Sermon: Blessed to Be a Blessing Text: Genesis 12:1-7

Transcription

1 Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Stewardship Series Kickoff Saturday, November 8 th, 2014 Sunday, November 9 th, 2014 Sermon: Blessed to Be a Blessing Text: Genesis 12:1-7 Focus Statement: God has given us every blessing in Jesus Christ. Function Statement: That they would rejoice in God s blessing and extol his gifts. Sermon Structure: Story-Applied Doctrinal Locus: He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him (SC, 1 st Article of Apostles Creed). Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! This weekend is the kickoff of our three-week Stewardship Series, Blessed to Be a Blessing, and so I have chosen a free text to preach on from Genesis, chapter 12. You can find it in your pew Bible on pages 8-9: Now the LORD said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him (Genesis 12:1-7, ESV). 1 This is the Word of the Lord! Thanks be to God! Genesis 12 is the beginning of the faith of Abraham, the man formerly known as Abram in this Bible story. Genesis 12 contains Yahweh s call to Abraham: Go from your land to the 1 All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.

2 Matthis 2 land that I will show you (Gen. 12:1, CSM). 2 And by faith, Abraham obeyed God and went (Heb. 11:8). And Abram went just as Yahweh said to him (Gen. 12:4, CSM). Abraham did exactly what God required of him. What could compel a man to do such a strange thing, to leave at 75 years old! your comfortable life, your home, your business, your friends and neighbors, to load everything you own into one U-Haul trailer (or the back of a camel!) and journey to a country you ve never even seen? What could make a man do such a crazy thing? Only faith! The Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts when God speaks his Word to us, and we hear, believe, and receive the promises of God. And so Yahweh made promises to Abraham. God said, And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you must be a blessing! Now I shall bless the ones who bless you, and the ones who curse you I shall curse. And all the families of the earth will be blessed in you (Gen. 12:2-3, CSM). God made amazing promises to Abram. We may summarize the promises as follows: Family ( a great nation ) Blessing ( I will bless you ) A famous name and reputation ( I will make your name great ) Universal blessing ( All the families of the earth will be blessed in you ) Let s examine these promises in greater detail. To the barren and childless couple, Abram and Sarai (cf. 11:30), Yahweh promised to make of them a great nation. A nation needs more than two people, so, of course, this promise means that Abraham would someday have children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on. In case he missed it the first time, God reiterated this promise in the Promised Land of 2 All passaged marked CSM are from the author s own personal translation.

3 Matthis 3 Canaan when he told Abram, To your offspring, I will give this land (Gen. 12:7). From Abraham came many nations, including the Arabs, but the greatest of all his descendants are the Israelites and the Jews, God s chosen people who received the Ten Commandments, the covenants, the prophets, and the Word of God. God also promised to bless Abraham. And indeed he did. Even though Abraham encountered many crises of faith and personal safety during his travels, he never abandoned hope and gave up his faith. By the end of his life, Abraham was a wealthy man with many children and other descendants, as well as the most precious gift of all: saving faith in the God who justifies us by grace alone through faith alone. In summary, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Rom. 4:3; cf. Gen. 15:6). The third promise was to make Abraham s name great. In other words, his name and reputation would be remembered forever, and he would be honored by all. Each of the three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, all regard Abraham as the father of their faith. And even though we must be careful not to say that all religions are the same after all, Jesus is the only Way, Truth, and Life (John 14:6) it is an amazing testament that more than 4,000 years after Abraham s death, people still remember who he is. More importantly, God remembers who Abraham is, and his name is written in the Lamb s Book of Life! The final promise to Abraham was that all the families of the earth would be blessed by him or in him (depending on the translation). Now this is quite significant, because it shows that Abraham s faith has a universal impact on the entire course of human history. Indeed, this final promise is fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of the most important of all of Abraham s children: Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Gospel of Matthew is careful to call Jesus the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1). Because Jesus died on the cross for your sins and

4 Matthis 4 rose again on the third day, he promises the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation for all who believe in him (John 3:16). And so the Christian Church is made up not only of Abraham s biological descendants, the Jews, but also the Gentiles! Indeed, all Christians are Abraham s children by faith because we share Father Abraham s faith: saving faith in the promises of God, which have found their fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah (Romans 4). And that is why, in the beatific vision of heaven from All Saints Day, we read how heaven is made up of a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages (Rev. 7:9). Dear people of God, if you believe in Jesus, you will be part of that great multitude. If you are a Christian, then you are a child of Abraham by faith because you share Abraham s faith. And if you are Abraham s child, you are his heir, and heir to the promises of God (Gal. 3:29)! And so, dear children of Abraham, here are the promises God makes to you: I will make of you a great nation As forgiven, baptized children of God, you are part of God s Kingdom. You belong to his new people, the one, holy, apostolic Christian Church. Made up of men, women, and children from every nation and tribe, language and race, economic status and political persuasion, God s Kingdom fills the whole earth. There is no greater nation than the one called by the name Christian! I will bless you. God has given you every blessing according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus! Everything you have is a gift from God. We have a God who loves to give his children gifts, and you ll never be able to out-give God. As Martin Luther writes in the Small Catechism, He gives me clothing and shoes, house and home, food and drink, spouse, children, land, animals, and all that I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life (SC, 1 st Article of Apostles Creed). Every material blessing and every

5 Matthis 5 relationship you enjoy is a gift from God. But above all, God gives us his Son Jesus, so that if we believe in him, we will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). What great gift can there be than faith in Jesus Christ? I will make your name great. In Holy Baptism, God gave you a new name, his own name, the name of Jesus. Through the washing of regeneration through water and the Word, you have been given the name Christian, which means little Christ. The Bible says that God s name will be written on our foreheads (Rev. 22:4). That s not a Christian tattoo! That s the seal and promise of God that you are his, and he is yours; and that s why you are called by his name. All the families of the earth will be blessed by you. This is one of the most amazing blessings of all. Whoever you are, whatever you do, and wherever you go, you carry Christ in you. You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world! Because of your Baptism, the light of Christ burns brightly within you, so that whatever your calling in life, you are a blessing to the people around you. The Bible says, So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). As a disciple of Jesus, you bring blessing and joy when you work, play, study, and pray in the world. Jesus commands us, Go and make disciples of all nations, or all families of the earth, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20). As the Church carries out the Great Commission, as we speak the Gospel to our friends, family, and neighbors, as we baptize our children and love our neighbors as ourselves, we Christians bring blessing to everyone we know. And in response to all of these wonderful promises, God requires only one thing: You must be a blessing! (Gen. 12:2). God commands us to be a blessing. This idea is lost in our ESV Bible translation, which renders the Hebrew as a future result clause: so that you will be a

6 Matthis 6 blessing. But in fact, the verb is imperative; it s a command. God says more than You will be a blessing ; he commands Abram to be a blessing! God blessed Abraham, and he commanded him to be a blessing. As the children of Abraham and God s children by faith we are blessed to be a blessing. And that is why Abraham builds his altar to Yahweh. So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him (Gen. 12:7). What did Abraham do in response to God s promise? He worshiped God! So he built there an altar to Yahweh, who had appeared to him (Gen. 12:7). Abraham built an altar to worship the Lord, to call upon his name in prayer and praise, and to offer him right sacrifices. But Abraham s altar was more than just an outdoor church. It was a beachhead of God s kingdom in the pagan land of Canaan. It was a sign to all of Abraham s neighbors and friends that he wasn t like them; he wouldn t bow down to their idols and worship their false gods. For Abraham and for us there is one God, and his name is Yahweh (Jehovah). The best way to bless your neighbor is to help him have the right God, to worship Yahweh, to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved! Our congregation, Epiphany Lutheran Church, is an amazing blessing to the people of our community. Epiphany is our altar in the world, our beachhead in God s Kingdom. This church is a sign of blessing, not only to the people who gather here for worship every week, but also to the ones the Holy Spirit still needs to gather and bring. Here God blesses us with Word and Sacrament: the preaching of the Gospel, the teaching of God s Word, holy Absolution, holy Baptism, and the Lord s Supper. Here we receive God s gifts: the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation! Here we sing his praise, extol his gifts, and celebrate his goodness! Thank the Lord and sing His praise! Tell everyone what he has done! (LSB).

7 Matthis 7 Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we are blessed to be a blessing. So let s go be who we already are in Christ Jesus! The families of the earth depend on it! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.