In Jesus Holy Name May 4,2008
Easter VII Series: O.T. Challenges Redeemer
Genesis 7:24-8:1,15,18,20-21,9:12-13
“Noah: Saved from Judgment to Live under God’s Rainbow”
Today’s message continues were we left off last week in the life of Noah. Noah lived in troublesome times. Mankind had become corrupt and every inclination of the human heart was total and absolute selfishness, bent on evil. God decided to start over. Not from scratch….but pretty close. A flood was sent to destroy all life under the heavens… only eight people survived.
Hebrews 11:7 tells us that Noah was a man of faith. First, he believed that God existed. He believed God and trusted his words. He did what God commanded even though some things were unknown by personal experience.
1) God said; “I am going to destroy the earth and all human beings because they are full of violence, lawlessness. Violence was sweeping the earth and mankind had no inclination to worship God.
2) God said, “Build and ark.” In the middle of no where.
Visualize one man and his 3 young sons building a boat about the size of 1 ½ football fields, about 150 yards long, with hand made tools, trees to be cut and shaped. There was no seaport nearby. No boat ramp. No boat trailer.
Imagine the local conversations. “Strange, Eccentric, a weird fanatic. It took decades to build, all the while answering the questions: “Why?” So Noah told about the coming judgment, he told about the coming flood. He was a preacher of righteousness, much like John the Baptist. (II Peter 2:5)
But remember, no one had ever experienced the things Noah was talking about. No one knew what a flood was. They had never experienced rain.
The first thing Noah had to believe is that Judgment was coming. God needed Noah and his family to survive so that he could fulfill his promise to Adam and Eve to send a savior.
For decades Noah had to listen to the doubters. God told him one time that judgment was coming. God was specific about the type of wood, three decks and each deck was to have special rooms. Food and water had to be stored. Living quarters for Noah’s family had to be built. Once built the inside and outside had to be sealed with some type of tar. There was no rudder, nor sail. One door. Windows around the top.
When the boat was ready God brought the animals to Noah. (Gen. 7:8,15) Then in Gen. 7:16 the bible tells us: “God shut him in”. In the 600th year of Noah’s life, (his children were born when he was 500) it began to rain. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The floodgates of the deep opened up and the waters lifted the ark and it floated on the surface of the water.
Noah was 601 when God told Noah to come out of the Ark with his wife and extended family. (Gen. 8:15) 12 months and 27 days is a long time in a boat with your immediate family and 7000 species of animals.
When Noah stepped off the ark and surveyed the mess, I’m sure he had mixed feelings. Before, his neighbors were top notch sinners. After the flood, he had no neighbors. All he had previously known was gone. Cities were gone. Farms were gone. The sky was different. The whole world before him was empty.
God had told Noah to take 2 unclean animals … a pair each. But when it came to the birds and “clean” animals Noah was to take 7 each, that is 3 pairs and on extra one. Why the extra? (Gen. 8:20)
Because when Noah stepped out of the Ark the first thing he did was offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Using some of the extra animals he offered a burnt offering to God. Noah and his family worshiped God. “Worship is our first responsibility to God. God wants our worship to be motivated by love, thanksgiving and delight, not duty.” Worship is more than music because God invented all kinds of music, fast and slow, loud and soft, old and new. There are no musical notes in the bible. Every activity, your words of praise, your work, becomes worship when you dedicate it to God. (Rick Warren The Purpose Driven Life)
Everything reflects the glory of God, from the smallest microscopic form of life to the vast Milky Way, from sunsets and stars to storms and seasons. Fall colors to spring flowers and you were created to bring glory to God. You are not an accident. Your birth was no mistake or mishap. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He custom made your body and determined the natural talents you would possess so that you could bring him glory and worship him.
A poem by Russell Kelfer sums it up:
You are who you are for a reason
You are part of an intricate plan.
You are precious and perfect unique design
Our God made no mistake… you are just what he wanted to
make.
Noah worshiped God. God then comes to Noah and establishes a new covenant with Noah and his family and all man kind. God said… This is the sign… I have set my rainbow in the clouds… It is God’s promise to never destroy the earth by flood again.
Notice, God said, “I will set my rainbow…. Isn’t that an intriguing phrase….”my” rainbow. Turn to Revelation 4:1-3.
The judgment of God had been accomplished. God’s judgment will come again.
Jesus said, “For the son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with his angels…” Matt. 16:27 “all the nations will be gathered before him.” (Matt 25:31-34) the Apostle John wrote: “then I saw a great white Throne and him who was seated upon it. Earth and sky fled from his presence… I saw the dead, great and small standing before the Throne of God and the books were opened. The dead were judged… if anyone’s name was not found in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire….for I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End.” (Rev. 20:11-15,21)
Today I’m going to put away the 25 cent words and speak simply. Let’s start this way. All of you have three things in common. First, each of you had to be born. I know that’s not very deep, but we said we were keeping it simple. Regarding your birth, you had no input. Your parents did not consult you for preferences. Since, at this point, you can’t do a whole lot about your birth; we won’t spend any time discussing it.
The second thing all of us hare is that unless Jesus comes in the fairly foreseeable future, we will all have to die. In this event, as well, you will have little or no input and generally will not be consulted. Once again, we will not spend a lot of time talking about dying.
The third and final similarity we share and the topic and focus is that each and every one of us will have to stand before our Creator and judge. He will either take us to heaven or send us to hell. It’s just that simple.
There are a lot of objections and protests to that last statement in our world. But when you think about it I believe you’ll find your options and opinions are pretty much the same as if you were sitting on some railroad track and I warned you, “A train is coming.” To that simple piece of information, you can go one of three ways.
First, you can ignore me, ignore the possibility of a train and live your life as if those tracks upon which you sit have no purpose. You could say, “I’ve never seen a train.” Many in Noah’s day said, “I’ve never seen rain.” I’ve never touched, tasted, smelled or heard it.
If you choose to disregard my warning, then you can sit on those tracks, eat on those tracks, sleep on those tracks, work on those tracks, raise your family on those tracks, build your house and live unaware, unmindful and unprepared. You would never be worried, never be concerned. You would live and die believing those tracks were a freak of nature.
Is that what you really believe? Millions of people dismiss the probability of God, His guidance, His grace, and the possibility of his judgment. Thousands of years ago, before the flood of Noah, most people watched but did not believe Noah’s warnings.
When God, in an act of divine recycling, sent a global flood they found out they were wrong. Jesus said, “In the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matt. 24:38-39)
Just as the flood showed the doubters they were wrong, so you should know that Jesus is coming in judgment. The train is rolling down history’s tracks, and unless you move, your eternal future is hopeless.
Look to the heavens. The cycle of the sun and stars is far more complex than any train system. Their schedule is more intricate than any train timetable. God has made all of creation so that you might know that he exists.
God has kept his promise to Noah and all of humanity. The rainbow is our reminder of his grace… We are reminded, God keeps his promises… We live under his rainbow of grace, but the rainbow also tells us to be prepared.
Years ago, a British express train was racing through the night. Its powerful headlamp speared the fog ahead. This train was special for it carried Britain’s Queen Victoria. Suddenly, revealed in the beam of the train’s headlight, the engineer saw a figure in a black cloak. On the middle of the tracks. He was waving his arms. It took but a second for the engineer to throw the brake leaver, and a little longer for the train to scream to a halt. The engineer, along with the other railroad employees, got out to find the fellow who had stopped them. The man was gone.
They did, however, find a section of track that had been washed out by a swollen stream. The engineer cringed at the thought: if the unfound man in the black cloak had not stopped them, they would have derailed, creating a national catastrophe. Eventually the bridge was repaired and the train finished its trip to London. There the mystery of the man in the black cloak was discovered. At the base of the engine’s headlamp was a great moth. The engineer studied it, wet its wings and pasted it to the glass of his lamp. Climbing back into his cab, he switched on the lamp and saw3 the “phantom flagman” in the bright beam. Seconds before the train reached the ruined track, the moth had flown onto the lamp. In the fog, it appeared to be a black cloaked man waving his arms. Queen Victoria’s reaction to the strange occurrence? She said, “I’m sure it was no accident. It was God’s way of saving us.” (The Lutheran Hour, Rev Ken Klaus 8-3-2003)
The flood came, and yes the train of judgment is also coming. The water and the boat was God’s way of saving humanity. The same Lord who had Noah build the boat, the same Lord who allowed a moth to save a queen is the same Lord who sent his Son into the world, to call you to make a decision….to follow Jesus.
The train is coming. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave…. His blood shed on the cross covers all your sin and enables every believer to stand before him, “without blemish, free from accusation, if you continue in your faith”. (Col. 1:21-23) For you who have heard God’s warning, live under his rainbow of grace.
