|
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOD DOING? HE KEEPS US SAFE TO THE END BY FAITH GENESIS 25: 1-11 INTRODUCTION Today we are finishing our series from the life of Abraham entitled, "What in the world is God doing?" We have spent 15 Sundays looking at how God worked in Abraham’s life. Today we will look at how he died. Starting next week we will begin a series from the biography of Jesus’ life that John, Jesus’ closest friend while he lived here, wrote. We are going to look at the events and words Jesus spoke during the last 3-4 hours that he spent with his disciples just before he was arrested and killed. I’ve entitled this 7 week series, "Dying words that destroy doubt and despair." I know some of you actually read the passage I’m going to preach on prior to coming here on Sunday morning. If you are one of those who read the text and I would encourage everyone to do so, you need to know that I am going to start with John 13 rather than John 14 next week. Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones had a hit song in the early 1970’s entitled, "I Can’t Get no Satisfaction". It currently plays with regularity on the "classic rock" radio stations. I can’t think of a better song to summarize the attitude of the average American. We are the wealthiest people to ever live on planet earth. Yet we are a very dissatisfied group of people. We are dissatisfied with our jobs, with our spouses, with our bodies, with our children, with our parents, with our vacations, with our health care and with the TV shows we watch. We are anxious and stressed out and discontent people. Our lives are not characterized by the peaceful calmness of people who know the future is bright and are happy with the present. Rather we vacillate between being frantic with activity trying to insure a fun present or a happy future or despairing over ever finding contentment and so retreating into lives of complacency. In Genesis 25 we have a summary of the last 35 years of Abraham’s life and then a report of his death and burial. This past week as I have meditated on this passage one word has leapt off the page at me. You won’t find it in the NIV translation of this passage but you will in the NAS. A literal translation of v. 8 reads, "Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and satisfied; and he was gathered to his people." Did you hear the word that hit me? He died an old man and satisfied. Abraham lived and died a satisfied man. I don’t think he was always satisfied, as we have seen. But, the evidence beginning in chapter 21 and coming here to the end of his life is that he was a content or satisfied person. For the last 75 years of his life Abraham was content. Did you know that Jesus commands us to be content? In Matthew 6 he commands us not to worry about our lives but to live like the birds that are content and peaceful because they know that they will be provided for. In 1 Timothy Paul says, "But godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either." Jesus told his disciples just before he was arrested, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you." This passage describing the last 35 years of Abraham’s life show us how it is that he lived and died a satisfied man. MAIN POINT God intends that we live and die satisfied by… I. Being faithful to his call to the end of life (vv. 1-4) Look at vv. 1-4 with me. We find out in these verses that after the death of Sarah and after Isaac and Rebekah were married, Abraham married another woman by the name of Keturah. Then we are informed that he had 6 sons by her and then 7 grandsons are named. In addition we are told that one or the grandsons, Dedan, became the father of three nations of people. Again we are forced to ask why did Moses include this information in his biography of Abraham’s life? What does this tell us about God and his work in and through Abraham? Sarah dies when Abraham is 137 years old and Isaac is 37. Isaac takes his mother’s death very hard. He is not very interested in anything, least of all getting married, and goes to live in the desert. Abraham knows that God has promised to bless Isaac with descendants and so he needs a wife. So he sends his servant back to the country he came from and he finds Rebekah, his brother’s grand-daughter as a wife for Isaac. After the marriage, Abraham sees that Isaac is happy and hopeful and living life again. It’s only a matter of time before children are born and God’s plan moves forward. Everything’s ready for the next step in God’s fulfilling his plan. Abraham could say, "I’ve finished the work God sent me to do. Now it’s time to kick back and enjoy the fruits of my labor and wait for heaven. I’m going to retire and let Isaac run the camp." But that’s not what he does. He feels fine and he knows that God has more for him to do and so he doesn’t just coast for heaven but he takes another wife and raises 6 sons. He remains faithful to God and to God’s call on his life and God makes the last 35 years of his life more fruitful than the previous 140. Abraham shows that his goal is not having a comfortable life on planet earth but on being faithful to do all that God calls him to do to build his kingdom. Abraham doesn’t say, "I’ve done enough for God, now it’s time for me to relax." In an article in the Feb., 1998 issue of "Reader’s Digest", Bob and Penny Stifler share how they were able to take early retirement at the age of 51 to Ponto Gordo, FL. They saved everything they could save over the years. They took advantage of every retirement program they could at work. If there was any extra money left at the end of the year, they put it into their retirement investments. Now they cruise around in their 30’ trawler, play softball and collect seashells. They have quite a remarkable collection. The article then goes on to describe how to do what the Stifler’s have done through using the various kinds of retirement funds that are available. What a contrast they are to Abraham. He knew that God had a mission for him to accomplish. The goal of life isn’t to achieve an early retirement so you can spend the last 30 years collecting seashells. What a godless view of reality. Yet this is the American dream. If your ambition in life is to accumulate enough so that you can retire in style you will not be satisfied because that is not why God made you. You and I have been given life so that we can know Jesus Christ and give our lives in service to him. This is the only way to be satisfied. But even if you by chance are able to use the abundance of this world to somehow medicate the emptiness of living for such futile things you can be absolutely sure that when you die God will greet you by calling you a fool. What a contrast the Stiflers are to Pastor John Ellefson. He is dead now, but I met him in 1980 when he was in his late 70’s. He was the associate pastor at the church we attended in LaCrosse. He had spent the previous 50 years in pastoral ministry and he was still at it. He spent his days visiting university students and people who couldn’t leave home. He shared the gospel and prayed with people and taught the Scriptures in dorm rooms and nursing homes. He and his wife lived on social security and a small stipend our church provided. He and his wife were content with their lives and full of joy. I think of Pastor Peterson who is 92 years old. He was the pastor of the church my family belonged to when I was a teenager. His wife died 15 years ago. He spends his days visiting the sick and talking with people in the local nursing homes. Since retiring from full-time pastoring he has served in numerous community service groups. I think of my own mom who is 72 and a nurse by training. She spends many hours every week helping the elderly fill out the paperwork for Medicare and being an advocate for them in the health system. She is an active board member on the Council for Aging in Dane county. Finally I think of the apostle Paul who said when he was approaching 60, "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. There is something very wrong with the American church when the majority of Christians retire from their vocations and spend their retirement playing golf or gardening or fishing or whatever. Now I am not saying it’s wrong to retire or to save for retirement or to play golf or garden or fish. What I am saying is that living your life as if the reward you are laboring for is 20 years of leisure at the end of it is unChristian and ungodly. God has a mission for every one of us that will not be completed until we are in his presence through death or the return of Jesus. If we are going to live and die satisfied then we had better pursue that mission now and not plan on quitting until he tells us it’s time to quit and come home. Every one of us will be greeted by God some day. Either he will say, "Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master", or "You fool! Today your life is demanded from you. Who will get what you have prepared for yourself now?" God intends that we live and die satisfied by…
II. Being single-minded in our devotion to him and his plan (vv. 5-7) What vv. 5-6 show us is that while Abraham pursued God’s call on his life to the very end of life, yet he never lost sight of what was first. He kept first things first in his life. In the midst of having a family of six sons with all the work and trouble that involved, he never lost sight of the fact that God’s plan was to bless the whole world through Isaac. So as his sons grew up and became men he gave them gifts, probably livestock and slaves and tents and silver and gold and clothing so they could set up their own nomadic families. He then sent them away from where Isaac lived. He wasn’t just acting like some weird parent who loves only one child and treats the rest like dirt. Rather, he was acting in accord with the promises and plans of God. He was providing a safe environment for Isaac to raise his two sons, Jacob and Esau who were born when Abraham was 160. Abraham kept God and his promises at the center of his life. In these last 35 years he did not allow the other good things he was doing to ever distract him from what was first. There are a lot of Christians who are dissatisfied and discontent because they have not kept first things first. Our churches are full of people who are working for God but who have forgotten God in the process. I know, because I have done it and have to constantly fight to keep God and his plan at the center of my life. There are so many good and valuable things that need to be done. There are so many people that need help, so many people that need to hear the gospel, so much injustice and wickedness to be opposed. So, well-meaning Christians, who want to serve God and make a difference in the world abandon God in order to work for God. Other things take God’s place in our lives and so we end up dissatisfied because we were made to love Him, not work for him. What we often do that Abraham did not do is we substitute subordinate purposes for the ultimate purpose. What I’m going to share with you right now is the most important thing I’ve learned apart from understanding that the only way I will be ever be accepted by God is because of Christ dying for my sins. I’m going to use an illustration to show what it means to substitute subordinate purposes for the ultimate purpose and why it robs us of contentment and joy. Imagine that you were out visiting a friend who is a farmer in the spring. He is getting on his tractor with a big old chisel plow attached to the back of it. Being a city-slicker you ask him what he’s doing? He says, "I’m going out to plow a 40 acre field. So you ask, "why are you going to plow it?" He says, "I can’t plant my corn until I’ve plowed up the soil." "Why do you want to plant corn?" "If I don’t plant corn, then I won’t have any to harvest in the fall." "Why do you want to harvest corn in the fall?" "I harvest the corn and sell it to make money." "Why do you want to make money?" "I have a wife and three children and so I need to be able to take care of them." Let’s stop there and say that the farmer’s ultimate purpose is to take care of his family. But along the way in this chain of activity, each activity has its own subordinate or immediate purpose. He plows the field so that he can plant the corn. He plants the corn so that he can harvest a crop. He harvests a crop so that he can sell it. He sells it so that he can obtain money to take care of his family. While each event has its own purpose, yet they all have one ultimate purpose, so that the farmer can take care of his family. What happens if the farmer decides that his ultimate purpose is to plow the field? Two things will happen. First, he will not fulfill his true, ultimate purpose, taking care of his family. Second, he will eventually become a very frustrated and unhappy person who will probably quit farming. God’s ultimate purpose or the reason that he created everything that exists and the reason he does all that he does is to glorify himself. In other words he does everything in order to show off his greatness. It is also the ultimate purpose of every human being. We were made in the image of God to show off how great he is. God sent his Son to die for our sins and bring us into a relationship with him so that we might show off his power and mercy. We display the greatness of God when he is the treasure we seek. God is most glorified by us when we are most satisfied with him. We display the greatness of God when we are occupied with him, when our hearts are in love with him, when we love to trust him and obey him. When we’ll do anything to know him better. So do you see what happens to us? We make it the goal of our life to be a good dad and to raise Christian kids. So all of our life revolves around this purpose but it is not the ultimate purpose, it is a subordinate one and we wonder why there is no joy and we are so unhappy. We make it our goal to share the gospel with our neighbors and so all of our life revolves around getting to know them and love them and share with them and we wonder why we are so unhappy and frustrated. We make it our goal to do our job with excellence and faithfulness and we wonder why we are unhappy and frustrated. Raising Christian kids, sharing the gospel with our neighbors and being an excellent worker are good things that we ought to be involved in but they are not our ultimate purpose. If we don’t keep first what is first and if we don’t figure out how each part of life relates to our ultimate purpose we will not live or die satisfied. This is going to take work to figure out. God wants you to live for his glory in the midst of the life he has given you. You must figure out what that means, what that "looks like" in your particular circumstances. God intends that we live and die satisfied by…
III. Fixing all our hope on the promise of seeing his glory in the future (vv. 8-11) Read vv. 8-11. There are so many things in these verses that direct our attention to the future and to heaven. First, the phrase, "and he was gathered to his people." What does it mean? It can’t mean that he was buried with his people because he was only buried with Sarah and we are told that at the end of v. 10. It is not simply a statement that he died like everyone else dies. Rather, it means that Abraham went to the place where his people who had died were currently dwelling. It is a statement of confidence that death is not the end of life. Everyone who has already died is living in a disembodied state, as a spirit, at this very moment waiting for the day when Christ will return and give everyone resurrection bodies. All who have trusted God’s promise of salvation through Christ are currently enjoying the presence of Jesus. All those who have died outside of Christ are currently suffering agony away from the presence of the Lord. Second, notice that both Isaac and Ishmael bury Abraham. This is an amazing thing. Here we have represented in Isaac, the Jewish nation and in Ishmael the non-Jewish or Gentile peoples of the world. In joining together in burying Abraham we have a picture of the future people of God, the church, which is made up of both Jews and Gentiles through a common faith in Jesus, Abraham’s descendant. Third, we have this lengthy description of the land that Abraham purchased for a grave site, reminding us that though he only owns this small part, one day the whole of Canaan will belong to his descendants. As Hebrews 4: 6-11 makes clear, Canaan then comes to represent the place where God dwells, heaven, where all of his people, Jew and Gentile will dwell with him forever. Fourth, we are told that the bodies of Abraham and Sarah are placed in the tomb, again reminding us of that great day of resurrection when Jesus returns. Finally, we discover that just as God blessed Abraham, so he blesses Isaac his son. All the nations will indeed be blessed through the offspring of Isaac because God is determined to do it. What’s the point of all this? Abraham lived and died, not expecting the fullness of God’s promises to occur here and now, but in the future, after death and the return of Jesus. He lived and died satisfied, content, because he wasn’t hoping to be happy here. He didn’t expect life here to make him happy. Let me say that again. He lived and died content, because he wasn’t hoping to be happy here. He didn’t expect life here to make him happy. He lived 100 years in the land of Canaan and only experienced a small taste of the fulfillment of God’s promises to him, yet he was content. Why? Because his mind and heart were set on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Abraham was content because he knew that God had a great and happy and glorious and infinite future planned for him and for all God’s people. He was content because he knew that nothing and no one could stop God from fulfilling his purpose to be glorified in the happiness of his people. None of us are going to have to wait for 100 years to experience the fullness of God’s promises. In addition we have far greater assurances than did Abraham that the future is bright. We have the life, death and resurrection of Jesus to make the prophetic word of the Scriptures more certain. Abraham’s mind and heart were full of the word of God. His vision was filled with the greatness of God and of his Savior who would one day suffer and die for the sins of his people and establish the kingdom of God on earth. I can tell you with no uncertainty that most of the reason you and I are discontented, unhappy, dissatisfied people is because our minds are full of the world and not the greatness and glory of Christ and his kingdom. Sometimes I feel like such an idiot when I tell you this because I feel like I say it every Sunday. You and I need to make it the main business of every day to go to God’s word and cry out to God to give us a vision of his greatness. We need to do this as much as we can. We need to do this with our families and our friends. We need to do it in our small groups. On your way to church on Sundays you need to ask God for a vision of his greatness. We need to repent of how full our minds and hearts are of the world and the things of the world and ask God to fill our minds and hearts with him as we read and memorize and listen to his word. I spent many years of my life teaching the Bible in order to show people how practical it is. I spent years and years trying to be relevant. I have come to see that much of what I did was a useless exercise. There is nothing more practical or relevant to your life than the greatness of God revealed in his promises in Jesus. You want to have a satisfied and content life? Fill your mind with a knowledge of the greatness of Christ and beg God for a heart that loves the greatness of Christ. Let me close this morning by reading from one of John Piper’s books, "The Supremacy of God in Preaching". Read pp. 9 to the top of 11 and then underlined on 11 & 12. There isn’t a person in this church that is naturally inclined to fill their hearts and minds with the glory of Christ. It is a million times easier for me to listen to a Brewer’s game on the radio, read the paper, prepare a sermon, counsel a troubled person, share the gospel, watch TV, clean the toilet than it is to sit down with this book and ask God to show me his glory. But I know that this is the only path to contentment and to joy through seeing the glory of Christ and so I am determined to fight for this all the days of my life so that I can live and die satisfied with Christ. God intends that we live and die satisfied by…
© Copyright
2000 John Swanson.
|
||