TA continues our series, Year of the Word, by covering a large part of “the beginnings” of creation and of a people called out by the Lord to take part in his Kingdom plan of redemption.
Timothy "TA" Ateek • Jan 12, 2025
How Leviticus Reveals God's Heart and Points to Jesus | Leviticus 1-27Timothy "TA" Ateek • Feb 2, 2025 |
How God's Rescue Plan Points to Christ | Exodus 1-40Timothy "TA" Ateek • Jan 26, 2025 |
Moses and the Burning Bush | Exodus 3-4:12Kylen Perry • Jan 19, 2025 |
God's Redemption Plan | Genesis 3-50Timothy "TA" Ateek • Jan 12, 2025 |
An Introduction to Year of the WordTimothy "TA" Ateek • Jan 5, 2025 |
Before we begin in God’s Word, remember this: The goal of studying God’s Word is to fall in love with Jesus and to allow Scripture to give us enough knowledge to flee to Christ. After every study, we should be asking ourselves, "How did that time make me think of the Lord differently? Did it help me love him more? And do I want to pursue Jesus even more?"
Today we are covering a large part of “the beginnings” of creation and of a people called out by the Lord to take part in his Kingdom plan of redemption. As we read the stories of Noah, Enoch, Abram, Melchizedek, Isaac, Judah, and Joseph we should be asking ourselves, “is this person who is going to be the one who crushes the head of the serpent” as promised in Genesis 3:15 or should we be looking for another yet to come?
The story of redemption has at least 5 main threads in today’s passage that as we ponder them we begin to learn even more about Yahweh’s character, his love and his grace poured out to us His Creation.
If you are here for the first time, what you need to know is, starting January 1, we've been in what we're calling the Year of the Word where we've been inviting the entire church to journey through the entire Bible. We are reading through the entire Bible together. Coincidentally, this past Friday, January 10, was National Quitting Day. The second Friday of every January is the day when people give up on their New Year's resolutions.
For you, you might have quit the Year of the Word. If that was you, good news: I am declaring January 13 "National Restarting Day." So you can jump back in. It's a good time to jump back in. Starting tomorrow, we'll be in a new book, the book of Exodus. So it is a natural time to jump back in.
Now, some of you type-A people are behind, and you're like, "I'm going to catch up. I can do it. I'm going to catch up. TA, you have told us to start every Monday with where the church is, but no. I'm committed to catching up." You keep falling farther and farther behind, but you're like, "It's going to happen." Look. Could we just not do that? Would you let it go?
If that's you, if you're committed to catching up, that's fine, but here's all I'm going to say. If every day you feel a little bit of shame that you're that far behind, feel a little bit like a failure that you're not caught up, is it worth it? Is it really worth it? If Jesus were to sit down with you at coffee, what do you think his message would be to you?
Do you think he'd be like, "Dude, suck it up, go to the coffee shop, and you're not leaving until you are all caught up. You are going to read every word to every line of every chapter until you're caught up, because this is all about you finishing. You're a finisher. You're not a quitter"? I think he would be like, "Hey, dude. Look. I know you. I made you, and I love that you're type A. That's such a blessing in so many spaces, but it's a liability right now. So let's loosen the grip. All right?" This is supposed to be a joy. We're doing this together. Year of the Word. Let's go, church. Okay? Okay.
Last week, I told you to think about the Bible kind of like a puzzle, because it kind of is. For so many people, it kind of feels like being handed a puzzle with no box top. You don't even know what the picture looks like that you're making. So, your relationship with the Bible is one where you kind of pick it up, and you're like, "Okay. James. Yeah, it's really practical. I really love James. That's great. Numbers? Okay, that's kind of a 'read it once and don't turn back.' It's that kind of thing." That can be the relationship.
What I was trying to do last week and what I'm going to do this week and all throughout the year… My goal is to show you the box top of the Bible. I want you to understand the Bible more than you've ever understood it. You'll see it clearly. You'll understand what it's about. Do you know what's interesting? When my family finished putting together this puzzle of the state of Texas… We put it together on our kitchen table. We kind of needed it back.
Once you complete a puzzle, there's not much more to do with it. You just snap a picture of it, and then you pick it up and put it back in the box. That's it. It's the exact opposite with the Bible. When you finally see the box top, when you fully understand the picture of the Bible, you spend the rest of your life discovering all of the beautiful intricacies of Scripture.
Even this morning, I was looking back at what all was on this puzzle. It's a picture of the state of Texas, and it's very busy. I told you last week, you have Willie Nelson down in Austin. You have the Alamo in San Antonio. You have Big Tex here in Dallas. But I looked more closely, and there were things on here I didn't even notice when we were making the puzzle, like, the fake Prada store in Marfa is on this thing.
The Big Texan Steak Ranch that has the 72-ouncer in Amarillo is on here. There are some F1 cars to represent Circuit of the Americas in Austin. I was so surprised. There are so many intricate things on this map. That's the way the Bible is. You can spend the rest of your life exploring the beautiful intricacies of it.
So, my hope for you is that, over time, you are going to develop a new appreciation, but let's be clear. The goal isn't just completion. The goal is that in completing reading the Bible, completion would lead to comprehension. But we don't want to just land at comprehension where you understand the Bible more than you've ever understood it; we want comprehension to lead to appreciation, that you would find yourself enjoying and appreciating God and his Word more than ever before. But we don't want to stop there. We want completion to lead to comprehension, which leads to appreciation, which leads to transformation.
I want to be clear. If you want to ratchet up your relationship with Jesus, if you want to take new ground in 2025 with Jesus, if you want to be close and tight and intimate with Jesus, I assure you it will not be possible apart from knowing him through his Word. God has given us his Word so we can know him. The Bible is about Jesus. God has given us the Bible so we can know Jesus. Jump in with us. Come along for the journey.
Let me remind you what we established last week. If you want to take a big step in your understanding of the Bible, you need to remember one name, four movements, and one question. If you just want to take a step in understanding, it's one name, four movements, and one question. The Bible mentions a bunch of names, but from start to finish, the Bible is really promoting one name: Jesus.
The Bible tells many stories, but the Bible, from start to finish, is really just telling one story, and that story is comprised of four movements: creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. One name, four movements, and one question. The Bible answers a bunch of questions, but the Bible, from start to finish, is really just seeking to answer one question: How can sinful human beings be acceptable to and together with a holy God?
Last week, we covered three of the four movements of the story of the Bible. We covered creation, fall, and new creation. Today, and for the rest of the year, we are going to be journeying through the movement of redemption, God's rescue of humanity. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Genesis, chapter 3. We're just studying Genesis 3-50 today. That's it.
Last week, I mentioned a book called Christ from Beginning to End by Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum. That book has allowed me to see with fresh eyes just how beautiful the Scriptures are. As I've sought to be helpful to you, that book has been so helpful to me. So, if you're a reader, I would highly recommend it.
We're looking at the movement of redemption. I want to tell you this message today is going to flow a little bit differently than most talks do, because it's going to take us a while before we get to any points. For a little bit, we're just going to journey through the story together. Where we start is in Genesis 3.
If you remember where we left off last week, we left off with God driving Adam and Eve out of the garden, but one thing we didn't mention last week is God actually drops an Easter egg in Genesis, chapter 3. Do you know what an Easter egg is? It's that hidden thing you don't know to look for, but it's there in movies. God drops an Easter egg in Genesis 3:15.
God is cursing the Serpent, because Satan in the form of the Serpent just deceived the first human beings. God says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Scholars refer to this as the protoevangelium. Proto means the first form of something. It's like prototype. This is the first form of the gospel in the Bible. Think about it this way.
Satan, in the form of the Serpent, has just deceived Adam and Eve. Satan is probably thinking at this point that he won. He's like, "Hey, mission accomplished. The people whom God instructed to rule over the earth are now being ruled by sin. Game over. I won." God is like, "Hey, let me enlighten you. War is coming, because there is offspring that's actually going to come from the woman…that means it's going to be someone in human form…who is going to bruise your head, or crush your head." How do you take a snake out? You go for the head.
God is saying, "There is one coming from the woman who is going to crush your head." Fast-forward to the New Testament. John says in 1 John 3:8, "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." Jesus is a serpent crusher, yet it would not be a painless blow. God says, "He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel." So it won't be a painless blow. How did Jesus conquer Satan, sin, and death? By appearing to be conquered. He was crucified like a criminal, and then he rose from the dead in victory on the third day.
So, what Genesis 3:15, this little Easter egg, tells us is that God will not let the human race be destroyed. One is coming who is going to undo what Adam and Eve did in the garden. There is one coming who's going to reverse the effects of the fall. So, when we read the Bible now, we should read it looking for the serpent crusher.
Like, when we turn the page from chapter 3 to chapter 4, we should be looking. "Who is it going to be? Is the Bible just going to be four chapters long? Is it more the size of a pamphlet or are we looking at a long story here?" We don't know, but we just know we are looking for the one who is going to reverse the effects of the fall.
You turn the page to Genesis, chapter 4, and what do you see? Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel. The question you should be asking when you read is, "Is it one of them? Is the offspring of the woman going to be Cain or Abel? Which one is going to reverse the fall and crush the head of the Serpent?" Well, what happens? You get the first recorded murder. Cain kills Abel. It's not going to be either of them. What we see is that the infection of sin that had infiltrated Adam and Eve is hereditary, and it has spread to their offspring, Cain and Abel.
Then you keep reading Genesis, chapter 4, and one of Cain's offspring, Lamech, says something so weird. In Genesis 4:23, he says, "I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold." He's saying, "I kill people better than Cain kills people." Okay. What's the point? Sin is infecting. It's spreading. It's spreading to all of Adam and Eve's descendants.
Then you turn the page to chapter 5 and get the first genealogy in the Bible. These are the chapters we normally cruise right past. We skip over them because they're just a bunch of names, but chapter 5 is really important, because you see everyone in the genealogy except one person has the same fate. What's their fate? Death. "[So-and-so] lived and died. [So-and-so] lived and died." Only one person doesn't die. It's Enoch. God just takes him away. That's kind of a cool exit. What's the point? As sin is spreading, so is death. The consequences of sin in the garden have infiltrated the world.
Then you get to Genesis, chapter 6, and we're still looking. "Who's it going to be?" Genesis 6:5: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Verse 11: "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence."
This is not good news. We're looking for the serpent crusher, the one who's going to reverse the effects of the fall, and what do we see? Sin has infected all of humanity. All of humanity is thoroughly corrupted by sin. Yet, you have Genesis 6:8-9. It says, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Okay. That's good news. This could be it. This could be the guy. "These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man…" Okay. Check. That's really good news. "…blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God." Awesome.
Noah is doing all God tells him to do. If only Adam had done that. Maybe this is the guy. So, what does God do? He hits the reset button on all of humanity. We get that sweet, cute children's story where God destroys humanity, wipes everyone out, and starts over. It's a form of a new creation. Then in Genesis 9:1… I don't know if you notice the wording. It says, "And God blessed Noah…" That's important.
The blessing of God in the book of Genesis is very important, because God came to Adam and Eve, and it says he blessed them. Now we see God's blessing coming to Noah even though the curse had come upon Adam and Eve. "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.'" Which is the exact same commandment God had given to Adam and Eve.
It's almost like God is starting over. This is it. This feels like God is doing a completely new work, new creation, crushing the head of the Serpent, reversing the effects of the fall. But what do we see just a little bit later in the same chapter, Genesis 9? We see Noah drunk in his tent and naked. He's infected with the same sin. He was righteous, but not righteous enough. He's not the guy.
Noah's family begins to multiply, and then you get Genesis 11, which is that famous story of the Tower of Babel. It's all of Noah's descendants. And what do we see them do? They do the exact opposite of what God has told them to do. God's command is "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth." What does that mean? "Spread out."
They're like, "Okay. God wants us to spread out. We're not going to do that. We're all going to get in one place together. We're going to do the opposite of what God commands. God wants us to make a great name for him. Nope. We're going to try to make a great name for ourselves. God wants us to spread wide. No, we're going to go up. We're going to try to build a structure to heaven, because we don't need God. We actually feel like we can be god."
What do we see again? All of humanity is living in rebellion against God, infected by sin. Genesis 10, right before the Tower of Babel, actually coincides with Genesis 11. They're actually kind of out of order. Genesis 10 is known as the Table of Nations. It is the result of the Tower of Babel where God created ethnicities and languages. God creates different nations.
So, after the Tower of Babel, the question we should be asking ourselves now is…If a serpent crusher is coming, if there is one who is coming who is going to reverse the effects of the fall… Our eyes have been on all of humanity, but now the question should be…Which nation will he come from? Then you turn the page to Genesis, chapter 12, and you get some of the most important words in the entire Bible.
"Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'"
This is amazing. I want you to understand what's happening here. God promises Abram three things: land, descendants, and blessing. He promises him land. Land has always been important to God since the garden of Eden. God's intention has always been to be with people in a place. The land of Canaan that God is promising to Abram is like a new Eden. It would be described as flowing with milk and honey, and the intention of God was for his people to be at rest in this place, experiencing his presence.
He also promises him descendants or a nation. He says, "I will make of you a great nation," which is really interesting, because with Adam and with Noah his command is "Be fruitful and multiply," but now God is like, "You know what? I'll do the multiplying. I'll be the one to make you a great nation. I will give you descendants."
Then he says, "In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed." So think about it. In Genesis 1 and 2, Adam and Eve receive the blessing of God. Then the curse comes. Then God blesses Noah. God has been blessing individuals, and now God comes to Abram, and he's saying, "A day is coming where all of the nations of the earth are going to know my blessing."
What's God doing here? He is taking our focus from humanity looking for the serpent crusher, looking for the one to reverse the effects of the fall, and he's zeroing our focus on a family that will very soon become a nation that we will focus on for the rest of the Old Testament. See, God is beginning to clarify who. Who are we looking for?
So, here's my question, to go back to the puzzle. Let's come up for air for a moment, because we've just been walking through the story. My question for you… If you're doing the reading plan with us, when you read Genesis 1-12, is that how you read it, or did you just read them like individual pieces?
Like, "Okay. I read the story of Adam and Eve. Read that one a lot. I get it. Okay. Read the story of them being deceived, eating fruit. There was that one. There's that story of Cain and Abel. Read that one before. Yeah, murder. Okay. I actually skip over the genealogy, chapter 5. Really not that important, but Genesis 6… Okay, yeah. There's that story of Noah. I know that one. Known that since I was a kid. Okay, there's that Tower of Babel story."
Are you reading them like that, just picking up individual pieces and putting them down, or are you putting pieces together; they're fitting together? I don't know if you're a big puzzle person. I don't know if I am yet. I've only done one in the last decade, but we'll see. I'll keep you posted. When my family was putting together this puzzle, there would be these bursts of momentum.
In a short period of time, you find one spot, and it's like, "Oh, yep, that goes there. Okay, yeah. All right. Yeah, this is happening." Over time, these pieces start coming together really quickly, so you have this whole spot on the puzzle. You're like, "Yeah! This is what I'm talking about. I'm a puzzle guy." Then you hit a stall where it's like, "I don't think I'm a puzzle guy. I don't know if I want to finish this thing," and you kind of stall out.
That's how the Bible is going to feel at times. Genesis is a time where you should hit a spurt where you hit flow. Now, maybe in Leviticus you kind of slow down. It's like, "Okay, I don't know about this." We'll get there, and we're going to make it beautiful for you. I'm just telling you, you're either viewing the Bible as individual pieces or you're starting to put these things together and it's beginning to take shape. That's what my hope is for you.
So, here's what I want you to see. Follow me on this. I want you to understand the book of Genesis. If you want one word that defines all of Genesis, it's the word beginnings. The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. The book of Genesis can be broken down into two sections: Genesis 1-11 and 12-50. Chapters 1-11 are the history of humanity and 12-50 are the history of a family. That's how the book breaks down.
Now, what I want you to see is Genesis is so foundational to the rest of the Bible, because in Genesis 12-50, what I'm about to show you is God is establishing what it is going to take for him to fully reverse the effects of the fall and restore the relationship between sinful humanity and a holy God. God is showing us five things his movement of redemption is grounded in. I want you to see these, because if you understand these things, you will know what to look for throughout the rest of the Bible.
1. God's unfathomable grace. I want you to listen to what the book of Joshua says about Abram, or Abraham. "And Joshua said to all the people, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac."'"
Do you know what that is? That's grace. God is like, "Okay. Look. A serpent crusher is coming. One from a woman is coming who's going to reverse the effects of the fall. Who am I going to do it through? I'm going to do it through the line of a pagan worshiper. I'm going to take a guy who's literally worshiping other gods, and I'm going to reach into his life, call him to myself, and I am going to save humanity through his line." That is unfathomable grace.
Think about it. If you're on the playground when you're a kid and you're a captain picking teams, who are you picking as your first pick? You're going with the best guy or girl out there. It doesn't matter who your crush is at that point. You never give the first pick to anyone other than the best one on the field.
God could choose anyone, and he's like, "You know what? I'm going to take this guy who doesn't even know me and is worshiping other gods, and I'm going to do something miraculous through him." That's grace. God makes these promises to Abraham, and then Genesis 15 is so important, because it's the ratification of the Abrahamic covenant.
What happens in that story, if you remember it, is God asks Abraham to bring these animals, and he cuts them in half. In the ancient Near East, when two people would make an agreement or a covenant with each other, they would bring animals, they would cut them in half, and then the two people would walk through the cut animals. It was a way to declare, "Hey, look. I know my responsibility, and I'm committed to fulfilling my responsibility, and if I don't fulfill my responsibility, let me become like one of these cut-in-half animals."
Who walks through the cut animals? Only God. What's Abraham doing? God knocked him out. He's asleep. God moves through the animals, symbolized by a smoking firepot. Do you know what that was? That was a declaration by God of "Hey, I am putting this thing on my shoulders. Everything that happens is going to be because I accomplish it. I am committed, and I will be faithful to do all that I have decided to do, and it's not going to be dependent upon man's faithfulness; it's going to be dependent upon my faithfulness." That is God's unfathomable grace.
You see this play out through the rest of Genesis. Abraham lies. Then his son Isaac lies, and Isaac resists God's plan by trying to bless Esau instead of Jacob. Jacob steals his brother's birthright and lies to his father. It's a family full of liars. Then you get to the end of Genesis, if you've been reading this past week, and you have Joseph, who is this savior figure. God uses him to save not only the family of Abraham but the Egyptians as well.
He's a savior-like figure, yet whose line does God bring Jesus through? Judah, one of Jacob's other sons, one of Joseph's brothers. Who was Judah? Judah was the guy who had the idea to sell Joseph into slavery. Judah was the guy who slept with his daughter-in-law, thinking she was a prostitute. It's unfathomable grace.
Then, all throughout the Old Testament, even after the nation of Israel repeatedly rebels against God, God preserves a remnant. Then, on the cross, Jesus looks at a thief and says, "Today you will be with me in paradise." You read the rest of the New Testament, and who did Jesus secure his salvation for? You and me. Start to finish, God's movement of redemption is grounded in his unfathomable grace.
Here's what you need to understand. There is no Christian on the planet who does not have a story of God's unfathomable grace. If your story is not a story of God's unfathomable grace, then you are not a Christian. I want to be clear about that. What do I mean by that? That sounds strong. Well, I look at my own story, and I'm amazed at God's grace in my own life.
I'm half Palestinian, and 98 percent of Palestinians are Muslims, yet my grandparents were godly people. They loved the Lord, so by God's grace, my dad is a Christian. He met my mom. I grew up with parents who know Jesus, and they chose to send me to a camp where I could hear the gospel clearly and responded.
My mom got invited to a women's Bible study at a church that taught the Bible and proclaimed the gospel. She took me with her, and I met people like Ken Lawrence and Brian Mountjoy who invested in me and helped me understand a relationship with Jesus more fully. Then I went to Texas A&M University where I met people like Brian Fisher and Reese Graves who invested in me further and helped me understand God's Word and what it looked like to live with him. It's God's grace.
Then, when I began to push back against God's ways, when I began to rebel against his ways, even as an intern here at Watermark… When I began to give myself over to sin in such a way that required me to step out of ministry here at Watermark for a season back in 2005, God wasn't done with me. He broke me down. He built me back up, and now he has put me back in a place to be in leadership here. Every part of it is God's unfathomable grace in my life.
You might hear that and be like, "I can't identify with you." You don't have some radical story. You grew up in the church. You kind of grew up a Christian. "I can't identify with you." What do you mean you can't identify with me? What do we have in common? God's unfathomable grace. Period. It doesn't matter what your story is. The source is the same: God.
You and I are where we are solely because of God's movement in our lives, his kindness to us. The reason I say there is no Christian who doesn't have a story of God's unfathomable grace… You're either a Christian because of your effort or because of God's lovingkindness and grace. It's one or the other. There are no boring testimonies; there are only boring ways of telling them.
2. God's unpredictably perfect plans. If you want to understand the rest of Genesis, the rest of the Bible, you should be reading it through the filter of consistently seeing God's unpredictably perfect plans unfold. Why do I say that? Because God is going to consistently defy human tradition and wisdom. God is going to save the world through Abraham's offspring, but he doesn't have any offspring. His wife is barren, but then she gets pregnant in her old age.
Sarah has Isaac, and then God asks Abraham to kill him. Isaac has Jacob and Esau, and God blesses the younger brother in a society that prizes the firstborn. Joseph gets sold into slavery, and that ends up being how God preserves Abraham's descendants in the midst of a famine. God is later going to take the nation of Israel to a dead end at the Red Sea. He's going to make David, the youngest of his family, to be the best king the nation has ever seen.
The Savior of the world is going to be born in a manger in a small, insignificant, Podunk town, and he's going to grow up as a carpenter. Most significantly, the Savior of the world would defeat death by first dying. The Bible is full of God's unpredictably perfect plans. Do you know what's cool? What God was doing in the Scriptures he's still doing today. God's unfathomable grace to Abraham is his unfathomable grace to you. His unpredictably perfect plans with Abraham and his family are his unpredictably perfect plans with you.
A couple of weekends ago, a friend of mine was scheduled to speak at an event here in Dallas, and that friend got sick. The event was on Saturday, and on the Friday before the Saturday, I got a message asking if I could fill in for this friend. I was like, "Okay. I can do that." So, I grab some guys from staff, and we drive down to downtown. There are about 1,000 college students. They decide to introduce me by reading the bio that's on Watermark's website, which I have not thought about in over three years.
So, I'm listening as they read it. They mention in it that I'm half Palestinian, and then they mention some other things, which prompted me to come to my assistant and say, "Yeah, we need to update my bio." But what's done is done. Then I speak, and right after I finish, I look at the guys who came with me and say, "Hey, let's go ahead and leave." So, we're walking out into the hallway, and this kid comes out after us.
He said, "Hey, you're half Palestinian?" I was like, "Yeah." He was like, "I'm from Iran." I was like, "Okay. Not that much connection. Same part of the world, but two totally different people. But sure. Yeah, I'm half Palestinian." Then he began to tell me… He said, "Look. I was abandoned when I was 3. I fled Iran. I've bounced around to different countries." At the age of 17, all on his own… He said, "I walked for 18 hours straight, no money, no food." Somehow, he ended up here.
He grew up in a country that was an Islamic country. He said, "I grew up with a resistance toward religion, and now I'm trying to figure out what I really believe." He was wrestling with "What is true?" For some reason, just hearing that I'm half Palestinian, he felt like I might be the guy who might be able to answer that for him. So, the two guys who came with me and another guy from the organization I was speaking for… We sat there and shared the gospel with this guy.
Then we asked him, "Hey, do you want to pray to receive Christ?" He said, "I do want to do that. Can I hold your hand?" I was like, "Sure, man. Same part of the world. All right. Here we go." He began to pray this prayer that I couldn't have begun to script. It was so evident, straight out of his heart, that this was a guy who had been on a physical journey and a spiritual journey, and in that moment, what this small group of people was getting to witness was God's unpredictably perfect plan.
After I got done, I messaged the friend who had gotten sick and said, "Hey, I know why you got sick. It's just so this one kid could hear my bio that somehow I'm half Palestinian, and God wanted me to be the one to be there so that would be a connection point and he could put his trust in Christ." That's how he works. So, I want to tell you, God is working in your life. Even if you can't see him working, even when you don't think he's doing something, he's doing something. God is consistently at work. How he was working with Abraham, he is still at work today.
3. God's intolerance of sin. The reason I'm showing you these things is what Genesis is doing is laying the foundation for how you should understand the rest of the Bible. Genesis shows us God's intolerance for sin. Yes, he hits the reset button. He floods the earth. He wipes out humanity and starts over, but then, did you see what happens with Sodom and Gomorrah? He wipes out entire cities. Why? He's continuing to show sinful humanity and a holy God cannot mix.
That's why he's going to end up judging the nation of Egypt with plagues in the book of Exodus. That's why his people, the nation of Israel, are going to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years until one generation dies off because of their unwillingness to trust God. That's why Israel and Judah will eventually be exiled because of their disobedience. That is ultimately why the wrath of God will be poured out on Jesus who became sin on our behalf. Why? Because God cannot tolerate sin. He'll judge all sin.
If you're a visitor here and have struggled with that word sin… If a Christian has looked at you and been like, "We're all sinners. You're a sinner, I'm a sinner," and something in you is like, "I'm not a sinner. I don't even know what that means," let me just break sin down for you. Think about sin this way. Sin is any thoughts, attitudes, words spoken, or actions taken that bring shame upon you or shame upon someone else.
It's any thoughts, attitudes, words spoken, or actions taken that imply that you don't need God because you're good on your own. It's cheating God out of what is rightfully his, which is the adoration and prioritization that only he deserves, and you give it to other things. All of those things the Bible would classify as sin. Sin is active rebellion against God, and God cannot tolerate sin. He will judge all sin. So you need to be clear. Either you will receive the just penalty for your sin or you will acknowledge that Jesus already received the just penalty for your sin.
4. God's divine provision. We see this in Abraham. Genesis 15:6 is a massive verse in the Bible. It says, "And he [Abraham] believed the Lord, and he [God] counted it to him as righteousness." Think about it. Noah was a righteous man, but he wasn't righteous enough. Now God goes another way. "Instead of righteousness being on you, I'm just going to give it to you, because you could never be righteous enough on your own." So he gives it to Abraham, which is what he gives to us in Christ: right standing with God.
Then you get Genesis, chapter 22, which is where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his one son Isaac. You have this really weird and awkward story where God calls a dad to kill his kid. It's like, "What?" Abraham makes his kid carry the wood he's going to strap him to, and you have this moment where Isaac looks at his dad and is like, "Hey, Dad, we've got the wood, we've got the fire, but we don't have the animal."
If you've read that story before, you know there's a ram in the thicket. The angel of the Lord says, "Stop," and then they end up putting the ram on and sacrificing that. We know to look at that ram as Jesus, a substitute, but what I really want you to see is Abraham's specific words back to Isaac when Isaac says, "Hey, we've got the wood, we've got the fire; we don't have the animal." Abraham says, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."
"God will provide for himself." Jesus shows up. John the Baptist sees him and says, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Why? Because God provided for himself the Lamb. Then, when you're reading through Romans 8, you read these words in 8:32: "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"
This is known as the great exchange. We talked about it on Christmas Eve. Our sin to him, his righteousness to us. This is what moved the needle for that kid from Iran. It was understanding how he, an imperfect person, could be made right with a perfect God. God doesn't just take away our sin; he gives us Christ's righteousness so we can receive not just his forgiveness but his love and delight, because when he sees us, he sees Christ.
5. God's global heart. What do we see? God says, "In you, all of the nations of the earth will be blessed." I want you to see something so crucial. Don't miss this. If you want to understand the Bible, here it is. You flip over to Galatians 3:16. It says, "Now the promises…" Which we just unpacked: land, descendants, and blessing. "…were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, 'And to offsprings,' referring to many, but referring to one, 'And to your offspring,' who is Christ."
Who's the offspring of Abraham? Christ. Who's the serpent crusher? Christ. Who's the one who came to reverse the fall? Christ. Now watch this. A few verses later, verses 28 and 29: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise."
The story of the Bible is actually the story of how you become part of Abraham's family. Here are synonyms for you. To be Abraham's offspring is to be in Christ. To be in Christ is to be a son or a daughter of God. That's what Christ has come to do. That's the story of Scripture. It's how you and I become a part of Abraham's family, which is ultimately God's family, which is in the person of Christ.
Today, we've been looking at the box top. The goal is for you to understand the story, but here's my question: What's your story? In light of the story, what's your story? Maybe you're here this morning just visiting, checking things out, and just like God reached into Abraham, a pagan worshiper's life and called Abraham to himself, maybe this morning some of you are sensing God, for the first time, is reaching into your life, saying, "I want you. I want a real relationship with you. I want you to know Christ. I want you to experience complete forgiveness today."
Maybe you're realizing that God cannot tolerate sin and there has been sin you've been tolerating, and it's time for you to agree with God about that sin. Or maybe it's just time for you to see your story for what it is. It is a testimony of God's unfathomable grace, so share it like that is what it is. There are no boring testimonies, only boring ways to share them. Share it like what it is, a testimony of God's unfathomable grace.
Maybe it's just experiencing gratitude in your heart that God is the one who has provided, or maybe even today God is putting something on your heart, saying, "Look. I want you to be a part of my story going to the end of the earth, to the nations," and God right now is doing something in you just to say, "Look. More people." There are 3.2 billion people who belong in that "All of the nations of the earth will be blessed," yet they're not experiencing the blessing of God right now, and he wants to use you to change that. What's your story? Let's pray together.
Lord, if there's anyone here this morning who doesn't know you, I pray they wouldn't leave until they do business with you. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you are the one who has come to make a way when there was no way for sinful human beings to be with a holy God. Thank you for your Word. Thank you that when all of the pieces come together, it's beautiful. It's something we can spend the rest of our lives exploring the intricacies of. I pray for the people in this room. I pray for the people who call this place home, that this year there would be more comprehension that leads to appreciation that leads to transformation. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen.
In 2025, we will be reading the whole Bible together in a year to help us abide deeply in Jesus.