Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] So I was here last week and we started off a series that we'll kind of wander through if there's opportunity, meeting the Lord up close and personal.
[00:00:12] So last week we looked at Adam and Eve in the garden, and this week we'll be looking at Abraham on the journey. And then next time we'll look at Moses on the mountain. And in a way, this is a bit of a highlights package of Bible narratives where the Lord draws near to real people coming up close and personal with a particular character in the Bible storyline.
[00:00:41] So between last week and this week, we've travelled 2,000 years and we're now at the story of Abraham.
[00:00:49] And one person described Genesis 12 like this.
[00:00:53] It would be an understatement to call this a pivotal passage in the Bible.
[00:01:01] Some have called this the single most important passage in the Scriptures.
[00:01:07] Everything that comes before it in Genesis 1 to 11 leads up to it, and everything that comes after it is fulfilling it.
[00:01:18] To understand the Lord's purposes in our world, this part of Abraham's story is essential.
[00:01:27] So our plan for this morning is we'll be taking some time to look at Abraham's story under four headings.
[00:01:34] And then, just like last week, we'll take a step back and see what we've seen of the Lord and then we'll reflect on how we should respond.
[00:01:45] So Abraham's story, the journey so far.
[00:01:50] After Genesis 2, Adam and Eve in the garden, came Genesis 3.
[00:01:56] The first humans turned their hearts away from the Lord and they went their own way.
[00:02:02] Rejecting the life giver brought death into the world, and the downward spiral of humanity began.
[00:02:09] But despite the exile from Eden and then the flood that engulfed the world, humanity continued to go their own way.
[00:02:20] And in Genesis 11, it was new technology that amplified the evil.
[00:02:27] Humanity had discovered the brick.
[00:02:31] Now, you and I know from Lego masters that the real purpose of the brick was to inspire the hearts and minds of young kids.
[00:02:41] Hamish, Blake and Brickman have taught us well.
[00:02:45] But in Genesis 11, this new technology of the brick formed a deadly combination with the sinful human heart.
[00:02:56] Instead of scattering over the face of the earth to fulfill the Lord's purposes in the world, humanity rebelled by clustering together in the plain of Shinar. And they got comfortable.
[00:03:12] Verse 4 in chapter 11, let's build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves again. The Lord intervened to stop the evil from escalating.
[00:03:29] He confused their language and stopped their building. And the people slowly scattered over the earth.
[00:03:37] The Tower of Babel became like one of those half built construction sites where the builders run out of money, an unfinished project and a monument to foolish decision.
[00:03:51] In the case of Babel, it was a reminder of how new technology and the sinful human heart can distract and destroy the human race.
[00:04:04] But again, the Lord did not give up on humanity.
[00:04:08] Genesis 11 continues with a detailed account of Shem's descendants.
[00:04:14] Generation by generation. A sense of expectation builds.
[00:04:20] What is the Lord up to through Shem's family line?
[00:04:25] And so we arrive at Abram, we find him as a 70 year old man living in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans in modern day Iraq.
[00:04:40] Ur is here.
[00:04:41] We will see Haran up here and later on Canaan down here. So this is a really significant part of real estate in the world. A lot has happened here.
[00:04:55] So the commands. Ur was a big city near the mouth of the Euphrates river, important for trade and famous for its temple dedicated to the worship of the moon God.
[00:05:08] It was in Ur, this center of idolatry, that the Lord came up close and personal with with Abram.
[00:05:17] He was given a command to leave and believe.
[00:05:22] Verse 1. Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land that I will show you.
[00:05:32] Now, at one level, this call to Abram was a geographical one.
[00:05:38] Leave your place and go to another place.
[00:05:43] The journey, as it turns out, was to be a journey of more than a thousand miles, walking from Melbourne to Sydney and back.
[00:05:54] But at another level, this call to Abram was a spiritual call, a call for a comprehensive leaving from his land, his home, his people, his culture, Abram was commanded to leave and believe, to separate from all his cultural markers of safety and status and identity and belonging, and go to an unknown place and follow an unknown God.
[00:06:31] But the Lord did not stay unknown to Abram for long because with the command came promises.
[00:06:40] And they were promises that revealed the character of the Lord.
[00:06:47] So look with me at verses two to three.
[00:06:50] Go to the land, I will show you.
[00:06:53] I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.
[00:06:57] I will make your name great and you will be a blessing, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
[00:07:07] No other God functions like this.
[00:07:11] Every religious system requires people to do, do, do.
[00:07:17] But here we meet a God who gives wonderful, generous and comprehensive promises.
[00:07:26] A land, a nation, a name, a future blessing for Abram and blessing for all the peoples of the world.
[00:07:39] Instead of do, do, do, the Lord says, I will, I will, I will.
[00:07:48] And do you notice that everything that Abram had left land, family, nation was now provided through promises from the Lord.
[00:08:01] Now you might have already had a little flash forward to that verse in Matthew 19 Peter's statement where he says to the Lord Jesus, we've left everything to follow you. And Jesus replied, everyone who has left houses and brothers and sisters and sisters and fathers and mothers and wives and children for my sake will receive a hundred times as much.
[00:08:31] Abram was learning about life with the Lord.
[00:08:36] Obey the command, trust the promise and the Lord will provide.
[00:08:44] Now do you see the contrast to the people of Babel and their pursuit of a self defined life?
[00:08:53] Let's make a name for ourselves and let's build ourselves a city.
[00:08:59] But in Genesis 12 the Lord is revealed as a promise giver.
[00:09:05] Abram must learn to leave and believe.
[00:09:11] He needs to turn away from a self made life and trust and obey the word of the Lord.
[00:09:20] Now Abram's story here is a wonderful example for us of personal faith.
[00:09:26] But remember the big picture.
[00:09:29] This Genesis 12 encounter is a key moment in the whole history of the Bible and the history of the world.
[00:09:37] Remember everything that comes before it was leading up to it.
[00:09:42] Everything that comes after is fulfilling it.
[00:09:47] In Genesis 12 the Lord is showing us the rescue plan for humanity.
[00:09:53] From Abram and his wife Sarai. The Lord would form a people, the people of Israel.
[00:10:00] He would place them in their own land and form them into a great nation.
[00:10:06] They would become God's people in God's land, living under God's rule and blessing.
[00:10:13] And his purpose in all of this was that through the descendants of Abraham, all the peoples of the earth would be blessed.
[00:10:24] Now last week we saw ourselves in the origin story of the human race.
[00:10:31] This week we can see ourselves in the all peoples of of Genesis 12. 3.
[00:10:39] As the biblical story unfolds, we see how all of these promises are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus.
[00:10:47] But for now we'll stay in the story and we'll see what happens next.
[00:10:52] How would Abraham respond as the Lord meets him up close and personal and reveals something of himself?
[00:11:03] So the journey continues. In verse four, Abram went just as the Lord had told him to.
[00:11:12] Abram was 75 years old when he set out from Haran.
[00:11:18] Abram and his clan, including his father Terah, had left Ur and made it to Haran.
[00:11:25] Haran's about 900km in the right direction, the halfway mark on their journey to Canaan.
[00:11:33] Haran was another place of idolatry.
[00:11:37] And at Haran they stopped and they settled for five long years.
[00:11:46] Now did Terah become unwell too sick to continue on the journey.
[00:11:53] Were they distracted from the promise and turned back to idolatry?
[00:11:58] We don't know.
[00:12:00] But after five years, Torah dies and Abram continues on his journey.
[00:12:08] They come to the town of Shechem in Canaan.
[00:12:11] And just like Ur and Haran, Shechem with its Great Tree of Moreh, was another centre for idolatry.
[00:12:22] And perhaps because of the spiritual darkness in that place, the Lord appears again to Abram to encourage him with the same promise to your offspring, I will give this land.
[00:12:37] So Abram built an altar there to the Lord.
[00:12:42] Abram continues on and comes to Bethel. And in verse 8 there he built another altar to the Lord and he called on the name of Yahweh.
[00:12:55] This was Abram's new life.
[00:12:58] Leave and believe.
[00:13:00] Trust and obey.
[00:13:02] Worship the Lord as I learn his way.
[00:13:07] In the New Testament, Abram is held up as a wonderful example of faith.
[00:13:14] In James 2:23 it says Abraham believed God.
[00:13:18] It was credited to him as righteousness and he was called God's friend.
[00:13:28] So that's the story.
[00:13:30] Let's take a moment to consider what have we seen of the Lord? And then how should we respond?
[00:13:37] Three headings for each.
[00:13:39] He is generous in his promises.
[00:13:44] Abram began his journey without much knowledge of the Lord, far less than every person in this room.
[00:13:53] Yet in the years following, he saw the character of the Lord revealed and he learned this promise Giver can be trusted.
[00:14:06] Yet Abram died without seeing the ultimate fulfilment of the promises he was given.
[00:14:12] You and I have the privilege of seeing how the story panned out through thousands of years.
[00:14:19] We can see how the Genesis 12 promises have been fulfilled over time.
[00:14:26] As the storyline of the Bible unfolds, this sense of expectation builds. The Promised one to come, the descendant, the offspring of Abraham, the Lion of Judah, the son of David, the Messiah king, a suffering servant.
[00:14:48] And then the Lord Jesus arrives as the fulfilment of all these promises.
[00:14:57] Now we'll see some of that unfold as we work through this series.
[00:15:02] But for now, let's take note.
[00:15:05] Jesus Christ is the offspring of Abraham that was promised here in Genesis 12 we see Paul say in 2 Corinthians, no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes, in Jesus Christ.
[00:15:24] The Lord Jesus is the blessing from God and the one from whom all peoples on earth will be blessed.
[00:15:34] So let's move to our second observation. He is global in his purposes.
[00:15:41] Now you and I must humbly realize something.
[00:15:45] We live in Tasmania and we are the direct Opposite side of the globe from this map. Here we are the ends of the earth.
[00:15:57] None of us are Hebrews. I expect biological descendants of Abraham. And we are not at the center of of this story.
[00:16:08] But because the Lord is global in his purposes, Abraham's story can be our story.
[00:16:17] And it's because of this double meaning of the word offspring.
[00:16:24] Firstly in the singular, one offspring through whom all the blessings would come.
[00:16:32] Initially it was Abraham's son Isaac.
[00:16:37] But we've seen that ultimately it was this future descendant, the Lord Jesus, a physical descendant, the true offspring of Abraham through whom all blessings flow.
[00:16:52] But this word offspring is also a collective noun indicating many people.
[00:17:00] As we read through Genesis, we see more promises using this word. In chapter 13, the Lord says to Abram, look down at the ground and count the dust of the earth.
[00:17:15] In Genesis 15 he says, look up to the heavens and count the stars in the sky.
[00:17:25] And in each situation he says, so shall your descendants be.
[00:17:31] In one way he speaks of the many Jewish descendants from his physical descent.
[00:17:39] But in another way it speaks of all those spiritual descendants that image the same faith as Abraham.
[00:17:49] And we are called children of Abraham.
[00:17:53] It is through faith in the Lord Jesus, the true offspring of Abraham, that people like you and me can believe and become the spiritual offspring of Abraham.
[00:18:09] All peoples on the earth will be blessed through you.
[00:18:13] The Lord is global in his purposes as he spoke those promises to Abraham.
[00:18:22] Observation number three. He is grounded in his plan.
[00:18:26] Part of the reason for having this map as the background is to remind us this is real real estate on this planet.
[00:18:36] My wife and I went to Egypt two years ago. That's the reason for the camel shirt.
[00:18:42] And some of you instead of daydreaming up there, you may be puzzling over my camels. You're welcome to, but this happened on our planets.
[00:18:53] It's a story that is grounded on this earth.
[00:18:58] One reason I love the narratives of the Bible is how grounded they are on this dusty planet.
[00:19:05] Abram lived his faith in Haran and Shechem and Bethel and Canaan.
[00:19:12] He lived as a creature like you and me, eating, sleeping, working.
[00:19:19] He was a husband, a father, a farmer, a leader, a military warrior.
[00:19:26] He had to learn trust, obedience and worship in real places and in real life.
[00:19:36] The Lord made this world and placed you and I in it.
[00:19:41] He takes real people like you and me and Abraham.
[00:19:47] He calls us away from a wasted life pursuing worthless things.
[00:19:55] And he invites us to join his life giving plans for the world.
[00:20:02] Real life in real places with him.
[00:20:07] It's in the ordinary and everyday context of life that he meets us up close and personal and calls us to follow Him.
[00:20:20] So let's personalise things and move to some application.
[00:20:25] How should we live having heard this story and seen these things?
[00:20:32] Three ideas to get us thinking.
[00:20:35] Firstly, leave and believe.
[00:20:40] Because the Lord is generous in his promises, we should leave and believe.
[00:20:47] Human beings are wired for worship.
[00:20:50] But due to the brokenness of sin, our default mode is to worship ourselves or some other created thing instead of our Creator.
[00:21:02] And this is the essence of idolatry.
[00:21:05] Idolatry is full of false promises and misplaced hope. It never leads to life.
[00:21:13] It distracts, it deceives, it destroys.
[00:21:18] Because at its heart it defies the Lord.
[00:21:23] It is rebellion against his good ways.
[00:21:27] The way of faith is not like this.
[00:21:31] When the Lord comes up close and personal, comes near and speaks to us.
[00:21:38] It's in order to set us free and to give us life in his kindness.
[00:21:46] With words of command and words of promise, he calls us to leave and believe.
[00:21:54] We live in a noisy world and we have noisy souls.
[00:22:01] And these two things are connected.
[00:22:04] For Abram, he had to leave the noise of his culture.
[00:22:11] You and I are also surrounded by the noise of our culture.
[00:22:17] So many voices clamoring for our attention.
[00:22:21] Distractions, false promises and false offers of the good life.
[00:22:28] We need to leave the noise.
[00:22:32] We need to draw near to the Lord.
[00:22:35] We need to tune in and listen to his voice.
[00:22:40] And when we do, our noisy souls have a chance to relax.
[00:22:47] As we hear the voice of the Lord and as we believe and obey his word, our souls can finally rest.
[00:22:58] Like Abram, we must leave and believe.
[00:23:02] We must let go of the false promises of our culture and and grab hold of the true promise giver.
[00:23:11] He can be trusted.
[00:23:14] Hear these words from Psalm 145. The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and he's faithful in everything he does.
[00:23:25] The Lord upholds all who fall.
[00:23:28] He lifts up all who are bowed down.
[00:23:32] The Lord is near to all who call on Him.
[00:23:37] To all who call on Him. In truth, the Lord fulfils the desires of those who fear Him.
[00:23:44] He hears their cry and he saves them.
[00:23:49] No other idol compares to the Lord as he's revealed in these words.
[00:23:56] The way of faith is wonderfully simple.
[00:24:00] Leave and believe and follow his way.
[00:24:05] Trust and obey and worship the Lord.
[00:24:10] One more thought here. Notice how Abram built altars wherever he went.
[00:24:16] What can we learn from this?
[00:24:19] Faced with the false worship of Shechem and Canaan, Abram chose to worship the Lord and to make that worship visible.
[00:24:30] Now, you and I may be the only true worshiper in our workplace, in our neighbourhoods, our basketball team, our biological family.
[00:24:42] We must make our worship of the Lord visible, not with glamour and glitz, but with humble, joyful, loving, grateful service of people.
[00:24:59] Which brings us to our second application. Be a channel of blessing.
[00:25:05] Because the Lord is generous in his promises and because he's grounded in his plan, we are channels of Blessing.
[00:25:14] In Genesis 2, we saw the Lord as the life giver giving life to us so that we could then have life through us into the world.
[00:25:25] In Genesis 12, we see the Lord as the blessing giver, giving blessing to us and through us.
[00:25:35] And it's the same Lord at work today.
[00:25:39] How will the Lord bless the people of your workplace, your school, your family, our city?
[00:25:47] He will do it through his people because he's designed us to be channels of blessing.
[00:25:55] And that blessing comes from the abundance of the Lord.
[00:26:00] You may have heard of the economics of scarcity.
[00:26:05] If I give away my time, my money, my ideas, my passion, then I will be empty and lacking because I've given away the economics of abundance says this.
[00:26:21] All I have has been given to me by the Lord.
[00:26:26] He overflows with blessing and generosity so I can confidently give generously of my time, my money, my creativity, my passion, my everything, knowing that he will continue to provide for me.
[00:26:48] We must live from his resources, not our own.
[00:26:53] What would it mean for you and I to take this to heart and embody it in our lives and be a channel of blessing?
[00:27:06] The last one. Look beyond your people.
[00:27:09] Because the Lord is generous in his promises, because he's grounded in his plan, and because he is global in his purposes, we should look beyond our people.
[00:27:26] Now we've been using Abram's story as an example of how to trust and obey and worship and how to be channels of blessing for those we live amongst.
[00:27:37] But we must remember that Genesis 12 is a history changing story.
[00:27:43] This is the moment that the Lord commits Himself to his rescue plan for all humanity through the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:27:54] We've heard through the service how the Lord desires that people from every tribe and every tongue would hear of the Lord Jesus and receive blessing through Him.
[00:28:06] And this vision is repeated again and again throughout the Bible.
[00:28:12] Now you and I have a primary responsibility amongst our own people to make Jesus known.
[00:28:19] It's such an encouragement to hear of teams going out in Summerhill, in Kings Meadows, in the city on the northwest coast sharing the message of Jesus.
[00:28:34] But it's a global Reality that there are more than 3 billion people who are unlikely to hear the message of Jesus in their lifetime unless something changes to push that home.
[00:28:50] If every Christian person on this planet had a conversation today with every person that they knew in person, there would be 3 billion people who would not have had that conversation.
[00:29:07] They simply do not have in person contact with a follower of Jesus.
[00:29:15] Where the Emeris are going in Albania, they've got far more opportunity to have conversations with people who have not heard the name of the Lord Jesus.
[00:29:28] We can be thankful from this particular church.
[00:29:32] As Dan reminded us, people have gone to Afghanistan, to Mongolia, Nigeria, Spain, Albania, Korea to live the message of Jesus.
[00:29:49] But there's still more to be done.
[00:29:51] We need to regularly look beyond our people and keep looking to the frontiers, to that third of humanity who are living in places with so few followers of Christ.
[00:30:07] The tower builders in Babel, they clustered together.
[00:30:13] They refuse to spread out to fulfil the Lord's life giving purposes for his creation.
[00:30:20] Will we be like them?
[00:30:23] Or will we as teams have some like Abram who will go and others that will sacrificially pray and support and send and encourage?
[00:30:38] Is he calling some of us here to be like Abram? To leave our people and go to a land that he will show us to be a channel of blessing, to build an altar to Yahweh, there to embody a life of humble trust and obedience in order to make the worship of the Lord visible in that place.
[00:31:05] What a wonderful way to spend your earthly life.
[00:31:11] So let's bring this together.
[00:31:13] It's good to gather like we are doing today, to learn and grow together as disciples of Jesus.
[00:31:21] But let's remember, our purpose in gathering is so that we can scatter and reach this world for Jesus.
[00:31:31] We must regularly come to the Lord with open ended prayers asking for his guidance in how he wants us to respond.
[00:31:43] So let's pray now and I'll lead us in an open ended prayer.
[00:31:55] Lord, what would you like us to do?
[00:32:02] Please show us how to respond.
[00:32:06] Please help us as we seek to reach out to our people in our neighbourhoods, our workplaces, our families, our city.
[00:32:19] And please help us also to look beyond to the many people groups of the world who have no one seeking to reach them.
[00:32:31] Lord, please show us how to be a channel of your blessing for the people of our world.
[00:32:40] Amen.
