Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian
Church and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today. A special welcome if you're new or
visiting with us. We're glad that you're here and we're glad that you're here not because we're
trying to fill seats but because we're following Jesus together as one community and as we follow
Jesus together we become convinced that there's no one so good they don't need God's grace and
no one so bad that they can't have it which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has
to say to us in his Word. We have taken a break from our series in the Gospel of Mark for the season of
Advent. You'll remember that the season of Advent is a time when we celebrate Jesus coming or arriving
here on earth and we do a couple things. First of all we celebrate what God has done in the past
already by sending Christ and then we also look forward to what he's going to do in the future
when we see Christ come again. And so as Christians we're always doing this. We're always looking back
to what God has done in the past. We're looking forward to what he will do in the future and we
use both of those things to keep going and to live faithfully now in the present. Last week we were in
Genesis chapter 3 and we saw that Jesus is the one who's going to come and put an end to shame. He's going
to be the one who comes and destroys and crushes evil forever. We saw that promise from chapter 3
verse 15. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Meaning that while Satan is going
to be able to hurt Jesus he will not crush him. Jesus on the other hand will crush the head of the
serpent. We're fast forwarding eight or nine chapters this morning all the way to Genesis chapter 12 and
we're going to look not as Jesus is the one who ends shame but this morning Jesus is the one who brings
the blessing to the nations. And so without further ado I'm going to invite you to turn with me now. You
can turn near the end of your worship guide. You can also turn in your Bible or turn on your phone.
No matter where you turn remember that this is God's word and God tells us that his word is a lamp to
our feet and a light to our path which means that God has not left us to stumble alone in the dark
but instead he's given us his word to show us the way to go. And so that's why we start now. Genesis chapter 11
verse 27. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran fathered
Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans.
And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah,
the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren. She had no children.
Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law,
his son Abram's wife. And they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.
But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in
Haran. Chapter 12. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's
house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and
make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who
dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Verse 4.
So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed
from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that
they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran. And they set out to go to the
land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place
at Shechem, to the oak of Morah. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared
to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord,
who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his
tent with Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord, and called
upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev. I invite you to pray
with me as we come to this portion of God's Word. Our Father in heaven, we thank you again that you
have given us your Word, not just in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament. And we ask
that you would help us this morning to see your plan from the beginning of time, and that you would
most of all set our eyes on Jesus, that we would see him as more beautiful and more glorious than we
realized, that we would worship him, that we would serve him, that we would love him. We tell you this
morning that we do love you, but we need your help, and so we ask that you would speak to us clearly
in your Word. And we ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
So we've skipped a lot of territory since we left off in Genesis chapter 3. Things only got worse
and went downhill after Adam and Eve took part in the forbidden fruit. First of all, Genesis chapter 4,
the very next chapter, we had the first murder when Cain kills Abel. And then in that same chapter,
the first murderer starts the first city. Things continue to get bad, though. It's not just that
there's one man who's a murderer, but we see in Genesis chapter 6 through 8 that the earth becomes
so wicked that God decides he's going to wipe everything out with a flood. And so there's nothing
left except for Noah and his family and two of every kind of animal. Now there's such a steep and rapid
descent in the history of mankind that the flood itself is not enough. Wickedness continues. Chapter
11, we get back to mankind abandoning God. They make this claim that they're going to make a name
for themselves. And so they begin to build this tower, thinking that it's going to be able to reach up to
the heavens. And we see God at that point bringing his judgment on them by scattering the nations and
changing their languages. We're told in Genesis chapter 11 that everyone spoke the same language
until God decided they were going to speak different languages. And of course, that it destroyed their
ability to work together to build this great tower. And so the point is this. As we move on from Genesis
chapter 3, we saw the beginning of shame and pain in the world. The story gets darker and darker.
It gets more and more bleak. And so that's where we're at when we come here to chapters 11 and 12.
You'll remember our paradigm from chapter 3 that there are these two offspring that are going to
be battling it out. And there's a promise that one offspring is going to crush the other. And so I
mentioned earlier, chapter 3, verse 15, this promise, or I guess a threat given to the serpent,
he shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel. There's going to be two seeds that are going to
compete against each other. One is going to win. One's going to be the one that bruises the head.
And so it's with that that we come to this setting, this passage here in chapter 11 and 12,
and things are not looking good. So as we ended chapter 11 here, we have this background of tragedy
and barrenness. First of all, we have this tragedy. Chapter 11, verse 28, Haran dies. So Terah,
who's continuing this seed, he's got three sons, only one grandson. His grandson Lot, who's the son of Terah,
or the son of Haran. Haran dies, so he has only two sons and one grandson. So there's that tragedy,
right? It's supposed to be sons who bury their fathers, not fathers who bury their sons. But to
make things even worse, we find out here that Sarai, verse 30, is barren. And so as we're hoping that
there's going to be this offspring, this seed that's going to crush the head of the serpent, things are
not looking good. Things are not looking good for the family of Terah, and things are not looking good
for humanity. We have this picture here of frailty and wickedness. That's the background we're given
here in chapter 11, frailty and wickedness. That shouldn't surprise us, though, because Advent is
about light in the darkness. That's what we looked at last week with our lighting of the Advent candle,
Isaiah chapter 9. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land
of deep darkness, on them has a light shown. And so our pattern that we saw in chapter 3 continues here
in chapter 12, which is this. God still shows up as the light in the darkness. God still shows up as the
light in the darkness. In this background of wickedness and human frailty, God has not given up on
his promise. As things look bleak, he continues to show up and pursue his people. And so we see at the
beginning of chapter 12 these promises that he makes to Abram. First, verse 1, he tells him to leave his
country. And in verse 2, because of that, he's going to make him a great nation. And so we're supposed to
feel the dissonance right away. His wife can't have children. God's going to make a great nation out of
him. Okay? Then he continues, though, verse 3, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
And so we have this impossible scenario, this impossible situation where God has promised
that he's going to bring his redemption to bear on the earth through a seed, and yet all evidence would
be given to the contrary. This man, Terah, is not able to generate the offspring that he might like.
His son has died. And the man that we're encountering here, who's promised to become a great nation, his wife,
is not able to have children. It's against that backdrop that God shows up making this great
and seemingly foolish promise to Abraham. Not only are you going to have many children, but you're going to
become a great nation. And not only are you going to become a great nation, that nation is going to
bless the entire world. You and your wife who can't have kids are going to affect the entire globe with
your offspring. Now, if we're familiar with the story of the Bible, we just need to pause for a second and
think about how ridiculous that is. Ridiculous first in the sense that he's going to have lots of children.
Ridiculous second in the sense that they're going to affect the entire world. This world that's been
scattered. Remember, people are speaking different languages now. They're not able to communicate with
each other. And somehow, Abraham's line is going to be able to break through to that. Now, if we're
Abram here... By the way, I'm using Abram and Abraham interchangeably, and I'm going to keep doing that
because if you know the story, you know his name gets changed in Genesis chapter 17. Fun Cheyenne Mountain
Trivia Fact, I preached on Genesis chapter 17 in April of 2017 when I came to candidate many, many years ago.
So, I did preach to you on that, but very few of you were here back then. Anyway, his name gets changed,
right? So, if I say Abraham or Abram, same person. This is the promise that's been made to him. He would
not have understood in what sense he was going to be a blessing to the entire nations. Some of the people
reading the Old Testament before the time of Christ would not have understood exactly in what sense
this person was going to be a blessing to the entire nations. Brothers and sisters, we know this
morning exactly in what sense this offspring of Abraham is going to be a blessing to the entire
nations. And the reason that we know it is not just because of the time of history that we live in,
but because the Apostle Paul spells it out for us clearly and directly. So, I'm going to invite you
to turn with me in your worship guide to page 4. We read from Galatians chapter 3 where Paul explains
to us exactly what is going on in Genesis and the exact way in which Abraham's seat is going to be a
blessing to the nations. And so, track with me then here. Look at verse 8 first. The Scriptures foresee
that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Gentiles being a word here that means people who aren't Jews.
When God chooses Abraham, He chooses a people. Throughout the Old Testament, what we see is God
being gracious to the Jewish nation. However, the plan was always that it would extend to all the
nations of the earth. And so, here's the plan given us. Verse 8, He would justify the Gentiles. He would
take people who are not Jews and He would save them. Then we're told that God preached the gospel
beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. And so, we know clearly what it
means here in Genesis chapter 12 that all the nations would be blessed. It's a way of God telling
Abraham about the gospel. In other words, He is giving them the good news that even though humanity
is caught up in this scheme of wickedness that we've seen in the preceding chapters of Genesis,
God has not given up on His creation or His people. He is going to come and He's going to provide them
salvation by a Redeemer, sending His Son, Jesus Christ, who's going to do a few important things.
First, He's going to live the perfect life that we should have lived but didn't.
Second, He's going to die the death that we deserve to die on our behalf. In that sense, He is the
blessing to the nations. And in that sense, God preached the gospel to Abraham. In other words, Abraham did
not see clearly what we do now, which was that His seed that was going to crush the head of the serpent
was going to come as one man, a person, Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ, in His death and His resurrection,
is going to destroy evil and wickedness forever. That is everything that was contained in these words
when God spoke to Abraham. Abraham did not fully understand it. We now do.
At the risk of being too obvious, the point is this. Jesus is the blessing to the nations.
Jesus is the one who brings this salvation, not just for the Jews, but for everyone. We're given this
passage, this promise against the backdrop of seeing how bad the world is. We looked at some of this last
week. It's so bad that God had to purge the entire earth with a flood. It's so bad that
all of mankind was united in rebellion against God, and He had to change their languages to confuse them.
It is so bad that it's filled with the kind of tragedy that we saw at the end of chapter 11,
that the fathers bury their sons rather than the sons burying their fathers.
It is in that that there is only one kind of hope for God's people and for humanity. It is supernatural,
divine intervention to come and save the world. And so that's what we see in verse 9 here of Galatians 3.
So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
In other words, everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is included in this blessing.
That is the blessing to the nations that is promised to Abraham. That is the blessing,
brothers and sisters, that brings us here together this morning. Galatians 3 tells us,
it explains for us exactly what's going on here. Chapter 12, blessing to the nations. Jesus is that blessing.
Now there's sort of a cognitive dissonance we're meant to experience here as we read these words,
and we know that Jesus is a blessing to the nations because what has just happened?
We've seen not a blessing of the nations, but a scattering of the nations.
Remember mankind's rebellion at the Tower of Babel? God scatters them across the earth.
He changes their languages. And so it seems like God is talking out both sides of His mouth here.
On the one hand, He's scattering people. On the other hand, He's pursuing them with His grace.
On the one hand, He's scattering them in punishment. On the other hand, He says that He's going to bless them.
How are we supposed to reconcile these things?
How do we make sense of this God who's doing both at the same time?
Well, the answer is we make sense of it in God's grace.
God's scattering people everywhere. He's sending grace to people everywhere.
His grace looks like this. Yes, He sent the nations all over the world.
And simultaneously, at the same time, He is acting to pursue and save the nations.
He has a plan, and He is executing it.
This is the same thing we saw in the garden in Genesis chapter 3,
as God pursued Adam and Eve as they were hiding from Him, naked and ashamed.
God continues here His constant, relentless pursuit in His grace.
God, yes, brings punishment and judgment,
and at the same time, He is coming to save and redeem.
What we saw in Genesis 3 is true here in Genesis 12 as well.
And ultimately, we know what Paul tells us in Galatians 3,
that His pursuit of them culminates in the coming of Jesus Christ.
That is why we sing,
Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
That is why we celebrate the season of Advent,
because these two things, God's scattering of the nations
and His grace that He sends out to them,
make sense together when we see Jesus on the cross.
They make sense as we see Jesus, on the one hand,
receiving the judgments that the nations deserve,
and on the other hand, providing the grace that is needed
to save people of every language, nation, tribe, and tongue,
every language that God created at the Tower of Babel.
They make sense there.
They make sense as we see Jesus coming as a baby in a manger.
They make sense as we see Jesus living His life,
as we've looked at in Mark.
And they make sense as we see Jesus die and rise again from the dead.
That is where we see the scattering and the grace come together.
And so, brothers and sisters,
we are here together this morning
because of God's promise to Abraham to bless the nations.
That is why God has brought this group of people together right now
on December 5th, 2021.
Few, if any of us, are Jews.
We're different people.
We come from a variety of countries.
For some of us, English is our first language.
For others of us, English is not our first language.
We are here together
because God promised to Abraham to bless the nations.
And so, He brings that type of people together
every Sunday around the world.
There was a trend on Twitter
that started in September of 2020.
And the trend was called
How It Started, How It's Going.
And people would post these pictures side by side
to show how something had progressed over time.
So, you'd see things like this.
If someone switched political candidates,
they'd have a picture of them
wearing the shirt for one candidate,
how it started,
how it's going.
On the other side,
they'd be wearing a shirt for the other candidate
that they switched to.
Some people would do it for their fitness journeys.
They'd show a picture of them out of shape,
how it started.
And they'd have a picture of them
looking in amazing shape,
ripped,
how it's going.
Some people might have a puppy picture,
how it started.
And you have a full-grown dog picture,
how it's going.
This trend, however,
focused and started
with romantic stories.
And so, most often,
what you would see is this,
how it started.
The first time someone slipped
into someone else's direct messages,
the first time they texted them,
how it's going,
a picture of them at their wedding.
You might see how it started,
a picture of them at their wedding,
how it's going,
a picture of them with their nine kids.
Okay?
You might see a first date picture,
and then them with their family
and all their pets.
The point is to show
that there's these things
that have changed over time.
We have things that start small
and go big.
As we look at Genesis chapter 12,
we get to see how it started,
and we know how it's going.
Okay?
How it started,
there's a 75-year-old man
who has an infertile wife
who's also his sister.
Think about that.
Okay?
How it started.
I'm going to say that again.
You have a 75-year-old man
with an infertile wife
who's also his sister.
How it's going,
there's estimated 2.5 billion Christians
around the world today,
more than any other world religion.
How it started,
in the desert of the ancient Near East.
How it's going,
all around the world.
By the way,
the ancient Near East
is not the geographic base
of Christianity anymore.
The geographic base of Christianity
is now the global south.
How it started.
Abraham abandoning his homeland,
becoming a nomad,
picking up all his possessions,
and leaving everything that he knew.
Some of you, by the way,
know something about that.
How it's going.
Jesus promised
that his people will inherit the earth.
How it started.
Jesus called to Abraham
to give up everything
and leave his homeland.
How it's going.
Jesus called to us
that we've seen in the Gospel of Mark
to follow me.
In other words,
we see now
how much power God has.
We see what Abraham
could only hope in by faith.
that God was going to spread
his grace
around the entire world.
We know and understand
the plan that God had
in a way that Abraham
could only guess at,
that he was going to send
his one and only son
as a sacrifice.
And how did we get
from how it started
to how it's going?
We got there
because Jesus is the one
who has come
and he is the one
who is coming.
We got there
because Jesus is the one
who comes and fulfills
and completes the promise.
We got there
because he is going
to heal the world
far as the curse
is found.
We got here
because Jesus came
for the salvation
of the world.
That is why
we're able to look
at Genesis 12
and say how it started
and look at what God
has given us
here this morning
at Cheyenne Mountain
Presbyterian Church
and the fellowship
that we have
with Christians
around the world
and throughout time
and say
this is how it's going.
That is what we celebrate
here at Advent.
The promise
from Habakkuk 2
we begin to see
how it's going to happen.
The earth will be filled
with the knowledge
of the glory of the Lord
as the waters
cover the sea.
Jesus is the one
who comes
as the blessing
to the nations.
and he comes
unlike any other religion
not tied
to a geographic place
but someone
who's come
for the whole world.
In his book
on Mark
called Jesus the King
Tim Keller
talks about
this reality
of Christianity
being a worldwide religion
and he tells
about an interview
with a man
named Andrew Wells
who noted that
wherever the other
great world religions
began
that is still
their center today.
Islam started
in Arabia
at Mecca
and the Middle East
is still
the center
of Islam today.
Buddhism
started in the Far East
and that's still
the center of Buddhism.
So too
with Hinduism.
Christianity
is the exception.
Christianity's center
is always moving
always
on a pilgrimage.
He listed
it was in Jerusalem
at one point
it moved
to the Hellenistic
and Mediterranean world
then for a while
the center of Christianity
was in Northern Europe.
In the 20th century
North America
became the center.
Meanwhile
in Latin America
Asia and Africa
it has been growing
at up to 10 times
the population
growth rate.
In the past decade
it has returned
more than 50%
of Christians
in the world
now live
in the southern hemisphere.
And we're not surprised
because Jesus
has come
as the blessing
to the nations.
In the year 1900
Africa was only
1% Christian.
Now Christians
make up nearly half
the African population.
In the next
50 to 70 years
the center
of Christianity
is predicted
to complete
this shift
away from
European countries
and from
the United States.
It will migrate
as it always migrates.
Jesus truly
is
the blessing
to the nations.
He is
the one
who has come
for every
people
place
tribe
and tongue
and nation.
He is the fulfillment
of this promise
to Abraham.
And so
how do we respond
to him?
What do we do
with a God
who has come
for people
who speak
every language?
Well we do
what Abraham
models for us here.
We answer his call
to follow him.
Abraham experiences
tremendous loss here.
He gives up
his family.
He gives up
the place
that he's known.
He gives up
permanence.
And instead
he takes on
this nomadic life.
And he does it
by the way
with a bleak picture
with bad odds.
everything would
say that Abraham
is headed into failure.
Everything would
predict that this
is a bad idea
and yet God's
promise here
is that he's
going to provide
for them
what no one else
can.
The hope
of those
at the Tower
of Babel
is that they
would make
a name
for themselves.
God tells
Abraham here
verse 2
I will make
your name
great.
I am going
to be the one
who fulfills
your greatest
hopes
and dreams.
And it's been
pointed out here
that God's
I wills
in this passage
far outstrip
and eclipse
anything he asks
of Abram.
Abram is just
told go
and then we see
this list
of I wills.
The land
that I will show
you.
I will make
of you a great
nation.
I will bless
you.
You will be a
blessing.
I will bless
those who bless
you.
I will curse
and you all
the families
of the earth
will be blessed.
God always
empowers
and enables
what he commands.
God always
gives all
the resources
for what he
has called
us to do.
God always
bankrolls
our obedience
with his promises.
True for
Abraham
and true
for us
as well.
We see
his blessing
to the nations
and so we
follow him
and we trust
him.
people are
often fascinated
by founding
stories
especially
when those
founding stories
show something
small becoming
something great
and so one of
the most famous
ones is Apple
computers starting
in this garage
with a pirate
flag flying on
the wall back
in 1976.
Now what most
people don't
remember is that
there weren't
just two founders
to Apple.
There were three
founders.
The third
founder was
this man
named Ronald
Wayne and
less than two
weeks after the
founding of Apple
Ronald decided
that he wanted
to pull out
and so he
sold his 10%
share in the
company for a
grand whopping
total of $800.
It's estimated
that in 2013
10% of Apple
would have been
worth $35 billion.
million.
Now maybe he
thought it was a
bleak picture
and bad odds
to be a part
of a computer
company that
was starting in
a garage with a
pirate flag on
the wall.
At the end
of 2020
Apple was worth
$65.34
billion.
Small to big
in a way that
would have been
hard, maybe
impossible to
imagine at the
time.
Brothers and
sisters, in this
passage in
Genesis chapter
12, we get to
see the greatest
founding story of
all time.
Something that
makes $65 billion
look incredibly
small.
when we
celebrate
Advent, we
are celebrating
that something
much greater
and more
glorious and
more powerful
than Apple
stock is
here.
In fact, we
see something
that is meant
to be a
blessing to
the entire
nations, not
providing wonderful
electronic experiences,
but providing
salvation and
redemption,
reconciliation in
our relationship
with God, and
therefore our
reconciliation with
one another,
knowing that God
is coming to
wipe every tear
away from our
eyes and
restore and
remake this
world better
than it has
ever been in
the past, that
he has come to
heal and
redeem and
restore.
And we have
the chance to
take part in
that now, like
Abraham, following
God's call, because
we have seen
his power.
We see a
world of
wickedness where
the nations are
scattered, and
we see that God
continues to
pursue, offering
his blessing to
every single one
of them.
Jesus is the
one who has
come as the
blessing for you
and for me.
Let's pray.
Our Father in
heaven, we thank
you for the
glorious and
wonderful work
that you have
done in our
lives and that
you do around
the world.
We thank you
that you have
come not for
people who
just speak one
language, but
people who
speak every
language.
We thank you
that you
haven't come
just for one
country, but
you've come for
every country.
We thank you
that you've
given us hope
and confidence
in you as we
see your power
at work in a
way that it is
not visible
anywhere else,
that we know
that you are
the one and
true God.
We ask that
you would use
that truth to
encourage us and
challenge us and
change us.
And we ask
these things in the
mighty name of
Jesus Christ.