The God of Abraham, part 2

Auto-generated from the audio — may contain errors.

0:00 We are working through this, the idea or the notion, explaining the idea of why we call God the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We started last week looking at the God of Abraham, what that means, so we are going to finish this week looking at the God of Abraham and then the next two weeks we will look at the God of Jacob and then the God of Isaac and then the God of Jacob. For me coming out of the Easter it is really Easter is this beautiful celebration of the

0:38 resurrection of Jesus, the culmination of everything that he study would do. He told his disciples several times that he would be killed and raised from the dead. Then when you look even deeper at the story you recognize that this is the fulfillment of these ancient promises that God gave to his people Israel. Even before Israel was formed to the first ones he made this promise that you can follow the threat of that promise all the way through the story of Scripture to the celebration of

1:09 the resurrection and then that launches out into the church where we find ourselves today. Part of what was interesting to me in the season of Easter is to look at who our God is specifically, who is the God of Easter? And all throughout the story of Scripture from Genesis chapter 12 kind of forward part of the name of that God, the God of Easter is the God of Abraham. The God of Abraham. And we looked last week at what it might mean that the God of creation and life associate

1:48 God's self with Abraham. We mentioned how most people understand Abraham or Abraham and Sarah to be from this group of people known in the region as the Hapiru people which was like a kind of a catch all term for the bottom social economic class of folks. At some point Hapiru is like literally translated as robbers or murderers. It's not the lowest class.

2:21 And Abraham's father had started moving up the fertile crescent with the intention to come through Canaan and stops in this land called Heron. If his father was on the move it was because he didn't have much. At most he was nomad and could build up some family wealth with his sons. But but Abraham doesn't have a chance to build any kids and is called to leave and so leaves his hometown brings his like nephewish with him lot and they go walking about and God

2:53 promises him this like free gift of life. Not just any life a life where he would be a blessing to the world where we have a place to go home where he would be significant and provided for. Part of what it means to be the God of Abraham is that you give life but not just any kind of life this abundant and whole experience of life.

3:26 And I want to look at now this week a little bit of what it means that God sticks with Abraham past that initial calling. So we're going to spend most of the time this morning in several chapters in Genesis if you want to look there with me maybe if you brought a paper copy if not we're going to start in Genesis chapter 12 right where we were last week. Let me pray for it and then I'll look there with you Lord thank you for the chance to

3:59 be here this morning. Thank you for the family outlined in the story of scripture. Thank you for Abraham his persistence in faith. The openness of his family thank you for the families that you're building here. Thank you for the kids that are here this morning we ask that you bless them. There's wisdom and discernment and growth and then also Lord bless us as well with your word that it would root in us and produce the faith that leads to life.

4:34 Jesus name we pray amen. Genesis chapter 12 is where we were last week. This is first time where God comes to Abraham and calls him and he says right at the beginning of Genesis chapter 12 now the Lord said to Abraham go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation now I will bless you and make your name great so you'll be a blessing I'll bless those who bless you and whom he who dishonors you I will curse and all your families of

5:10 the earth shall be blessed so Abraham does like that sounds like a good deal I'll take it. We still remember when I was in confirmation is land off spring and blessing these are the things that Abraham get land off spring and he's a blessing to the nations and so right there in verses four to nine he's going out and he's like walking through this beautiful kind of expansive land the area there kind of just north of Jordan and then down along the banks of the Jordan is fertile and beautiful it's a great place to graze herds there's

5:45 water there's grass like lovely and so he's walking down in there and then there's like a little famine that comes a little famine but a lot of the famine that is creating a problem I don't know if you can have a little famine. Abraham and Sarah are going to go down into Egypt for protection from the famine because they still have food there and Abraham right there already we're not even out of the chapter Abram goes down into Egypt and tells Sarah that she's got to pretend to be his sister because he's afraid that they'll kill him in order to take her as the wife and so they

6:21 do Abraham like path is off his wife as his sister gives his wife in marriage to Pharaoh God's not happy with it and curses Pharaoh and all these problems Pharaoh finds out and sends them away and then they by the time he leaves Egypt he's got like a lot of stuff and so now he and Abram can't set or he and Lot can't settle together in the same place in chapter 13 and so they have to separate what's interesting for me is that by the second

6:54 half of 13 in chapter 13 verse 14 the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are northward and southward eastward and westward for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust the earth your offspring also can be counted arise and walk through the length and breadth

7:24 of the land for I will give it to you so Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Marm which are at Hebron and there he built an all due to the Lord when you read this first part of the story of Abram there's all these beautiful places like the oaks of Marm it makes me want to go see what that looks like but what's interesting to me is in Genesis chapter 12 God gives this like unique and amazing offer to Abram Abram you

7:55 are a nobody come with me and I will bless the whole world through you you are completely without any land or ownership you have no kids no way to leave lasting significance on the earth I'll give you both this amazing promise and all Abraham has to do is follow God so he does and before the end of the next chapter God is having to promise Abram again like God gives Abram this amazing offer and Abram takes him up on it and then God is having to come back and tell him

8:32 again that he's willing to give this to him before the end of the next chapter in chapter 13 and then in chapter 14 Lot gets himself in trouble and Abram goes to rescue him and then this kind of priest comes out and in chapter 14 somebody blesses Abram again Melchizedek in the name of God the God and then in chapter 15 after these things the word of the Lord came

9:06 to Abram in a vision if you're not Abram I am your shield your reward shall be very great but Abram's like hey man yeah you've been saying that and nothing's happening it's like oh Lord God what will you give me for I continue childless and in the air of my house Eliezer of Damascus who is the air of my house Eliezer of Damascus I looked it up as his chief servant verse three and Abram said behold you

9:38 have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir and behold the word of Lord came to him this man shall not be your heir your very own son shall be your heir and he brought him outside and said look toward the heaven the number of the stars if you're able to count that man said so shall your offspring be any belief God keeps coming back and promising this is not the last time he does it again he does it again in chapter 17 he promises him again in Abram in between each of the promises he demonstrates like when he gets the promise he's like okay I'll take

10:10 it and then after the promise he demonstrates a complete lack of faith in God to give it to him oh I mean like it's this pattern where Abram is given this amazing promise hope provision for the future secure identity and purpose in the world and then he promptly forgets it and God comes back and promises it to him again one of the things we talked about last week when you look at the story

10:41 of the scripture from the very beginning like from creation to Abram the first 12 chapters of Genesis you see this trait of God where the god of creation in life is like staggeringly persistent with humanity he makes the world form out of his own imagination and with the force of his own will and gives it to them though they had no power to ask for anything he gives them everything humanity's sure that he's holding out on them and so then he they subvert his authority

11:14 they say we don't need you he pushes them out of the garden says I'll fix it and then they forget him even more and then he starts over with a new group of people and that group of people forget him and build a tower and then he starts over again with Abram and he makes this singular promise he says I will try and deal with all of humanity what I'll do is I'll deal with one who will let me give it to him and out of that one I'll blow up a solution that then that whole world comes back to me through this one person and now he's having to demonstrate unique persistent hope to the one the fact that we call God the god of creation in life the god of Christ

11:51 in the church the fact that we call this god the god of Abraham should tell us that he is uniquely and doggedly persistent in his intent and effort to give people good things just like I mean this is like a promise a one in humanity promise that Abraham gets and he has to get it like several times god has to come back and he builds another altar at another tree

12:26 right last time it was the oak of Marapar something and now it's the oaks of marm where god visits him he gives him this unique promise he builds an altar to remember it he goes about life and forgets it I was beating up Abraham in my mind for his lack of faith and then I remembered this section

12:57 in Paul's letter to the church in Rome if you're on a digital copy punch in with me Romans chapter 4 Paul is describing to the followers of the way in Rome the people of the church in the first century Romans is often called Paul's gospel he lays out the meaning and significance that the god of creation

13:33 and life the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob is also the god of Christ in the church how the thread works together and what the significance is what's been accomplished in the new covenant with the cross and so he breaks down a lot of ideas but in this section in Romans chapter 4 starting at verse 13 he's pulling in our boy in braham for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith

14:10 there are a couple points in the story of Abraham if you were to take the time to read through those chapters that we just skimmed through briefly I like that Paul this is what makes me think of it Paul says that that Abraham is promised to be the heir of the world that he is moving through this place and he becomes more and more significant on these rolling hills of Canaan he and his nephew by the time they leave Egypt they Pharaoh because he was excited about the new wife he was getting from

14:44 Abraham gave Abraham all these animals and these servants so he actually went down into Egypt built Egyptian wealth and then left it and went back to the rolling hills of Canaan and he's moving around and he and Lot are so wealthy that they can't both live in the first place where they sent their tent sent their tent when they walked out of heron now they have too many herds and people they're like decimating the property so they've got to fight it up and he lets Lot pick and so then

15:19 Abraham moves down further into more green more verdant and that's when that second time God comes back to him and says man look at this dust on the earth I'm gonna give you as many children as there are ducks on the earth and he's at the oaks of Marm and he builds an altar there to his God who promises I'll give you this whole land like what beautiful promise Abraham is is given the gift to be the heir of the world magnificent and like how do you have that conversation with someone

15:58 like yes I recognize I'm a nomad with some sheep and I can like will some stuff cool you're going to be heir of the world like which land is yours oh I actually like I've been walking around here setting up my tent which is really cool and I had a conversation with God at the oaks of Marm maybe you heard of him or saw my altar there but I don't own any property yet oh cool cool how many children like you're going to be you're going to be a blessing to the world right I'm 90 and I

16:33 don't have any kids but I am the heir of the world all the world will be blessed through me so you can see how Paul goes on for the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be the heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith meaning he didn't work his way into it God picked him we said last week we don't know why God made the world it doesn't tell us except for that he must have wanted to and we don't know why he picked Abraham doesn't tell us except for that he must have wanted to it wasn't by works or merit that Abraham got to

17:09 be the heir of the world it was like the prerogative of God that selected Abraham this is how the God of creation and life this is how the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob works this is the God of how this is how the God of Christ and the church works he picks up his own prerogative and then gives not by law but by faith right for verse 14 for it is the adherence of the law who are to be heirs for if it is the adherence of the law who are to be heirs faith is null and

17:43 the promise is void for the law brings wrath where there is no law there is no transgression Paul spends this out of several other places but what he means to say is if you draw a line and say on this side of it is bad and this side of it is good it is inherent you will cross the line by by bringing out a law you make all of us sinners he's like what the law does is it makes us all failures this is what the law does right and that's okay because we haven't said the gospel

18:15 faith we get faith not by law but by righteousness by faith I mean we get righteousness not by law but by faith verse 16 that's why it depends on faith he said in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all as it is written I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the god in whom he believed who gives life to the dead

18:53 and calls into existence things that do not exist the god of creation and life makes a promise to Abraham and because it's Abraham's by faith then all those who by the same faith believe become recipients of the same promise this means you all are the heirs of the world I don't know how much property you have Dr. Sutton I are scheming on some property in North

19:27 Carolina one day before we die in the mountains but it's a long and complex plan I got a little spot a land on the south side I don't know maybe a quarter of an acre it has the nice ferns on it and my house a pool that is sometimes nice and sometimes the banging of my existence most people looking at my possessions would not call me the heir of the world the heir of the world

20:02 how about you the heir of the world this is one of my favorite lines the ESV transcends it a little weird but you still get it chapter four of Romans verse 18 talking about Abraham in hope he believed against hope that he would become the father of many nations as he had been told so shall your offspring grieve the way I

20:36 had memorized it was against all hope in hope Abraham believed it is absurd for nomad Abraham with no land and no children to believe that he will be the heir of the world that he will inherit all the earth and through him everyone will be blessed it is absurd it is it is absurd to hope in it and yet against all hope in hope Abraham believed and the same invitation you have the

21:08 capacity for the same kind of faith I mean to believe something absurdist something no one would have the audacity to hope in you can actually hope in you are heirs of Abraham you have the capacity to believe that you also will be heirs of the world it sounds absurd and yet children of Abraham this is what this is the god of Abraham he

21:48 what does it say he who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that not exist the god of creation and life chooses of God's own prerogative to also be the god of Abraham which means that you all are heirs of the promise and he that god the god of creation and life calls things into existence and brings the dead to life he can make you heirs of the world and life

22:23 forever of course Abraham had to be reminded of the promise at the oak of the thing the oaks of marm by lake by rivers walking in the cool of the evening waking up early in the morning Abraham had to be reminded of the promise because it is absurd against all hope in hope he believed and if you and I would learn anything from Abraham we'd be near to the god who will remind us as

22:53 many times as we needed that we are children of the promise that the god of Abraham is the god of us that the god of creation and life uses his power to call things into existence in order to call us into existence uses his power to bring dead things to life in order to bring us to life because he wants to give us the world he has prepared a future for us that is unending and all the circumstances of our life say that is absurdist we'll need to be close to god and reminded all the time

23:30 if we will persevere in faith like father Abraham look with me at one more passage in genesis genesis chapter 25 I think that's where it is Genesis chapter 25

24:02 let's see where we should start oh here verse seven Genesis chapter 25 verse seven these are the days of the years of Abraham's life 175 years that's a long time ask me at another time my thought on why people live so long in the

24:37 book of Genesis I have an idea but it's not for the pulpit Michael James it's for a side conversation these are the days of the years of Abraham's life 175 years Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age an old man full of years and was gathered to his people doesn't that sound lovely Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age an old man full of

25:18 years and was gathered to his people I like this next verse Isaac and Ishmael his sons remember that Ishmael had the like unfortunate circumstance of being born of Hagar whom Sarah I got jealous of and didn't like and so he and Hagar were dispatched out into the desert to make their own way God ends up providing for them and they grow into a nation you can read about the

25:49 generations here following but I like that Ishmael came back and together with Isaac Abraham's two sons if you remember in the promise he is told you will have as many children as there are dust in the earth stars in the sky stand on the seashore if you can count that you can count how many kids you'll have Abraham dies at a good old age with his family gathered about him with

26:21 two kids one that he counts right one that gets the promise two kids and Isaac is male his sons buried him in the cave of Macpella in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the hit height east of Marm remember the oaks of Marm the field that Abraham purchased from the hit types we do this research a little bit one I love that they called the cave Macpella

26:56 and one of my life goals will be now to see the cave of Macpella I don't think we know which one it is unfortunately it would be very cool if we knew though there would probably be big shrines around it what I'd like is just to wander east of Marm find a cave and call it the cave of Macpella right but when you do some research in the story on the cave of Macpella you find that when Sarah died Abram goes near where they originally set their tent just east of Marm where he built the

27:29 altar for the for the oaks of Marm and he goes to ask the hitites who actually own land Abram when Sarah dies doesn't own any land though he's the inheritor of the earth right he goes to the hey let me have some land where I can bury my wife and they're like sure man Barry I'm very heard any one of our tombs we think you're great and you're a prophet of God go ahead and he's like

27:59 no I'd like to buy it they're like we wouldn't dream of selling you anything just take it he's like no I wouldn't really like to purchase it and scholars debate this may just be a really this may just be the way that they negotiated oh we wouldn't consider it we wouldn't even think of selling you something for four thousand dollars you know like that but what you see when he's when he's burying Sarah is he goes out of his way to own a piece of land in the place where God

28:33 promised him he would have land and he has the two sons and so when he gets buried in the cave of Macpella the cave of Macpella is all Abram owns of the whole world which he was promised and I love the image of Abram having prepared believing that God would make good on a promise that not even death with hope so he is buried in the little to use a church word for taste of the

29:09 fulfillment the little appetizer of the promise he buries himself into the hope that the God of creation and life the one who brings dead things to life and calls things to existence will yet in the face of death against all hope in hope make good on his promise that Abram will be the blessing to the world inheritor of the earth the fact that we call the God of creation life

29:40 fact that the God of creation and life the God of Christ in the church is also the God of Abram should give us hope that the promises that God makes to us that he needs to remind us of over and over again that we believe sometimes and then demonstrate complete lack of faith in in other times those promises that those promises God will make good on for us not even death will stop him

30:14 of course Abram is is there he is the the father of nations Paul lays it out for us in the whole book of Romans that you and I are children of Abraham that Christ comes from his line and makes a blessing for the whole world that the meek will inherit the earth that new heavens and new earth come down for Abraham and all his kids I think it would be really cool I don't know quite the

30:48 mechanics of the resurrection of the dead but I think it would be really cool if we all get to stand outside the cave of McPella when Jesus calls Abram back up out of the grave and he gets to come and see all his family his generations assembled and walk into the earth he inherits God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob got a creation in life the God of Christ in the church this

31:20 is to see and I'm hoping we can be people who remember that we are followers of not just any God but the specific God we got a creation in life we got of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of Christ in the church let me pray hey Lord thank you for the testimony of Abraham and Sarah Isaac and Ishmael and Hagar thank you for what you did in that generation Lord and that that you made sure it got written

31:55 down that we would be able to learn about who you are from these people and what you did for them do the same for us Lord make clear your promises to us and remind us of them combat our lack of faith with the gift of faith and Lord make good on every promise to us that we would

32:26 go into the grave like Abram full of faith into Jesus name you pray