Mothers Of Messiah-Sarah Series

Mothers of Messiah-Sarah

(Based on a message preached Sunday morning, May 11, 2025 at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO. This is not an exact transcription.

(Full disclosure: Sermon Central previously accepeted a message based on this passage, titled “Abraham: Good News and Good Laughs?” but this message focuses more on Sarah. It is definitely not a copy and paste of the previous message)

Introduction: Today is Mother’s Day Sunday, and I believe one of the best ways to honor every mother is to mention one of them who was in the direct line of Messiah Jesus! That mother was Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and she was one of the few truly mothers of miracle babies!

Sarah is known for something else, too, but that’s something we’ll see later in this message.

The text comes from Genesis chapter 18, verses 1 through 15.

Preface: Ministering to the Three Visitors

Text: Genesis 18:1-8, KJV: 1 And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; 2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, 3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: 4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: 5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. 7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it. 8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

We need to begin at verse 1 because that verse sort of or pretty much sets the stage for the rest of this story. Chapters 12-17 of Genesis contain several episodes or encounters in the life of Abraham and Sarah (then known as Abram and Sarai). Now, Abraham is 99 years of age and Sarah, ten years younger at 89. It goes without saying that neither one of them would be physically able to become parents, even though Sarah had basically engineered a “Plan B”, which God never blessed nor approved. Hagar was Sarah’s slave girl but she was promoted, we might say, to become Abraham’s second wife.

The result? Ishmael, then; plus thousands of years of strife between Ishmael’s descendants and Abraham’s, through Isaac. But God wasn’t done with Abraham and Sarah, and when God promised a child with Sarah, God was going to fulfill that promise.

Eventually, the LORD Himself and two other Visitors (their identities remain concealed) paid a visit to Abraham. Mamre was near Hebron, in the southern part of Canaan, and Abraham had more or less settled there. These three Visitors arrived “in the heat of the day” which would probably between 12 and 3 p.m. Moses wrote that when Abraham saw the Visitors, he promptly arranged some first-class hospitality as described in the text (verses 1-8). Sarah had a part in this, kneading “three measures of fine meal (“measure” comes from the Hebrew word “seah”, according to https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5429.htm)”, which seems to be a fairly large amount of grain or flour. Ellicott’s commentary on this verse contains a recipe, of sorts, as to how Sarah might prepare the bread (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/genesis/18.htm). Abraham didn’t ask Sarah to prepare and bake just, say, a pan of biscuits or rolls but enough for a feast!

Now the meal is over and the Three Visitors have something important to say.

And now, the focus begins to be on Sarah.

1 Sarah listened to the Visitors

Text, Genesis 18:9-10, KJV: 9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. 10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.

One of the Three Visitors asked Abraham, “Where’s Sarah, your wife?” and he replied, “She’s in the tent.” It’s not mentioned here, but some tents in Bible days seemed to be rather large. Some of the commentators and study aids describe how some tents had a more or less “women’s only” section or “apartment”, as was the custom of those days. Or, as Ellicott observed, Sarah may have been in her own tent (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/judges/4.htm).