26-0405a Transcript

(2:09) Good morning, everybody. He has risen. (2:13) That was a joyous greeting the Christians said to each other in the first century.

(2:20) He has risen. (2:22) So what a glorious day to gather together as God’s children to worship and celebrate our heavenly Father (2:30) and his risen Son, Jesus Christ. (2:33) And we rejoice because we’re blessed to have the hope of heaven in our hearts, (2:40) and we have that hope because the Savior who has risen has given us that hope, (2:47) because he rose from the dead.

(2:50) Jesus was the first proof to rise from the dead by the power of the resurrection. (2:57) One day when Christ returns, we’ll hear that trumpet call, (3:02) and his angels will gather up all the faithful followers to bring his church to heaven. (3:10) We’ll experience the thrill of the resurrection ourselves one day as we enter into eternity.

(3:21) So what event happened that led to the good news about Jesus being risen? (3:29) To be the first to rise from the dead? (3:33) Well, it was the Jews celebrating the yearly feast, Passover. (3:41) The Jewish families would gather together to remember how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, (3:49) and God judged Egypt and its false gods, (3:54) and he sent ten plagues upon Egypt in order to get them to release the Israelites (4:03) and for them to believe that he is the true and living God, (4:09) and not the worthless gods of Egypt. (4:16) It was the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn male, the convinced Pharaoh to let them go.

(4:25) God’s people were told to mark their doorposts with the blood of their Passover lamb they were about to eat, (4:36) and that was to identify God’s people to the destroying angel (4:41) who was sent to kill all the firstborn males, human and animal, in Egypt. (4:49) When the angel saw the blood of the lamb marking the doorpost, he would not enter, (4:56) but he would pass over that house, and that’s where we get the name Passover. (5:04) So roughly 1,500 years later, Jesus was God’s holy Passover lamb offering, (5:15) and he was sinless, and that made him the perfect lamb without spot or blemish.

(5:23) And he willingly went to the cross on Calvary and became God’s sacrificial atoning lamb, (5:35) the sacrifice that would take humanity’s sin away. (5:39) And that happened at the very same time that all of Israel was slaughtering their lambs to celebrate Passover. (5:51) God was having his lambs slaughtered, and that was by design.

(6:01) God’s a very detail-oriented God. (6:07) Nothing is chance, nothing is random, everything is planned with purpose. (6:16) And so Jesus dying at that hour was part of the plan of salvation.

(6:25) And Jesus' death on the cross finished the Old Testament system of worship. (6:34) So the Israelites were enjoying the very last Passover that God would recognize and accept, (6:43) because he offered the final Passover lamb through his son Jesus. (6:50) And now we have a new system, a New Testament established by Jesus because of his death on the cross.

(7:02) Jesus replaced the remembrance of the Passover with the remembrance of the Lord’s Supper. (7:09) And we partake of the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. (7:15) Instead of eating the Passover lamb, we eat the bread and drink the fruit of the vine (7:21) in remembrance of his death on the cross.

(7:26) Those emblems represent his body and blood shed on the cross (7:31) to remove our sins and to put us into a covenant relationship with him. (7:38) Jesus, the Son of God, who is the second figure of the Godhead, (7:44) has always been our intercessor between God and man. (7:50) In the Gospel of John, we’re told that no man at any time has seen the Father except the Son.

(8:00) So in the Old Testament, it was always the Son dealing with mankind on behalf of the Father. (8:12) It was the pre-incarnate Jesus, Yahweh. (8:21) From walking with Adam and Eve in the garden to wrestling Jacob as Peniel (8:27) to walking Balaam on his donkey.

(8:32) He stood with his sword drawn to appearing to Joshua as the captain of the host of heaven. (8:40) Jesus was always busy doing his Father’s business, interceding for man. (8:49) Paul revealed to us that it was Christ who was with Israel in the wilderness (8:55) as the angel of the Lord and as the rock that followed them and spoke with Moses (9:02) and provided the Israelites with water.

(9:06) Paul even called Jesus our Passover lamb, (9:11) which confirms the type-antitype relationship of those events. (9:19) In Exodus 3, verses 2 through 6, we read when Moses saw the burning bush, (9:27) he approached it and was told not to come any closer and to remove his sandals (9:33) because he was standing on holy ground. (9:38) As the angel of the Lord spoke, he referred to himself as God or Elohim, Yahweh, (9:50) which in our Old Testament, the translators made it all capital L-O-R-D.

(9:58) When you see that, that’s the name Yahweh. (10:02) And we can also infer, because he said, I am the God of your father, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, (10:11) they knew God, those patriarchs, as El Shaddai, God Almighty. (10:18) So we can infer from that that this being in the bush speaking with Moses is none other than God.

(10:31) And it’s the pre-incarnate Christ. (10:34) This same holy being appeared to Moses later in Exodus 33, 13 and 14, as Yahweh. (10:44) As Moses spoke with Yahweh, Yahweh reveals something interesting.

(10:50) Listen. (10:51) Moses said, now, if I indeed have found favor in your sight, (10:58) please let me know your ways that I may know you and find favor in your sight. (11:04) Remember that this nation is your people.

(11:07) And Yahweh answered, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. (11:18) I will give you rest. (11:19) That sounds like Jesus' words from Matthew 11, 28.

(11:25) Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (11:32) The Hebrew word there for presence, where he said, my presence will go with you, is panin. (11:42) I’m not a Hebrew scholar, but I was a copier repairman.

(11:48) And if you worked on copiers that were from here to the wall, (11:53) that’s a massive system of things going on at one time. (11:58) You didn’t have to know everything about that copier. (12:02) So when you got trained on equipment, they told you how to use your manuals.

(12:09) So I’ve got that training. (12:12) I know how to use manuals. (12:14) I can figure things out pretty good.

(12:17) And that Hebrew word panin is the plural word for face. (12:24) It’s always used in the singular sense, though. (12:28) That’s where Jesus said, my presence will go with you.

(12:33) My face will go with you. (12:35) But it means faces. (12:39) So the phrase, my presence will go with you, comes from the Hebrew phrase, (12:45) panay yeleku halak.

(12:47) And there’s a biblical scholar named Adam Clark, (12:51) and he said the essence of that phrase means, (12:55) my faces shall go with you as different manifestations of my grace and goodness, (13:02) in which I will vary my appearance for you as shall be required. (13:13) So in other words, under certain circumstances that presented itself to Israel, (13:19) the Lord would appear to them in different forms. (13:25) The rock.

(13:29) Would you have thought that when you read through the Old Testament the first time you came to that? (13:37) Gee, that rock is pre-incarnate Jesus. (13:41) No. (13:42) You had to do a little digging to figure that out.

(13:48) But that’s exactly what we read. (13:50) Jesus had many faces as he appeared in the Old Testament. (13:55) And if you started counting them up, you’d be well over 30 different forms (14:02) or different hats that he would wear in the Old Testament.

(14:10) He had different names and different appearances. (14:15) And he was always guiding mankind, his creation, guiding them along. (14:23) And that’s how God’s divine intervention and providence works, (14:32) in order to make the events of the scheme of redemption happen.

(14:40) So Christ was there, boots on ground, so to speak, guiding his people in different forms. (14:50) So Jesus is truly, truly Yahweh-Rohi, our Lord and Shepherd. (14:59) So let’s examine the event that was the foreshadow of Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection.

(15:11) There’s an ancient land mentioned in the Old Testament (15:16) where two very important sacrificial events happened long ago (15:24) that bless us all who are here today. (15:28) And the land is called Moriah. (15:32) And those two events have a type-anti-type relationship.

(15:37) And they happen 2,000 years apart. (15:42) The first sacrificial event is the type. (15:45) And if you were in Steve’s class this morning, he taught on that briefly.

(15:53) I had to kid him afterwards that he used my sermon in his lesson this morning. (15:58) And that’s where Abraham offered his son Isaac. (16:03) And the second event, the anti-type, or actually the archetype, (16:09) meaning the proto, the singular event that it represents, (16:15) is Jehovah, Yahweh, offering Jesus.

(16:23) So the land of Moriah is an ancient name for the region in the area around Jerusalem, (16:30) consisting of seven mountains, kind of like the seven hills of Rome. (16:34) Well, Jerusalem too had seven mountains that it was situated around. (16:39) The tallest was Mount Gihon.

(16:43) There was also Mount Sion, Mount Acre, Mount Scopus. (16:47) You’ve heard of this one. (16:49) Olivet, or the Mount of Olives.

(16:52) Mount Opal, and Mount Moriah. (16:56) Mount Moriah is history-rich in the Bible, (17:01) such as when God took his vengeance on Israel (17:04) by sending a plague on them due to King David disobeying his command (17:11) not to conduct a census of the people for military purposes. (17:16) The king was supposed to rely on God’s strength and on God’s deliverance, (17:22) not on the strength of his numbers of his army.

(17:26) The location on Mount Moriah where that took place (17:30) was on a threshing floor owned by a farmer named Ornan. (17:40) And King David happened to be on that threshing floor (17:45) when he looked up and saw the angel of the Lord being the very plague (17:53) that was talked about earlier punishing Israel. (17:58) He stood between heaven and earth with his sword faced, (18:03) and he was destroying Israelites because of David’s sin.

(18:17) And so Jesus, as the angel of the Lord, was being the destroying angel, (18:27) executing God’s punishment. (18:32) And when King David saw what was happening, (18:36) he prayed to God right away and asked God to spare the people (18:41) because of his sin. (18:44) He owned up to it.

(18:46) God heard David’s prayer and ordered David to make an altar there to make sacrifices. (18:53) The plague killed over 70,000 people because of one man’s disobedience. (19:01) David regarded the spot on that threshing floor as such a holy place, (19:08) having seen the angel of the Lord, who is God, there, (19:13) that he bought that land from Ornan and built an altar there to make sacrifices to God.

(19:20) And David’s son and successor to his throne, Solomon, (19:24) built the temple for God on that exact spot. (19:31) Second Chronicles 3.1 says, (19:33) Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, (19:40) where the Lord had appeared to his father David. (19:43) This was the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan.

(19:49) But there is another holy site in the land of Moriah on Mount Moriah, (19:57) not far from the temple, where on one side of the mountain, (20:02) there is a unique formation of rock called Golgotha, (20:07) because it resembles a human skull. (20:13) And both sacrificial events happened at this exact spot. (20:19) So I’m going to read from the Old Testament about Abraham, (20:24) whom God chose out of all the people of the world, (20:28) and that God would bless the whole world through him on that very spot.

(20:36) Abraham was a Hebrew, and his story starts out in Genesis chapter 12. (20:47) And Abraham, on the human timeline, that would have been 2,000 years from Adam. (20:56) So 2,000 years from creation is when Abraham showed up on the scene.

(21:06) And in Genesis 12, one through three, it says, (21:38) So Abraham headed west and was directed to the land of Canaan. (21:44) And in Genesis 12, 7, it says, (21:52) So God made three promises to Abram. (21:57) God reaffirmed those promises on oath in chapter 15.

(22:03) In those verses, God swore to Abraham first that he would have a child from his own body. (22:10) Though Sarai, by the way, was barren and beyond childbearing years, (22:17) had no children, and that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars of the sky. (22:25) And second was the land promise.

(22:29) His people would possess the land of Canaan. (22:32) And the third promise through Abraham’s seed is the promise that someone special from that bloodline (22:40) would be a blessing to all the families of earth. (22:45) So Abraham was 75 years old when God called him, (22:49) and 24 years later, God gave him the covenant of circumcision, which we talked about this morning.

(22:59) And he renames Abram to Abraham, and he renames Sarai to Sarah. (23:10) Then one year later, Genesis 21, one and two says, (23:19) The Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. (23:23) So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.

(23:32) So they have a boy, and his name is Isaac. (23:36) And he was a miracle baby, because Sarah was 90 years old when she conceived. (23:45) And then plus, she was barren.

(23:48) She couldn’t have children up to that point. (23:52) It was because of God putting life in her womb. (23:59) And I hope at the end of this lesson, you’ll notice all the striking similarities (24:03) between these two sacrificial events.

(24:08) The first event is a foreshadow of the event to come. (24:12) The second event that was 2,000 years later. (24:18) So the foreshadow is what we would call a type, and the future event is the realized, (24:24) the coming to fruition, the anti-type.

(24:28) Or in the case of God here, we call it the archetype. (24:33) So now that we have some context leading up to the first of these two most important (24:39) sacrificial events that happened in Moriah, let’s read together Genesis 22, 1 through 14. (24:52) And this evening, we’ll examine this very story, verse by verse.

(24:58) So we’ll conclude today with these verses here. (25:04) Genesis 22, 1 through 19, if you’d like to read along. (25:10) After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, he said, here I am.

(25:18) He said, now take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, (25:25) and go to the land of Moriah. (25:28) Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will tell you. (25:35) Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey (25:38) and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son.

(25:43) He split the wood for the burnt offering and rose up (25:46) and went to the place of which God had told him. (25:50) On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place far off. (26:01) Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey.

(26:06) The boy and I will go yonder. We will worship and come back to you. (26:11) Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

(26:16) And he took his hand, in his hand, the fire and the knife. (26:20) They both went together. Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, (26:25) my father, here I am, my son, he said.

(26:29) Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? (26:35) Abraham said, God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. (26:42) So they both went together. They came to the place which God had told of him.

(26:48) Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order (26:54) and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on the wood. (27:01) Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. (27:07) Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, Abraham, Abraham.

(27:12) Abraham said, here I am. (27:15) He said, don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, (27:20) for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, (27:27) your only son, from me. (27:31) Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and saw that behind him was a ram (27:36) caught in the thicket by his horns.

(27:39) Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son. (27:48) Abraham called the place, the name of that place, Yahweh will provide. (27:54) As it is said to this day, on Yahweh’s mountain it will be provided.

(28:01) Yahweh’s angel called to Abraham a second time out of the sky and said, (28:06) I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing (28:12) and have not withheld your son, your only son, that I will bless you greatly. (28:19) I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the skies (28:25) and like the sand on the seashore. (28:28) Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.

(28:32) All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring (28:37) because you have obeyed my voice. (28:40) So Abraham returned to his young men and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. (28:46) Abraham lived at Beersheba.

(28:51) So this was the critical event in the scheme of redemption (28:56) that sets up the actual event that would happen 2,000 years later on that exact spot. (29:09) And you can see how the second person of the Godhead, the angel of the Lord, (29:16) in this case, whom we know as Yahweh, (29:19) was intimately involved in guiding and directing providentially the scheme of redemption. (29:29) And it had to be worked out through Abraham, the man of promise.

(29:35) And Abraham proved himself true to this test. (29:42) He actually was willing to lay his son on the altar (29:49) and as his hand was coming down with the knife in it, (29:53) the angel of the Lord called out to him to stop. (29:58) God knows the intent of our hearts and he saw Abraham was going through with it.

(30:06) And by God’s great mercy and grace, (30:12) he stopped Abraham from having to do the unthinkable, (30:19) knowing that he would do the exact same thing for real 2,000 years later. (30:26) And God provided an actual ram being caught in a thicket by his horns. (30:32) What are the chances? (30:36) Abraham sacrificed that animal to God.

(30:40) And the name of that spot forever will be called, God will provide. (30:50) Isn’t that wonderful? (30:52) So he tested Abraham’s faith and Abraham was willing to obey God’s command. (30:59) The sacrifice is only begotten son, Isaac.

(31:07) Thankfully, Abraham passed the test. (31:10) And because of that act, he became God’s friend, (31:15) actually called Abraham his friend, (31:21) because they both experienced a loss of a loved one through that. (31:31) And so Abraham received back his son figuratively, (31:37) a type of resurrection.

(31:42) Jesus is going to be the archetype of the resurrection. (31:48) So come back this evening for a verse-by-verse analysis of this story (31:53) and how it foreshadows this wonderful gospel story of Jesus going to the cross (32:02) and being rose from the dead. (32:05) So if you have any need and would like to perhaps be baptized into Christ, (32:13) accepting that wonderful sacrifice he made on our behalf, (32:20) baptismal water is there, (32:23) and we’re willing to help you in any way we can to be right with God.

(32:28) So come as we stand and sing the invitation song.