Luke 18:15-17

Introduction

The image of childlike faith has long been attractive to Christians. My fear is that it has become an excuse for lazy thinking. I’ve known Christians who have boasted that they don’t have to confront the hard questions because they have a childlike faith. They even have a passage to prove it.

I have shared before that I came to Christianity out of a number of years as an atheist. I had a skeptical nature then and I have one now. I arrived at church with plenty of questions and more than a few doubts. I really never felt that there was room in the church for a Christian like me. My friends would just accept whatever a preacher would say from the pulpit, while I would comment on errors in either logic or biblical interpretation or both. I even had people try to cast out a spirit of doubt from me. What no one ever did was give me freedom to ask questions or to point me toward the writings of thoughtful Christians. Even in those pre-internet days, there were plenty of quality resources.

We will look closer at this passage, but I will say that there is nothing in this that is meant to shut down conversation or to silence hard questions. In fact, I will argue, it does the exact opposite.

That is not to say that this passage is only about those with an interest in the intellectual side of Christianity. There is a warning here that affects all of us. We may see ourselves in this story as the children who deserve to be with Jesus, but we may in fact be the disciples who are trying to prevent the children from getting too close. Let’s take a look.

Children and Jesus

Try to imagine what it must have been like to travel around with Jesus. At this point, we are well into Jesus’ ministry. Jesus has become well known based on both his preaching and his miracles. I would imagine that there were four types of people that would be coming to see Jesus. There would be those who were seeking the truth and who couldn’t get enough of Jesus’ teachings, his interpretation of the Scriptures and his clear explanations of what God expected. There would also be those who were sick or afflicted and who were desperate to experience a healing. There would also be those who were healthy, but who were drawn by the excitement and were eager to see one of these marvellous wonders. Finally, there would be his critics, who were there hoping to catch Jesus in some error and demonstrate that he was actually a fake.

Imagine the stress it would be, not just for Jesus, but for the disciples. Crowds of people everywhere, never a moment of peace. There would always be someone wanting something. As an introvert, just thinking about this gets my heart racing.

In the midst of this type of schedule, the disciples spot some people bringing children to Jesus. The disciples would not have seen this as a great new ministry opportunity. This would have been a distraction from “real ministry.” There were important things to be done and these little children were getting in the way. The disciples weren’t being bad people. Yes, they would have been shaped by cultural concepts of children not being very valuable. But more than that, they thought they knew where Jesus’ ministry was going and having a crowd of children would not only not advance that goal, it might even hinder it.

The disciples demonstrated real leadership by speaking up and attempting to prevent the children from coming to Jesus. They were showing some rare assertiveness, unfortunately they were doing the wrong thing. Jesus didn’t see the children as being a distraction from real ministry, he saw this as real ministry. And Jesus didn’t just tolerate the presence of children, he held them up as the example for all other followers. We are to have a childlike faith.

Let me briefly clarify what this means. A childlike faith is not a childish faith. Too many Christians have argued that this means we shouldn’t ask questions. The truth is that children ask far more questions than adults. A childl

 Luke 18:9-14

Introduction

What is the most destructive activity to a church? To listen to the church’s rhetoric over the years, you would think that it was sexual sin. Now I don’t want to downplay that, as the Bible indeed describes that as serious. But the Bible talks just as much, if not more about the power of words, especially negative words. You would be amazed at how often the Bible talks about gossip, and in fact includes gossip with what we would consider the “serious” sins. And yet at most churches that I have ben a part of, gossip is openly tolerated and even considered normal.

I believe that gossip is one of the most destructive sins in the church. Most of the other sins that people commit are private and usually the church is completely unaware. But gossip within the church by definition is something that spreads within the church. It spreads like a cancer and it can kill a church.

I have thought about why people gossip. And when I say people, I include myself. I don’t believe that most people who gossip do it to be evil. They are not trying to hurt others and probably they are generally good people. So why do people gossip? I believe that gossip finds its root in personal insecurity. Think about it. Gossip is not about so-and-so is such a great person. Gossip is about pointing out and sharing the faults of another person. Gossip takes place when we are aware of our own faults and we try to make ourselves feel better by focusing on others. “At least I’m not as bad as that other person.” Even when we don’t go the whole way and gossip, we can feel a twinge of pride when a person we envy falls or makes a mistake.

The passage that we are looking at is not specifically about gossip. It is really about our relationship with God. But I believe that the principle found in this passage is toxic to the motivation that leads to gossip. Our relationship with God should shape how we treat other people as we will see in this passage.

Pharisee and the Tax Collector

We need to be careful when we look at passages about Pharisees in the New Testament. Many Christians see Pharisee as a synonym for hypocrite. Calling a person today a Pharisee would always be an insult. The truth is that there were good and bad Pharisees, just as there are of all people. In this particular parable, the Pharisee is the bad guy and the tax collector is the good guy. We wouldn’t go on to say that all tax collectors were good guys (they weren’t) and so we should say that all Pharisees are bad guys.

Jesus chose the characters in this parable carefully based on how they were respected in that culture. Rather than the negative views of Pharisees we have today, they were highly respected. Pharisees were people who took the Law seriously. They were known for being very careful to obey God’s commandments and for seeking a holy life. A Pharisee was someone the average Jew would look up to.

A tax collector was on the opposite end of the spectrum. The way the Romans collected taxes is that they hired people within the community. They would tell the tax collectors how much money was expected and anything collected over and above that would be their pay. Imagine if we had such a system here in Canada. Such people would not be very popular. For the Jews, they were particularly unpopular because they were seen as disloyal to their people and also greedy in the amount they collected. Tax collectors were probably less respected than prostitutes. A tax collector was someone the average Jew would look down upon.

Jesus asks us to imagine these two men coming to the temple to worship. The Pharisee begins by recounting all his religious activity and moral character. If you look carefully at all that the Pharisee says, he is doing some great things. There is no problem with being such an active religious person. But the Pharisee doesn’t just take pride in his personal piety, he compares himself favourably to the tax collector. He sees faith as a competition and the Pha

Acts 10:9-35

Introduction

The very first part of our church mission statement is that we are “a welcoming community.” I think it is appropriate that the welcoming part comes first because that could derail the rest of our mission. You might think that even the most unfriendly church could at least worship God. But the Bible clearly ties together how we treat others with our worship of God. In Isaiah 1, God rejects the worship of Israel because of the way they are neglecting people in their community. If we get the welcoming part wrong, we are in big trouble.

You might think that welcoming people should be natural for the church. If the church can’t welcome everyone, who can? The problem is that there is a long history of churches not being as welcoming as they should. I have attended and visited numerous churches and I can testify that there is a wide range of welcomes from churches. Some are quite warm and inviting and others are cold and inward focused.

There a few distinctions that need to make. There is a difference between being a friendly church and a welcoming church. You can be a friendly church without being a welcoming church but you can’t be a welcoming church without being a friendly church. A friendly church can be a group of people who love each other and enjoy seeing each other on Sundays but are much less interested in inviting new people into the family. A welcoming church is one where the church family loves each other but who are also eager to embrace new people.

In addition, there are two ways a church can be unwelcoming. There is passive and active unwelcoming. Passive unwelcoming is when the congregation simply ignores new people. Active unwelcoming is when the congregation takes steps to reject certain people. Both types continue to be part of the modern church.

Have you ever felt unwelcome at a church? Have you felt that people either didn’t notice you or were actually excluding you? I hope that has not been your experience here.

Thankfully the Bible has much to say about being a welcoming church.

The Early Church

Many Christians today tend to idolize the early church. We see the early church as being pure and perfect, as a standard for us to meet. Part of the Protestant Reformation was an attempt to restore the church to its original state. Baptists attempted to achieve an even more radical return to the early church.

All of that is good, except that the early church was far from perfect. This is especially true when it comes to the area of being welcoming. The early church was a welcoming church as long as you were exactly like everyone else in the church. The first Christians were all Jewish in origin. Christianity was so Jewish that it was seen as a Jewish sect rather than its own religion. The first conflict took place between the Hebrew speaking Jewish Christians and the Greek speaking Jewish Christians. There was at least the appearance of Hebrew speakers being treated better than Greek speakers.

Once that was resolved, the next obstacle appeared. God seemed to welcome the Samaritans into the church. This was a problem because there was a tremendous amount of ethnic hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews. Think of any bigotry that you have come across and that is a taste of what was happening. God welcoming the Samaritans was quite inconvenient for the comfort of the church. Ironically, the apostle John, who in the Gospels had made the suggestion to call down fire on a Samaritan village, was the apostolic witness to the Samaritan’s conversion to Christ.

Then we get to the Gentiles. Gentiles are non-Jews. The Samaritans were sort of half Jewish but the Gentiles were another matter all together. Much of Jewish culture was about how to separate themselves from the Gentiles. It’s not that the Jewish Christians were completely unwelcoming of the Gentiles. All the Gentiles had to do was to convert to Judaism first, and then they could become Christians. So the rule was that everyone was welcome

1 Corinthians 15:1-22

Introduction

There has been a lot of talk in recent years about whether it is time to give up on the label ‘evangelical.’ For many people evangelical refers to being a supporter of Donald Trump or some other narrow definition. There is a thing now called post-evangelical, referring to people who reject evangelicalism and are looking for something different.

I hold on to the label evangelical, but doing so does not tell you any thing about my politics or my position on any controversial issue. I have a very specific understanding of what it means to be an evangelical. Evangelical comes from evangel, which means gospel or good news. So for me, an evangelical is one who embraces and focuses on the gospel. But that leaves us asking about what the gospel or good news is.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul clearly explains the gospel that he preaches. The gospel is about the death and resurrection of Jesus. The death and resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection is not just a little add on to the gospel, it is vital to the gospel. Without the resurrection, the death of Jesus would have been just a sad injustice. A number of years ago, I was in a leadership program and were instructed to preach a 5 minute evangelistic sermon. The instructors made it clear that it had to include the resurrection and that mentioning just the cross was not enough.

Why should we care about the resurrection? Is this something just for pastors and theologians to reflect on? Or is there something about the resurrection that is relevant to every one of us? That is what we are going to look at. Do you remember the Christmas Carol and the ghosts of Christmas past, future and present? We are going to look at what the resurrection means for the past, the future and the present.

Resurrection Past

Christians have sometimes been guilty of focusing too much on the cross. Too much on the cross? How is that possible? After all, Paul himself said, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) But we have to ask why he said this. It is not that the cross was the only thing that was important. The church at Corinth was one that prided itself in its strength and despised weakness. The beginning of Paul’s letter is meant to humble the Corinthians by demonstrating that God works through weakness. It was through death that God reconciled us to himself in Christ. This is also an example of how God works through our weakness.

The cross is extremely important. In some way, Christ paid the penalty for our sins. In Christ’s death, we are forgiven and adopted into God’s family. But how do we know that actually happened? I could tell you that my death would provide some spiritual benefit to you and then throw myself in front of a car. But how would you know that my death did anything? The death itself is not enough evidence.

How many people were crucified in the first century? Thousands and thousands. The death of Jesus didn’t prove anything by itself. How many were resurrected? Only one. What about Lazarus and a couple of other people mentioned in the Gospels? They were not resurrected, they were resuscitated. What’s the difference? Lazarus and those other people eventually grew old and each died again. Jesus, on the other hand, was not just brought back to life, he was given a resurrection body that could never die again.

I’m not trying to minimize the importance of the cross but I am trying to demonstrate that our faith in the cross is justified because of the resurrection. We can believe that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins because of the empty tomb.

Resurrection Future

I mentioned that Paul was writing to the Corinthians and they had some issues. They were proud of their strength. They were so confident that they claimed that they had reached the spiritual pinnacle. There was nothing better than what they were right at that time. They were so confident in this that they rejected the resurrection

 Isaiah 53

Introduction

I want to tell you that I personally prefer strength to weakness. I have enjoyed exotic food while on a fabulous cruise and I have had to get food from a food bank. I have been in good enough shape to make it through military basic training and have been weak enough to require a cane. I have received a scholarship for high marks and have gotten as low as 33% on university tests. In all of my experiences, I much prefer strength to weakness, abundance to want. But if there is one thing I have learned over the years it is that life doesn’t really care about my preferences.

What about you? Have you had times of both prosperity and desperation? Are you in a time of difficulty right now? Is it your health, your finances, your relationships? Are you longing for the good old days when everything seemed to come together?

I want you to think about the triumphal entry of Jesus. Jesus, the great teacher and miracle worker. The one who wasn’t afraid of the Herods, the religious teachers or the Romans. Jesus was a man of power and he was entering into Jerusalem. Some were saying that he was the promised messiah. Was this the moment? Was Jesus coming into Jerusalem to finally overthrow the Romans? Try to imagine the hopes and dreams of the Jews that knew something about Jesus. What were they expecting Jesus to do? Do you think they were hoping for strength or power?

Great Expectations

What were the Jews expecting for the messiah? The words messiah and Christ mean anointed one and it is a reference to God’s chosen person to bring deliverance to his people. There is a problem with explaining what the Jewish hope for the messiah was. The problem was that there were many different interpretations. Some Jews even looked for two messiahs, a priestly messiah and a warrior messiah. There were many ways to look at the Old Testament prophecies. However, often our interpretations are based upon our circumstances.

Israel was in a difficult position. They were occupied by the Romans and forced to be a part of their empire. They had to pay taxes to the Romans. Although the Romans allowed the Jews to practice their religion, that could change at any moment. There were constant tensions. Just to give you an idea of how bad things were, within a hundred years of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, there were three major revolts against Rome, with the leader of the last of these being proclaimed messiah. It was rare for people within the Roman Empire to revolt, unheard of that anyone would do it three times. The reason for this was that the Jewish people had a hope that God would be with them. God didn’t seem to come through on their hopes. It seems that he might have had another plan.

But before getting to that, let’s return to ideas about the messiah. If there had been a golden age for Israel, it was during the time of King David. David had expanded the borders and built a mini-empire. He earned the respect of the surrounding nations through his military might. It was fitting that the capital of Israel would not be one of cities traditionally inhabited by the Hebrews but the freshly conquered Jebus, now renamed as Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a symbol of Israel’s might. That is why centuries later, after the Jewish exile, the first thing that Nehemiah and his associates did was to rebuild the walls.

The davidic line of kings had come to an end with the exile. But there was a hope that one of David’s descendants would rise up and with God’s power, restore Israel to its former glory. There definitely were descendants of David around and Jesus was one of them. A number of times people from the crowd would call him “Son of David” and so his ancestry was not a complete secret. Plus Jesus demonstrated that he had immense power. Casting out demons, healing the sick and even raising the dead. If Jesus could defeat demons and death, surely the Romans would be an easy foe to defeat. The people were ready. They were just waiting for Jesus to give th

Numbers 21:4-9

Introduction

Nobody enjoys talking about sin. In fact, experts would probably say that if you want to grow a church, you should probably not talk about sin. It makes people uncomfortable. The problem is that the Bible talks a lot about sin and if we remove sin from the equation, the message of the Bible will be distorted.

I’m not here to point fingers at specific groups or certain kinds of people. I would like to begin by confessing that I’m a sinner and I always have been. I have shared stories about my late teens and early twenties and my excessive drinking. But that was not the beginning. Although most adults who met me as a child thought I was a well-behaved boy, I had my dark side. Once when I was about the age of my children now, I gave three chocolate laxatives to another child at school. I was not ignorant of the results of such an action, I did it in full knowledge. And that is only an example of one of my deeds where I was caught.

You make believe or at least hope that now that I’m a pastor, my sinning days are far beyond me. Although it has been twenty-five years since I have been drunk and I don’t make it a habit of handing out laxatives, I am not sin-free. I have been known to say harsh things that I regret. I have had my moments of jealousy and envy. And if you think those are not a big deal, those sins are placed side-by-side with what we would call the serious sins in the Bible. Remember that Jesus said looking at a person with lust is like adultery and being angry toward a person is like murder.

What about you? How aware are you of your own sinfulness? Do you carry a burden of regrets? Do you sometimes feel like you don’t measure up? Do you sometimes doubt that God could love you? We all have sin in our lives. The Bible says that if we say that we have no sin, we are lying. And that just adds one more sin to the list.

This sounds like all bad news but the Bible says that there is hope. We are going to look at an Old Testament story and then look at how that points us toward the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

Bronze Snake

We have looked at the stories of the Passover and the Day of Atonement, events that many Christians with some knowledge of the Bible may be familiar with. The story we are looking at today is much less familiar but is just as powerful.

The basic context is that Moses had led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. While the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land is not that long, because of their unfaithfulness, the Hebrews were forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years. God continually provided for the people, with both food and water, but they were never content. Imagine giving your child a brand new Toyota and having them complain because it wasn’t a Lexus. That was the sort of attitude of the Hebrews. They knew how to push God’s buttons and they experienced his anger. We may prefer God’s love to his wrath, but that doesn’t mean that his wrath doesn’t exist.

The people were punished for their sin by being attacked by poisonous snakes. Did this mean that the Hebrews had gone too far and that God was going to wipe them out? Not at all. Sin was being punished but God was also going to provide a way of salvation. God had Moses create a bronze snake and place it on a pole. When the people looked up at the snake, they were healed.

This is the truth I want you to hear clearly. While God could have done anything to heal the people, he chose to use an image of what was killing them as the means by which he would save them. They were dying from snakes but they were being healed by a snake as well. We need to hold onto this thought as we move into what Jesus did for us.

Jesus Becoming Sin

It is a basic belief of Christianity that Jesus came to save us from our sin. But just because the bronze snake saved the people and Jesus saves, is not enough to connect the two. We need something stronger.

In the Gospels, Jesus said this, “As for me, if I am lifted up from the earth I will dra

Leviticus 16

Introduction

Are you familiar with the concept of the scapegoat? I don’t mean in a biblical or theological manner but as it is commonly used in conversation. My dictionary defines a scapegoat as “a person bearing the blame for the sins, shortcomings, etc. of others, esp. as an expedient.” So a scapegoat is someone who has to pay the consequences for someone else’s crime.

The first example that comes to mind is not a high profile criminal case but something from my childhood. One of my friends decided to put red ants down the pants of his younger sister. She, of course, began to cry and scream. Realizing that he would get in trouble from his parents, he put red ants down his own pants so that he could blame the other friend (not me) who was there. This person, who was completely innocent of any red ant mischief, became the scapegoat.

The way we use scapegoat suggests a situation that is never good. It presumes an innocent person who is punished and a guilty person who goes free. With this understanding, we should never want a scapegoat. But in reality we have a scapegoat and it is something good.

The concept of the scapegoat originates in the Old Testament and it is very important to Jewish people to this day. It is also a powerful illustration of what Jesus has done for us.

Day of Atonement

If you have a calendar that includes religious holidays, you might notice one day marked Yom Kippur. That is Hebrew for the Day of Atonement and it continues to be one of the most important festivals of Judaism to this day. Now, it is celebrated in a different way today than it was in the Bible. With the destruction of the temple, Jews are no longer able to do animal sacrifices. The Day of Atonement is a day of prayer and fasting. If you think of the Christian concept of Lent, take that, make it stricter and compress it into one day, and you have some idea of what the Day of Atonement is to Jews. What it does have in common with the biblical version is the focus on confessing and repenting of sin. Dealing with sin is the whole reason why there is a Day of Atonement.

The ancient Hebrews were well aware of the presence of sin. While they believed that they were God’s chosen people simply by being born as a part of Israel, they understood that they didn’t always act like God’s chosen people. That sin could not be just ignored and it had to be dealt with.

Like many of the religious festivals of the Old Testament, this one included animal sacrifices. Two goats were chosen to participate in this ritual. One of the goats was to be killed as a sin offering. The high priest then placed his hands on the remaining goats and symbolically had the sins of the people come upon the goat. That goat, which was the scapegoat, then was driven into the wilderness. This was a visual representation of the sins of the people being removed from the community and an acknowledgment that they were forgiven.

Two things I would like to mention about the Day of Atonement. In addition to the sacrifice of the goat, there was also the sacrifice of a bull. The bull was a sacrifice for the sins of the high priest. The high priest could not intervene on behalf of the people while he was still in his own sin. Only after his sin was taken care of could he perform the ritual that would remove the sin of the people. The second thing is that this ritual would have to be repeated every year. Just because sin was dealt with one year didn’t mean that sin was absent a year later. It was understood that people are sinful by nature and we continue to struggle to follow God’s ways.

The ancient Hebrews took sin seriously. They knew sin was real and performing the rituals that went along with the Day of Atonement was essential to their faith.

Jesus as Our Atonement

What about us? What does this mean for us as Christians? We need to remind ourselves that we are just as sinful as the Israelites. We should never fool ourselves that Christians are more righteous than the Hebrews.

Exodus 12:1-28

Introduction

What is your first thought when you see large qualities of blood outside the human body? Probably it is not an appreciation of the pretty colour.

About a year ago, we had our daughter over for a visit. At one point, Abby walked out of the bathroom covered in blood. It was in her hair, on her face and all over her arms. The shock of seeing that was probably the closest that I ever had to having a heart attack. Thankfully, not only was it not her blood, it was not really blood. It was fake blood that belonged to Justus’s Halloween costume. What a relief! But it was a reminder of how we respond to the presence of blood. It causes a panic.

Blood is a common image in both the Old and New Testaments. But that doesn’t mean that churches are always comfortable with it. I served on staff at a church that a policy of not singing any songs, old or new, that mentioned blood. They were afraid that visitors would think we were a cult. I was scheduled to preach one Sunday and my passage mentioned the blood of Jesus. I wanted to conclude my sermon with a hymn about the blood of Jesus. Since this was against policy, I had to argue for it. I finally convinced the team to do the hymn if I introduced it with some teaching about the blood. I did so and there was indeed a visitor there that Sunday. But instead of being offended that I mentioned the blood, she was offended that from her perspective I didn’t put enough emphasis on the blood. She a tore a strip off me in the greeting line at the end of the service. Of course there was a search committee just a few people behind her that had come to here me preach. Thankfully they still hired me despite the accusations of heresy by our visitor.

The passage that we are looking at today deals with blood. Some people, when looking at the Passover, focus on the Passover meal. While that is interesting, I’m going to focus on the blood of the lamb and what that means for us as followers of Jesus.

The Passover

We need to put this passage into context. At this time the Hebrew people had been in slavery in Egypt for many years. God raised up a man named Moses to bring them out of slavery. A simple request from Moses to Pharaoh was not going to do the trick. Moses had to demonstrate power by calling down a number of plagues on Egypt. This was important because, although one level this was a conflict between Moses and Pharaoh, it was really a conflict between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt. Conclusive power was the only way to end the conflict.

The final plague was to be the death of the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. This sounds extremely harsh to us and it should make us feel uncomfortable. However, we should also remember how this all started. The Hebrew slaves had multiplied and Pharaoh fearing their numbers, ordered the death of all male babies. Moses was one of those babies that the Egyptians had attempted to kill. I believe that the death of the Egyptian firstborn was a direct response to what the Egyptians had done to the Hebrews. That doesn’t make it feel good but it does provide some reasoning. The tragedy that took place was started by the Egyptians. Actions have consequences.

The Hebrew people had the warning that the death of the firstborn was coming. They were told to kill a lamb and to mark their doors with the blood of the lamb. When the angel of death came, he would pass over the homes with the blood. This didn’t mean that the Hebrews were perfect or sinless. It simply meant that they were throwing themselves on God’s mercy and the blood of the lamb, an animal associated with innocence, was the symbol of this faith. By the time the day was over, the Hebrew people were safe from God’s wrath.

The Last Supper

Let’s fast forward over a thousand years. The Jewish people were still celebrating what God had done in the days of Moses and how they received their freedom. One group of these Jews was led by teacher named Jesus. Jesus and his friends had arrived in Je

Genesis 22:1-19

Introduction

Lent is the time when we prepare ourselves for reflection of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. These two events are the foundation for our faith. But none of this was a complete surprise. The Easter events are often described as being “according to the Scriptures.” The only Scriptures those early Christians had were the Old Testament. But “according to the Scriptures” is more than prophecies about Jesus. There are types and symbols found in the Old Testament that we can look at that help us to see the cross through fresh eyes. One of those stories is the sacrifice of Isaac.

I can’t help but read this story through my perspective as a father. I love all five of my children equally. However, Logan, our oldest, holds a special place. We lost our first child through a miscarriage. So when Amanda was pregnant with Logan, there was a lot of worry and anxiety. We really wanted things to go well. The birth was not exactly easy and Logan looked a little beat up, but he was born as a beautiful baby boy. I can’t express the joy we experienced as we were finally able to hold our baby in our arms.

I wish I could say that the birth was the end of the anxiety. Logan was diagnosed with autism while fairly young. That was not the end of the world but something that went along with it was very difficult. While our daughter with autism, Abby, latches onto my arm when we are out, Logan is a runner. Logan has escaped from our home, from school and from group homes, many times. Most of the time he was caught quite quickly, but other times he was missing for a while and there was some doubt if we would get him back alive. The thought of losing the child that we had prayed and hoped for was almost life-crushing.

With those thoughts and emotions in my mind, we need to take a look at this difficult story about Abraham and Isaac.

Abraham and Isaac

Abraham is presented as our father in the faith. God had a plan to do something amazing through Abraham, something that continues to impact us. God made a promise to Abraham. The promise was that Abraham would become a father. That was interesting because bot Abraham and his wife Sarah were very old and Sarah was barren. But God promised it. Not only that, but God promised that through this son, a great nation would come. That was a fantastic promise and Abraham was happy to accept the offer.

The problem was that it didn’t happen right away. After waiting some time, Abraham took things into his own hands and fathered a child with a servant girl. But that wasn’t God’s plan. It was Sarah who would give birth to the promised son. After many years of waiting, the promise came true and Abraham and Sarah welcomed their son into the world. Just try to imagine the joy they experienced on that day.

But then God appeared to Abraham again and this time with some not so good news. Abraham was to take Isaac up a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. What a horrible story! It would be tempting for us to pass over this story and pretend that it never happened. We just don’t want to go here. But this story is very important. For one thing, it is in this story we find the first appearances of the word “worship” and “love” in the Bible. Abraham, taking Isaac up the mountain, tells his servants that they are going up to worship. God, in telling Abraham to sacrifice his son, tells him that it is his son that he loves.

In the story Abraham is obedient. He places Isaac on the altar and on the wood. He lifts up his knife and just as he is about to bring it down, Abraham is told to stop. God still wanted a sacrifice, but it wouldn’t be Isaac. God provided a ram as a substitute for the sacrifice. Isaac was saved.

But even with this last minute rescue, doesn’t this story cast doubt on the morality of Abraham and even of God? There is a key to reading this story properly. What was the original promise? Not just that a son would be born. The promise was that a great nation would come from this son

This sermons was preached by our Outreach Director, Mike Neels and is based on Genesis 13.