Arc Of The Covenant
Sermon
From This Day Forward
First Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter
James Gilmour was a missionary to Mongolia and was asked to treat some wounded soldiers. He was not a doctor, but he did know how to give first aid. He dressed the wounds of two of the men, but the third had a badly broken thigh bone. Gilmour didn't know what to do, so he knelt by the man and prayed for help, knowing that God would answer.
As he pondered what to do next, a crowd of beggars came by asking for money. Though preoccupied with the wounded men, his heart went out to the needy paupers. Hurriedly, he gave them a few coins and some words of loving concern. A moment later he stared in amazement at one weary beggar who had remained behind. The starving man was little more than a living skeleton. The missionary suddenly realized that the Lord had brought him a walking lesson in human anatomy.
Gilmour asked the man if he might examine him. Carefully he traced his finger over the area corresponding to the wounded man and set the fracture. God had answered his prayer in an amazing way!
On Ash Wednesday we looked inside ourselves and pondered our unfaithfulness to God. Today we celebrate the faithfulness of God. Just as he was faithful to the request of missionary Gilmour, so God was faithful to another man many thousands of years ago. Our text is the familiar story of the morning after the deluge Noah and his family endured. God speaks to Noah and establishes a covenant with him and all his descendants and all life on the earth.
First, the past faithfulness of God is demonstrated in how he dealt with righteous Noah. If I were God, (it's a good thing I'm not!), I would not have saved even one family when the earth was so wicked and "every inclination of the thoughts of (man's) heart were only evil all the time" (Genesis 6:5). I would have very cleanly dispatched a plague that destroyed all the people on the earth and then started over. No one would have ever known. In fact, I would not have let the world regress as badly as it did -- I would have started over immediately after Noah's predecessors ate the fruit which they were forbidden. Yet, God looked with mercy upon one family.
Second, God's present faithfulness is demonstrated in the agreement God made with Noah as he exited the ark. God required nothing from him or his descendants. God thought up the agreement, cut it with Noah, and declared it to be so. Yes, this man with great cabin fever had set up an altar, but only in thanks to his Creator for preserving his life. This was a one-sided covenant, a gift from the hand of a more-than-faithful God. Later on God's covenants required man's commitment to affirm something, do something, give something. Here God says, "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you" (v. 1).
Third, God's faithfulness is demonstrated in a promise. There will never be a worldwide flood again. And we know God has kept his word. There has never even been a whole country flood since Noah's day. Could God have flooded the whole earth? Yes, because he's that powerful. But no, because "God is not man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19). Why did God promise and fulfill this promise? It is because God is merciful and faithful to James Gilmour, to Noah, and to you!
Felix of Nola was a Christian saint from the early church. Once, when persecution broke out, he had to flee from his enemies who wanted to kill him. As he fled he crawled into a cave to escape. As he prayed and lay in the darkness, spiders wove their webs across the narrow entrance. When his enemies came near, they noticed the webs and continued on, thinking he couldn't possibly be in there. Felix said, "When God isn't there, a wall is only like a spider's web. When God is there, a spider's web is like a wall!"
God not only spoke of his faithfulness, but also gave proof of what he promised. Like the spider's web of protection for Felix, the rainbow in the sky was assurance that God would take care of Noah and all his descendants. Imagine what Noah saw when they opened the door to the ark after more than a year on board. Dead creatures everywhere. Half carcasses used as food by flying animals. Total devastation and land formation shifts. Then they looked up. Mrs. Noah got out her camera to record it for posterity. The grandchildren ran to find the end of it and the pot of gold. One of Noah's sons began to write the meteorological manual on how a rainbow is formed. And Noah kept on shoveling manure, right? Are you kidding?
They'd never seen such a beautiful sight before. Imagine what memories, trepidation, and reflections on God's faithfulness went through their minds each time in the months and years to come when they saw another arc similar to the one that first encircled their ark. "O Lord, you don't just say it, you do it! You give signs and wonder to back up your word. You never fail." Talk about great family devotions with an object lesson included. "I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."
God still gives us signs and wonders, marks of his covenant with us. The covenant he makes with us in baptism is a sign of his wonderful faithfulness to us. He even speaks of it in the context of the story of Noah. "God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you" (1 Peter 3:20-21). Just as the ark kept the family safe through the waters to the rainbow on the other side, so God takes his children through the waters of salvation to give them the ever-arching rainbow of the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit is more than an atmospheric phenomenon!
The other sign and wonder is not found under the sun and raindrops, but under the bread and wine. God's faithfulness is demonstrated each time we partake of Holy Communion. What if God only said there would never be a global flood again? We can believe all he says, but the sign serves to reassure humankind even more. What if God only said, "Your sins are forgiven"? He means that, but he knows that human beings are programmed in such a way to need proof. So what did he do? He gave us tangible, physical evidence of his presence and power. Here's the way to think of it: What if your spouse pledged her love and faithfulness to you on your wedding day ten years ago. You have a good relationship, but she has not touched, caressed, or stroked you since the wedding night. She still says she loves you! Would you start to doubt her love? Of course. Probably nine years and eleven months and 29 days ago? God cherishes us continually like a newlywed. He touches and caresses us, his bride, in the holy meal so we have no doubt that he is for us! What a sign! How wonderful!
Baptism. Holy Communion. Noah's rainbow. All signs of God's faithfulness. What are some other rainbows that have been seen through the ages? The French philosopher Voltaire predicted that Christianity would be swept from existence within 100 years. Yet just fifty years after he died in 1779, the German Bible Society had occupied Voltaire's house and used his printing press to produce stacks of Bibles.
Another flood came during World War II when Adolf Hitler erected a massive stone structure in Monte Carlo to house a radio station from which to broadcast Nazi propaganda into North Africa. A rainbow shines today because from that very building, Trans World Radio beams the good news of Jesus' salvation all across Europe and into Russia and Africa!
I wonder if people really know today what a rainbow represents. It's not just light falling on a spray of water against a dark background, but a sign from God of his unending trustworthiness. The greatest proof of God's unending commitment to us is the rainbow in the form of a cross, high on a hill encircling all humankind. From Calvary shines forth God's everlasting covenant declaring, "I, the Lord, do not change" (Malachi 3:6) in the freedom from sin and death I offer to those who will come under the shadow of my rainbow and be washed in its blood red color! Just as God said to Noah, "Whenever the rainbow appear in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant"(v. 16), so throughout this age God sees the cross with his Son nailed to it. That's how long his mercy shall prevail for sinners.
Until eternity we will be reminded of God's faithfulness and even then we will worship him around the throne for this faithfulness, for Revelation says, "At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne" (Revelation 4:2-3).
The next time you see a rainbow be assured that the pot of gold at the end of it is God's eternal faithfulness!
As he pondered what to do next, a crowd of beggars came by asking for money. Though preoccupied with the wounded men, his heart went out to the needy paupers. Hurriedly, he gave them a few coins and some words of loving concern. A moment later he stared in amazement at one weary beggar who had remained behind. The starving man was little more than a living skeleton. The missionary suddenly realized that the Lord had brought him a walking lesson in human anatomy.
Gilmour asked the man if he might examine him. Carefully he traced his finger over the area corresponding to the wounded man and set the fracture. God had answered his prayer in an amazing way!
On Ash Wednesday we looked inside ourselves and pondered our unfaithfulness to God. Today we celebrate the faithfulness of God. Just as he was faithful to the request of missionary Gilmour, so God was faithful to another man many thousands of years ago. Our text is the familiar story of the morning after the deluge Noah and his family endured. God speaks to Noah and establishes a covenant with him and all his descendants and all life on the earth.
First, the past faithfulness of God is demonstrated in how he dealt with righteous Noah. If I were God, (it's a good thing I'm not!), I would not have saved even one family when the earth was so wicked and "every inclination of the thoughts of (man's) heart were only evil all the time" (Genesis 6:5). I would have very cleanly dispatched a plague that destroyed all the people on the earth and then started over. No one would have ever known. In fact, I would not have let the world regress as badly as it did -- I would have started over immediately after Noah's predecessors ate the fruit which they were forbidden. Yet, God looked with mercy upon one family.
Second, God's present faithfulness is demonstrated in the agreement God made with Noah as he exited the ark. God required nothing from him or his descendants. God thought up the agreement, cut it with Noah, and declared it to be so. Yes, this man with great cabin fever had set up an altar, but only in thanks to his Creator for preserving his life. This was a one-sided covenant, a gift from the hand of a more-than-faithful God. Later on God's covenants required man's commitment to affirm something, do something, give something. Here God says, "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you" (v. 1).
Third, God's faithfulness is demonstrated in a promise. There will never be a worldwide flood again. And we know God has kept his word. There has never even been a whole country flood since Noah's day. Could God have flooded the whole earth? Yes, because he's that powerful. But no, because "God is not man that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?" (Numbers 23:19). Why did God promise and fulfill this promise? It is because God is merciful and faithful to James Gilmour, to Noah, and to you!
Felix of Nola was a Christian saint from the early church. Once, when persecution broke out, he had to flee from his enemies who wanted to kill him. As he fled he crawled into a cave to escape. As he prayed and lay in the darkness, spiders wove their webs across the narrow entrance. When his enemies came near, they noticed the webs and continued on, thinking he couldn't possibly be in there. Felix said, "When God isn't there, a wall is only like a spider's web. When God is there, a spider's web is like a wall!"
God not only spoke of his faithfulness, but also gave proof of what he promised. Like the spider's web of protection for Felix, the rainbow in the sky was assurance that God would take care of Noah and all his descendants. Imagine what Noah saw when they opened the door to the ark after more than a year on board. Dead creatures everywhere. Half carcasses used as food by flying animals. Total devastation and land formation shifts. Then they looked up. Mrs. Noah got out her camera to record it for posterity. The grandchildren ran to find the end of it and the pot of gold. One of Noah's sons began to write the meteorological manual on how a rainbow is formed. And Noah kept on shoveling manure, right? Are you kidding?
They'd never seen such a beautiful sight before. Imagine what memories, trepidation, and reflections on God's faithfulness went through their minds each time in the months and years to come when they saw another arc similar to the one that first encircled their ark. "O Lord, you don't just say it, you do it! You give signs and wonder to back up your word. You never fail." Talk about great family devotions with an object lesson included. "I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."
God still gives us signs and wonders, marks of his covenant with us. The covenant he makes with us in baptism is a sign of his wonderful faithfulness to us. He even speaks of it in the context of the story of Noah. "God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you" (1 Peter 3:20-21). Just as the ark kept the family safe through the waters to the rainbow on the other side, so God takes his children through the waters of salvation to give them the ever-arching rainbow of the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit is more than an atmospheric phenomenon!
The other sign and wonder is not found under the sun and raindrops, but under the bread and wine. God's faithfulness is demonstrated each time we partake of Holy Communion. What if God only said there would never be a global flood again? We can believe all he says, but the sign serves to reassure humankind even more. What if God only said, "Your sins are forgiven"? He means that, but he knows that human beings are programmed in such a way to need proof. So what did he do? He gave us tangible, physical evidence of his presence and power. Here's the way to think of it: What if your spouse pledged her love and faithfulness to you on your wedding day ten years ago. You have a good relationship, but she has not touched, caressed, or stroked you since the wedding night. She still says she loves you! Would you start to doubt her love? Of course. Probably nine years and eleven months and 29 days ago? God cherishes us continually like a newlywed. He touches and caresses us, his bride, in the holy meal so we have no doubt that he is for us! What a sign! How wonderful!
Baptism. Holy Communion. Noah's rainbow. All signs of God's faithfulness. What are some other rainbows that have been seen through the ages? The French philosopher Voltaire predicted that Christianity would be swept from existence within 100 years. Yet just fifty years after he died in 1779, the German Bible Society had occupied Voltaire's house and used his printing press to produce stacks of Bibles.
Another flood came during World War II when Adolf Hitler erected a massive stone structure in Monte Carlo to house a radio station from which to broadcast Nazi propaganda into North Africa. A rainbow shines today because from that very building, Trans World Radio beams the good news of Jesus' salvation all across Europe and into Russia and Africa!
I wonder if people really know today what a rainbow represents. It's not just light falling on a spray of water against a dark background, but a sign from God of his unending trustworthiness. The greatest proof of God's unending commitment to us is the rainbow in the form of a cross, high on a hill encircling all humankind. From Calvary shines forth God's everlasting covenant declaring, "I, the Lord, do not change" (Malachi 3:6) in the freedom from sin and death I offer to those who will come under the shadow of my rainbow and be washed in its blood red color! Just as God said to Noah, "Whenever the rainbow appear in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant"(v. 16), so throughout this age God sees the cross with his Son nailed to it. That's how long his mercy shall prevail for sinners.
Until eternity we will be reminded of God's faithfulness and even then we will worship him around the throne for this faithfulness, for Revelation says, "At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne" (Revelation 4:2-3).
The next time you see a rainbow be assured that the pot of gold at the end of it is God's eternal faithfulness!
