MARCH 1, 2009  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.

The text for our sermon meditation this morning is the Old Testament Lesson of the day from Genesis chapter 22. There we read these words:

(Gen 22:1-18 NIV) Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. {2} Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." {3} Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. {4} On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. {5} He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." {6} Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, {7} Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" {8} Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. {9} When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. {10} Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. {11} But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. {12} "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." {13} Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. {14} So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." {15} The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time {16} and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, {17} I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, {18} and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

Dear Christian friends,

Do you remember the story of David, the shepherd boy as he faced Goliath, and as he slew the giant? Do you remember how David was convinced that God would guide him and strengthen him that endeavor?

Or how about the apostle St Paul, as he faced the task of preaching, about godly confidence. St. Paul said, "Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God" (2 Corinthians 3:4-5).

Recall how you learned from these men that the Christian faith is not about taking care of yourself.

The Christian faith is not at all about learning to stand on your own two feet-it is about learning to lean completely upon Jesus and to trust in Him for your deliverance.

The Christian faith is not about self-confidence or self-esteem. It is about remaining confident in the Mighty One who has already acted to save you.

Last week, you climbed the mountain and you saw your Lord "transfigured" before Peter, James, and John. Remember how "His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus" (Mark 9:3-4). It was there that Peter, James and John-and you with them-received the outward sign of the inward reality.

It was confirmed for them and for you that Jesus the Suffering Servant truly is the beloved Son of God. It was confirmed that you truly are a holy and chosen people, despite the unholy and despicable things you may experience and feel in everyday life. In the transfiguration of Jesus it was established once again that by virtue of your baptism into Christ, the reality of your eternal life it truly that-a reality-and not a fantasy; that God is for you and not against you.

Today's Old Testament takes you around the corner of godly confidence to show you what stands behind it-certainty; certainty in the Word and promise of God. This is the certainty that comes by the gift of Jesus, even when it seems that God has aligned Himself against you, rather than for you.

You see, confidence can be very closely tied to your emotions. On a good day, when everything is going well, it is easy to perceive a feeling of confidence, like you are able to face any difficulty that may come your way. There are times when I feel this way as your pastor. The congregation all sings well during the service, some folks compliment the sermon that day, people really get involved in the discussion during Sunday School, and I go home afterward really loving to be a pastor.

Then Monday comes and I face the underbelly of this job I am given, just as each of you face the tasks and duties that reflect your given vocations. Maybe I need to go call someone to repentance because of their public sin-be it their immoral sexual behavior or their disregard for public worship, or whatever. Then-in the mere prospect of confrontation- all of my Sunday morning confidence as pastor and as Christian vaporizes. I can't eat. I can't sleep. I can't concentrate. I pace the floor. I feel continually nervous and jittery, and I wrestle with a rock in my stomach that will not go away.

Then Monday comes and I face the underbelly of this job I am given, just as each of you face the tasks and duties that reflect your given vocations. Maybe I need to go call someone to repentance because of their public sin-be it their immoral sexual behavior or their disregard for public worship, or whatever. Then-in the mere prospect of confrontation- all of my Sunday morning confidence as pastor and as Christian vaporizes. I can't eat. I can't sleep. I can't concentrate. I pace the floor. I feel continually nervous and jittery, and I wrestle with a rock in my stomach that will not go away.

If you cannot relate to this sort of thing, I am sure that Abraham could. With each dragging footstep up the side of the mountain, he must have had ringing in his ears both the promise and condemnation of God. There is no way to misunderstand the promise God had spoken while Isaac was still an infant: "It is through Isaac that your offspring shall be named" (Genesis 21:12).

But equally certain was the command-the damning command that any father would consider to be a condemnation worse than hell itself: "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:2). So much for confidence. So much for Christian life "on the sunny side of the street."

Through Abraham's eyes it could even seem that God is arbitrary, dishonest, unreliable, and downright cruel. St. Paul asked, "If God is for us, who can be against us" (Romans 8:31). But perhaps the better question for Abraham is this: "If God is against us, who can stand with us?"

Yet Abraham does not allow his own weakness to stand in the way of the Word of God. His confidence certainly must have been shaken because he is as human and as fraught with weakness as are any of us. Surely his prayer must have been similar to that of the psalmist, "Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servant" (Psalm 90:13).

Confidence-even godly confidence-is often something perceived within the self. Yet because of all of that other stuff that is within-our weaknesses, our inborn sin, our natural desires to rebel against God-the perception of confidence can be easily lost. Because we are people with fallen emotions, and because emotions run up and down like a roller-coaster, our internal sense of confidence does the same. One minute we can face any enemy, the next minute we are exposed and vulnerable and easily overcome.

Abraham knows that confidence has a foundation, and that foundation is the certain Word and promise of God. There is only one way for him to reconcile the promise that Isaac would be the father of his grandchildren with the command to sacrifice the same. He trusts in God. He trusts in God's promise-not in his ability to make sense of it, not in his own sense of what is fair and just and right. Abraham has certainty even when he has no perception of confidence.

You can almost hear Abraham's thoughts: Yes, it seems that God has made me His enemy. It seems that He has treated me with cruelty and malice, first giving me the son I have so desperately wanted, now taking him away again. But even though "my heart melts like wax within me" (Psalm 22:14) I cannot escape the certainty that God does not contradict Himself. I am lost, I am abandoned, but I go on knowing that "nothing is impossible with God" (1:37), not even the necessity of death, on the one hand, and the promise of life, on the other.

Dear friends, hear what is written in the book of Hebrews: "By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.' Abraham reckoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death" (Hebrews 11:17-19).

So what of those daily terrors you face in this dark world in which you live? What of those Monday temptations and challenges and weaknesses and fears that so easily strip you of your Sunday confidence and energy? Know this Christian: there is certainty to be found in the external Word and promise of God. Understand well that your heavenly Father knows you and cares for you, even when it seems He is far away from you.

Hear what the apostle Paul says, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1 Corinthians 10:13). God is for you-who can stand against you? "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up" (Romans 8:32) for you understands exactly who you are and what you need.

In fact, God loves you so greatly that He carried out His own command-that damning command any father would consider to be a condemnation worse than hell itself:

He sacrificed His Son, His only Son, the One whom He loves.

It is solely by the Word of promise carried out in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, that same Christ is Risen, it is in that glorious good news where you have your certainty. And this is more than sufficient.