Alston Road Church of Christ Podcast

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Many of us have suffered in the past couple years. The pandemic, physical and mental health, economic struggles, marriage and family strife, persecution, friends abandoning us, and more. In these times we want to know what the Scriptures say to us. How ought we to think of these various trials? How can we endure? What are they for?

The hearers of Hebrews knew suffering and they were at a crossroads. Years ago when they began to follow Jesus they suffered great losses. They were publicly criticized and afflicted. Some were thrown in prison, but these Christians took on their shame and showed compassion to them. Their property had been plundered, but they joyfully accepted this knowing they had a better possession waiting for them. The fruit of their transformation had been evident.

But now, it appears decades have passed and they continued to bear the shame of following Jesus. They were now in danger of becoming like the Israelites who left Egypt and struggled to endure in the desert on the way to the promised land. Their hope and energy began to fade. They became sluggish, distracted, and dull of hearing. Rest in the heavenly promised land was hard to see. Was it really worth it? Like Israel in the past, the pleasures of Egypt in their old life behind them was appealing. The danger of their apathy becoming bitterness and unbelief was serious. How could they avoid falling in the wilderness like those who left Egypt and persevere to the end? How can we endure through various trials God brings our way? Let's consider two exhortations from Hebrews 12:1-11.

1. Consider Jesus (12:1-4)

Verse 2: “For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” We often emphasize the pain of the cross, but Scripture emphasizes the shame of the cross. It was painful, but it was also humiliating and embarrassing. He was seen as a fraud and lawbreaker. There is a certain amount of comfort if it is clear to us and to everyone else that we are suffering in our righteousness. But for Jesus, that was not evident. Everyone thought he was getting justice. And yet Jesus was able to despise that shame. Why? The joy before him and the throne. He knew the only way to joyful throne was the shameful cross.

The problem with our suffering is that it can feel very random, chaotic, and meaningless. Like being lost in a storm at sea, you feel it may never end. But stories of other’s suffering can really nourish us. They suddenly give us a compass — clarifying and organizing our sense of the chaos. We suddenly see, “Oh, this is where we are. This is where we’re going. We can do this.” Now, it requires the right kind of story. You won’t be helped if you’re climbing Mount Everest and I tell you about the time I climbed Enchanted Rock. But if I tell you I have also climbed Mount Everest and how I endured though the conditions were very rough, you’ll gain strength.

Jesus’ story is that kind of story. It’s a little hard because we’re at the end of a letter, but the point is that we can look to the same thing — the joy and the throne — we are on the same difficult trek up Mount Everest — or rather, up to reign with Jesus in the heavenly Jerusalem. Earlier in Hebrews 2 the writer spoke of how Jesus is not merely being glorified to the throne by himself — he’s leading many sons to glory. Notice Hebrews 2:9-10. When we see the word “glory” we may think of brilliance, but here and many other places “glory” refers to an exalted status. Just before this he quoted Psalm 8 which praises God for setting lowly humans over all the works of his hands. Here he points to Jesus as the first human who has been exalted to this status. The first. He’s bringing many sons to glory. He’s the pioneer, leader, trail-blazer of our salvation. And salvation here is not only about the sin and death we’ve been saved from, but the joy and the throne we’re being saved to.

The point is this: the Scriptures always promised that God’s chosen humans — not angels — would reign over the future world with him — but stories, prophecies, and Psalms in the Scriptures always demonstrated that suffering came before that glorified status. Think of Joseph, David, and others — suffering was their path to glory. We are to consider Jesus because he has pioneered and perfected this path of faith in suffering to glory that we are on.

And back in Hebrews 12, notice verse 4: Jesus shed blood and was killed on the path to the joyful throne, but these Christians, despite all they’d been through, they hadn’t even endured that. Note that persecution can at times be more social and economic than it is violent. This is not to diminish their pain but to say I know how bad it is, but take courage because he too has walked the Way to reign on Mount Zion in even worse conditions than ours and he was able to endure and despise the shame — the embarrassment of appearing like a sinner abandoned by God — by looking to the same joy and throne we have to look forward to.

Christians, in our suffering, let’s consider Jesus who is seated at the right hand of God. We may appear to the world like outcasts, but so was he. Friends may leave us, but they did with him. Our health, family, or economic situation may make it feel as though we are abandoned by God, but he suffered that pain too. Suffering and self-sacrifice is the Way to reigning atop the heavenly Jerusalem in the future world, it is the way to glory. Joseph had to be falsely accused and sit in a prison before reigning over Egypt. David had to flee Saul’s attacks in exile before taking the throne. Jesus had to go to the cross to have the crown. And we must too. “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”  (Rev. 3:21 ESV) Despise whatever cold winds that blow on the path — the nails and the naked shame — they are vehicles to the throne. There are brighter days ahead. Joy will come one day. We will dwell in the house of the Lord, but we must walk with Jesus through the valley of the shadow of death.

2. Receive the Father’s Discipline (12:5-11)

He refers to their suffering as the discipline of the Lord. He says God is treating us as sons and that he disciplines the one he loves! I read that and I think this cannot be so. He disciplines those he hates, right? No, it’s discipline. And, one challenge here is I read that word “discipline” and I immediately think “spanking.” But that’s not the point here, and that actually reveals my inexperience as a parent. Spanking may be one tool a father uses to discipline a child, but it the idea of discipline is much larger — it’s the practice of training our children to do what is right, not only spanking them when they do disobey.

In fact, here, there is no mention of disobedience at all. Don’t get me wrong — God could punish us because he loves us for our good. But this is not punishment. This is — as verse 11 says — training to bear righteous fruit. As David pointed out Wednesday, this is one learning we can gather from Job. He did not suffer because of any unrighteousness; God emphasizes that he’s blameless. And yet, towards the end of the book, it is apparent that the suffering was an opportunity for Job to be perfected still more. And the same is true with Jesus, though he was sinless, he learned obedience by what he suffered. As John rightly reminds us: there’s more to perfection than being sinless.

Here’s the point. We may often wonder why we have to endure the difficulty, and in verse 7 the writer says why: it is for discipline. Ashley and I have joked a number of times when we have encountered various difficulties — “Alright God, we remembered to pray to you when suffered, we know you’re the great sustainer, so we’ve been tested and learned our lesson. You can take it away now.” But this is immature thinking: God is disciplining and training us, and this is not merely a lesson we can learn in our brains by reading, this is training we can only have by walking through the valley of the shadow of death. It is for discipline that we must endure.

Kids, I wish I would have understood this earlier in life. Our parents and our heavenly Father are trying to do a lot more than correct us from evil. They’re trying to perfect us in the way of knowledge and wisdom and righteousness. They don’t want us to merely be able to walk without falling, they want us to be able to run and win the race. And parents, that brings out another difficult thing that even we have to learn: there is only so much we can teach them with words, God will ensure they walk through seasons of grief because learning and discipline is more than oral, it’s walked and lived. If you have ever wondered with me,“Why don’t you take it away? Why must we endure?” The reply here is: for discipline.

Now, we might think, “You know, I was just fine before, what’s the worst that could happen if I didn’t have to suffer this?” And he gives two answers.

#1 Verse 8: if we aren’t disciplined, we are illegitimate children, not sons and daughters. I don’t train the kids across the street because they aren’t mine. If you have time later, read Hebrews 1  and Romans 8 and notice how significant it is to be called God’s Son and sons. I often read about being God’s son as a term of endearment — and it absolutely is. But in Scripture the Son and sons of God are those who reign with God because, when you are the son of a king, you will get the crown. Suffering discipline is again not the sign God is ready to banish us to the dust, it is the sign that we are his children and he’s preparing us for the throne.

#2 Verses 10-11: if we aren’t disciplined, we won’t share in his holiness and we won’t have a yield of the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Who wants to merely be sinless, we all want to be very fruitful for God. Robyn has reminded us often recently that there is simply no real growth without real difficulty and pain. As Jesus looked to the other joy and the throne before him in order to despise the shame and endure hostility, we need to look to the fruit that will be born. We’ll be more loving, joyous, good, kind, self-controlled people because of this.

This is why it was fitting that God made Jesus the pioneer of our salvation perfect through suffering. He’s travelled the difficult Way to perfection, to sonship, to the throne on the heavenly Jerusalem. The meek will inherit the earth, but we have to be the blessed who suffer persecution if we are going to become the meek who receive this heavenly reward.

If you are tired and feeling that if God were present it wouldn’t be so unpleasant, remember verse 11. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. It feels messed up, but if it’s painful, that’s our sign that God is present to train us. Let’s be patient: later discipline yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. It takes time. Dig in and accept suffering. We’ll see the good later.

Two Concluding Reminders

1. When you suffer, let the witnesses remind you of our reward. Not only will we see fruit later, we’ll also receive a reward later. As John has been preaching, many witnesses surround us to testify to the importance of faith in suffering. They did not have it easy. All of them at one point could not see and did not know where help would come from and they had to look to the heavenly city they could not see. Some suffered sword and flame, some were tortured and refused to accept release. And as we will soon sing, we know now from Revelation that they stand around the throne and shout joyfully about the victory of the Lamb. They witness to us that faith through the suffering is worth it. They already reign now — that’s why when you go into ancient churches they are painted all over the ceiling — and one day they and we will be raised to reign in an even fuller way.

2. When you suffer, see the Supper as an opportunity to receive nourishment. Jesus suffered in part to identify with us in our suffering. When we suffer, this is the perfect opportunity to stand with him at the cross identify with him — consider Jesus and how we share in his sufferings. And the Lord’s Supper is a great time to reflect in that way and to be nourished as we receive the body and blood of the Lord. We eat his body and blood on the first day of the week — the day he rose — reminding us that the place of his suffering was also the place of his victory. The cross and the empty grave go together.  As we eat in faith Jesus reminds us that he abides in us and we in him — and we are strengthened. He suffered and endured and, no matter how bleak it appears, his power  and presence will sustain us to the end.

God himself received discipline from God. It was unpleasant, yet he despised the shame and see the fruit! Consider Jesus, our many witnesses to faith, and endure the Father’s discipline.

Series: Running With Giants

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

The Scripture reading is from John 11:38-53.

I’ll never forget this Babylon Bee article I saw a few years ago: “Man Bravely Abandons Unpopular Christian Belief to Affirm Extremely Popular Cultural Belief.”

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PORTLAND, OR - Local Christian blogger Jonathan Pennington is being called a hero by progressive theologians after he courageously abandoned an extremely unpopular Christian teaching in order to instead affirm a very popular belief held in wider secular culture, sources confirmed Wednesday.

"I know this is going to get me a lot of praise from secular culture, but I have to do it anyway because my conscience compels me," Pennington wrote on his Patheos blog. "There is always a cost to following your heart, and in my case it happens to be a net gain in terms of fame, fortune, and worldly influence."

Pennington further stated he refused to accept traditional teaching on the topic, wanting to find out for himself what the Bible said about the issue, and after careful study concluded the exact same thing that every other ex-evangelical did about the topic at hand.

"We aren't cogs in a machine. We have to go find out for ourselves what Jesus actually taught," the man who now agrees with the majority of unbelievers on the issue wrote.

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When I was preparing for the 1st Peter living in exile series at the beginning of 2019, I found one commentary asked a relevant question. How can a letter encouraging socially alienated Christians to stay the course speak to us in a day when we rarely experience social alienation for loyalty to Jesus? (Jobes) I thought, “Good point. I need consider how to show Peter’s relevance by preparing the church for the social alienation will likely come some day.” At some point in the middle of the series it dawned on me: it just happened, we’re at the beginning of it right now. Dad told me two members in his church from two different companies — a truck driver and a realtor — were nearly fired last month because they respectfully declined to support the LGBTQ+ cause. Not because they were disrespectful, but because they wouldn’t praise it —  just sign right here, just put this badge on your business, just burn a little incense, say “Caesar is Lord,” bow when the music plays, turn a blind eye to injustice, put your hand on your heart: Satan is always finding new ways to co-opt our loves and loyalties.

And as this Babylon Bee article satirically demonstrates, in these times it is not terribly difficult to find the truth, but it can be challenging to faithfully love, believe, and confess it. Pressure is mounting. People are deconstructing their ancient faith — sometimes appropriately leaving Americanism and other cultural baggage behind, but quite often radically redefining Jesus, the apostles, and the church on society’s terms, or leaving them behind altogether. And the result is not a more ordered, loving, holy, truthful, grounded, and fruitful Christian or church, the result is Christians akin to Jello waiting for a mold — the fruit is sour and the roots are failing. As Paul warns in 2 Timothy 3:6-7, we can become “burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning (and deconstructing) and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”

How can we continue enduring, confessing, believing, loving, and living in the truth as the church should? The Gospel of John is written so that [we] may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But what makes up a faith that confesses in such hostile environments? Last week we asked: is it all about our minds or our hearts? What we know or what we love? And I think the Scripture says they are both very important. When we looked at Matthew 13 last month we noted troubling anti-intellectualism pervasive in churches: those who understand the word are fruitful. Knowledge is vital because we don’t want to be — Ephesians 4:14 — infants blown here and there by every wind of teaching. But last week we focused on the importance of love. We don’t simply need to know to believe and endure, we also need to love. In fact, if we know and don’t love, we won’t do anything.

We’re talking today about loving, believing, and confessing the truth from the Gospel of John. More than the other gospels, John is focused on the difficulty of loving, believing, and confessing the truth in hostility. With every word he writes you can almost see John watching you to see how you will take it all in.

But, as we’ve said, we need to have proper love in order to believe and confess the truth. We can see this demonstrated at the end of John 11. This crowd has just watched Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead. Many of them see and believe, but in verse 46 some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. And throughout the ensuing conversation there is no question about what has happened or about what they know. For them, Jesus has opened the eyes of the blind man and raised Lazarus from the dead and that’s a problem to be dealt with or else — verse 48 — everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. And so Caiaphas says the plan of action is self-evident: one man should die for the people. So, verse 53, they made plans to put him to death.

How can they see Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead and logically conclude they need to kill both Jesus and Lazarus (12:10)? How can they see and know so much and yet not confess and get their lives on board with it? Notice 12:36-43. A lot here we can’t talk about — John saying that Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus and spoke of him — but note two things. First, some see so many signs and do not believe, just like those in Isaiah’s day. Second, many did believe in him, but they did not confess it and remained effectively unbelievers. Why? God has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts. It is similar to many issues plaguing the church today: here, the truth about Jesus is painstakingly clear, but they don’t confess because they fear the Pharisees and being put out of the synagogue. They don’t believe because they love. The question is not whether we will worship or love, we all worship and love. Our hearts are entranced by something. And for them something very clear is suddenly very cloudy because they love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Note that it’s not that they hated the glory that comes from God. It’s that they loved the glory from man more. And that’s a shame because what glory, status, position, and power can people give us?! And at that point what can God do? All he can do is put the full power and glory of Jesus on display and hope they’ll wake up… but instead he only hardens them, further solidifies their love of the glory from man.

Is that ever a fear for us? Being looked at differently? As backwater? Not being in the in-crowd? People mocking us? Being cancelled? Blocked? John carefully shows us what’s really going on. The people we fear are actually the people we love. We fear them more than God because we love them more than God, and we love them more than God because whether we think it our not, in our gut we feel the weight of the glory man gives more than the glory God gives.

But those Pharisees who they felt in their guts were better to be feared, who are they today? They didn’t last. And what will come of those we might fear? Walk, stand, sit around with the wicked and you’ll be like chaff in the wind.

Often we believe or fail to believe simply because of what we love — what we want to believe. In a sense, we believe what we want — love — to believe. If you stand up here teach something I have not heard before I will almost always choose to believe you or not believe you based on whether what you teach appeals to what I love. Whether something is true or not, we believe and get on board with who we love and what we love. And depending on where our loves are aimed, that can either benefit us or destroy us. Our loves either clarify or blur our vision. And here, the position of the authorities does it. And for us, our wealth and position in society can be a serious hinderance — whether much or little, we often love what we have. The real question is what do we have? What do we love? What do we love more?

Don’t answer too quickly. I heard of an old movie where a mysterious guide promises a couple of people that he can take them to a room where they will receive whatever they truly want, love. So they travel with the guide to this room, but as they are getting closer and closer they begin to slow down and question whether they are really making the right decision. The room will give them what they truly love, not what they think they love. And they start to realize that maybe they aren’t so sure what they love, and maybe what they truly love isn’t truly good. What do we truly love more? As Jesus says in Matthew 7, on the last day many will be surprised saying, “Lord, Lord.”

So, if we are what we love and we may not love what we think, what determines our loves? John 3 offers an account of a Pharisee who is on the fence about Jesus — Nicodemus. Notice John 3:2. Notice that he knows Jesus is a teacher come from God. He’s seen the signs and is convinced. All good right? Note that he comes to Jesus by night. Later John will remind us of that in chapter 19 and associate Nicodemus with Joseph of Arimathea — a secret believer in Jesus. John isn’t tossing out random history — he’s telling us something about Nicodemus. Nicodemus knows Jesus is significant, but at this point he is too ashamed to confess it publicly.

Why is this man so torn and embattled? Notice where this conversation goes in John 3:16-21. The Son did not come the first time to condemn the world because the world was already condemned — he came to save it. And whoever believes can be saved, but the judgment is plain in verse 19: people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. If we stay hidden as secret believers who will not confess the truth openly — why is that? Why do we love the darkness? Our works are evil. We fall in love with what we do. If we did what was true, we’d come to the light to make it plain that we’re on God’s side. We only remain hidden, avoid confessing plainly, and come under the cover of night because in our guts we love the nuanced obscurity of darkness. We don’t want to look pitiful thronging at Jesus with the masses during the day.

I think this is the message to Nicodemus: despite what you know, you’re here secretly because you love the darkness, and you love the darkness because your works are evil. You are snake-bitten and dead in the wilderness like the Israelites, desperately needing to be reborn of Spirit and water, and you need to look up to God’s only Son in faith if you want to have eternal life. You’re going to have to come in the plain daylight.

Nicodemus makes a big step in that direction at the end of John 7 when he’s with the Pharisees who are mocking Jesus and the crowds who believe in him. He stands up in that unpopular moment around all the unbelievers and asks: John 7:51–52 ESV, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They mocked him in reply: “Are you from Galilee too?” Are you one of those uneducated, backwater believers? And when Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea came out of hiding to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus, and Nicodemus also, this secret believer, took on the shame of being associated with Jesus in his most unpopular hour — he brought ointments and helped bury his body.

This is the kind of work of faith that helps move our conflicted minds, bodies, and loves completely on board with Jesus: publicly confess he is Lord, bar none, naked on the cross, unpopular teachings, unpopular apostles, his unpopular body the church, and all. Get in the open where we’ve played the nuanced, political card and confess him — stand by him at the cross not caring that there will be no applause, only ridicule.

And it is seeing Jesus in that vulnerable position that leads us to that faith. He was mocked, beaten, stripped, and crucified. God loved the world this much that he did not stay in heaven but took on our shame, embarrassment, and sin naked on the cross. Will we dare return the favor by looking the other way? By bravely abandoning unpopular Christian beliefs to affirm extremely popular cultural ones? How could we?

Peter did. In Jesus’ dark hour he denied he knew the Lord three times. But that wasn’t the end of his story. Jesus asked him three times: Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? and gave him three painful opportunities to say, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” If you have strayed, denied him, and distorted his teachings — about sexuality, money, or his Lordship — recognize that he will deny us when he comes with his holy angels if we remain like this. But that doesn’t have to be the last word. We can try again like Joseph, Nicodemus, and Peter.

Conclusion

Prov. 4:23 NIV, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” How do we do that? Here we are told to listen carefully to what our parents tell us. So learning is important. But that’s not all. He also warns: careful what you say, careful where you look, careful where you go, careful who you walk and talk with. What we do flows from our hearts. But what we do flows to our hearts too — people loved the darkness because their works were evil. It’s similar Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:21 — where your treasure — accumulation — is, there your heart will be also. Careful what you do, careful where you go, careful who your friends are, they’ll capture our loves.

Our regular routine manner of living has to change. The treasures and habits we accumulate, treasure must change. We have to stop going to the same places, walking with the same friends, following the same accounts, and listening to the same music. Our Friday nights have to change, our morning ritual, mealtime ritual, and nighttimes ritual must change. What we do on Sundays and Wednesdays must change. Apps must be deleted. Clothes need to be gotten rid off. Some books and movies must be destroyed. The Christians in Ephesus knew this — burned massive, massive fortunes when they burned those magic books. I recall on year at a Christian camp a number of young men were convicted, so they threw all their music CDs in a pond somewhere. Why would they do something like that? Why do we have to put off our entire former manner of life? Because those habits, rituals, and practices capture our hearts. If we are honest those rituals at the salon, before the mirror, at the mall, in the clothing racks, on clothing websites, getting product emails, flipping through Instagram, checking our messages — they affect what we love more than we think. Those habits of game and show watching, video game playing, bank and stock market checking, news-watching, and score-checking change who we are. The music we listen to, the pictures we see, videos we watch, the places we go, the people we are with, the magazines we flip through — they change us. Because of one touch of the unclean thing? Of course not, but from repeated reception of habits we fail to see as formative. We do because we desire, and the more we do, the more we love.

Why did “Jonathan Pennington” bravely affirm extremely popular cultural beliefs? He spent too much time liking and receiving the likes of people.

Daniel is amazing. When God’s promises appeared to not be coming through like they ought, he didn’t throw in the towel. He got on his knees and earnestly begged God to act. The response? I know you’ve waited in exile for 70 years like I promised, but really, it’s going to be seventy more “weeks.” Daniel was very, very disoriented. But he kept fasting and praying and confessing the truth with his friends through fire and lion’s den and delayed promises. We all want to be like that — faithfully enduring, praying, and confessing even when we’re disoriented. But how did Daniel become like that? The practices in Daniel 6 show us — he prayed three times a day even if it was unsafe and illegal. As we discussed last week, these rituals and habits are so important — repetition isn’t mindless, its disciplined! And these disciplines train our wandering guts and hearts and bodies to keep getting on our knees, keep confessing, keep loving, keep serving, keep hoping in God even when it is hard.

We must believe the truth in order to endure stable and fruitful to the end. But we must love the truth and the glory that comes from God if we are going to believe it and confess it, and if we are going to love the truth and glory that comes from God we need to do, practice what is true.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Series: Running With Giants

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

The other day I was trying to snuggle Judith to sleep in our dark room, but she wouldn’t go down. She was screaming, so I brought her out to Ashley in the living room. When I opened the door  — light! She threw her head back wondering what just happened. Light really doesn’t seem like that big of a deal unless you have just come out of darkness. John has helped us see the importance of Noah’s faith, and I want to further bring Noah’s faith into focus by looking at what everyone else was doing before the flood. When we see what unbelief looks like, the path of faith can become clearer.

When people multiply in the Bible, there are a couple things we need to pay attention to. From the perspective of the creation story in Genesis 1, we need to ask — are they filling the earth with fruitfulness and the image of God, or with violence and manmade images? From the perspective of Abraham’s story we need to ask — are they a blessing or a curse to the nations? And from the perspective of Genesis 3 we need to ask — what’s happening between the offspring of woman and the offspring of the snake?

You remember the curse on the snake. The snake, the woman, and their offspring will be enemies. The offspring of the woman will crush the head of the snake, but the snake and his offspring will attack the woman and her offspring. Note: the offspring of woman will crush Satan. We are to mark out everywhere that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that fills it” (Ps. 24:1), so we raise children to fill the world with God’s image, to be a blessing to the nations, and to battle the snake and his offspring. Jesus is the first offspring of woman to perfectly image God, become a blessing, and defeat Satan, but now he empowers us to join the fight. This is why Paul says in Romans, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (16:20). This is likely why Paul says in 1 Timothy that women are saved through childbearing: with God’s help, ladies, you may raise up little snake-crushers like Jesus the snake-crusher.

But Cain — the first offspring of woman — was mastered by the snake and sin: he killed Abel. And the snake’s wicked offspring multiplied through Cain and his children. It’s what we all dread — our children not just being tripped up by sin, but becoming children of the devil themselves. After Abel, God gave Seth through whom righteous offspring could come. In Genesis 5, however, when Seth’s offspring increases on the earth, the text keeps emphasizing that they are all dying  — except for Enoch. But, finally, Lamech’s wife bears a son and they name him Noah, which sounds like the Hebrew word for rest: maybe this one will bring rest from our painful toil. Maybe he’ll crush the snake and end the curse.

But when Genesis 6 opens, it appears the snake’s offspring has joined up with women to multiply snakes in the world. The formula here is linguistically similar to Genesis 3 and other infamous sins throughout Scripture. Eve saw the fruit looked attractive and she took it. Achan saw the attractive cloak and took it. David saw an attractive woman bathing and he took her. And here, the sons of God saw the daughters of man were attractive and they took as wives any they chose.

This passage is infamously challenging to interpret. There are two main views. First, the Sethite view — promoted by later church fathers like Augustine — believes God prohibited Seth’s righteous offspring from intermarrying with Cain’s wicked offspring. But Seth’s offspring — the sons of God — married the daughters of Cain anyway — polluting the righteous line. Second is the Angelic view — taken by the Jews in Jesus’ day, potentially by Peter (1 Pet. 3:18-20; 2 Pet. 2:4-5, 10) and Jude (vs. 6-7), and by early church fathers. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, “sons of God” always refers to angelic, spiritual beings (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; “sons of the Most High” Ps. 82:6). As Jesus later states, angels are not supposed marry (Lk. 20:34-36), but these angels are bad boys: as Jude potentially puts it, they leave their proper dwelling to pursue unnatural sexual desire like Sodom. And the result of these marriages between angels and women are these “Nephilim” — fallen ones — mighty men of mythical proportions. The daughters of men receive these sons of God because they want prodigious, immortal, godlike offspring. This would match with Genesis 3 and 11: “You will be like God…” and “Let us make a name for ourselves.”

So, either righteous Sethite “sons of God” marry the wicked daughters of Cain, or, the angelic “sons of God” leave their proper dwelling to pursue unnatural desire with the daughters of men. Good Bible students stand on both sides of this question, though I do prefer the angelic view. Though this view may seem odd to us, it is the majority view among scholars and if you read much ancient literature you will find this stuff talked about all over the place. Either way, God is displeased with their actions. And, whether he is speaking about the lives of individuals or the time until the flood, God declares a limit to their days: 120 years. In the angelic view, this is the justice mankind deserves for grasping after godlike might and immortality.

People are supposed to raise up righteous offspring to crush the works of Satan and fill the earth with with God’s image, but both views see that nobody is respecting that. Potentially, they are multiplying with demons and the result is catastrophic. In Genesis 1, God saw that his creation was good, but now he sees that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and that the earth was corrupt and filled  — not with his image and fruitfulness — but with violence. The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. Children rarely realize how much joy and pain they can bring their parents, and I think we too can underestimate the joy and grief we bring to God. God made the world for serious purposes, God loves the people and animals he has made, but he determines that he will destroy it all.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. In a corrupt generation, Noah was righteous, blameless, and walked with the Lord. And because of this, the Lord honors Noah above all people by communicating his plan to him. He tells him three things. First, build a monstrous ark. Second, everything will die, but I’ll keep my covenant with you and preserve you and your family. Third, Noah is to bring two of every kind of animal, male and female, onto the boat to keep them alive. Noah is a second Adam. God brought the animals to Adam to be named, now God will bring the animals to Noah to be saved. And here we have a very good statement: though everyone else is breaking God’s heart with their wickedness, Noah “did all that God had commanded him.”

How all does God intend for this text to speak to us today?

1. God doesn’t grade on a curve. (Credit to Travis Wise) We might think it was all inevitable. God was always going to destroy everyone except for the top 8 in the class. But the text is clear here: the flood came upon the world because their works were wicked, and Noah was rescued because he was righteous, blameless, and walked with God. Noah was not the least unrighteous person and God had to rescue someone. Certainly, Noah was not perfect — he was an heir of righteousness by faith (Heb. 11:7), but that was a righteousness that played out in his life. God did not owe Noah a spot on the boat, but it was fitting that it was to Noah that God showed favor.

When the world goes darker, we need to be sure that we shine brighter. We should not compare ourselves to the world and think, “I’m doing better than them, so God will rescue me.” We are not judged by the world but by God’s righteous standard set forth in Jesus. There are absolutely ways we need to improve our understanding of God’s grace. But we must also see that grace is intended to transform us into people who increasingly fit the gift God gives us. God wills that on the final day, he will have transformed us into people who are not only forgiven, but indeed righteous. God does not grade on a curve, so let’s compare ourselves to Jesus God’s true image, not the world.

2. Sin seems to begin “innocently,” but its end is hell. How did the world come to this place where the earth was continually full of violence and evil thoughts? So often it starts with wrongly placed sexual desire and marriages that shouldn't be happening at all. Esau married a woman of Canaan an an Ishmaelite, David took Bathsheba, Israel and Solomon married idolatrous women -- and in every case it was the beginning of sinful chaos. Here, the end starts with the marriage of the sons of God and the daughters of man; and in Genesis 9 the flood story is bookended with more shameful sexuality which demonstrates the beginning of the end for the Canaanites.

The end of sin is every thought of your heart bent on evil and violence — and not one of us thinks “that’ll be me, but the beginning of sin always starts with that naive innocence: good fruit to make you wise, an attractive woman, a godlike man, love that makes me happy. But when the earth was full of violence and when people were running from the flood and screaming for their lives, suddenly, no matter how “natural” the attraction seemed between the sons of God and daughters of man, those weddings didn’t seem so sweet anymore, did they? Sin and worldly versions of love may often seem sweet until we see the end of it.

Our world is bent on making every form of sin and sexual desire out to be innocent. They crossed crazy lines in Noah’s day well before we did, but take note that it ended with a world filled with corruption, violent streets, and families that could not sleep at night. May we not be deceived by sin’s seeming innocence, and may we not be surprised when our world reaps the whirlwind.

3. Be satisfied with the position God has put you in. Adam and Eve took the fruit to become like God, the people of Babel built a tower into the heavens to make a name for themselves (not God), and the sons of God left their proper dwelling to take women for themselves. The sons of God weren’t satisfied reigning in heaven, and the daughters of men weren’t content ruling on the earth.

We’re always tempted by greener grass on the other side. A better husband or wife, better kids, better job, better situation. And it feels like it’s for good reason. We can look at our situation and be frustrated: really, God? You couldn’t have given me a spouse like that, kids like them, a job like he or she has, house and health that is better than this? It is truly difficult to be content with what we have, isn’t it? We rightly note that people need to be content to marry the right sorts of people and be content in the body God has given them, but we need to be sure we are content with our position and the place God has put us in as well. We don’t want to become accidental Pharisees condemning the sons of God, homosexual marriage, transitioning your body, all the while not being content in our position, marriage, family.

4. Trust God’s coming salvation, not man’s line-blurring solutions. It is difficult to trust God in the unknown. In Genesis 5 we learn that everyone is dying. Death is a very hard thing to accept — then and today. And while it seems strange to us, there was this common belief in the ancient world that people and spiritual beings could produce mighty, death-defying offspring together. When you’re all powerless over death, how tempting would it be to attempt to seize power and eternal life for your family by marrying a son of God?

I’ll never forget the one time in Junior High when I tried to cheat on a quiz. I wasn’t ready for Pythagorean triangles in Geometry class, so I wrote down the answers of the guy next to me. When I got the quiz back, I discovered my teacher had given us different quizzes.

Cheating seems like a magic bullet in the moment, but it never pays in the long-run. Enoch and Noah escaped death not because they or their mothers consorted with demons but because they walked with and obeyed God. That kind of countercultural faith doesn’t just happen. While women are popping out mighty Nephilim to secure themselves in a corrupt, violent world, Noah is building a boat and trusting God’s covenant to keep them safe. That’s a lot of eggs to put in a tar-covered boat — no back up plan to conceive Nephilim in case God doesn’t show up. When everyone’s securing themselves by their own power, how easy would it be to compromise?

I myself find it easy to get mentally lost, worrying about the state of our health — it seems every child is born with some problem today — and worrying about apocalyptic scenarios: what if the electrical substations go down? what if there's a drought? a pandemic? The multiplication of post-apocalyptic media is proof I’m not alone here. It’s scary now as it was then. And when we get scared, we need to take care that we don’t cross lines as they did in Noah’s day. We don’t have Nephilite “technology,” but we are technologically advanced. And I appreciate that — Ashley, Ruth, and Judith would likely be dead or soon dead without medical technology. But some demand “less prayers, more action.” Let’s certainly consider what we can do, but let’s also take care that our actions and technology are ethical and not chasing godlike power. I am no expert, but  the connection between at least some of our vaccines and aborted babies is horrifying. A vaccine shouldn’t exist if murder is the prerequisite. We always look at past Christians horrors committed by Christians and wonder what our blindspots might be, but we forget blindspots are always extremely popular to maintain. We can certainly say the many embryos sitting in freezers across the world is troubling. Or, how confident is my trust in God if I must stuff away unreasonable amounts of money for tough times? In whatever case, while everyone is chasing security by any means possible, we need to slow down with Noah and walk step by step with the Lord, doing all that he commands us, waiting on his salvation.

If only they would have waited on God’s salvation. While women were potentially defiling themselves with evil spirits to combat their mortality, the faithful waited on God. God the Holy Spirit overshadowed the virgin Mary who bore not Nephilim but the true Son of God who gives us the right to become sons of God and to have eternal life.

In all our fears, we need to wait on Jesus. We need to get on our knees and pray “your kingdom come” and “give us… our daily bread.” We need to confess our hope in the resurrection of the body. God brought Noah through the flood waters, and in our baptisms God is demonstrating he will bring us through the chaotic waters, though sin and death, and into the new creational resurrection life of Jesus. No matter what happens with our kids and their health, no matter the apocalyptic scenario, God will bring us through as he brought Noah and Jesus. It’s a lot of eggs to put in God’s hands. But that’s why it’s called faith. May we imitate that, and not repeat the unbelief of the past.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM

Type: Sermon

Speaker: John Kilgore