Jesus In Genesis: Noah Heb. 11:7
INTRO.: ILLUS.: “Everything I need to know I learned from Noah’s ark.”
1. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
2. Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.
3. Don’t listen to critics. Do what has to be done.
4. Build on high ground.
5. For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
6. Two heads are better than one.
7. Speed isn’t always an advantage. The Cheetahs were on board, but so were the snails.
There is indeed much to learn from the story of Noah’s Ark and the flood.
I. Noah provides a lesson on faith: Heb. 11:7
A. Faith often involves the unseen. Heb. 11:1
1. Noah probably had never seen rain, let alone a flood.
2. I imagine he wondered what an ark was. (The word itself only means a box.)
3. Heb. 11:27 Moses saw the Invisible God.
4. II Cor. 4:18 - our focus, the focus of faith.
B. Faith prompts and demands obedience.
1. Noah was moved with fear to build the ark.
2. “Fear” translates “reverent submission.” Heb. 5:7
3. If we truly have faith in God, we will submit to His will and obey His commands.
C. Righteousness comes by faith.
1. Rom. 1:16, 17- By faith from first to last.
2. We do not earn it, we inherit it. Noah “became heir” of the righteousness that comes by faith.
II. There is a lesson on salvation: I Pet. 3:18-21
A. Christ preached to the spirits in prison.
1. Christ was right there in the Spirit preaching to Noah’s contemporaries.
2. God’s plan was in progress even in Noah’s day.
3. Noah’s salvation is a forecast of the salvation planned for all men in Christ.
B. Eight people were saved through water.
1. This symbolizes baptism. This is very clear “eight people were saved by water just as baptism now saves us.”
2. Both God’s wrath and grace were seen. Evil was destroyed. The righteous were saved by faith.
III. There is a warning about judgement: Matt. 24:37-39
A. No one heeded the preaching of Noah.
1. Like Noah himself, they had never seen a flood or heard of an ark.
2. They probably thought Noah was crazy.
3. ILLUS.: I heard a sidewalk preacher in Times Square. He preached a racist message, but no one listened. He was ignored. But he preached on, like Noah.
4. Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” II Pet. 2:5. He must have felt ignored by his audience.
B. As the flood was unexpected, so will be the coming of Jesus.
1. Very few heeded the teaching of Jesus. Christians are still a small minority today.
2. Most of the world will be severely shocked when Jesus returns to initiate judgement.
3. Matt 24:42 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”
IV. There is assurance for the people of God. II Pet. 2:5-9
A. God knows how to rescue His people from trials. Consider the examples:
1. He did not spare angels who sinned.
2. He did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah’s family.
3. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah but spared righteous Lot.
B. He can meet your needs and will.
1. God knows His people. If there is only one, He knows. If there are millions, He knows every one. None will be forgotten.
2. He can deliver you from temptation and from guilt and death.
3. Psalm 34:15-19: God cares for His own. We needn’t fear anything, even death.
CONC.: ILLUS.: A grandchild sitting on her grandfather’s lap listening to the story of Noah and his ark asked, “
were you on the ark, Grandpa?”
He chuckled and replied, “Why no, I wasn’t.”
There was a pause then the child looked up at him quizzically and asked, “Then why weren’t you drowned?”
God has given us an ark today and its name is Jesus. There is safety and security in Jesus and nowhere else.
