EASTER: The Promise of Forgiveness - The heritage of hope 3-12-23

EASTER: The Promise of Forgiveness - The heritage of hope 3-12-23

Easter: the promise of forgiveness

The history of sin

 

Hope in light of sin

 

A Mother was taking her four-year-old daughter to school. She was a doctor and had left her stethoscope on the car seat. Her little girl picked it up and very excited began to play with it. Excellent, thought the Doctor, My daughter wants to follow in my footsteps! Then the child spoke into the instrument:

 

"Hello and welcome to McDonald’s, may I take your order?"

 

The late great American Protestant theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 - 1971) once wrote: "Forgiveness is the final form of love."

 

I.  IN THE GARDEN

 

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 

 

So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” 

 

To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 

 

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” 

 

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. 

 

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

                              Genesis 3:8-21 NIV

 

               A.  The deceiver was cursed.

               B.  The woman’s seed will crush the head of the serpent’s seed.

               C.  God made them garments and gave hope.

 

"The Christian hope is the hope which has seen everything and endured everything, and has still not despaired, because it believes in God. The Christian hope is not hope in the human spirit, in human goodness, in human endurance, in human achievement; the Christian hope is hope in the power of God." 

                              William Barclay, The Letter to the Romans

 

II.  IN THE FIRST MURDER

 

“Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?””

                              Genesis 4:1-9 NIV

 

            A.  Murder in the first degree

 

“The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.”

                              Genesis 4:10-15 NIV

 

    B.  Punishment

                              1.  Crops will not yield.

                           2.  Restless wanderer.

 

Two little brothers, Harry and James, had finished supper and were playing until bedtime. Somehow, Harry hit James with a stick, and tears and bitter words followed. Charges and accusations were still being exchanged as their mother prepared them for bed.

 

She said, “Now boys, what would happen if either of you died tonight and you never had the opportunity again for forgive one another?” James spoke up, “Well, OK, I’ll forgive him tonight, but if we’re both alive in the morning, he’d better look out.”

 

               C.  Hope

                              1.  Life after sin.

                   2.  Generations of opportunity.

 

“At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.”

                              Genesis 4:26b NIV

 

III.  IN THE FLOOD

 

“When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.””

                              Genesis 5:28-29 NIV

 

               A.  The destruction of sin

 

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.”

                              Genesis 6:11-14 NIV

 

               B.  The penalty of sin

 

“Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.”

                              Genesis 7:21-23 NIV

 

               C.  The hope of the ark

                            

                              1.  God remembers His people.

 

“But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.”

                              Genesis 8:1 NIV

 

                              2.  God promises to never destroy the Earth like that again.

 

“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.””

                              Genesis 8:20-22 NIV

 

A Peanuts cartoon pictured Lucy and Linus looking out the window at a steady downpour of rain. "Boy," said Lucy, "look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world?"

 

"It will never do that," Linus replied confidently. "In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow."

 

"You've taken a great load off my mind," said Lucy with a relieved smile.

 

"Sound theology," pontificated Linus, "has a way of doing that."

 

“As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.””

                              Genesis 9:7-17 NIV

 

 Other stories in Genesis - Abraham, Jacob and Esau, Joseph

 

Hope in the midst of failure!

 

After sixteen years as a missionary on the continent of Africa. David Livingstone returned Scotland to address the students at Glasgow University. His body had been ravaged by some 27 fevers that had overtaken him during his years of service. One arm hung useless at his side, the result of being mangled by a lion. The core of his message was: 'Shall I tell you what sustained me amidst the toil, the hardship, and loneliness of my exile? lt was Christ's promise, "Lo. I am with you always, even unto the end." Christ's promise isn't just for David Livingstone, it also is for you. He is with the missionary, hut He also is with the Christian living out his or her faith in the business world, in the schoolroom, and in the home. Christ is with every Christian at all times, in all places. So take courage and remain faithful.

 

Joy of Christ Forgiveness: A member of a major non-Christian religion said to a missionary to India, "Tell me one thing your religion can offer the people of India that mine can't." The missionary thought for a moment and replied, "Forgiveness! Forgiveness!"

 

Unlike the followers of all other world religions, those who put their hope in Christ have full assurance that their sins are forgiven.

 

British Bible teacher David Pawson says, "I have talked to devout Muslims who pray five times a day, have journeyed to Mecca, have fasted during Ramadan, and are more devout than many Christians. But when I ask, 'Do you know if your sins are forgiven?' they've said, 'We don't. We just have to hope for the best.'

 

The Christian who daily enjoys the reality of God's presence in his life is one who daily subjects himself to examination whereby he might make sure that his walk before the Lord is blameless.

 

CONCLUSION

 

The promise of forgiveness can be seen in the garden of Eden, in the first murder, and in the flood.

 

INVITATION

 

It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word.  You may want to follow Jesus.  You may want to proclaim your faith.  You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things).  Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church.  If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now.  If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.