12-1-19 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Genesis 6:9-22, 7:11-23 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke

Advent 1 – Stories of the Promise Sunday, December 1, 2019 “Watch with Noah”

The Old Testament is full of stories. There you will find the story of Adam and Eve, the story of Abraham, stories about Moses and many prophets, stories about judges and kings. And what is particularly interesting about these stories is that, despite what many believe today, these stories are true. These stories record the events in the lives of people who played a part in God’s unveiling of his salvation story.

And so, these stories, these true stories, find application to our lives as well. They teach us important lessons for our walk of faith.

Today and for the next three Sundays, we are going to be looking at some of these stories. These are stories of the promise that remind us of the promises God has made to us, stories that reflect the themes of our Advent season, themes that help us focus our attention and prepare our hearts for the celebration of Christmas that is now less than a month away. These are stories that relate to the lessons Jesus himself teaches us about how we prepare not only for our celebration of Christmas, but also for his coming again in glory on the last day. Our story today is the story of Noah.

The account of Noah is one that most people probably know something about. They know there’s a big boat and lots of animals, for example, but it is hard to say how well people really know the story. While our First Lesson today was longer than it often is, even that is just a small portion of Noah’s story, but that’s the part that we will focus on today.

Yes, the story of Noah involves a large boat, an ark. In fact, large is an understatement. It was longer than a football field, taller than a four-story building. Some estimate its storage capacity to be about that of 450 semi trailers. It was made for one job: survive an enormous flood. It was coated with pitch for waterproofing, fitted with three floors of animal and human living space along with food storage. And when Noah was 600 years old, he and his family went into the ark with the animals and there survived the flood.

So what lesson would we possibly take from a story like that? What could we learn from an event like this when we also know that God has promised a flood like that one will never come again? Well, in large part because Jesus describes the end of the world in terms of the story of Noah’s ark, we use this lesson to remind ourselves to watch. Watch for God to carry out his judgment, and watch for God to rescue and save.

Our lesson carefully teaches the reason for this flood: a corrupt world. It is described in terms of violence and moral corruption. And the corruption is so complete that God does not talk about reforming or improving the world. He talks about destroying it. That is his judgment on a wicked world. That is the judgment that almost no one in the world anticipated. We’ll make frequent reference today to what Jesus says about Noah and his time in our Gospel (Matthew 24:36-44), and here we’ll simply note that as corrupt as the world was at the time of Noah, the people did not concern themselves with God’s judgment. They simply went on with their lives. They ate. They drank. They got married.

No one worried about the wickedness that they committed or the warning that God tried to sound to them through his servant Noah constructing a gigantic boat right in their midst. They kept on doing what they were doing right until the time that the rain started falling and the flood waters started rising.

When it came, the flood brought complete devastation. God carried out the judgment he had threatened.

He wiped clean the face of the whole world, covering it with water to above the highest mountains.

In the same way that God once destroyed the wicked world by means of a flood, God will once again carry out his judgment on the wicked world. That is really what Jesus is pointing out in the Gospel making the comparison to the time of Noah. The end of the world will see the wicked going about life as normal. Eat, drink, be married. And then the end will come. Then judgment will come. Sinners will meet a perfect judge and be sentenced to the punishment their wickedness has earned. Isn’t it interesting that in

other places Jesus describes the time leading up to the last day as a time of great distress (See Matthew 24:21)? It doesn’t necessarily seem right to us that it could be a time of great distress and still be a time when life is going on just as it always has, with no one taking notice of anything unusual. But Jesus describes the last days in both of those ways. For the wicked, they will not be concerned about the wickedness and corruption in the world. In the meantime, for those who are concerned with what God says, who are concerned about wickedness and corruption, for them the last days will be full of distress.

So God tells us, “Watch.” Pay attention to what is happening. See the signs all around us that we live in a wicked and corrupt world. Hear the warnings that God gives saying he will destroy it; he will carry out his judgment. Recognize your own sinfulness and repent. Pay attention to what this all means for you.

Jesus is going to return; you just don’t know when. That’s why you need to watch. Watch because God is going to carry out his judgment. Watch like Noah did when he heard such warnings, by taking God at his Word.

But the story of Noah is not only a story of God’s judgment. It is primarily a story of God’s rescue. Noah survived the flood, along with his family. He preserved on the ark the various different kinds of animals so that they could repopulate the earth. Even in the midst of judgment, God rescued and saved.

God’s saving work began in Noah well before the flood came. Noah was born into the world in the same sinful and wicked condition as everyone else on earth at his time. He started from the same place. It was only because God graciously called Noah to faith and led him to follow God that Noah listened to what God said. It was through faith that God had worked in Noah’s heart that Noah obeyed God’s direction.

God asked Noah to build and ark, and he obeyed. God commanded Noah and his family into the ark, and they obeyed. And so, when the rain fell and the floodgates opened and the fountains of the deep burst forth, the ark and all who were in it were saved. “The waters became deeper and lifted up the ark until it floated high above the earth.” The very same water that brought judgment on the world lifted the giant boat of the ark above all of the destruction. Only in that unending sea, I’m sure it no longer looked so large.

It did, however, keep Noah and his wife, along with sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives safe. It preserved this family and every kind of animal upon the earth that God had made and by the end of the flood had remade.

Theologians have long noted similarities between the ark of Noah and the Church of Jesus Christ. By the Church understand I don’t mean a particular building or a particular congregation or a particular church body. By the Church, I mean everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He is the one who as holy God stepped into our corrupt world for the very reason that he had determined to do something about that corruption. He didn’t come at that time with rage and punishment in order to rain down justice. No, he came in lowliness and humility in order to forgive mankind’s evil. He lived here perfectly in the place of all who have lived here imperfectly. He suffered the death that they deserved and now gives eternal life to all who believe in him.

And so the ark of the Church, filled with those who believe in Jesus as Savior, floats above all the danger and destruction and corruption of this world. Inside we are safe from God’s judgment. It is not because we were smarter than others or somehow better than they. It is only because God is gracious and loving and has brought us to faith in Jesus. And the safety of the ark is exactly what God uses to rescue us from the terrors of judgment day.

Jesus is going to return, not in humility and lowliness, but in glory and power and majesty. He will carry out his final judgment on sin and corruption. But that same return will mean rescue and salvation for all who believe. It is coming. Believe it. Like Noah, take God at his Word and follow his directions. Watch.

Watch for Jesus to return. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.

The Text: Genesis 6:9-22, 7:11-23 (EHV) Noah was a righteous man, a man of integrity in that generation. Noah walked with God. 10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 In the sight of God the earth was morally corrupt, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 God looked at the earth and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh was corrupt in all their ways on the earth.

13

So God said to Noah, “I have decreed the end of all flesh, because the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

14

“Make an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark. Seal it inside and outside with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: The length of the ark is to be 450 feet, its width 75 feet, and its height 45 feet. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and leave an eighteen-inch opening just under the roof. Place a door on the side of the ark. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.

17

“I myself am about to bring a flood of waters on the earth, in order to destroy all flesh under the sky that has the breath of life. Everything that is on the earth will die, 18 but I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You shall bring a pair (male and female) of every kind of living flesh into the ark with you to keep them alive.

20 Include the birds according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing on the ground according to their kinds. Two of every sort shall come to you, so you can keep them alive. 21 Take with you every type of food that is eaten, and store it for yourself, so it can be used as food for you and for them.”

22

So that is what Noah did. He did everything that God commanded him, just as he had been told.

11

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that very day, all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. 12 The rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

13

On that same day Noah, Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons along with them entered the ark. 14 They went in with every animal according to its kind, all the livestock according to their kinds, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and everything that flies according to its kind, flying birds of every sort. 15 Pairs of all the animals that have the breath of life in them went to Noah in the ark. 16 A male and female of each animal that breathes went in, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the L ORD shut Noah in.

17

The flood kept coming on the earth for forty days. The waters became deeper and lifted up the ark until it floated high above the earth. 18 The water kept increasing and overwhelmed the earth, and the ark was carried along on the surface of the water. 19 The water overwhelmed the earth. All the high mountains that were under the entire sky were covered. 20 The waters rose more than twenty feet above the mountains and covered them. 21 All living creatures that moved on the earth perished, including birds, livestock, wild animals, every creeping thing that crawls on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything that breathed the breath of life through its nostrils, that is, everything that was on the dry land, died. 23 Every living thing that was on the face of the earth was wiped out, including mankind, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They all were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, as well as those who were with him in the ark.