From Plot to Passover (Matthew 26:1-25)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
To be continued... Good morning. I'm so thankful for those who volunteer and serve with our worship week in, week out. They are all volunteers, and I'm thankful for the work they put in in leading us every Sunday to respond to the goodness of the gospel in praise. So there's something I'm thankful for.
My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in Matthew 26 this week, the first 25 verses, so you can go ahead and flip there. We do have physical Bibles, a sign of good things, as the pandemic is where it is. But we have Bibles now.
We have Connect cards. It's nice. If you want to grab a Bible, you can go ahead and turn to page 485. That's where it will be. The text will also be on the screen. I had a friend a few years back.
She was a vocal woman of faith. She led Bible studies. She was zealous. I mean zealous in the good way that zealous is used biblically. Zealous for what was good. We were a part of the same ministry.
I thought that she was going to be a leader in women's ministry in the church. I thought that she was going to be a missionary, lots of things. And then she started dating one of our other good friends, and they fell into some sin. They had a horrible breakup. And I don't say this to be funny at all. It was a little bit of a Britney Spears moment.
She cut her hair in pretty dramatic fashion. She lost an unhealthy amount of weight. And then she moved away. And over the next few years, I watched online as she became a subtle critic of the faith she once stood for, and then a very vocal, aggressive critic of the gospel she once proclaimed. And I won't pretend to know her heart, because I don't have to. And I won't pretend to autopsy her once vocal faith with any precision.
That's not my job. But something changed in her. I don't personally know what was happening in her heart, but there's a general pattern for how these things go. And what happens is that someone ultimately treasures something above Christ. And when something happens, when trials come, eventually what they're treasuring over Christ, what resembles faith, begins to crumble completely. And this story has played out in tragic fashion over and over and over again.
And today we're going to be in a series of a bunch of different stories. And in these stories today, we're going to see one of the most tragic stories of all time of someone who put their faith in something else and eventually turned their back on Jesus. So we're going to watch that play out. But alongside this really tragic story of someone turning their back and betraying Jesus, we get to see a second example of someone whose heart so loves Christ, it's two just different approaches, two different hearts, two different mindsets with Jesus. And we're going to see them kind of side by side today.
And I hope that as we walk through this, we'd be reflective of our own hearts. We'd be honest with ourselves that we wouldn't be prideful. We'd humble ourselves. We'd let the Spirit speak to us. And we'd respond. So let me pray.
And then we will jump into these stories. Father, you are good. What we said earlier, your steadfast love endures forever is so true. It endures in the fact that we get to open up your word and we get to hear you speak. God, I pray that you'd help us listen. And that we respond.
In Jesus' name, amen. Like I said, we're moving through a bunch of different stories. So it's going to be one scene, the next, the next, the next, starting off verse 1. When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, you know that after two days the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. So all these sayings really captures what he just spent, what Chet just spent the last three weeks on.
All right, that was the final discourse, the final teaching of Jesus. There's no more teachings. We're shifting completely towards the cross. Every step right now is moving towards the cross. And he's been hinting at this, right? He's been saying that he's going to die.
He's been saying that he's going to be crucified. Now he's saying it's happening. It's happening in the next couple of days. When Passover is done, he will be delivered. He is being very explicit about what is about to happen. All right, it says that, shifts.
Different scene, verse 3. Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people. All right, so while this is going on, there's a group of religious leaders who are meeting in the shadows. And their leader is named Caiaphas. This is the first time we see him.
We're going to see him later on as well. He is the high priest. And the leader of what we're going to see throughout chapter 26 is called a council. But the literal Greek word for that is Sanhedrin. So we know what council this is.
It's the Sanhedrin council. The Sanhedrin council was a religious and also political group of religious leaders that came together for two purposes. They wanted to make sure that the people followed the law while also working with the Roman government to keep the people in check. And there are two main parties in the Sanhedrin, two political parties. You have the Pharisees, we've seen over and over again, and the Sadducees that we've seen a little bit of as well. They function a little bit like our U.S.
Congress. They have two different theologies, just like we have two different political philosophies, two different ways of governing, but they have to work together, and power shifts depending on who's in power. The Sadducees at the time of Jesus had the power in the Sanhedrin, and their leader, Caiaphas, believed to be a Sadducee, has them all together. We're going to see them working together throughout 26, plotting against Jesus together to kill him. So, this plot is happening. And then we shift again.
Like I said, a lot of quick stories. Verse 6. Now, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. All right, so Jesus now goes to Bethany. He goes to a specific house, the house of Simon the leper. Now, this is the only time that we see Simon.
He does not currently have leprosy. He couldn't host this gathering if he did, because if you have leprosy, you have to be completely apart from the people. So, we can read into the context here and make a pretty educated guess that Jesus actually healed him of leprosy. At one point, he had leprosy. Now, he is healed. And somehow, Simon the leper, the nickname has stuck, which is not the most endearing of nicknames.
I mean, we wouldn't call someone, I don't know, chafing Chet because of a problem they had in college. Like, that's, we're adults. We wouldn't do that. That nickname wouldn't stick, right? Like, Simon went and got healed of leprosy. That guy went to the doctor.
It's fine. We're adults. We move on. I don't know why Matthew decided, I want to keep this name. Maybe they were friends and he wanted to mess with him for the next 2,000 plus years of this gospel being read. Regardless, that's who he is.
Simon the leper. And they're at his house. All right, here's what happens at his house. Verse 7. A woman came up to him with an alabaster flask, a very expensive ointment. And she poured it out on his head as he reclined at the table.
All right, so, let me pause. There's a lot of debate about this. It's gone back and forth. Some version of this story shows up in all four gospels. After spending some time with it, Chet and I looking at it this week, looking at different commentators, it seems that this story shows up in three of them and then one of them is separate. So, Matthew, Mark, and John seem to be describing this story that happened in Bethany.
All right? This happens in the gospel sometimes. They take different, they focus on different details of stories. They're told a little bit differently because these stories are being told thematically. They focus on different things. Luke has a different story of a woman coming to anoint Jesus.
That one seems to be a completely different situation altogether, which happens. You have a feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000. You have some overlap and differences and similarities between stories. But when you look at this and you piece together Matthew, Mark, and John's accounts, you get a more full picture of what's happening here. So, John's gospel tells us that this woman is one of the Marys. All right?
There's a bunch of different Marys in the New Testament. It's confusing to keep up with who's who. This is one of the Marys. And Mark and John's gospel tell us what type of ointment this is. It's nard oil. So, nard oil, if you know it today as spike nard.
It's a very precious oil imported from India. It's very expensive. The amount that she brings to him is worth about an annual, a year's salary. I mean, it's a very expensive oil that she brings to him. And Mark's gospel doesn't say, I mean, it gives us more of a picture that she didn't use a little bit. She broke the jar open and she anointed his entire, all over him.
Matthew focuses on the head because there's a little bit of Matthew, what he does with David, some comparisons to David and kingship, anointing of the head. There's some Old Testament pictures there. Mark just talks about he's being covered with this oil. John goes with a different picture, focuses on the fact that she took her hair and she was scrubbing his feet with this oil. This is a deeply humbling admiration for Jesus because she could have grabbed some cheaper oils. Right?
There are cheaper oils out there. She could have gone and gotten something different. But no, she goes and she grabs what's probably the most expensive, most valuable thing that she has. And she goes and she grabs it. She looks at it and says, I know who deserves this. I know who's worthy of this.
Probably would have just sat in her house like fine china that's never used just to look at. She's like, I know who's getting this. And she brings it to Jesus. Jesus taught in Matthew 6.21. He says, For where your treasure is, your heart will be also. And it is clear.
This woman treasures Christ. Which shows the first heart posture that I want us to see this morning. And that is this. If Jesus is your treasure, you'll trade everything for Him. If Jesus is your treasure, you'll trade everything for Him. She treasures Christ.
And out of the overflow of her affection, her admiration, her really worship of Jesus, she devotes the most valuable thing for Him. She goes and she gets it and devotes it to Him. If you treasure Christ, you'll trade everything for Him. And we see that clearly in her actions. It's almost childlike. You get your child something for Christmas or for a birthday.
And they run upstairs and they go and they find the most valuable toy they have and they get excited and they come down and they bring it. I got you this. I mean, she treasures Christ. Her heart belongs to Him. I want you to picture the room and just smell it as she breaks in and she breaks the alabaster, beautiful alabaster jar. She breaks it and starts to anoint Him.
Just think of the smell that would just overwhelm you. Have you ever been to somebody's house that's been diffusing oils? And you walk in and it just knocks you back? That was a few drops of oil they put into a diffuser. And I know that they're the most essential, most precious, most well-sourced, purest oils in the world. But listen, that's a few drops.
This is a pound of expensive, fragrant oil and she just, she completely just anoints Him. I mean, it's a powerful display. It would knock you back to see this. And the disciples see this and they respond. Verse 8, and when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.
So, the disciples are indignant. They're angry. They are not happy at this. They break up the moment with a, well, actually, Jesus. Which I've, I've learned through personal experience that, well, actually, moments aren't received well. They're not appreciated by others.
I get excited and I bring in a well, actually, fact. They're like, oh, I actually just died inside. So, that's what this is. Well, actually, Jesus, this is really expensive oil. We just did the math. That's a year's worth of salary you just taught on, right?
To help the least of these among us. That could have helped a lot of least of these. So, they do this. John's gospel tells us that Judas, who we're going to learn more about in a moment, was leading the charge. But it says, and when the disciples saw it, they were indignant.
This is a collective mindset that this woman has come and she's wasted a lot of precious oil that could have been sold and helped a lot of people. To their credit, minimal credit, it's a jarring moment. She walks in. I mean, it's a lot to handle at once. And that is a very expensive gift. Right now, the elders and our toast team, that's our treasury and oversight sustainability team, they're the ones that oversee our finances.
We work together to put a budget together and that's what we're doing right now. We're putting together a budget because our annual budget runs from second quarter to first quarter so it'll start in April. So we're going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth because we care about stewarding our gifts and offerings well. So we're getting at the end of setting this budget and if someone just piped up and said, you know what, I think we should get Matt Freeman a gift. Let's get him a $40,000 guitar.
We'd go, no, that's insane. That's over the top. But Matt isn't Jesus and Jesus has a completely different take on this. Verse 10. But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman?
For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. Jesus does not see it as a waste. He sees it as beautiful.
Y'all, He knows the value of the ointment. He knows how to math. You know how we know this? He created math. He knows how to add. He knows what's happening here.
He sees the value. And He sees that it's beautiful. Because this comes at a very specific moment. There's two reasons why this is a beautiful display of affection and worship of Jesus. The first is very clearly seen in the text. This comes at one of the most pivotal moments in all of history.
Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross where He's going to be crucified for the sins of humanity. And then He'll be buried. And when they buried people back then, they anointed their bodies with oil. Whether she knows it or not, it's foreshadowing. It's just pointing forward. He's about to die.
He's about to be buried. It's a beautiful display. And it's foreshadowing. I love just in the details of how God works all of this together. That someone in India sourced this oil. They put it in a beautiful alabaster jar.
It was shipped and it made its way all the way to Israel. It ended up in a marketplace where she or someone else bought this for her and she put it on display for years for everyone to see. And then one day she encountered Jesus and He absolutely changed her world. And then later on she said, you know what? That belongs to Him. I will anoint His body because in God's sovereign plan this was to anoint His body in preparation for what's about to happen in just a few days. that's what's clearly on display but also it shows her heart that if you treasure if Jesus is your treasure you'll trade everything for Him.
She sees Jesus is worthy of this and Jesus says that is wonderful. That is good. This act of devotion will be remembered. He says, write it down. This is going John says of all the stories that be told about Jesus would fill all the books he's saying which means they had to choose which stories they wanted to focus on he says this one gets in. She will be remembered for her act.
So, story shifts again. Verse 14 Then one of the twelve whose name was Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said what will you give me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him thirty pieces of silver and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. Jesus had twelve disciples twelve men that he poured into for three years twelve men that were his friends they ate countless meals together they camped out together they got to do ministry with Jesus see him perform miracles they got to perform miracles they got to be on the inside track of some of the most profound teaching that's ever been taught or ever will be taught for three years the twelve got to spend time with Jesus and then one of them says he's worth thirty pieces of silver he's worth it trade him out take the silver and I'll run thirty pieces of silver is about four months of wages so it is a little bit it is quite a bit of money but Judas says that's worth it we don't know much about actually let me say this for for group leaders those who have led groups I want you to hear me so clearly I know there have been moments where you've watched people turn their back on you stab you in the back where you've watched people walk away from Jesus and you've questioned yourself over and over and over again and I just want to say very clearly to you to lead groups and have led groups Jesus spent three years with twelve and one of them abandoned him and stabbed him in the back and sold him out and you're not better than Jesus so just receive some grace we don't know much about Judas we know that he was one of the twelve we know that he had the same experiences that the other disciples did we know from John's gospel he was the one that led the charge on why is this woman wasting this oil because what was happening was he was the treasurer okay he kept the money bags he wasn't concerned about helping the poor because he was actually helping himself to the money that came from that was given to Jesus' ministry so we know that he's greedy we know he's a thief you know he's deceptive but what we know most about him is really this act of betrayal that I mean I mean Judas that's you call someone a Judas you know you can be a hard atheist you know exactly what that means you're a backstabber you're a traitor you're a betrayer so no one names their kid Judas y'all know anybody named Judas?
You can be a hard atheist you know exactly what that means you're a backstabber you're a traitor you're a betrayer so no one names their kid Judas y'all know anybody named Judas? I don't that's on the black list of names you'd never name your kid that because we know what that means he's a traitor we don't know why Judas did this alright I mean we see that he's greedy
Some have theorized that it's possible that the religious leadership is closing in turning against Jesus we know from the context of the gospels that they assumed some type of political movement was going to happen in Jesus and they were very surprised when it didn't so maybe he just thought I need to get out while I can and get some money we don't know it's possible
It's a decent theory we don't know but you can see very clearly that ultimately one of the reasons why he did this is because he cared about himself and that really presents the second approach to Jesus second heart towards him if something else is your treasure you'll trade Jesus for it if something else is your treasure you will absolutely trade Jesus for it whether it was money
Or power or whatever Judas said it's worth it I'll trade Jesus for that so he sells Jesus out story shifts again verse 17 now on the first day of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus saying where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover he said go into the city to a certain man
And say to him the teacher says my time is at hand I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples and the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover alright so can't spend a lot of time here today we will spend some time next week because in this meal at the very end of it Jesus is going to institute the Lord's Supper communion so we'll spend time on that next week
But you at least need to know what the Passover meal is generally the Passover meal was basically a meal of remembrance it was like celebrating Independence Day it was a joyous meal it remembered that God saved his people from the Egyptians it's a joyous celebration so like every Passover meal that all of them have been in before the expectation is this is a joyous occasion and it turns very quickly into something very serious verse 20 when it was evening he reclined at the table
He reclined at table with the twelve and as they were eating he said truly I say to you one of you will betray me and they were very sorrowful and began to say to him to one another is it I Lord it says they were very sorrowful now that word sorrowful doesn't quite capture the emotions that are involved in this is deep sorrow shock
Confusion they are utterly confused and shocked that anyone amongst them would betray Jesus that can't be is it I Lord is it I Lord one by one is it I Lord they want to know is it me verse 23 he answered he who has dipped his hand in the dish will with me will betray me
The son of man goes as it is written of him but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed it would have been better for that man if he had not been born Judas who would betray him answered is it I Rabbi he said to him you have said so he says is it I Rabbi he doesn't say is it I Lord he didn't see
Jesus as Lord he sees him as Rabbi a great teacher but not God is it I Rabbi Jesus confirms it yes it is you and shock had to set in and it says that they were greatly they were sorrowed couldn't believe this shock sets in in that moment and ultimately Judas made a decision that he thought was best for him
And it says it had been better had he never been born which is where we get that phrasing from there are two central figures in this series of stories this series of stories there is the woman Mary and there is Judas and there is two different heart approaches to Jesus the first if Jesus is your treasure you'll trade everything for him
That was her heart the second if something else is your treasure you'll trade Jesus for it the problem is is that when we see those two approaches it's very easy for us to distance ourselves from Judas we don't want to be like him we don't want to think of ourselves as anything remotely close to him but the reality
Is is that Judas Judas didn't always look like this Judas spent three he was a disciple he was more of an insider than a woman he looked the part he performed miracles he did good works he helped the poor he taught he was sent out by Jesus as a missionary he looked
Every bit the part so much so that when the eleven found out that one of them was going to betray him they couldn't believe it it's not possible they were greatly sorrowed at this it's hard for it's hard for me to wrap my mind around anyone who can walk away from Jesus I've witnessed over the years and I know it's going to continue to happen people that look
So much like a follower of Jesus people that seem like they were so deeply in love with him and they walk away and then I look at my own heart and I look at my life and how much of my own life is wrapped up in my own self-interest in my own idolatry and I look at this story and I just tremble and I plead
For repentance there's a song by a band called King's Kaleidoscope it's called What Have We Done in that song they say Judas sold you for thirty I'd have done it for less and that may seem to some as melodramatic but I would invite you to check your own heart and examine your own
Heart and realize the things that you treasure over Christ name your price if there's something else that you treasure you ultimately will trade Jesus for it so what are you trading right now what are you trading valuing above
Jesus is it success that's a big one in our culture people will go after success with everything in them a lot of times when we sort this out we talk about deep idols we talk about how power power idolatry is underneath this that it's pushing someone to pursue success at all
Costs they'll steamroll anybody that gets in their way sacrifice their energy their time their effort their money their identity in order to get it because that's the thing they value over Christ at all costs we'll get it and then someone tries to point out hey man I haven't seen you at group a lot lately I haven't seen you on Sundays and it's like
No I'm busy I'm working I've got this I'm doing that and people try to point hey man I think you're valuing this too much you're like no you start boxing people out you've treasured something above Christ if something else is your treasure you will trade Jesus for for others that's sex maybe that's living with your boyfriend or your girlfriend or sleeping
Around and ultimately what comes out of that is this is what makes me happy this person makes me happy and a lot of times when we're working through deep idols like that there might be some approval idolatry that's happening there that you give yourself away to someone because that that means you feel loved like no Jesus is actually
Better don't do this this happens with sexuality someone will say well pedestal this and say no this is the most important thing I could possibly pursue and we're trying to say no this is what the Bible says and someone says I don't care what the Bible says if you treasure something else
Above him you will trade Jesus for it in the end we do this with comfort talk about that as an idol a deep idol beneath all the rest it's the reason why people pursue pleasure that if I can just get comfort in this world whether that's drunkenness whether that's drugs whether that's sensuality
Whether that's pornography if I can just fill up this void life is hard it's full of pain and misery if I can just cover up the pain with a little more pleasure I'll be okay and then someone comes in and says no that's not good that won't actually bring you hope you keep going back to it
It will not satisfy it never brings comfort maybe the kind of person that doesn't like to ever be disturbed doesn't like anyone point out anything in your life everyone bends their will towards you because they don't want to make you angry because your life is about comfort and at the end of the day
You just want to do you and nobody is going to tell you how to live your life if you treasure that above Christ you will trade him for it or maybe it's just you worship yourself it's very clear that's part of what Judas was doing he worshiped himself
Maybe you're so obsessed with your own image to others I feel this there's some control idolatry in this that you got to be all things to different people you got to make sure that you're putting on the best face you got to put on different
Masks you got to control your image you got to control all the things in front of you ultimately you're worshiping yourself this happens with self righteousness ultimately in self righteousness you do a bunch of good works I got to make sure I
Check every box I got to make sure I'm doing all the good things if I don't do all the good things everything's going to fall apart you're not worshiping Jesus you're worshiping yourself maybe the kind of person that values your
Time above others that if anyone infringes upon your time you're not happy maybe it's production I got to get stuff done and it doesn't matter who gets in the way as long as I get the tasks done I go on and on and on I just I want us
To be honest what are you clinging to right now I want you to think about it I want the spirit to go to work on your heart what are you treasuring what are you clinging to above Christ think of it I want you to heed the warning you are already on your way
To the council you are already on your way to collect the silver you are already on your way to trade out Jesus for it and it will destroy you listen Jesus is on a collision course with your idolatry he is on a collision course with my idolatry with my sin and my
Hope this morning is that we see this woman we see her heart and we say I want that I mean that's when I look at the story I want that heart I want to be so deeply in love with Jesus that no as he starts pointing out things
That I'm like that's fine it's yours point it out whatever I find most valuable whatever idolatry that I'm so clinging to I'll go and I'll get it and I will break it before your feet take it that I want the heart of this woman Jesus you want my time you want my money you want my
Future you want my identity point it out I will take it and I will bring it and I will break it before your feet you are worth it I want this heart and for our church I want us to have this heart that we would lay anything that we're clinging to above him anything that we're treasuring above him we lay it at his feet because he's better that's why we say it every week Jesus is better than everything else
Because if you don't believe that if we don't treasure Christ with everything in us you won't make it you will walk away and my hope is that we wouldn't be Judas but we'd be this woman and we come to Jesus in repentance and in worship Matt's going to come up and he is going to sing a song over us it's a song that you're not
Familiar with and I just I want you to just listen to the words and I want you to let the spirit go to work on your heart some of you have actually never treasured Christ you've never actually treasured him and I want this morning for you to finally see that he's better than whatever you're clinging to
I want you to believe I want you right now to come to him to lay your life down completely before him and I want you to respond and believe for the rest of us I want us to if you love if you follow Jesus I want you to to sit in this moment
And ask the Holy Spirit to go to work on your heart it's not if you cling to things you do it's not if you treasure other things you do and I want you to let him go to work on your heart
And I want you to bring it to him I want you to go to find the idols in your heart the things you're treasuring and worship above him and bring it to him it's a daily pursuit of Jesus where we do this y'all this sounds
Familiar for a reason because we have to keep dying to our own self and to our own sin and bringing our idols and bringing the things we treasure to him this week in groups I want you to go to your groups
And I want you to be vulnerable I want you to bring your sin and bring your idolatry I want you to let others call you out and I want us to respond in repentance I want us to have the heart of this woman I want us to come in our brokenness and our weakness because the
Spirit's power is made perfect in our weakness and we are a weak and needy people but we have a sufficient and glorious God who's worthy of our worship so in this moment may we be a people who see a need for Jesus and repent
And behold Jesus like this woman is
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Transcript
Good morning. All right, so we just got done walking through a series on multiplier. We spent five weeks walking through the calling to make and to multiply disciples. And then we, before that, were our gift series. And we spent December walking through our gift series. But before that, we were doing Genesis.
We made it halfway through. And we are jumping back in. We're going to finish Genesis, this half of Genesis, over the rest of winter into spring. So we're going to be in Genesis 22 today. You can go ahead and open there. It's on page 10 of your blue Bibles.
It'll also be on the screen as we follow along. But before we jump in, I want to catch us up to where we have been in Genesis and follow a storyline that we've been following. So in Genesis 1 and 2, God creates the earth. It is cosmic. It is big. It reflects his glory as he intentionally crafts different parts of creation.
And then in Genesis 2, we focused in on the creation of Adam and Eve. The guy creates Adam and Eve. He creates humanity different than any other aspect of creation, that we bear his image and his likeness. And that we have the unique ability to have a relationship with God. So Adam and Eve have a perfect relationship with God.
It is beautiful and it is good. And then in Genesis 3, they are in the Garden of Eden. And Satan, in the form of a serpent, comes into the garden. Causes them to question God and his goodness and his word. And they listen to Satan. They don't listen to God.
And they eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And in that moment, they sin. They rebel against God. And they bring sin and rebellion into this world. And it brings in death. And it affects every aspect of creation.
And when this happens, God comes down into the garden. And he makes a couple declarations. But one of the things that he says is that one day, Eve, you will have an offspring. And this offspring will come and she will come, or he will come and crush the head of the serpent. He will crush the head of Satan. And that is the declaration that Jesus one day is going to come.
That's the first declaring of the gospel that we have in the Bible. So we've been following this line that through Adam and Eve, the offspring is coming. And we see they populate the earth. Eventually, the earth gets so corrupted with sin, with violence, with hate, that God wants to start new. We followed the story of Noah, that God calls Noah. Noah builds an ark.
And his family is saved. And the line is preserved. And then we followed from Noah all the way to the character we've been following going into our gift series, which is Abraham. Abraham has a unique relationship with God. God comes to Abraham in his old age. Him and his wife Sarah do not have kids.
And he comes to Abraham and he says, I'm going to give you a son. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to make a great nation through you. And from that point forward, Abraham and Sarah are waiting for God to give him this blessing, to give him this son. And there are times where it's going really well, where he's trusting God. When there's this beautiful covenant ceremony that he does, he puts Abraham in a dream.
And in the dream, the animals, they split an animal in two. And God walks through the center of it. And what is being declared in that ceremony is that this promise is going to happen. And if it doesn't happen, may God be like this animal who's been broken apart. Meaning this is going to happen. This promise is going to come true.
And then there are times where Abraham and Sarah, they try to force the promise. They don't trust God. They end up finding a surrogate, Hagar, to have a son who is Ishmael. We followed that story that Ishmael is a son. He loves Ishmael. But God says, this is not the promised son.
No, I'm coming to you, Abraham and Sarah. Y'all are going to have a son. His name is going to be Isaac. And then 25 years between God's promise to them and the birth of Isaac, Isaac finally shows up. Abraham's 100. Sarah's in her 90s.
And that is where we are today. Isaac's a little bit older. He's a young boy. And in this story today, which is one of the more, one of the biggest stories that we have in the Old Testament, we're going to walk through this story and we're going to see how God tests Abraham. We're going to see how God tests Abraham. Then we're going to see how Abraham responds.
He responds in faith and obedience, trusting God. Then we're going to see how God ultimately provides. And then as we back up, we're going to see what this story points forward to. So let me pray and then we'll walk through this story together. God, thank you so much that you love us, that we have a story that reminds us of your good news. God, I pray today that you would help us be present, that you would speak to us powerfully.
In Jesus' name, amen. All right, speaking of verse 1 and 2. So this story just took a very serious turn. It starts out by telling us that he tells Abraham, he reminds us that Abraham is going to be tested here. And what is the test going to be? You are going to sacrifice your son.
This story starts out like a tragedy. It starts out like a tragedy and understand really what's going on here as we walk through it. There's two things that we need to understand. Firstly, we need to have a basis for what sacrifices are, as it shows up here in Genesis. Sacrifices were made with animals early on in Genesis to show the heinous nature of sin. That sin is rebellion against God and it's costly.
It costs blood. You don't sin against the God of the universe and commit cosmic treason and there's no punishment. So early on in Genesis, we see this practice of sacrificing animals to show this. And then later on throughout the rest of the Old Testament law and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, we see this system, this formalized system of sacrificing animals to show this. To show the grievous nature of what sin is and what it does to the people and how serious it is. And in this system later on, you see burnt offerings.
Burnt offerings are to show the total destructive nature of sin. That animal would be slaughtered and they would be burned up completely. That is what a burnt offering is. And God just called Abraham to do this to his son. And we look at this and there's a part of you that should say, What? Like this doesn't make sense.
I mean, this is explicitly forbidden in the rest of the Old Testament law because this is what the pagans would do. They're the ones that would sacrifice their kids. This doesn't make sense and it should catch us off guard. Because I feel like there's something inside of us that says, No, that's not right. There's a part of us, when we watch movies and films and we hear stories and there's certain thrillers and horror films where you know characters are going to start dying off. And then there's a sweet little seven-year-old girl.
There's a part of us, when we watch these films, we have this kind of social compact with Hollywood that says, You can take some of the characters out, but the girl lives. The innocent one lives. There's something inside of us that says, No, this isn't right. And this story begins with a setup that he is calling Abraham to sacrifice his only son, the promised son. So we get frustrated.
We start to think this isn't fair. But we're going to walk through this more and see what's happening here. The second thing that we need to understand is that God has always tested his people. From Old Testament to New Testament, God has always tested his people. Now, sometimes that word tested gets conflated with the word tempt. And they are two different things.
This is not tempting. James 1.13 says, Let no one say when he is being tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. God does not tempt. This is different. Tempting is luring you into sin and rebelling against God.
Testing is actually something that brings you closer to God. The Hebrew word for testing here means testing what someone is really like. Seeing what they are really made of through hardship and difficulty. And we see this all over the Bible. We see it in this story here. We see it in the book of Job.
The book of Job is another really challenging book where there's a man named Job, and he's prosperous, and he has a big family, he has lots of money, he has lots of land, he has great health. And then Satan comes along and says to God, you know, the only reason that job loves you and worships you is because of the things that you give. If you took it away, he would curse you. So God allows Satan to take away his health, his prosperity, and even some of his family. And ultimately, Job shows at the end of the book that he worships the Lord, he does not curse him. We see testing in the book of Job.
We see testing in how the nation of Israel comes out of Egypt. After the nation of Israel is brought out of Egypt by Moses, they sin against God in the wilderness, and they wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And this is what Deuteronomy says about this in chapter 8, verse 2. It says, And you shall remember the whole way the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, hear this, testing you to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. God tests our hearts to see what is in, to see if we will follow him. We see this in the New Testament when the early church is being persecuted, and Peter is writing to a church that is being persecuted, that's going through trials, and he says this, he says, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while.
If necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And the picture that is being played out here is that testing is like the purification of gold. When you purify gold, when you heat it up, impurities will rise to the surface. It shows what the gold is really made of. And it's an opportunity for you to clean the gold even further. And that's the picture of what testing gets to be, that when we are tested by God, it allows us to be closer to him, because it shows us our hidden faults.
It shows us where we don't believe the gospel, and it shows us where we need to repent and follow Jesus. Oftentimes what happens here is the thing that really gets us frustrated about testing, is we want to know specifically why. Why does this happen? Why does suffering happen? Why did this kind of period of testing happen for me? And a lot of times we don't get that answer.
We don't get the full picture. We get the theology here that we have to trust in the process, which is testing. But we don't always get the reasons, the specific reasons of why we're ultimately called to trust God, trust in the process, and trust that God is good, that he has good for us in the midst of testing. But every once in a while, I've seen this in my own life, every once in a while you might get a picture of why this happened, why periods of testing, periods of suffering happen. And in this story, we actually get the purposes of why this is going to become clear, why this is happening later.
So once you know, have a basis for what sacrifices are, once you have a basis for what testing is, we can walk through this story. He says, After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. He said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall tell you. He says, he calls out to Abraham. Abraham says, Here I am. And then he says, Take your son, your only son, and offer him as a burnt offering.
That word son is going to show up repeatedly here. Son, your only son. Now, both Abraham and God know this is not his only biological son. They both know this. This just comes off the heels of the story of Ishmael. What is being implied here is this is the promised son.
This is him. This is the one. And it's repeated 14 times in this passage. Son, son, son, only son. Your only son whom you love. It's meant to show us this is the promised son.
It's meant to remind us of everything that it took to get here. Think about this. It took them 25 years after years of being childless. 25 years for this promise to come to fruition. They have this promised son whom they love, and God has just called him to reduce the promise to ashes. This is a weighty calling that he is calling Abraham to, and this is how Abraham responds in verse 3.
He says, It says, Oftentimes when we read the Bible, we have an American way of reading passages, of reading the text. I don't think it's necessarily bad. It allows us, I think, to be empathetic. We read it. We're a feelings-based culture. You talk to any other cultures that look at us, they say, Well, Americans, we care a lot about our feelings.
And that can go crazy. That can go awry. I went through 90s self-help seminars and schooling. That can go a little bit crazy with emotions. But I think it allows us, since we're an empathetic culture, to put ourselves in other people's shoes, to be able to understand some of these stories and how they play out.
I think that's helpful. But what can happen is, is that we can start to make definitive statements about what they were thinking and what they were feeling when the text doesn't give us some of those pictures. Ultimately, we have to look at the text and what it is telling us. But sometimes, in the Bible, we get the behind-the-scenes picture. Sometimes we get to understand a little bit of what they were thinking. And we get that in this story, but it's not in this chapter.
You've got to flip to the New Testament. If you go to Hebrews 11, it says, By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. Hear this. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. So in the mind of Abraham, as he's received this calling, in his mind he knows God is able to even raise Isaac back from the dead.
So he has plans to go through with this. He's going to trust the Lord. But in the back of his mind, he knows God is even able to raise this son from the dead because this son is the promised son. This is the one that he is going to bring this great nation through. It is him. So he is trusting the promises of God as he's being tested.
And we see this in how he responds. He says, Abraham gets up, that he packs his donkey, that he grabs some supplies, that he gets some help from two young men, then he gets his son, and they hit the road. And if you read that, right off the heels of what he was just called to, man, it just seems robotic. He just got told to sacrifice his son, and he packs up everything, and they hit the road. It's a little confusing. Two things.
Again, we don't get a window into his emotions. It is reasonable to think this is very difficult for him. He loves his sons. You can see in his relationship with Ishmael in the previous chapters, he loves his sons. This is a difficult and weighty calling. But ultimately, we look at what he is trusting in.
He believes the promise that Isaac is the promised son. He has faith that God will come through him this promise, even if it takes resurrection. So he's trusting God. Verse 4. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey.
I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. So after a three-day journey of coming to Moriah, they finally see the place from afar. He sees it. They're getting closer. He tells the two young men, he says, you guys stay behind. It's just going to be Isaac and I.
Now, y'all, it's been three days. Three days. Every day. Every night. One step closer to this happening. One step closer to where he's being called to bring the knife down on his son.
Now, while Abraham is clinging to the promise and he's trusting that God can even raise him for the dead, the weightiness of this obedience is growing closer. But he's still trusting the promise of God and he ends this conversation. It's telling how he says it. He says, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come back again to you. He's saying, we're coming back. Isaac and I were going to the mount, but we're coming back again.
Verse 6. It says, And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went, both of them together, and Isaac said to his father Abraham, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went, both of them, together. So Abraham, he gets the wood, he hands it to Isaac to carry, and Isaac starts to carry the wood, which tells us a little bit that Isaac, he's a young boy, but he's old enough and he's big enough to at least carry this wood. So he puts the wood on his back. They start to go towards the hill. And that shows us a little bit of what Isaac is doing here.
Isaac's being obedient. He's being obedient to his father as his father is trusting the Lord. And then Isaac, in the midst of this, he asks the obvious question. Dad, I see, I see the fire. I see the wood. You've brought a knife.
Where's the lamb? They didn't bring one with them. They didn't stop and buy one along the way. They haven't taken one. See, Isaac realizes that something's up. This isn't normal.
That something is out here. But he's going to trust his father as his father trusts God. Abraham looks at him. He says, God will provide. Abraham knows that God is going to provide. That he's even capable of raising the dead.
He just has to be prepared to go through with this. He has to be prepared to bring the knife down on his beloved boy. And the intensity is building even further. Abraham and Isaac, both being obedient to what they are called to. Abraham now has the knife and he now has the flame. And these are both visual representations of what is about to be called of him.
But he believes Isaac is ultimately going to be okay. But that still doesn't take away from the horror of this situation of what he's being called to. That in the midst of testing, Abraham is still trusting the promises of God. And then the scene finally arrives. Verse 9. When they came to the place of which God had told them, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
So they finally get to this place, this place of sacrifice. And I want you to picture this scene with me. Abraham at this point, he's well over 100. He starts to build the altar. And this is going to take some time. He's older.
He's building the altar. And piece by piece, as he's building this altar, there's a question that's still lingering in the back. Where is the lamb? And then he gets the wood. He takes the wood from Isaac. Isaac is watching this.
He grabs the wood. He starts to stack the wood. And the question still remains, where is the lamb? And he takes his son. Y'all, his son that he loves. And he starts to bind him.
He starts to tie him up. And Isaac doesn't struggle. Doesn't say that he ran off. He could have. He starts to tie him up. And he takes his son, this son he waited so long for, and he places him on the altar.
Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. So he reaches out the knife. He has the knife. He's getting ready to bring the knife down on his son. And it's at this point in this story that something screams within us, where is the lamb? Like, what is happening here?
How? Is this gone far enough? You see that he trusts you. What is happening? This does not seem fair. He has the knife, and he's ready to bring it down on his son.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. So in the midst of him holding the knife, an angel intervenes and intercedes and says, Abraham, stop. Don't touch him. You've proven yourself. It's clear that you fear the Lord.
Step away. It's over. And Abraham can take his son. He can unbind him. He can do what every father would want to do in that moment. He can hold him.
He can hug him. He can tell him everything is going to be okay, that he was always the promised son. He can tell them what this was. It was never in doubt. You were always going to be the promised son. And then he picks up his head, and he sees the ram.
He sees the ram in the thicket. God provides the lamb, and then he takes it, and this is the sacrifice that was going to be there all along. He takes this ram, and he slaughters it as a substitute in Isaac's place. And Abraham can say, I knew it. I knew that God was going to come through with his promises. And they call this place, The Lord Will Provide.
That this place, Moriah, will forever be remembered as the place that God intervened, that God made a substitute, that God kept his promise, and the line of Abraham was preserved. And the rest of this chapter is that working of this blessing, declaring this blessing that is going to be, and you get to the end of it, and it's over. The story's done. And there's this lingering question, I think, that we still have when we read this. What was the point? What was the point of this story?
I mean, I get it. I'll concede. God tests his people. But calling a father to sacrifice his son, that seems a little too far. Calling him to take his innocent son. I mean, Abraham's old.
Couldn't God see his heart? Couldn't he see the faith that was in it? Why put an old man through that kind of grief? Why put Isaac through that kind of terror? Why? What is the point?
Because ultimately, this story is pointing to something else. The location of this place, Moriah, is significant. Later on in 2 Chronicles 3, we learn that Moriah is the place where Solomon built the temple. This is Jerusalem. This is not an accident. God could have chosen any place.
He could have chosen any mountain, but he chooses this hill. Why? Because this story was going to play out centuries later. That years down the line, there was going to be a son. There is going to be a son whom the Father loved deeply. The kind of love that is eternal.
The kind of love that stretches back into eternity past that is unbroken and perfect and pure and good. And out of this love, he's going to send his son. And out of this love, the son is going to obey the will of the Father. And he's going to travel on the same path that Isaac and Abraham took. The son is going to obey and he's going to put wood on his back. He's going to carry the wood up the hill.
The same path that Abraham and Isaac took. And this wood is going to be a wooden cross. And he's going to carry the wooden cross to a place that they called Moriah, a place that we as Christians now look at and call Calvary. And after being beaten and mocked and spit upon and abandoned and tortured, he's going to take that cross as far as he can go. He's going to need help just to get it up the hill. And when he gets to the top, there's going to be no need to ask the question, where is the lamb?
Because Jesus knew all along, he was the lamb. He was the ram and the thicket. He is the substitute. And he gets to the top and they bind him to the cross on the altar. They raise him up. And as, what's different from Abraham and Isaac now is as the knife is coming down and the angel stops, that doesn't happen here.
The spear pierces his side. The blood and the water pour out like an offering. And unlike Abraham and Isaac where Isaac is unbound, he can tell him everything's going to be okay. God the Father who's perfectly been in relationship and in love with his son is going to turn his back on him. This story in Genesis 22 is ultimately looking forward to the cross. That God spared Isaac.
He does not spare Christ. Jesus is the better Isaac. The one who carried the wood up the hill. And Abraham was right. The lamb would be provided. Jesus is our ram whose blood was spilled to take away our sins.
And the feeling that you have when you read this that says this isn't right that an innocent one should die, that is correct. We deserve wrath. Jesus dies in our place. Why? For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That's the hope of the gospel.
Why? Because you and me we need a sacrifice. We need someone to stand in our place because we have sinned and rebelled against the creator of God. We have trampled on his commands. We pursued flesh. We pursued the world.
We need a sacrifice. We are like hopeless sheep without a shepherd and Jesus comes from heaven and he seeks us and he claims us because the father loves you so much that he did not leave you here in sin but he sent Jesus to die for you so that he might carry you home. You are correct. It is not fair. We deserve wrath but Jesus obeyed the will of the father that he might become the ram that thicketh for us. He is the fulfillment of Genesis 22 and as Christians y'all we get to look at this story look at this picture of the gospel and respond in worship.
We get to respond in repentance.