Scripture Reading:
Genesis 22:8-14 NIV Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him 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. 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.”
Text:
Genesis 22:14 NIV 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.”
Introduction
Last Sunday November 28 was the beginning of Advent.
The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming,” which is a translation of the Greek word parousia. Scholars believe that during the 4th and 5th centuries in Spain and Gaul, Advent was a season of preparation for the baptism of new Christians at the January feast of Epiphany, the celebration of God’s incarnation represented by the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus, his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist , and his first miracle at Cana. During this season of preparation, Christians would spend 40 days in penance, prayer, and fasting to prepare for this celebration; originally, there was little connection between Advent and Christmas.
By the 6th century, however, Roman Christians had tied Advent to the coming of Christ. But the “coming” they had in mind was not Christ’s first coming in the manger in Bethlehem, but his second coming in the clouds as the judge of the world. It was not until the Middle Ages that the Advent season was explicitly linked to Christ’s first coming at Christmas.
Advent is a time of expectation and hope and it prompts us to pause each day in December and remember why Jesus came and why we celebrate Christmas
Advent starts the Christian year like January starts the beginning of the calendar year.
Today, the Advent season lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas. In Advent, we’re reminded of how much we ourselves also need a Savior, and we look forward to our Savior’s second coming even as we prepare to celebrate his first coming at Christmas.
For indeed, not only do we commemorate his first coming on December 25th, but we also know that he will come again.
The themes most often used for the four weeks of Advent are Hope, Peace, Joy and Love
Hope is the feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Advent teaches us to not only to expect hope for eternity, but we can expect hope for today.
Next is peace. This peace that is not just a psychological state of mind; this peace is spiritual peace. This is the peace of people whose sins are forgiven
Joy is the next these This is s joy that rises above circumstances. This joy is not produced by something external that makes me feel happy. It is the supernatural result of a life filled with the Holy Spirit of the living God.
And finally love. This this love is a gift that originates with God and is Undeserving, Unlimited, and often Unclaimed.
Since this is Advent I have a series about the one we celebrate during the Advent season. The series title is “Come, Let Us Adore Him”, and the Him we are taking about is the Messiah, Immanuel, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
There was a famous songwriter who loved the Lord very much. The composer wrote a song with a beautiful romantic tune and a wonderful message about Jesus. He was offered a lot of money by a secular publishing company if he would change the lyrics. The publishing company asked him to substitute the word “love” for “Jesus.” The composer replied, “If you leave out Jesus, you have left out everything.”
There was a professing Christian, who after having a powerful experience with God, said to his pastor, “I had been listening to you preach for many years but had not been hearing you. I know you had been preaching the Word of God and Jesus, and I know you had been telling me what I needed to hear, but I had not been hearing it.” He continued, “Since I committed my life to Jesus, I now hear what you’re saying.”
People read the Bible everyday and fail to see Jesus. They go to church and do not come face-to-face with him. Often people are in the environment of Christian experience, but they do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. They know about him, but they do not know him personally.
The problem with the Jews in the first century was that they could not identify the Messiah because they had not really seen him in their Bible. All they had was what we now know as the Old Testament, and they didn’t have all of it they may have only had the Pentateuch or what we know today as the first five books of the Bible.
Starting with Genesis, we see Jesus in many experiences. In reading Genesis we can see Jesus on almost every page. Genesis does not speak of Jesus’ birth, but it does demonstrate his existence.
Genesis 3:13-15 NIV Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
God created a good world for His image-bearers. He provided food to eat and meaningful work for them to accomplish
Genesis 2:15 NIV The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
He also gave a specific warning, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die”
Genesis 2:17 NIV but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Into this paradise came a crafty serpent, Satan in disguise, who convinced the woman to question God’s command and His motives.
Genesis 3:1-4 NIV Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.
The woman and man both knowingly disobeyed God’s command and chose to eat from the tree
Genesis 3:6 NIV When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
When God confronted them, He judged all three. But God also provided a ray of hope.
Genesis 3:15 NIV And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
God indicated that there would be ongoing conflict between the offspring of the woman and the serpent, but that through her descendants would come victory. This promise is clarified in the rest of the Old Testament and fulfilled by the birth of Christ.
Now to the New Testament for a minute.
Galatians 4:4 NIV But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
There are more reflections of Jesus in Genesis and I want to talk about a couple of them today.
In the scripture that Jean read this morning she recounted an experience in the life of Isaac that illustrates God’s plan in Jesus. I want to talk about that experience and one other experience of Isaac’s life that is also a reflection of Jesus.
Those experiences of Isaac along with the experience of Adam and Eve and their encounter with the serpent, show us that God has always had a plan to seek and save the lost.
In these two experiences of Isaac, we see a sacrificing Savior and a seeking Savior.
I. Let's talk about our sacrificing Savior (22:8–14).
A. First there was the Promise surrounding Isaac that we need to consider.
Isaac was the son of promise. God had made a covenant with Abraham, telling him that all nations of the earth would be blessed through his descendants, but Abraham at the time did not have any descendants.
Abraham took this matter into his own hands. Since he did not see any way the promise could be fulfilled, he decided that he would help God work it out. So along with his wife Sarah's help Abraham had a son by the handmaiden Hagar, but that son Ismael was not the son of promise.
Then God spoke to Abraham again when he was ninety-nine years old and Sarah was ninety. God said, “I am going to give you a son.”
Genesis 17:1-5, 15-16 NIV When Abram was ninety-nine years old, 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.” Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you 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. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
Then….
Genesis 21:1-5 NIV Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
What a promise keep and what a supernatural blessing.
But, Later God said, “Abraham, you must be willing to sacrifice your son.”
Genesis 22:1-2, 6-8 NIV Some time later God tested Abraham. 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. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt 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, “but where is 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.
B. The weight of sin.
Isaac carried the load of the sacrifice. All humankind is under the weight of sin. If we read this passage society today, we might judge God to be unjust in asking Abraham to sacrifice his son. But if we look at it from God’s perspective, it is quite different. Isaac deserved to die, just as we all do. He was a sinner, and so are we, and the wages of sin is death.
Romans 6:23 NIV For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Isaac, on his way to his own sacrifice, is symbolic of the needs of mankind. He was under the load of sin—a sinner with questions and no answers, a sinner with sin and no forgiveness, a person with no hope even though the promise of God rested on his whole life.
Genesis 22:17-18 NIV I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
C. God’s provision.
Abraham and Isaac went to the place God had designated, and Abraham built an altar. He tied his son and was ready to sacrifice him when God spoke.
Genesis 22:9-14 NIV When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him 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. 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.”
We see Isaac as a symbol of sinful mankind under the load of sin and without hope. But then God spoke and rather than seeing Isaac, we see the provision of God. God supplied a ram with his horns caught in a bush, put there as a sacrifice in place of Isaac.
The ram was sacrificed in Isaac’s place. Abraham’s faith was demonstrated by his willingness to sacrifice his son, but the important thing is that a sufficient substitute had appeared by the grace of God.
This story reminds us of Jesus. We are carrying the burden of our guilt—not supposed guilt, not assumed guilt, but real guilt. We deserve the penalty of hell, but by grace God has sent a Lamb.
John 1:29 NIV The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
That Lamb is Jesus, humbly born in Bethlehem’s manger; sadly yet victoriously living among his own people who rejected him; and terribly yet gloriously dying on Calvary’s cross for our sins.
D. The victory.
Picture Abraham and Isaac coming down from Mount Moriah. Isaac no longer carrying the load of sacrifice. The sacrifice has been made. Isaac is no longer asking, “Where is the lamb?” The lamb has been provided. Isaac has been saved. The Christ has come. The sacrifice has been made. The price has been paid on the cross of Calvary, and the resurrection has provided salvation for all who will accept. We are free from the guilt of sin because of the Lamb God has provided.
Galatians 4:4-7 NIV But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
II. A seeking Savior (24).
Another story about Isaac reminds us about our seeking Savior. Abraham had left his relatives in Haran and gone to Canaan. Isaac needed a wife. The Canaanite women were not right for Isaac because their people worshiped idols. Isaac, as the son of promise, would be an ancestor of Jesus. So the right wife had to be found for him.
A. The searching spirit.
Abraham sent his servant Eliezer back to Haran to find a bride for Isaac. The servant’s successful trip is detailed in Genesis chapter 24.
To summerize; Eliezer went to the home of Laban, the kinsman of Abraham and Sarah, where he got Laban’s permission to take Rebekah to be Isaac’s wife. Rebekah’s mother did not want her daughter to leave, but finally the moment came when Rebekah was asked, “Will you go and be the bride of Isaac?” She said, “I will go.”
B. The joyous Christ. A glorious meeting took place between Rebekah and Isaac.
Genesis 24:62-65 NIV Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” “He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.
Why would God put a story like this in the Bible?
He is telling us about the son of promise, Isaac, in search of a bride. Jesus also came to search for a bride. Jesus is the Son of God, and his bride is the church.
Revelation 19:7-9 NIV Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”
Revelation 21:2 NIV I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
As Abraham sent out Eliezer, God sends out the Holy Spirit in search of the bride of Christ. What did Eliezer do? He went to Haran and told Rebekah about Isaac.
The Christ has come, and the Holy Spirit of God moves around the world to tell people about the Christ. He gathers the church, the bride of Christ. God has always had a plan, and the plan is Jesus. If you leave out Jesus, you have left out everything. Jesus is the essence of God’s grace. Jesus is the Savior who not only saved Isaac from death but also from guilt and from hell. And he saves us from death, guilt, and hell also.
C. The willing bride. Jesus is the one who sends forth his Holy Spirit in search of his bride. What a beautiful truth! Not only has God provided salvation, but he searches the earth for the souls of men and women, boys and girls who will give themselves to him and who will say as Rebekah said, “I will go.”
Conclusion
The story of Jesus is an eternal story. It did not begin in a manger in Bethlehem; it began in the very beginning. It is a story that has been included in the purpose of God ever since he said, “Let there be light.”
John 1:1, 3-5 NIV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 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.
The story of Jesus is a story that is ever expanding as God touches the lives of all people who will submit to him. The Christmas story is not written in the pretty decorations we place around our homes. It is not written as we exchange nice gifts. The Christmas story is written in our acceptance of Jesus as the Savior and Lord of our lives.
Jesus was not God’s plan B when sin entered the world. He was God’s plan A, and in His kindness, God sent His own Son to live the perfect life, and to die to save us from eternal separation from Him. Thank God for Jesus.
Dear Lord, Don't let us miss You this Christmas season. Help us to simplify our activities and traditions so we can focus our celebration on Your birth.
Jesus, we glorify and worship You! What a privilege to come to the Father in Your name and to know that You intercede for us before the heavenly throne. Shape us and mold us to be Your worthy followers. In Jesus’ name, amen!
Thank You for being the Prince of Peace, and I ask You for that supernatural peace to reign in our hearts. Thank You for the simple but life-changing message of Your love for us. In Jesus' name, Amen.”
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