God Is Not Ashamed!
[You Can Tell A Lot About God—Part 2]
Matthew 22:23-33; Hebrews 11:16
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
Introduction: We are in the first stages of an on-going series of studies on the Lord’s Prayer. Over the next several weeks we will look at the deep meaning behind each phrase of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. If we can begin to understand this important passage, we will understand much about prayer, about God, and about the faith that connects with the power of God in prayer.
We began last time to explore the opening line, “Our Father which art in heaven.” What do you mean when you say those words? What did Jesus intend for us to understand? To get at that idea we began by exploring an expression that God used to describe himself. “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The phrase is first found in Exodus 3 when God calls Moses to the great Egyptian escape. From a burning bush, the Lord calls for Moses and tells the runaway of heaven’s plan. Moses had lived in Egypt. He knew that there are many “so called” gods. Men make up their own gods, imagine deities fashioned in their own image, and otherwise try to create gods they can control. The Bible clearly teaches that there is only one true and living God. But there are many false gods and demon-driven gods. So Moses asked a logical question, “Who are you?” He wanted to know what God was calling him to this mission impossible.
God’s answer is telling. He says, I am the LORD. That term, in all caps, is the literary convention used by the rabbis and followed by most Bible translations to designate the personal name for the God of the Jews. In English, this name is most often rendered Jehovah or Yahweh. Actually, no one knows the precise pronunciation of the name. Most likely, the name was derived from the phrase “I AM THAT I AM.” Jehovah is the self-existing God. He is. He always has been. He always will be. He is dependent on no one.
The Lord then went a step farther. He answered the “Who are you?” question with “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” In so doing, our God, the God to whom we pray when we say
“Our father,” chose to identify himself with the people who follow him. The flip side of that concept is our awesome responsibility and privilege to represent our God. People around us will come to know God in part by what they see of our relationship with him. Hebrews 11:16 is a powerful verse. Referring back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the writer of Hebrews says our God is not ashamed to be called the God of such people. That is the kind of God we pray to. He is not ashamed to be associated with people who trust him and walk in obedience. He is proud to know us, to be called our God, AND to answer our prayers!!
In our last study we explored the notion that God is the God of individuals. The Lord didn’t just claim to be the God of the Hebrews. He was the God of real individual people. Everyone who comes to him eventually comes as an individual. There is no faith by the group plan. Every person is baptized, confesses Christ, and obeys him as an individual. That is also the way we pray. We can pray as groups, but real effective prayer rests on the faith of real individuals coming before their God. The God to whom we pray is one who delights in knowing and listening to his people individually. That should be a great encouragement to our praying.
Let me briefly touch on another related issue. God is a God of men. Please understand my point. Of course, God is a God of women and men. Please don’t think that I am in any way denying the important role that women play in the life of this or any church. My point however is that God is a God of men, not just women and children. Unless men are willing to step up the plate, become pacesetters and examples of faith, a church will invariably loose the next generation, especially the boys and young men. Mothers, wives, and women who care about the next generation must be willing to do whatever it takes to encourage their men to lead. This doesn’t mean that women don’t exercise a level of leadership of course. But we live in a society, where many have dismissed the faith as something that is for women and children. They wrongly conclude that real men don’t get involved in spiritual things. Today, as always, we must show by example that real men pray because the God to whom we pray is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This self-designation for God also teaches us that he is a God of different kinds of people. God doesn’t just relate to a certain category of individuals. He doesn’t just hear the prayers of one type of person. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob illustrate this.
Abraham was a pioneer, a risk taker. He answered the call of God to a new home without knowing where he would end up. He was a wealthy man, a powerful man. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he was certainly no weakling. Never let anyone tell you that God is a God only of the weak, or the poor, or that faith is a crutch for those who can’t do any better. Our God is the God of Abraham.
But he is also the God of Jacob. This grandson of Abraham was a deceiver from birth. The second born twin to his brother Esau, Jacob lived a life of treachery and deceit. He was a “mamma’s boy” always resenting his brother’s connection with his father. He stole his brother’s birthright and blessings and was forced to flee for fear of his brother’s anger. He was eventually the victim of first his father in law’s deceit and then his own sons’. As often is the case, his own character flaws came home to roost.
Eventually Jacob heads back home. In route, he encounters God and spends a night “wrestling” with God. In the process, his hip is broken, but he had learned to cling to his God. God honors his faith, changes his life, and his name. The deceiver becomes Israel, the man of God. The God to whom we pray is the God of Jacob. He is a God who touches lives, changes people, and takes the schemers of life and transforms them into men of God. Don’t ever think that God won’t hear your prayers because you started in the wrong direction, have messed up big time in life, or just seem to make the same mistakes over and over again. It is never too late. No one is ever too far gone to become a “man of God.” Ours is the God of Jacob!
He is also the God of Isaac. By comparison to his father and son, Isaac is a lesser-known person. If Jacob was a user, Isaac was the used. His own son deceived him. His own father had been willing to sacrifice him to God while young Isaac innocently followed along willing to do whatever his dad said. In a sense, Isaac is a reminder that God is also the God of little people. You don’t have to be a big pioneer like Abraham to be heard by God. You don’t have to have a powerful testimony of evil and transformation like Jacob. God is a God of little known people as well. He hears prayers of people who live in the shadows of those around them. He is the God of Isaac, too.
It is also important to note that God is a God of generations. This grandfather, father, and son trio reminds us that God has always intended that the faith be passed from one generation to the next. That is our highest calling as parents or as a church. There are no guarantees and no one bats a 100% but we should aim to win our own young. A church should take pride when its own young come to faith. Many churches fail miserably at that task. We must never take it for granted or be satisfied to loose most of the next generation.
This is an especially hard challenge in our day. We live in what sociologists say is a unique time in history. Right now there are four or five generations living together in our culture. There have always been grandparents and grandchildren sharing the same society, but not with as distinct a background and ideas as today. The Builders who fought and won WWII, the Boomers born in the rapidly expanding era of the late 40’s and the 50’s, the Busters born to Boomer parents who coddled and protected them, and the Millennials born and raised on computers and video games all share the same space. This presents immense challenges to the faith. It requires our best.
We must never let our God be defined by one generation or its culture or tastes. Our God is as much the God of Jacob the grandson as he was the God of Abraham the grandfather. Grandparents must help there young understand that God is more than their preferences and tastes. He is a God of the generations.
Conclusion: Jesus quotes this statement by the Lord at the burning bush in the text we read at the beginning of the message. He was answering a rather contrived question by the Saduccees. They didn’t believe in a physical resurrection. They likely believed in some sort of immortality of the soul, but not a literal survival of the individual beyond the grave. Their question had probably been used before to stump the Pharisees and others who believed in the resurrection. Jesus would have nothing to do with their games. He insisted that they simply didn’t understand anything about God’s Word or God’s Power. If they had they would have remembered who God is. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These men were two thousand years gone when Jesus spoke. They had been five hundred years dead when the voice spoke at the burning bush. He IS, not was or used to be—He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He still is! He still answers prayers and delivers his people. He was then; He is now! We pray to the Living God!
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
