back to index2021-01-10 Type of Christ
00:00:00.000 |
Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11. 00:00:12.320 |
We'll be reading from verse 17 to 18, but the focus of the message this morning is going 00:00:23.040 |
Hebrews chapter 11 verse 17 through 19, reading out of the NASB. 00:00:31.400 |
By faith Abraham when he was tested offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises 00:00:38.920 |
It was he to whom it was said in Isaac your descendants shall be called. 00:00:43.320 |
He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead from which he also received 00:00:53.240 |
Heavenly Father we pray for your grace and may your word be anointed to go forth so that 00:00:59.160 |
your children may hear the voice of your son and follow him and him alone. 00:01:05.280 |
Open our eyes Lord God that we may see a greater glimpse of your glory. 00:01:10.040 |
That what we give you Father each week each day may simply be a reasonable response. 00:01:15.600 |
So we ask for your anointing this time in Jesus name we pray. 00:01:19.360 |
If I was to ask you what is the greatest thing that has happened or somebody has done 00:01:31.080 |
for you or to you that reminds you of the greatest love that you've ever received outside 00:01:42.400 |
What is the greatest love or expression of love that you've ever received in your life 00:01:54.200 |
I think most of us will probably say that it has something to do with our parents. 00:02:00.560 |
And a lot of times we don't realize how much sacrifice our parents have put into us. 00:02:06.040 |
No matter how great or good, no matter what kind of complaints, even if you come from 00:02:08.880 |
a broken family, as you get older you understand more and more just how much it takes to raise 00:02:18.160 |
I remember my father before he passed away, years before, he wrote an autobiography in 00:02:25.040 |
Korean and obviously not many people read it. 00:02:28.080 |
It was just meant for our family and then some of the students that he was teaching. 00:02:36.360 |
I never Christianed his love but we never, I don't remember having that many deep conversations 00:02:41.720 |
And especially because he was in ministry and I was going into ministry and there are 00:02:46.000 |
some books that he gave me that I didn't really take that seriously because he was a Presbyterian, 00:02:52.400 |
I was a charismatic Baptist, at least at that time. 00:02:59.400 |
And years later I picked up the book that he gave me and one of the books that he gave 00:03:07.000 |
And the name of the book is "Pagans in the Pews." 00:03:11.520 |
And I never considered it and then I looked at it and said, "Wow, my dad was basically 00:03:16.800 |
And it was his way of preparing me for ministry, to get ready. 00:03:20.720 |
And I remember one of the advices that he gave me when I was young going into ministry, 00:03:24.440 |
it says, "If they treat you like a servant, it's because you are. 00:03:31.400 |
You're going into ministry to serve people, so sometimes they're going to treat you like 00:03:36.920 |
And that was his preparation for me and it's probably one of the best advice that I've 00:03:42.200 |
But I got to read my dad's autobiography several times and at some point, so one of my goals 00:03:49.480 |
in life is to translate into that English so that the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren 00:03:54.920 |
But there's a lot of things that I learned about my dad through that book because he 00:03:59.640 |
wrote about when he was a kid and what it was like going through the Korean War and 00:04:04.080 |
how he had to take care of the family and immigrating to the United States, what it 00:04:10.360 |
And he mentions each one of us by name and what it was like and how he loved his second 00:04:16.320 |
So there's a lot of things that he wrote in there. 00:04:19.960 |
It's like, "Okay, I have greater appreciation for the things that my dad went through, my 00:04:26.000 |
mom went through as a result of reading that book." 00:04:30.720 |
There's a lot of things that we don't truly appreciate. 00:04:33.120 |
We accept, we understand it, but the depth of what somebody has sacrificed for us, sometimes 00:04:37.520 |
it takes us a while for us to mature, for us to grow and be sanctified, to be able to 00:04:42.600 |
look back at that and say, "Wow, that was done for me." 00:04:46.560 |
Every parent goes through that when you're raising your kids and when it's hard to raise 00:04:49.320 |
your kids and the deepest part of your anxiety is like, "Man, somebody did that for me," 00:04:55.720 |
and we begin to appreciate our parents more when we get older. 00:04:58.720 |
Well, the text that we're looking at in Hebrews 19, it says what happened with Abraham and 00:05:06.240 |
In 19 specifically it says, "He considered that God is able to raise people even from 00:05:12.440 |
the dead, from which he also received back as a type." 00:05:19.940 |
So this story between Abraham and you guys probably know that story about how God calls 00:05:23.960 |
Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac at the very last minute, God tells him to stop and 00:05:29.240 |
then Abraham says, "The Lord will provide," and saves Isaac at the last minute. 00:05:38.720 |
Now whenever you see that and the Bible spells out that this is a type, it was meant for 00:05:45.760 |
us to understand every intricate detail of that because God placed that in history for 00:05:50.920 |
So that's why this morning, even though it's that one word and this one particular verse, 00:05:55.160 |
we're going to spend this whole morning looking at Genesis chapter 22, 1 through 14. 00:06:03.600 |
But even before we get that, understand what a type is. 00:06:06.360 |
When the Bible says that is a type of Christ, that is a type of the gospel, the word type 00:06:12.520 |
in the New Testament, it comes from two Greek words. 00:06:16.080 |
In your Bible it'll say type, but sometimes it would be one word, sometimes it would be 00:06:20.360 |
There's two words that has been translated as type in the New Testament. 00:06:23.960 |
The first one is tupos, and tupos is where we get the word literally to type, and the 00:06:33.920 |
The best way to understand that is the typewriter, right? 00:06:38.880 |
How many of you have used a typewriter in your life? 00:06:41.840 |
Okay, there's a little bit more in this room than the first room. 00:06:44.960 |
The first service, I think there was maybe about 10, right? 00:06:50.600 |
I remember like type, the computers came in sometime when I was in college, and then I 00:06:54.960 |
remember trying to transition to a computer when I was in seminary, and I hated the computer. 00:07:00.960 |
And because one, I wasn't familiar with it, and two, I remember spending two days writing 00:07:06.080 |
a paper and had it plugged into the light switch, and I turned it off and I lost everything. 00:07:11.360 |
So I said, "I'm never doing this again," right? 00:07:16.640 |
But the typewriter, prior to that, when we were younger, we had to write all our papers 00:07:23.400 |
And typewriter basically means that there's a little arm, for those of you who've never 00:07:29.360 |
And there's little letters that are attached to these typewriters. 00:07:32.880 |
And so when you press the letter, an arm would come out and it would strike the paper. 00:07:38.160 |
And whatever it is you are spelling, right, if you're saying, if you're spelling love, 00:07:50.720 |
Whether it is print writing or paper writing, this is strike writer. 00:07:53.880 |
That's what it means to be a typewriter, right? 00:07:56.520 |
So the literal understanding of the word type is to make a strike, make an impression. 00:08:02.120 |
So when the Bible says that the story of Isaac and saving him and replacing him somewhere 00:08:08.600 |
in the future, that it is a type, it's saying that God struck in history to make an impression. 00:08:15.360 |
So that years later, when we look back at that, it said, "Oh, that's what God meant. 00:08:22.160 |
So we can say one of the clearest types in the Old Testament is the tabernacle. 00:08:27.440 |
Everything that happened at the tabernacle, Book of Leviticus, was a type pointing to 00:08:33.880 |
So if the word type means to make an impression, where was He trying to make that impression? 00:08:44.300 |
So that when we study the Old Testament, that we would have a deep impression of what Christ 00:08:51.840 |
And so that's what that word type means, tupas. 00:08:54.680 |
There's another word that is translated in the New Testament as type, and that word is 00:09:03.280 |
And that's the word that is used here in verse 19, parable. 00:09:07.480 |
Parable is like a type to make an impression, but instead of striking, it means to tell 00:09:12.640 |
a story that it could refer to, make something else more clear. 00:09:20.800 |
And when He spoke in parables, He would take a spiritual truth, but He would illustrate 00:09:27.300 |
And so it's much easier to understand the story. 00:09:30.520 |
And so He would tell a short story to illustrate a spiritual principle. 00:09:37.440 |
That whether it is to make an impression or to clarify something, God did everything that 00:09:46.980 |
That's why Jesus says that you guys search for scriptures thinking that if you did all 00:09:51.000 |
of these things that there's life, He said, "All of it was really about me." 00:09:55.240 |
All of it was to prepare you and to show you. 00:09:58.300 |
Just like as I was reading my dad's book about what he did, what he went through, sacrifices 00:10:03.040 |
that he made, looking back at the Old Testament, Old Testament is a story of our adoption. 00:10:11.140 |
And I know we have several families in our church who have either adopted or we have 00:10:16.560 |
Jason and Jen who just came back and adopted a child, and we have others who are waiting 00:10:22.620 |
The Old Testament really is a story about our adoption. 00:10:26.740 |
Our adoption story of when did the story start? 00:10:34.740 |
So it wasn't just the time when you chose to pick that child up and brought him home, 00:10:39.640 |
but all the preparation that went into fundraising maybe, saving money, making some sacrifices, 00:10:45.960 |
preparing your home, getting the visa, all that they had to go through in order so that 00:10:54.400 |
A type is a story of our adoption that has been implanted in the Old Testament to tell 00:11:04.120 |
So as we study this, as we take a look at it, and again, what he's referring to in verse 00:11:10.360 |
19 is displayed for us in Genesis chapter 22, verse 1 through 14. 00:11:17.220 |
If we read this as some history of Israel, you missed the whole point. 00:11:24.400 |
Now if I gave you my dad's autobiography, you're not going to be as excited to read 00:11:29.200 |
Maybe a little bit because I know you, maybe, right? 00:11:32.880 |
But it's not going to have the same kind of impact because that's not your father. 00:11:37.520 |
So everything that he says in that book is personal to me. 00:11:42.320 |
Even if my name is not mentioned, it's personal to me because that's my dad. 00:11:46.280 |
If you read what happens in the Old Testament as a document, as a historical thing that 00:11:51.900 |
every Christian should know, then you're really going to miss the impact of what this is. 00:11:56.360 |
Because everything that happens in this chapter is a revelation of God's love for us. 00:12:03.840 |
Just like one day, those of you who adopted your child, and when your child is old enough, 00:12:07.160 |
you may explain to them why did you choose to do that? 00:12:14.500 |
And all of that is an expression of your love toward that child. 00:12:18.480 |
So in the same way, the story of what happens between Abraham and Isaac, and really the 00:12:23.260 |
whole story of Israel, is specific things that God was doing in order to pursue sinners 00:12:32.040 |
So as we are looking at this, let's put that lens on, that we don't just look at this as 00:12:36.960 |
a historical thing that we need to understand about what it says, but what did God do to 00:12:46.600 |
Genesis 22 verses 1 through 2, it says this, "Now it came about that after these things 00:12:52.960 |
that God tested Abraham and said to him, 'Abraham,' and he said, 'Here I am,' and he said, 'Take 00:12:58.080 |
now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer 00:13:05.760 |
There is a burnt offering on the one of the mountains of which I will tell you.'" 00:13:14.320 |
What God asked Abraham to do makes absolutely no sense because Isaac was the fulfillment 00:13:27.960 |
And the reason why Isaac is the only begotten son, remember we talked about that, how Jesus 00:13:32.920 |
is called the only begotten son, that he's not the first one and that there isn't a second 00:13:36.880 |
or third one, he just happens to be the first. 00:13:41.480 |
Begotten means that he's the only one of his kind. 00:13:45.600 |
Just like for Abraham, Isaac is not the only son. 00:13:52.320 |
But when he says, "Isaac is my only begotten son," there's no one like him because he's 00:13:55.840 |
the one that God promised that all the promise that he made to him, to Israel, and to mankind 00:14:01.960 |
was going to be fulfilled through this child. 00:14:05.960 |
So for God to ask Abraham to give him up, to sacrifice him, would make absolutely no 00:14:17.720 |
But when we recognize that everything that he was doing was really to strike in our hearts 00:14:24.560 |
what he was going to do, he wasn't really asking for Isaac's sacrifice. 00:14:31.100 |
That through this story, he's making an impression in our heart to illustrate to us what sacrifice 00:14:40.120 |
Abraham just happened to be the object of this lesson. 00:14:44.840 |
He wouldn't make any sense because it says it's his only begotten son. 00:14:48.760 |
Not only is he only begotten son, we talked about this several weeks ago when we were 00:14:52.640 |
on this text, he said, "He is your beloved son, the one that you love, the one that you 00:14:58.480 |
In fact, Jesus himself had described that way from God the Father in Matthew 12, 18, 00:15:05.280 |
"Behold my servant whom I chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased." 00:15:13.400 |
He's not Isaac and Abraham, it was just an illustration to illustrate that the one he 00:15:19.840 |
loves, that he is pleased with, that he's going to offer him up. 00:15:26.720 |
In John 3, 16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever 00:15:33.360 |
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." 00:15:37.680 |
As God is asking Abraham to sacrifice your only son, your only beloved son, he was really 00:15:52.360 |
All of this was really to illustrate not only to Abraham but to us. 00:15:59.340 |
This was a story of our adoption and this is the sacrifice that he was going to make 00:16:08.320 |
Ever since man fell, he says, "I'm going to send the seed of the woman to crush the head 00:16:13.380 |
He prophesied that and he's been preparing that way before you and I were ever aware. 00:16:19.640 |
We typically study about Jesus' sacrifice in the New Testament and we read the epistles 00:16:24.400 |
and say, "Well, this is what God did for us." 00:16:27.120 |
But our salvation history, our adoption history goes way further back. 00:16:32.440 |
In fact, a thousand years later when Solomon finally builds a permanent temple, guess where 00:16:42.680 |
Mount Moriah is where God called Abraham to take Isaac to make his sacrifice. 00:16:49.360 |
So this temple was linked to Abraham and Isaac's sacrifice. 00:16:53.760 |
So that every sacrifice that they made pointed to the coming of Christ on that same place 00:17:05.000 |
Not only that, but God called them to go there and give Isaac as a burnt offering. 00:17:10.700 |
Those of you started with us the book of Leviticus, the burnt offering was one of the five major 00:17:19.240 |
But out of the five major offerings, it was the most important one because the burnt offering 00:17:24.800 |
was the offering that they had to give in order to make any other offering. 00:17:29.980 |
It was the offering of atonement, general atonement. 00:17:34.040 |
So there was peace offering, grain offering, guilt offering, right? 00:17:40.860 |
Peace offering, grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering. 00:17:48.480 |
Out of those five major offerings, in order to give the other offerings, you needed to 00:17:54.480 |
So imagine the nation of Israel who had the tabernacle in the middle, the 12 tribes camped 00:18:00.160 |
around him, and the burnt offering was giving 24/7. 00:18:05.500 |
So not only did they know about it, they smelled it and they saw the flames 24/7. 00:18:12.920 |
All the blood that was shed for the sacrifice, it was mostly for the burnt offering because 00:18:17.520 |
the burnt offering had to be made in order for them to come and give the grain offering, 00:18:21.000 |
in order for them to come to give the peace offering. 00:18:27.680 |
Now what's interesting about this is that when God told Abraham to give Isaac as a burnt 00:18:38.200 |
And you and I know, if you study any part of the Old Testament, that God detests human 00:18:44.000 |
In fact, one of the main sins of why God says that Israel was going to captivity was because 00:18:48.880 |
they were so sold out to idolatry that there are certain points of Israel's history where 00:18:54.640 |
they were actually giving human sacrifices, and God was detesting that. 00:19:00.000 |
And yet here in this text, in Abraham's life, even before Israel started, he asked for human 00:19:11.760 |
See this human sacrifice that God gave was a restriction to put on mankind because he 00:19:26.200 |
It doesn't matter how many times Peter says that, but according to truth, mankind was 00:19:39.360 |
In fact, another thing that God detests in the Bible is we are not to drink the blood 00:19:46.260 |
As one of the most sacrilegious things to do. 00:19:48.680 |
Yet in John chapter 6, Jesus tells the people who are coming to him that if you do not drink 00:19:53.560 |
of my blood and eat of my flesh, you have no relationship with me. 00:19:59.200 |
See that there's only one human sacrifice that God not only tolerated, but had to give 00:20:08.680 |
His sacrifice was the only sacrifice that would have raised the value of mankind instead 00:20:15.960 |
And that was reserved for his son and his son only. 00:20:20.400 |
He required this because he was planning that everything that he was doing with Abraham 00:20:25.100 |
and Isaac so that it could make a strike, a parable in our hearts so that you and I, 00:20:30.920 |
years later, could look back at that and recognize that this was what God was doing in history. 00:20:37.700 |
Every part of the Old Testament history is walking step by step to teach us about the 00:20:46.600 |
Hebrews chapter 9, 13 to 14, "For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of 00:20:50.640 |
hyphor sprinkling, those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how 00:20:56.840 |
much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without 00:21:02.040 |
blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." 00:21:09.960 |
Imagine again, put yourself in the shoe of God himself. 00:21:15.360 |
Oftentimes, when we think of God, we think of him as an it, a power up in heaven that 00:21:37.960 |
See everything that Abraham was going through, everything that, can you imagine what Abraham 00:21:43.080 |
was thinking and feeling when God commanded this? 00:21:48.080 |
And yet God was only illustrating through Abraham, but God was actually going to do 00:21:55.480 |
Verse three, it says, "So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey." 00:22:02.060 |
By this time, Abraham already found out that you don't question God. 00:22:06.320 |
Even if things don't make sense, he just obeyed and said, "Okay, you told me you're God. 00:22:13.820 |
Even the fact that I have Isaac was a miracle. 00:22:22.880 |
And he took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son. 00:22:28.360 |
I remember the first time reading this thinking, "Why did he take these two men?" 00:22:35.200 |
And I'm conjecturing here, but if I was a father taking my beloved son to sacrifice 00:22:43.980 |
to God, I don't know if I would want anybody else there. 00:22:51.000 |
It would be a long journey to get to that point. 00:22:55.000 |
And it just kind of made me think, maybe he took these two young men with him because 00:23:17.240 |
What if he realizes that what's happening and Isaac resists, that I might need these 00:23:25.320 |
I may be reading into this, but possibly he may have been doing that. 00:23:28.560 |
Can you imagine what was going on in Abraham's heart when he was doing this? 00:23:32.800 |
He said, "He split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of 00:23:41.440 |
You know what stands out to me that all of this, God says that Abraham obeys, the two 00:23:45.560 |
men go, and Isaac just kind of carries along. 00:23:51.080 |
All of this is done in obedience and in faith. 00:23:55.240 |
And that's how the Bible describes our salvation. 00:24:01.400 |
He tried so many other ways, but he couldn't. 00:24:09.540 |
And then he implemented, even thousands of years before that it ever happened, you can 00:24:15.520 |
see his careful, meticulous planning and taking the steps that was needed. 00:24:22.880 |
Ephesians 4, 1, 4-7 says, "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world 00:24:28.400 |
that we would be holy and blameless before him, in love he predestined us to adoption 00:24:37.400 |
According to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of his glory, of his grace, 00:24:42.560 |
which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved." 00:24:48.160 |
God didn't try everything other possible way, and there was no other way. 00:24:51.400 |
So at the very last minute, he said, "Well, take my son." 00:25:04.040 |
And we see it so clearly in what he was doing with Abraham and Isaac. 00:25:10.600 |
This was his heart, to give his only begotten beloved son. 00:25:18.000 |
This was his plan A. There is no plan B. From the beginning, he knew that the only burnt 00:25:24.080 |
offering that would save sinners and reconcile us to the author of life was the life of his 00:25:37.840 |
And then he was walking through meticulously, step by step, to strike in our hearts, to 00:25:43.120 |
strike in our minds that this is what he was doing. 00:25:47.560 |
Way before we heard the gospel, way before he brought us home, way before we said the 00:25:54.040 |
sinner's prayer, God was planning, step by step. 00:26:08.160 |
And only because he had no other choice, he chooses to come back. 00:26:11.160 |
You know, it's better for me to be a servant, my father's servant. 00:26:16.520 |
He's like, "Don't let him get away with that." 00:26:21.680 |
That parable that Jesus taught was trying to tell the Pharisees the heart of God. 00:26:31.120 |
He wasn't sitting and turned his back, see him coming, he's like, "Okay, let him come." 00:26:36.280 |
Let him come with his tail between his legs and be humbled. 00:26:39.480 |
Let him live like a servant so that he can learn his lesson. 00:26:46.080 |
Let him pay for some of the things that he did. 00:26:49.320 |
And maybe a year later, maybe 10 years later, maybe I might consider. 00:26:54.600 |
But that's not the story that we see in the prodigal son. 00:26:58.140 |
He tells that story to rebuke his older brother, the Pharisees, that you don't know your father. 00:27:06.800 |
And as soon as he sees his son in the horizon, he runs out and he puts his robe on him, puts 00:27:13.180 |
his slippers on him, and welcomes him back as his son and celebrates. 00:27:18.180 |
Jesus tells that story as a parable to teach us who God is. 00:27:28.640 |
He's meticulously, step by step, to make a deep impression in us about how he loved us. 00:27:39.280 |
In verse 4, he says, "On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance." 00:27:46.960 |
Can you imagine what that three days journey was like for them? 00:27:51.720 |
That three days journey, every step that they took must have been a heavy step. 00:27:56.720 |
I don't think there was any jokes going around. 00:28:00.840 |
I don't think they were talking about anything frivolous. 00:28:06.680 |
Maybe the other people were thinking of Abraham, "Abraham's very quiet. 00:28:13.380 |
His only beloved son, only begotten son, three days journey deliberately walking toward the 00:28:20.360 |
place where he would need to sacrifice him because God says so. 00:28:26.680 |
He raises his eyes and saw the place from a distance. 00:28:29.040 |
Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkeys and I and the lad will go 00:28:33.120 |
over there and we will worship and return to you." 00:28:38.100 |
If you can imagine how heavy Abraham's heart was taking those steps to get to Mount Moriah. 00:28:46.760 |
Imagine our Heavenly Father that every part of Old Testament history was God taking step 00:29:00.460 |
If you can imagine three days or what those three days must have been like, can you imagine 00:29:06.280 |
what it would be like for our Heavenly Father? 00:29:11.680 |
Knowing that he would have to give up his only begotten son, that everything that he 00:29:17.040 |
was illustrating through Abraham, the anxiousness, the hardship, the sadness, the brokenness 00:29:23.760 |
that he felt, knowing that he's going to deliver him at the last minute, that God the 00:29:28.640 |
Father was doing this and he was actually going to carry it out. 00:29:36.220 |
Every part of the Old Testament history from the beginning until the suffering of Christ. 00:29:52.740 |
He says, "We're going to go over there and we're going to worship." 00:29:58.620 |
I don't understand what he's doing, but he says, "So we're going to go and worship." 00:30:04.460 |
Isaiah 53, 7, it says, "He was oppressed and he was afflicted, and yet he did not open 00:30:08.220 |
his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that is silent before its shearer. 00:30:23.960 |
Even though the Romans crucified him, even though the Jewish leaders yelled out, "Crucify 00:30:30.620 |
him," even though they beat him and they struck him with a spear, even though by their 00:30:37.860 |
hands he was crushed, he volunteered for this. 00:30:47.980 |
Because God the Father has been preparing this for thousands of years. 00:30:53.180 |
And every step that he took, every event in Israel's history was God taking one more step 00:31:02.940 |
And Jesus himself says in John 10, 18, "No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it 00:31:10.260 |
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. 00:31:19.020 |
Verse 6, "Abraham took the wood, the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son." 00:31:31.180 |
I don't think you need to be a father or a mother to understand this. 00:31:38.700 |
Anybody can understand that this is a child you love. 00:31:44.020 |
He's laying the wood that's going to burn his body and said, "You carry this. 00:31:53.820 |
And he took it in his hand and fired the knife, the knife that he was going to use to kill 00:32:06.820 |
Can you imagine what was going through Abraham's mind? 00:32:12.580 |
Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, "My father," he said, "Here I am, my son." 00:32:19.500 |
He said, "Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 00:32:30.180 |
Just in a few minutes, he's going to place his son upon the altar. 00:32:58.620 |
That's what I think maybe I would have been tempted to say. 00:33:10.420 |
God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." 00:33:19.540 |
Can you imagine the agony and the loneliness as Jesus was marching to Jerusalem from Bethany? 00:33:31.100 |
The final few steps that he was taking, do you remember the Palm Sunday? 00:33:40.180 |
Even his own disciples were only concerned about who's going to be glorified with you 00:33:46.740 |
So they were shaking the palm branches, "Hosanna, Hosanna, come, deliver us." 00:34:01.580 |
He wept because he knew the judgment that was coming. 00:34:09.940 |
So those final steps from Bethany to Jerusalem were the very last steps that Jesus was taking 00:34:22.100 |
Verse 9, "Then they came to the place of which God had told him, and Abraham built 00:34:27.540 |
the altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar 00:34:38.860 |
By this time, Isaac must have known what is going on. 00:34:45.980 |
My guess is Abraham was probably hoping, "This can't really be happening." 00:34:59.820 |
Why would he go through all that drama and then take my son? 00:35:09.220 |
Humanly speaking, it doesn't make any sense because taking him away means to reverse everything 00:35:13.540 |
that God did in Abraham's life from a human perspective. 00:35:22.340 |
He was doing all of that to make an impression on us, to illustrate to us what he was going 00:35:32.020 |
Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 00:35:43.940 |
It's hard to discipline your kids that you love and adore. 00:35:51.940 |
Parents say, "Oh, it hurts me more than it hurts you." 00:35:56.940 |
You don't really understand what that means until you love something that much. 00:36:16.340 |
And every parent makes a decision, even if they go through a hardship, I want to take 00:36:25.580 |
So even when we have to discipline them and we know it's good for them, even though they're 00:36:37.060 |
Is there a way for me to take the punishment? 00:36:43.020 |
But to strike a child because he was good, not only because he was good, because you're 00:36:55.420 |
He's bullying everybody, he's cussing everybody out, and he's hurting other kids, but the 00:36:59.500 |
only way that he can survive is if my son gets hit. 00:37:03.460 |
I mean, it's hard to discipline a kid when he deserves it. 00:37:10.140 |
But to discipline a child, let alone offer him up, and yet that's exactly what God did. 00:37:20.420 |
Remember reading that book, Darkness and the Glory, from Dr. Harris, chapter four of that 00:37:25.860 |
Why did everything go dark in the second hour? 00:37:31.180 |
From 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock, it says it went dark. 00:37:34.500 |
In fact, people even wrote songs about it, how the father turned his face away because 00:37:43.540 |
And for many years, I thought that's the only explanation that seems to make sense. 00:37:47.960 |
But Dr. Harris gave an alternative view in that book, Darkness and the Glory, which makes 00:37:53.780 |
God wasn't turning his face away, he was actually coming. 00:37:58.340 |
In every instance in the Bible, when God appears, he comes in darkness because if he reveals 00:38:06.540 |
Remember Moses, when Moses asked to see God, he says, "You cannot. 00:38:12.580 |
So God covers him, and he passes by and allows him to see a glimpse of his glory because 00:38:20.680 |
And that reflection of his glory on Moses' face was so terrifying, people asked him to 00:38:25.980 |
veil himself and stay in the tent because they were so afraid of his glory. 00:38:31.580 |
See, Dr. Harris says it went dark because the father was coming. 00:38:38.660 |
He was coming, and then he gives the evidence in the Old Testament where whenever there's 00:38:43.420 |
a covenant being ratified, he shows up in darkness. 00:38:50.700 |
And so it makes a lot more sense that that's why it went dark, because the father came 00:38:59.660 |
He wasn't handing his son over to the leaders of Israel. 00:39:04.260 |
He himself came like Abraham took the knife and was about to strike. 00:39:14.220 |
You know that you and I may become the righteousness of God. 00:39:27.780 |
He placed all of our sins in that while we were yet sinners, while we were blaspheming 00:39:33.020 |
In order that you and I could live, he sacrificed his only begotten son. 00:39:37.660 |
So this whole drama between Abraham and Isaac was so that you and I can understand reading 00:39:56.420 |
All of that was to show us and to strike in us what this gospel is. 00:40:02.660 |
Verse 11, "But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham.' 00:40:11.720 |
Do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him, for I now know that 00:40:16.760 |
you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.'" 00:40:21.840 |
It's not that God didn't know and that he was surprised by Abraham's faith. 00:40:26.360 |
He was all to illustrate to us, to strike in us, to teach us that when Christ finally 00:40:33.960 |
came, one of these days when the parents who've adopted children tell the story of the adoption, 00:40:39.320 |
one of these days when they're older, more mature to understand, you will sit with them 00:40:48.080 |
This is what we had to go through during the pandemic. 00:40:57.480 |
All of that is to tell that child how much we love you. 00:41:12.440 |
Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket 00:41:19.240 |
Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of 00:41:23.440 |
Can you imagine the jubilation for Abraham when God said, "Stop," and then he sees a 00:41:28.680 |
replacement of this ram and takes that ram and offering up that ram. 00:41:33.320 |
I was thinking maybe Abraham did it really quickly just in case God changes his mind. 00:41:44.640 |
Can you imagine the joy in his heart when God saves his son? 00:41:53.880 |
But as joyous as Abraham must have been, as relieved as he must have been, this is exactly 00:42:10.280 |
As much as Abraham must have been celebrating, I can imagine God, "One day I will have to 00:42:25.760 |
And Abraham called the name of that place, "The Lord will provide." 00:42:30.160 |
As it is said to this day, "In the moment of the Lord, it will provide." 00:42:34.360 |
The word "Lord will provide" in Hebrew literally is Jehovah-Jireh. 00:42:39.780 |
If you grew up in Sunday school and went to VBS, you probably heard that term before, 00:42:44.680 |
It's one of God's most prominent names, Jehovah-Jireh, "The Lord will provide." 00:42:53.140 |
But oftentimes we use that, "The Lord will provide." 00:42:56.720 |
You know, we're trying to buy this house, and we're competing with all these people. 00:43:04.880 |
We get sick, and we need God to answer our prayers, so we need to be healthy. 00:43:11.280 |
We're not sure exactly if I'm going to have a job after this pandemic. 00:43:19.920 |
And it's not that God doesn't promise us that he will take care of us. 00:43:23.280 |
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." 00:43:26.680 |
But his name, Jehovah-Jireh, comes in the context of him promising Abraham and mankind 00:43:42.080 |
The word Jireh literally means to show, that God will show, he will demonstrate. 00:43:49.880 |
So what he means by that is the Lord will declare, he will show. 00:43:59.720 |
And that's why when Jesus is going to the cross, he says, "It is time. 00:44:03.800 |
It is time to show yourself, God, that I will glorify you and you will glorify me." 00:44:18.200 |
First Peter 3, 18, "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, 00:44:23.480 |
so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive 00:44:29.720 |
Now, if this is just a historical fact to you, it will have no effect. 00:44:41.680 |
It's like if you read my dad's autobiography. 00:44:46.560 |
It's better than reading somebody that you have no idea who he is. 00:44:54.600 |
If you read the adoption history and you read it like it's a historical document, it's just 00:45:05.880 |
And if somebody asks you about it, "Oh, that's a type. 00:45:11.920 |
And you'll be able to tell them that, but it will not change your life. 00:45:17.680 |
You just happen to be a better educated person. 00:45:24.360 |
But if this is God revealing how he loved you, how he loved me, if this is my adoption 00:45:33.360 |
history, what he did for me, and I really believe this, how can this not change you? 00:45:56.600 |
It's God's love story revealed to us, and he is striking. 00:46:11.120 |
So they would make such a deep impression in our heart that we can't help but to worship