second and explain
what I mean in every culture we have a cultural encyclopedia and I'm a talk about something
that's bound and it's in a book on our shelves okay we sent a cultural encyclopedia in other
words if I say something to you you understand what it means and you have a picture of a
number of other things that it embraces for instance this will be really relevant
for us in fact if I were to use this phrase and everybody who's like 30 or 35 and older
will know it and some of you that are younger you might because of yesterday if I use this
phrase do you believe in miracles calls how many of you immediately in your mind go to
the 1980 Olympics and you hear Al Michaels for those who are younger he's the guy who calls
football now Al Michaels calling the United States against the Soviet Union in hockey
how many of you remember that do you believe in miracles are good not your younger and
you watched the US play Russia yesterday morning you actually saw them replay a bit of that
where they show the 1980 team that was made up of a bunch of college players because it was
before we could play professionals in the Olympics even though functionally the Russian
team or the Soviet Union team were professionals and we were playing against them and we had
a snowball's chance of even scoring a goal in this game and we end up winning the game
and you hear Al Michael's as the seconds are ticking off do you believe in miracles yes and thats one
one of most famous calls of this century now why this is a part of our cultural encyclopedia
is because when he made that statement our minds not only go to just simply a game it
goes to the bigger cultural picture because in 1980 what was happening is that you have
the United States which was now fully, fully a superpower in the world with nuclear capability
and you had the Soviet Union which was the other at that point global superpower in the
world with nuclear capability the United States and the Soviet Union were what were in what
was termed as a Cold War and that the relationship was very chilly and both between the two of
them the opportunity to basically send the earth into oblivion with a nuclear holocaust
and for one of the very first times in all of life we were now faced with the possibility
of nuclear holocaust that could actually realistically happen so when we hear the phrase you believe in
miracles we hear not only what was going on at an ice rink in Lake Placid but we also hear
all of the cultural stuff surrounding it and it is part of our cultural encyclopedia does that
makes sense to you when or when I use the phrase and for instance a political party that started just
not long ago the Tea Party the reason they chose that term was because we have a cultural
encyclopedia that points back to a time where the tea party was a sense of revolution
and that this idea that they have they think is revolutionary whether you agree or don't agree
I'm just talking about a cultural encyclopedia you get it Matthew was actually going to lean
on the cultural Encyclopedia of his audience so that he would have an opportunity to say
some things about the way in which they understood the story of Abraham and Isaac and how that
applied to Jesus I told you were diving in deep and I told you you have to put your big boy pants
on your girl pants on and so you're doing that but let me pause for a second before I dive
in to Matthew and give you some of these parallels let me remind you of
some of the some of the cultural Encyclopedia of Matthew's audience the Jewish people so
there was a historian Josephus some you've heard of him I've referenced him a number
of different times one of the most famous and probably the most famous historian from
a Jewish perspective of all time he was during the time in and around the time of Jesus
and Josephus actually talked about the prevailing thought of many people and he argued for Abraham
and Isaac for Isaac to have been 25 years old this is in Josephus's writings he says
that Isaac was 25 years old now how does he know that he doesn't know for sure but this is kind
of the general thought there was another there was another a book called the Talmud that
the Jews used and what the Talmud was it was a rabbinical commentary in other words
this is from from a lot of years of what the rabbis had talked about and what they had thought
about when it came to the Old Testament and do you know what the Talmud says the Talmud argues that Isaac
was 33 years old does that sound familiar in terms of time anyway they argue that he's 33 years old
now some of the other early Christian writers people like Clement of Rome and
my Leto and the Maccabees and others who are along that line they actually wrote about
Polycarp he wrote about it as well they actually wrote about Isaac and although they didn't
argue for what Isaac's age was here's what they did argue they argued that Isaac was
of enough substantial age that he was a willing participant in what transpired this was ultimately
Matthew's audience and this was what they all said and they all believed they all believe
that Isaac was old enough and was a willing participant in what they call the Akedah
which means the binding the story of Isaac being bound they believed this to be the case
in fact some of the rabbis even said that if Isaac would've wanted to because Isaac was
a young adult that Isaac could've easily overwhelmed his aged father who you remember was old
at this point right it's 100 and something I mean he had Isaac when he was 100 that happens all the
time right Sarah was 90 her biological clock had stopped working decades ago right
yet they got this child he's aged and it seems that Isaac could've overwhelmed him and
that's why they all say he was a willing participant in this so don't think in terms of a little
five-year-old who's getting tied up by his dad with a knife over him instead think about it in terms of the cultural
landscape now the reason that I tell you that is because it's important for how we read Matthew
and I want us to see how actually Matthew opens this door up and I'm indebted to works of
a number of scholars not the least of which would be a Dr. Leroy Huzienga who helped open
my mind on some of these things so let that be said but when we open up Matthew's Gospel
here's what we see, we see a genealogy now that you guys know if you're ever reading
the Bible like devotionally you always skip the genealogies don't lie don't lie you go
so and so had so and so and and you look and there's like a lot of those and then you go and so
next thing right I know you but here's the thing listen to how Matthew opens his Gospel
chapter 1 verse one here's what he says this is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the
son of David the son of Abraham alright now pause right there for just a second there's no doubt
that when we open up this Gospel that Matthew was trying to do something number one he is trying
to establish that Jesus is Jewish he's also trying to establish that Jesus is the fulfillment
of the promise that was made to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 he is also trying to establish
that Jesus is the Messiah who is the king who comes from the line of David all of those
things are implied when he says Jesus the Messiah the son of David the son
of Abraham all of those things are implied but what I'm here to suggest to you is this is
a part of what Matthew is doing is he's grabbing on to the cultural Encyclopedia of
his audience and that actually what Matthew is saying is what Matthew is saying he actually
is not only referring to David but he's referring to David's son Solomon you see that played out
in fact when you start to read the Gospel of Matthew because here's why what did Solomon
do he built the Temple and what Matthew was arguing in the gospel of Matthew
in part is that Jesus is the new Temple he is the manifest presence of God now let me tell you
what else is happening he's also not only the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham
but Matthew is also going to show us that Jesus is a picture of Abraham's son Isaac just to
clue you in on this and I'm going to be quick and am I'm going to read quick but I may give you some
parallels okay I'm going to give you some parallels in these stories and show you exactly what I think
Matthew was doing in fact when we begin to look at the birth narrative of Isaac we start
to see in that the birth narrative of Jesus listen listen to Genesis 17 and the birth
narrative of Isaac it says God said to Abraham as for Sarai your wife are no longer to call her
Sarai her name will be Sarah I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her and
I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations kings of people come from her Abraham
fell facedown he laughed and said to himself will a son be born to a man 100 years old
Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90 and Abraham to God if only Ishmael might live under
your blessing and then God said yes but your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will
call him Isaac I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his
descendents after him and then it says in chapter 21 this actually happened in Genesis
21 this is what it says the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said and the Lord did for
Sarah what he promised and Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age at
the very time God had promised it from step and Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore
him and when his son Isaac was eight days old Abraham circumcised him as God commanded
Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him so here's what you got you
got the story about really a supernatural birth I think they still conceived in the
same way of normal conception but it was supernatural in the fact that the dude was 100 and
she's 90 and she's never given birth to any child she's been barren before that so God
acted supernaturally in the birth of this child God also told them the parents what you're to name
him God also said this is what I'm going to do through him do you hear all those parallels in fact
if you don't listen what Matthew did in his first chapter he said this is how the birth of
Jesus the Messiah came about his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph of before
they came together that means before they were involved sexually she was found to be
pregnant through the Holy Spirit because Joseph her husband was faithful to law yet did not
want to expose her to public disgrace he had in mind to divorce her quietly but after he considered
this an angel the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said Joseph son of David do not
be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit
she will give birth to a son and you're to give him the name Jesus because he will save his
people from their sins and so it ultimately goes on to say that Joseph did exactly that
she got this parallel picture of the birth narrative of Isaac and the birth narrative
of Jesus but if we go into Genesis 22 I want to show you some things because in Genesis 22 what you
really have is you have the first statement where the word love is used in the Bible of
a father to a son first time listen what it says in Genesis 22 with Abraham and Isaac
God said to Abraham take your son your only son whom you love Isaac and go to the region
of Moriah you remember that statement as Matthew repeats at two different times in his Gospel
in fact when you read of the baptism story of Jesus in Matthew 3 listen to his words
Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John and then they argued about
who should do that and then ultimately says as soon as Jesus was baptized he went up out
of the water and at that moment heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove and alighting on him and a voice from heaven said this is my son whom I love
with him I am well pleased Did you catch it if you did and you can look again at the Transfiguration
story because at the Transfiguration story when Jesus was transfigured before Matthew
I'm sorry before Peter James and John listen to what it says in chapter 17 of Matthew while
he was still speaking a bright cloud covered them and a voice from the cloud said this
is my son whom I love with him I am well pleased listen to him now do you know why they were saying listen
to him why the voice said listen to him talking hey Peter James John listen to Jesus
because Jesus was going to have a conversation with them on the way down he was already having a
conversation if you remember with Moses and Elijah tried that one on rights he was having a conversation
with them about his death and you know what he conversed about them with them on his way down
his death and resurrection why because Matthew was showing us pictures of Isaac he showed us
pictures of Isaac imagery the Jesus would ultimately be not the RAM but the Lamb who
would stand in the place but he's giving us these pictures father sacrificing his son
there's another one, how about the action that occurred just before the sacrifice look what
happened with Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 in verse five it says that
the Abraham said to his servants stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over
there we'll worship and we'll come back to you so here's what he said I want you guys
and he had to servants with him I want you guys to stay here and just the father and the son
are going to be over here do you remember on the night the Jesus was betrayed in Gethsemane do you
remember what occurred according to Matthew chapter number 26 Jesus went with his disciples
to a place called Gethsemane and he said to them sit here while I go over there and pray
just me my father are you seeing this are you with me do you want a couple more okay I make sure you
got the appetite look at what Isaac said a verse number seven after he was
carrying a wooden awesome Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham father yes my son
Abraham replied fire and wood are here Isaac said where's the lamb for the burnt offering
you think Isaac was on this thing he's on to it he knew what was about to go down
we go back to the Garden of Gethsemane Matthew 26 and says this going a little farther Jesus
felt his face to the ground and he said my father it's possible may this cup be taken
from me yet not as I will but as you will let me give you a last one in the in the story of Isaac and
Abraham and the story of Jesus we also see that there were three days from death to life
listen in Genesis chapter 22 verse number four it says on the third day Abraham looked up and saw
the place in the distance think about it God said to Abraham from the outset of the story
Abraham I want you to take your son whom you love Isaac your only son and I want you to go to
a place I'm going to show you, called Moriah and there I want you to sacrifice and so says he got
up immediately and got everything together and he ventured day one to day two into day three
and you know what during those first two days for him it was almost as if Isaac was already
dead God had said this is what you're going to do I'm going take you there but then he arrives
there on the third day he sees the place and he goes to make the sacrifice God stops him
and brings a RAM and he gets his son back who was almost dead to him who is now alive again
does that sound at all like the story that we find when Matthew teaches us and I won'tl go through
the passage but you know that Matthew teaches us that the Pharisees got all sideways and
says you need to seal that tomb double up because this guy said that on the third day he was going
to rise from the dead and then the disciples in Matthew 28 went to the grave and they saw
an angel there is a why do you look for the dead that among living he's not here I told you
he would rise and he has we see this story played out Abraham and Isaac and we see the
story played out in the life of Jesus and all of this imagery now why I tell you all of that
is because the big picture of the story teaches us something it's exactly what Abraham learned
the big picture of the story teaches us something and it's what Abraham learned in the context of
that story in Genesis 22 in fact I'll point it out to you and you'll see it in verse number
eight in verse 14 see what it says in Genesis 22 verse 8 Abraham answered Isaac when Isaac
said where's the lamb for the offering here's what Abraham said God himself will provide
the Lamb for the burnt offering God himself will provide it and so ultimately God did and
then what did Abraham do after that it says so Abraham called that place God will provide the Lord
will provide and to this day it said on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided now
here's what I want you not to miss if you're picking up a big lesson from this it would
be this God himself is our provision he provides all that we need in Jesus God himself is our
provision and he provides everything that we need in Jesus listen I'm going to kind of fly
this plane I been kind of 40,000 feet and I'm going to kind of help, land here in just a minute alright
to stay with me for a second buckle up and stay with me here's what God provides first thing
God provides our salvation this is what we see in this passage of Scripture this is what
we recognize in Jesus that what God does is he provides our salvation now that's easy
for us to see in the story isn't it that Isaac is bundled and he is laying on this altar of
this wood that he had brought there and as the night was about to be plunged God says stop and it says that
an angel of the Lord says that which interestingly enough that Angel of the Lord says after
says is an angel of the Lord that Angel of the Lord uses terminology about me you've show that you
fear me I don't know who that Angel of the Lord is but it's possible that this is what we would call a
Theophany or a christophany which just simply means sorry for the language a pre-incarnate
appearance of Jesus in other words before Jesus was actually born that he actually showed
up in sometimes that we see in the historical Old Testament before he was actually born
in the flesh because he is God and always has been but God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit
have always existed Jesus didn't just show up at the break between BC and A.D. he didn't just
show up in Bethlehem he has always existed but he put on flesh and became and dwelt among us
at that point right now this I don't know who that Angel Lord is so I'm just theorizing at this
point because it doesn't tell us I don't have that latitude I wasn't there but it's interesting
the angel uses now I know that you fear me language just pointing that out why is your
salvation we see the picture right of the RAM being substitutionary gift of the RAM
instead of Isaac we see that picture real clearly as our salvation no question about it
but have you ever thought about where they were Genesis 22 tells us where they were right
God said to take your son your only son whom you love Isaac and go to the region of Moriah
now Moriah actually has this idea it's kind of a seeing is kind of the idea there in the land
of Moriah we actually meet a little bit further along we get into the old we start to read
how the Old Testament unfolds stay with me here we start to meet we meet Mariah again
and where we meet Mariah as we meet Mariah when we meet David and David's son Solomon
you remember how Matthew introduce the book right here's in second Chronicles listen to
this Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Marais wait a minute
Jerry are you saying to me that the same place that Abraham and Isaac were there for the
sacrifice is the same place that years and years and years and years and years later is the
same place that the temple was built yep but it doesn't stop there because when we begin to read in the book
of Matthew even thousands of years later here's what Matthew says as Jesus was going out carrying
his cross he met a man from Cyrene named Simon and they forced him to carry the cross and
they came to a place called Golgotha which means the place of the skull do you know where Golgotha is
yes Golgotha is on Moriah some of are you going what? I've been there I'll be there again just in a
few weeks several times I've been to Israel and I stop and I stand back and I think to
myself when I'm standing on the Mount of olives looking across and I'm seeing the Morian hills
and I'm thinking to myself this is where Abraham offered Isaac where God saved Isaac this
is where the Temple was built where God was starting to save his people Israel and this
is where Jesus died who saves the world he himself provides our salvation
but let me give you a second thing he also provides our hope and letme make sure you understand what
I'm saying what I'm saying when I say that because I'll take you back to the story of
Abraham and I want you to listen very carefully to Abraham's words very carefully verses four
and five on the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance and he said
to his servants stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there we will
worship and then we will come back to you that's for real Abraham you see what we don't
realize going on in Abraham because when we get the story in Genesis 22 it doesn't over dramatize
the story you don't get a soundtrack that you plug into your iPod while you listen to it
(sound effects) right it doesn't over dramatize the story it just tells you the story straight ahead here the story but when we see
the New Testament writers like the writer to the book of Hebrews look back on this he lets
us in by the power of the Holy Spirit he lets us into some things that were going on
in Abraham's mind and in his heart because Abraham had learned to trust God even though
God had not been fully revealed to him he was revealing himself piece by piece but what
he knew of God he trusted in his limited understanding listen to what the writer of Hebrews says Hebrews
11 by faith Abraham when God tested him offered Isaac as a sacrifice he who embraced the promises
was about to sacrifice his one and only son even though God said to them it is through Isaac
that your offspring will be reckoned Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead and so
in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death you see this is what Abraham was saying
he was at Moriah a place of seeing and he was seeing forward in what God was calling him
to do he trusted God's character in his limited knowledge he trusted God's character and he
was saying I trust you I don't know what's about to happen here but I trust that even if I
take his life and you made a promise through me my line is going to blessed and this is going to come
through Isaac this is the promise I'm killing the promise how are you going to do this God I'm killing the promise but I trust you
and he raises the knife and God says I've got you I'm going to provide and he brings the lamb in and Abraham kind of knew even if God didn't provide the ram
that somehow if I plunge this into my young adult son that somehow God would raise him from the dead
and the fulfill his promise however God could do it in fact Jesus even commented on Abraham seeing that far in advance when
Jesus was ministering listen to what John 8 says it says your Jesus said these words your father
Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day and he saw it and he was glad could you imagine that he saw it
because he saw a picture in Isaac of what I was ultimately going to do in the world so
he provides our hope he provides our salvation let me give you last thing he provides our
need you know it's interesting that one of the reasons that we get disappointed in God
is because we know that God loves us unconditionally but we are unwilling to do the same for him
we won't love him unconditionally God has to behave the way we want him to behave when
we're disappointed in him and if you want to know what the sum relationship with our disappointments
and God boils down to oftentimes what it boils down to is it boils down to the fact that
we think God should be this way and God says I'm God why don't you let me have it and trust me
even when I don't act like the way you think I'm supposed to act when we don't love God unconditionally
and trust God unconditionally we set ourselves up for disappointment because at that point we're playing
God and saying God I'm actually a better CEO of the universe than you are I think maybe
that I know better we never say that we're too smart to say that but we actually live
like that's true God I think I know better than you and I'm not really happy with the
way you've acted here and thinking about I'm firing you and I'm hoping that when I fire you there will be a vacancy in
the Trinity that I can fulfill right it's crazy but here's the thing what God will
do is he will provide because he himself is who provides he himself is our provision he's
our great reward some of you look for all the things that you can get from his hand instead of looking
to his face instead of saying God it's you that I want not just what comes from your hand
if you and I want whatever comes from your hand that's your business but it is you that I want that's what
Abraham was doing and I think that that's what Isaac was doing because I believe Isaac was
a willing participant of what went on and I think that is what Matthew was showing us from the very opening lines of the book of
Matthew that Jesus is the King he is the Messiah he is the promised one he is the fulfillment of
all that was promised Abraham he is the actual king of the line of David and he is a
picture of what we see in Abraham and Isaac that from the very outset he was headed to a sacrificial
on our part this is what we see he provides our need and Abraham knew that really well
because what God was doing his at every point that Abraham had a need God was revealing
himself in a Different Way, remember I told you that in fact if we backed up a little bit into Genesis
14 Abraham is fighting a battle and you know what he has a need in that battle like for
some help from God and you know what God does God reveals himself in Genesis 14 as Elyon the Most
High God in other words these people you are going to be dealing with they serve all of these little G gods that aren't
even really gods at all they just kind of made them up Abraham let me tell you something I am
El Elyon I am the most high God and so in doing that he met Abraham's need we fast-forward
to Genesis chapter 16 you see the story of Sarah and Hagar Hagar was the maidservant
of Sarah and Sarah's all like hey Abraham I know we got his promise that God
made to us but it ain't happening and I been shut up in my womb it is not going down and I'm
old my biological clock detonated decades ago it's not happening you need to take Hagar
and need to have a child with Hagar so that this promise will be able to travel forward and
so he does you know against his better wisdom maybe but he does and then they have
a child and do you remember how Sarah how she responded to that, not good, right that's how she responded to that and so
Hagar and her son feel like basically because Abraham finally said to Sarah do what you
got to do you because if momma ain't happy nobody's happy, and she ain't mama yet
she's wanna be mama but she's not mama yet and she's mad because now there's another mama in the house
She's not happy at all so she punts her and now Abraham is thinking "what in the world is going on
this is not good" and Hagar is thinking "what in the world is going on this is not good" and Ishmael
is thinking "what in the world is going on this is not good" and basically they feel like God's forgotten And God reveals himself
to them as El Roi the God who sees that even though you feel like you have been forgotten God sees
he has not forgotten you and then Abraham learned something else when you get to Genesis chapter 17 when
he's 99 years old and God reminds him again of the promise that you're going to have a baby and he starts
laughing his head off going are you kidding me I'm 99 how am I going to have a baby, I'm old my wife's old it ain't going to happen she can't even
give birth then God reveals himself to him and says I am El Shaddai God All Mighty
Anything I want to do I will do any time I want to do it I will it do it this is what God is revealing
himself at every point of Abraham's need he is revealing himself over and over and over again
and then you get to Genesis chapter 21 and Abraham needs to be reminded because God had made
a promise to Abraham about land right taking them into Canaan in this land and Abraham
may be thinking to himself I wonder if God remembers this promise and God reveals himself to Abraham
as El Olam I am Everlasting God the enduring God so you will never have to worry about me forgetting about
a promise or not being able to come through on because I endure forever then you get to Genesis
22 and now Abraham has a knife raised above his only son whom he loves and God shows up and reveals
himself as Yahweh Yireh or in the Greek Jehovah Jireh the God Who Provides that at every single
point God is showing up and providing so you here's what you need to understand about that
here's where you can walk out and realize you've heard something today that matters to
you listen up here it is for every need you have God has a name for every need God has a name now
I'm going to go a little further because what we learn when we see Jesus this incredible picture from
Genesis 22 that's lifted over for us in Matthew and where Matthew unpacks this picture of Jesus
and this Isaac imagery here's what we ultimately learn about Jesus that Jesus is the fullness
of the Godhead in bodily form so you know what that means Jesus is the name for your need that
for every need you have God has a name and I'll tell you that when you speak the name
Jesus you get it all you get it all now here is why I tell you that for a couple of reasons one
some of you that are here that have never entered into relationship with God there is only one way you will come
to God and that is through Jesus that is the only way Jesus said I am the way the truth and the
life and no one comes to the father except through me Jesus is the only way if you think
there's another way than what you're saying is what you're saying is God didn't really
know what he was doing and Jesus who willingly gave his life didn't know what he was doing
and there are other alternatives available there are not according to God there is one way
to be reconciled to God and that is through Jesus Christ by turning from our sin and trusting
him trusting him unconditionally loving him it's like Abraham did just like I believe Isaac
did but I also say to those of you who may be already or are in relationship with God through
his son Jesus Christ are you willing to ask yourself the question do I love God unconditionally
and are you willing to ask yourself the question have I chosen other things instead of God
to put my trust in because listen to me full circle here if you have chosen other things other than
God to put your trust in than what you or I are is we are just the modern expression of
child sacrificers idol worshipers only God can provide he him self is our provision and he has given us everything we need in
Jesus Jesus is the name for your need
So I want to bring us back to what Pastor Jerry said just a few moments ago that if you've got a need God's got a name and because we know
that Jesus is the fullness of God in bodily form that Jesus is the name for your need whatever
that is Jesus is the name for your need maybe this is kind of the first time that's been articulated
to you before maybe before this morning Jesus was just kind of like a nice you know ideal
of what it means to live and things we should aim for but never really the central figure
the Savior of your story but maybe this morning was the first time the kind of realize that
or maybe it was reinforced for you in a new way and certainly in a way you would've never
expected from a story about Abraham and Isaac but that's the beauty of this this God that
we serve is that he's been trying to use every available opportunity to get your attention
to save you from a path of self-destruction because he wants something better for you
he wants something different for you that's life connected to his son Jesus Christ that
you would be reconciled back to God through Jesus that's what God wants so maybe today you
were awakened to your need of him maybe for the first time or the first time really in
a long time or maybe you've been walking with Jesus but trying to do some things on your own maybe
Jesus has been like an add on a Sunday rather than really he's your everything and so today
you were awakened to that need I don't know what it is for you but I really want to encourage
you to take a step of faith in the direction of obedience to whatever God has been pressing
on your heart I said at the outset I believe God has something specific he wants to say to you
And I believe we've heard those things today so if I could encourage you with one thing it would be this to
not to not sit back not stand on the sidelines to not let this be the end of your experience
with God but that you would get connected to the life that he's designed and created
for you specifically life connected in the local church that's really going to be instrumental
and important to your personal growth and development as a Christ follower some encouragement
as I say every week is that you would find a local church in your area that preaches the same gospel
you heard this morning faithfully week in and week out I really want to encourage you to do
that this is this is not designed to replace that it is designed to help you on your journey
of following Jesus but never to replace your involvement in a local church of course if you don't
have a local church in the area maybe you just recently moved here or have never really
taken that dive in to get involved with a local church you're always welcome here at the chapel
you can find us one of two spots here in the Western New York region our Crosspoint campuses
in Getzville New York we worship gathering there today at 9 AM and 11 AM and our Lockport
campus meets in the historic Palace theater right in downtown Lockport and there is a worship gathering
there today at 10 AM either way we would love to meet you and to hear your story shake your
hand and together follow Jesus Christ we so we hope you take us up on that opportunity real soon
thanks