MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
One day, almost 4,000 years ago, God spoke to a man named Abram, who was later called Abraham, & said to him,
“Leave your country, your people & your father’s household & go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation & I will bless you;
“I will make your name great, & you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, & whoever curses you I will curse; & all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)
Now why did God do that? What was His purpose? And why did He place such an emphasis on the subject of being a “blessing”?
ILL. Well, as most of you know, I spent the first few years of my life with my parents on the border of China & Tibet. And the 2 Tibetan women that you see projected on the screen may help us understand why God was doing what He did.
You see, the great majority of Tibetans are followers of Buddha & believe that there are thousands of different gods - gods of the mountains & fields, gods of the wind & rain, gods of the skies & seas – gods for everything.
There are rooster gods, & gods of every kind of animal imaginable. And they make idols to represent each of them. They also fashion idols in human form - bald-headed gods, & gods with long black hair & bushy beards.
How about this idol? It is almost 9 feet tall, & they say that it is made of solid gold. They worship it as a “Thousand-armed goddess” involved in almost every aspect of human life.
Day after day, year after year they bow down before these idols & offer sacrifices – not because they love them, but because they fear them & are seeking to appease them. You see, they believe that every bad thing that happens in life happens because some god is angry & has sent evil demons down to punish them.
But which god, & why? And how can you appease that god? Well, of course, you can offer sacrifices to one god after another until finally you hit the right one. Or you can go to the Lama priests & for a price have them determine which god is angry & then offer sacrifices for you & intercede on your behalf.
Here are some Lama priests preparing to take part in the annual new year’s “devil dance” festival. For 3 days the people bring offerings & sacrifices to the Lama priests as the priests do their “devil dances” to drive away the evil demons from their village.
Finally, on the 3rd day of the festival, when the priests have collected all they can from the people, the high priest comes & does his grand finale, the “stag devil – king of hell” victory dance & announces that they have successfully driven the evil demons away from their village for another year.
But for these 2 Tibetan women, nothing seemed to help. No matter to which gods or how much they sacrificed, their troubles & the evil demons that they believed had caused them did not go away.
Finally, the priests told them that somehow, someway, they had so angered the gods that nothing they had done so far was sufficient to appease them. There was just one thing left to try, the priests said.
If they would make a pilgrimage to a holy mountain that was about 3½ months journey away; & when they reached it, if they would crawl on their hands & knees over the rocks for the 11 miles around its base, praying “Om mani pad mi hum” over & over again as they crawled, then the gods would surely be appeased & send the demons away.
We hear stories like that & shake our heads in dismay. It is hard for us to realize that there are millions of people living in such superstition & fear. You see, we have been taught that God is love – that He knows & loves each of us & that we are precious in His sight. And all our lives we have heard these words:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
PROP. With those words ringing in our ears, may I suggest that more than anything else, God loves us & yearns for us to love & follow Him, & in doing that to be a blessing & an example to all around us of the difference that God can make in our lives.
I. GOD AND ABRAHAM.
And it is because of His love for us that God told Abram, “Leave your country, your people & your father’s household & go to the land I will show you.” (Gen. 12:1)
A. As we read the story of Abraham’s life, the abruptness of this command amazes us. God tells him, “Get up – Go – Leave.” And He offers no lengthy directions or explanations. He just tells Abram to go.
And the very next paragraph begins with these words, “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him...” (Genesis 12:4)
I think that is wonderful. You see, when someone commits himself or herself to God as Lord, & then hears what God wants, there is no necessity to cajole or entice. Like Abraham, the response is immediate – “So Abram left, as the Lord had told him...”
B. And even as Abram was doing what God had told him to do, God was also keeping the promises He had made to Abram. Remember, God told Abram, “I will make you into a great nation & I will bless you…” (Genesis 12:2)
“I will make you into a great nation…” This would seem to be the ultimate dream for any man - to have many children & one day be called, “The father of a nation.” Wow! What a promise!
ILL. In the movie, “Apollo 13," as the astronauts are saying their farewells before entering the space module, some reporters asked the commander, Jim Lovell, what he thinks his next space mission will be.
He responds by saying there will be no more missions for him. Confused, the reporters ask: “But why would you say that?”
Lovell responds, “When I have walked on the moon, I will have reached the pinnacle of space travel. What more could I possibly want?”
II. THE NATION OF ISRAEL
A. God keeps His promises! It took a few generations, of course, & some men named Joseph & Moses & Joshua before it was all done. But finally Abraham’s descendants were a nation - just as God had promised!
But remember, God had also told Abram, “…& all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3)
Now that the nation of Israel had been established, would God’s yearning finally be fulfilled? Would it be an example to all the nations surrounding it of what could be accomplished by a nation completely dedicated to following God?
And when God looked down upon this nation which He had called to be a light to the rest of the world, would he see that light shining brightly & drawing all peoples to Him?
B. Well, to answer that let’s move on 12 hundred years to the time of King Uzziah, as found in Isaiah, Chapter 9. It was a time of peace & great prosperity in the land. Modern historians would honor Uzziah as a great political & military leader.
Yet, as God looked upon His chosen people, did He find the nations gathering around her to receive His blessing? What did He see? Did he find an increase of joy & a reign of holiness?
I’m afraid not. Isaiah tells us that instead of finding His blessings flowing out from His people to the hurting world around them, He found gloom, distress, oppression, darkness & death.
No. By the year 700 B.C., it was obvious that God’s nation would not fulfill God’s yearning for it to be a light & an example to others of God’s love.
III. JESUS.
A. But God wasn’t finished yet. He had also promised to Abraham that “… all peoples on earth will be blessed through you…” (Genesis 12:3) And God Himself would give a sign. A Child would be born – God’s Son.
And Isaiah 9:6-7a tells us “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.”
Isaiah finishes this brief but potent Messianic prophecy with these words: “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
The Living Bible translates the last half of vs. 7 this way, “He will bring true justice & peace to all the nations of the world. This is going to happen because the Lord of heaven’s armies has dedicated himself to do it!” (Isaiah 9:7)
God has a yearning, a zeal, an eagerness, a determination. We might even say He has a hunger to see His blessings flow to all the world.
B. Finally that time arrived, & oh, what a glorious night it was when that Child came! See the angels of heaven gazing upon this world in awestruck expectation. They must have been utterly astonished that God would lower Himself to become a man, entering into the world through the womb of a young maiden.
And then to allow Himself to experience the treachery & scorn of mankind. Oh, how He must have loved us so!
But this was just the beginning of their amazement & wonder. What did they think as they watched men seize Him & spit upon Him, beat Him & ridicule Him? What were they thinking as men drove the jagged nails into His flesh?
“Surely this is it,” the angels must have thought. “Surely He will give the word &, with one swift stroke of righteous indignation, put an end to this nightmare of the cross.”
But that’s not what happened. What God did at that point seems even more bizarre to our way of thinking than anything He had done before.
He didn’t call down the armies of heaven to rescue Him, or flash a cosmic display across the heavens that read: “I did it. I gave my life for your sins. Now it is up to you to take it or leave it, & you’ve just got ‘til midnight to decide.”
No, He didn’t even summon His angels to carry the gospel, the glorious good news of salvation through Him, to a lost & sinful world.
IV. THE EARLY CHURCH
Instead, He turned to a group of weak, & often inconsistent men, saying to them: “Go & make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father & of the Son & of the Holy Spirit,
“and then teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you; & be sure of this - that I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:19-20 TLB)
Again we hear the echo of God’s yearning & of the command He gave to Abraham so many centuries before. “Go! There’s a world out there that I want to bless, a world that I have given my life to win.
“Yes, it is a world that is undeserving, faithless & treacherous, but a world, nevertheless, full of people who are worth being saved. So “Go & make disciples in all the nations.” Go!
The apostles responded, & as a result of the coming of the Holy Spirit, on that very first day in Jerusalem 3,000 were baptized. And as they continued preaching & teaching day by day the number of disciples multiplied.
So rapidly did the early church grow there in Jerusalem that the rulers of the Jews became frightened & were determined to silence them through persecution.
But it didn’t silence them. In fact, when persecution scattered the church, Acts 8:4 tells us that they “…preached the word wherever they went.”
One of them, Philip, went to Samaria, & soon many of the Samaritans had become Christians, too. Then God caused Philip to witness to a high official from Ethiopia & he, too, became a Christian.
Then, when the Lord got hold of Paul, there was no stopping Paul. He took the gospel & began proclaiming it in the major cities & provinces of the ancient world, including the center of the empire, Rome itself.
Despite terrible persecutions, within just a few years the gospel of Christ was turning the world upside down!
V. AND TODAY!
But what about now? As you look around at churches today does it look like some have lost track of their purpose? Is it possible that, like Israel, churches have become prosperous, settled in, huddled up, slowed down, & comfortable - more concerned with serving self than saving souls?
For many churches it is a rare occasion when Christians consider the missionary task, let alone engage themselves in it.
Please, Lord, don’t let us be that way here at Ridge Chapel. Move in our midst & use us as your witnesses. Touch our hearts & our lives as we join together in realizing & emphasizing your message of love & longing for all the world.
In Revelation 7:9-10 the Apostle John is given a preview of heaven as he writes: "After this I looked & there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people & language, standing before the throne & in front of the Lamb.
“They were wearing white robes & were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, & to the Lamb.’"
Oh God, help us to share in Your yearning for the lost of this world. And by your grace may we also be a part of that great multitude standing before your throne.
