He wiped the sweat from his brow and took another look around the desert that surrounded him. The Sun baked the ground into a rock like consistency and the reflected heat simmered like pools of cool water on the hard surface. It was going to be another scorcher. I’m getting too old for this type of work." he thought as he picked up his tools turning around and surveying his masterpiece, it was almost finished and it was ginenormous. one hundred and fifty metres long, 25 metres wide and fifteen metres highit was the biggest boat he had ever seen. As a matter of fact it was the only boat that he had ever seen.
His name was Noah and the Bible says that he was a righteous man. You know his story, you learned all about it in Sunday School.
But have you ever really thought about building a large, a very large boat in the middle of a country that had no major body of water and had never seen rain? It had to be an act of either insanity or faith and the Bible tells us that it was an act of faith because in Hebrews 11:7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.
The story goes back to Genesis 6 which was read to us this morning by Rob. God had decided to destroy the world because of it’s unrighteousness and the evil that had become so rampant and there was Noah standing face to faith. I wonder if any of us would have joined Noah in making it into the faith hall of fame, after all the people who are mentioned are simply ordinary people who did extraordinary things through the power of God, they were sure of what they hoped for and certain of what they did not see."
We went and saw Evan Almighty the other night and it was a funny movie, I know that some folks have had some theological problems with the movie but if you are going to the movies to get your theology you might be looking in the wrong place. Maybe you’ve seen some of the previews on TV or at the theatre, a brief synopsis. Evan Baxter is a Junior Congressman who prays that God will help him to change the world. And God takes him up on his request, commanding him to build an ark because of an impending flood, sound familiar? And compressed into an hour and half movie representing a total time span of several months Evan does what it took Noah considerably longer to do.
During the course of the movie we get some interesting glimpses at the ridicule that Evan faces as he deals with this seemingly ridiculous and Herculean task. Probably one of my favourite scenes is when Evan is explaining what he’s trying to do to his wife Joan. Clip #3
You all know the story of Noah and the Ark; everybody knows the story of Noah and the Ark. Even people who are vehemently nonchurched know the story of Noah and the ark. It is probably the best known story in the Old Testament and it is celebrated by everyone. You don’t find depictions of David and Goliath or Daniel in the Lion’s den in stores, but you can always find Noah or his boat. And people are always looking for the silly boat. Here’s a hint; even if they found the Ark in perfect condition tomorrow the sceptics would still disbelieve, and if they never find it the faithful would still believe. It was built out of wood and has been exposed to the elements for more than 5000 years, if they find it the miracle wouldn’t so much be the story of Noah as it will be the story of a wood boat that was still around after five millenniums, and I want some of that gopher wood for the next deck I build.
And so this morning the message isn’t about Evan and his story it’s about Noah and his story. The Evan thing was just a blatant ploy to get you here on the first long weekend of summer.
Story of a Boat I grew up around boats, my dad was a captain as was his father before him and his father before him. I have a hat that says skipper on it and that along with the 14 fourteen foot speed boat I have in NB means I’m keeping up family tradition. And I love stories about boats. As a boy I remember reading Two Years Before the Mast, Treasure Island and Billy Bud and the Horatio Hornblower books, and as a teen I read The Serpent’s Coil and Grey Seas Under. And so I’m a sucker for stories about boats and what a boat this was.
In the scripture that Rob read earlier this thing was 450 foot long, 75 foot wide and 45 foot high with three separate decks. Different folks have tried to capture what this would have looked like but they all end up looking a little bit like this.
A vessel this size didn’t exist outside of the book of Genesis until 1884 when the ocean liner Erturia was launched in Liverpool England by the Cunard Line.
Experts tell us that the rectangular dimensions of the Ark is indicative of an advanced design in ship-building. The fact that it was six times longer then it was wide and only 45 foot high would have made it incredible stable on the ocean and would have been virtually impossible to overturn. Kind of goes back to that comment that the Titantic was built by professionals and the ark was built by an amateur. Which is interesting, makes you wonder if God didn’t design it who in the middle of a desert would have.
And it didn’t have to be fast, where was it going? It was made more for floating than racing.
It’s kind of interesting when you compare the story of Noah and the Ark with the Babylonian myth about the great flood. In the Babylonian account the ark was described as a perfect cube that was 160 feet in all directions. It would have been a nightmare from the point of stability and would have spun in circles in the wind. But that’s what you would expect if the designer knew nothing about boat building.
Some interesting facts. The total interior deck space of Noah’s ark would have been over 100,000 sq feet compare that to a standard live stock rail car which is about 350 square feet and will hold 200 pigs or 120 sheep. So there would have been the equivalent of about 300 box cars, which would have been a train that was almost 4.5 kilometres long and would hold almost 36,000 sheep sized animals.
Story of Justice If you watch the movie Morgan Freeman playing God comments that the flood was a result of love, that everything is done because God loves us. And while that is kind of a warm fuzzy statement it’s not entirely accurate. The flood was the result of humanities sinfulness. If we go back to Genesis 6:11-12 we read Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt..
There is an interesting note in Hebrews 11 in the New Testament that tends to put the Judgement of God into perspective. Hebrews 11:7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.
Did you ever have a teacher in high school or college that graded on the curve? You know the theory that if a test was a good test and the teacher was a good teacher then the grades should fall along a bell curve. You’d have so many As and Fs, a few more Bs and Ds and the majority would fall in the C range. C being average and by it’s very definition most people are average, that’s what average is. And so a curve would end up looking something like this. However, if the test wasn’t a good test or the material wasn’t taught well enough the entire curve would move down and when that happened a professor who was committed to the entire curve thing would grade accordingly, and move the marks up. Is that somewhat clear?
The problem was when the curve was here, and one or two students still scored high, thus indicating that the problem wasn’t with the test or the teacher but with the students. And the prof wouldn’t move the marks. We referred to those people in the nicest possible way as curve blowers.
Noah was a curve blower. Had there not been a Noah then God could conclude that either he hadn’t taught the course properly or that the test was too hard. But if we go back to the book of Genesis we read in Genesis 6:9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.
Because Noah was righteous, because Noah was obedient, because Noah enjoyed a close relationship with God that was the evidence that it could be done, if people had a wanted to.
And if there are no consequences for disobeying the rules, then they aren’t rules they are just suggestions. It was Benjamin Disraeli, onetime Prime Minister or England who said, “Justice is truth in action.”
Think about what happened as Noah was building the ark? This puppy was 450 foot long, 75 foot wide and 45 foot high. I’m sure that people asked, “So Noah what are you doing?” “I’m building a boat.” “How come, we live in the middle of the desert.” And then Noah would proceed to tell them what God had told him, but there’s no record of mass conversions or for that matter unmass conversion. By the time the ark was finished even though people would have been aware of what was going to happen, they continued in their evil ways.
And here my friends is the application for today, God is still just, and he still requires obedience, remember John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.
The promise of God’s justice reminds us that in the end justice will be served. Sometimes we stand and look at the world and history and wonder where all the evil fits into it, and if God is a just God why doesn’t he do something. Well He will. In the end Justice will be served, and as Solomon wrote in Proverbs 21:15 Justice is a joy to the godly, but it terrifies evildoers. In the end the Hitlers the Stalins, the Charles Mansons the 9/11 terrorsits and the Henry Morgentalers will have to answer for their evil.
Two hundred years ago Thomas Jefferson wrote in regards to the United Sates “I tremble for our country when I reflect that God is just.” Two hundred years down the road when we look at what is happening around us we understand what was meant by the man who said “God will either have to bring judgement on our country or dig up Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize.”
Story of Grace So first there is Justice, God will not be mocked, the evildoers will not escape punishment. And I know that there are folks out there who are thinking yes, that’s what we need is justice. I’m not so sure, Margaret Atwood said “Never pray for justice, because you might get some.”
When you cheer the fact that God will judge sinners keep in mind Margaret Atwood said “Never pray for justice, because you might get some.” Remember what Mark Twain said “Heaven goes by favour; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” Justice by it’s very definition is getting what we deserve. Mercy is getting less then what we deserve and Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. And so we are like the lady who goes into the beauty salon and says “Do me justice when really what she wants is grace.” Grace means the free, unmerited, unexpected love of God, and all the benefits, delights, and comforts which go with it. It means that even though we are sinners God treats us as children and heirs.
Why? Because even though it’s justice that we deserve listen to what God’s word says in Ephesians 2:8-9 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. You might recognize it from the NKJV Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
And so we have the promise of God’s grace in our lives.
Story of Provision How many of you have pets? How often do you buy pet food? Noah had to feed all the animals in the Ark for over a year and there’s only one line in Genesis that says Genesis 6:21 And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.”
I wonder if Noah knew how long they would be in the ark. I wonder if he was able to store enough water, I know it rained for forty days and forty nights, but then it stopped, and they were in the ark for another eleven months. I’m going to take a wild guess and make the assumption that a miracle had to have happened here to keep this menagerie fed for over a year. But I wonder if Noah wondered why the food never ran out?
God still provides for us today, but I wonder if we ever give God the credit for His provision? How about the promise of God in Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
The promise of God’s provision is still with us today. And I know that we don’t get everything we want, but the question is do we get everything we need? Of course define need.
Occasionally I have to deliver a food basket or some funds to a “needy” family who desperately needs food. They call me from their phone, which if I need to call them back they know who it is because they have caller id, when I get to the apartment I choke on the smell of cigarette smoke and they don’t hear me when I knock because they are too busy watching cable on their colour TV, ok. Not always but enough to make me a little jaded.
In 1981 I was trying to finish off my private pilots license and prayed “Oh God please provide for this need in my life.” In the fall I still didn’t have my license and reminded God of my prayer and his promise and he pointed to the car I bought during the summer. “But God” I cried “I needed that car.” Uh-huh and what about the seventy percent of the students at the college that didn’t have a car.
I’ve mentioned before when I went to college one of my best friends was a good old boy from Louisiana, and Mike would pray “Lord, you know my needs, I’m broke I have no soap or shampoo or toothpaste and no money for a social life.” The next week he would get a box in the mail with soap, shampoos, toothpaste and twenty bucks, American. That was kind of cool, so I prayed “Lord, you know my needs, I’m broke I have no soap or shampoo or toothpaste and no money for a social life.” And the next week, sure enough I got. . . a job. Which one of us did God provide for? Both of us, just in different ways.
I’m trying to make you understand that God has promised that He will provide for you and he does on a daily basis and very seldom do we stop and say “Wow, without God I wouldn’t have. . . whatever.” And understand that there are times that God provides for our needs and we spend it on our wants, and then try to blame Him.
A Story of Deliverance You understand that God saved the lives of Noah and his family, if it hadn’t been for God’s deliverance it would have been Aqua La Vista, But there came a time that they had to die. Kind of like the whole healing thing, yes I believe that God heals, but you gotta die sometime.
Here’s another promise of deliverance John 8:51 I tell you the truth, anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!”You like that? Oh I know Christians die, if we didn’t we wouldn’t be able to stem the flow of converts, but this isn’t “it” people. This is merely a hiccup in eternity and the real promise comes in 1 Corinthians 15:54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.
If you don’t have John 3:16 memorized then shame on you, John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
And that my friends is the deliverance that is promised to each one of us. Do you remember how the story of Noah ends? God sent a rainbow to Noah, Genesis 9:13 I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth.
Let’s finish with an interesting scientific tidbit I discovered last week. Since you’re always standing in the centre of your own rainbow only you can see how the light reflects off the moisture where you’re standing. Therefore every rainbow is unique to each person viewing it.
And everyone of God’s promises are unique to the person receiving them, you won’t get my promises and I won’t get yours.
And for Christians here is the greatest promise of all: 2 Peter 1:4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.
Powerpoint may be available for this message contact me at denn@cornerstonewesleyan.ca
