Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

My own journey to faith in Jesus Christ created in me a passion about the Gospel message of reconciliation lived out practice among those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In our lives, God gives us these moments, these events that stand out because of the impact that it had on us.

In my own life one of those events was a conversation that I had with a college classmate named Brian.

Brian was a good friend of minee, and we traveled in similar circles as undergraduates.

And, not surprisingly, we pretty much shared the same worldview.

One difference between us though, was our organizational affiliation.

While I was a member of a group called the Sons of Africa, Brian was a committed member of one of the major Black fraternities.

His fraternity was precious to him.

He couldn’t do without it.

As I recall, he would use his influence over those who were pledging by having them read and discuss books on afrocentricity.

Brian graduated before I did, and we lost contact for a little while.

Unbeknownst to me, in the time that we were apart, Brian became a Christian.

Some of his fraternity brothers, who were Christians, had convinced him that since he had been an English major it would be beneficial to him, for literary purposes, to read the Bible.

So he did, and in so doing was convicted by the Holy Spirit of God’s holiness, his sinfulness and his need to repent and turn to Jesus Christ.

I had no knowledge of this story when I called him on the phone to come up to his place in the Bronx and try to sell him life insurance… But for three hours I sat in his little basement apartment as he talked to me about the impact God’s Word had upon his life, about its truth, and my need for Jesus.

As he shared his testimony with me I noticed that there was no fraternity paraphernalia around.

He told me that when he became a Christian his life had changed.

Things he used to desire he didn’t desire anymore.

Places he used to go he easily gave up to follow Jesus.

But there was one thing that he would never give up, and that was his fraternity.

He said, though, that it was the main thing that God wanted him to give up.

It was his idol.

It had become his god.

He said to me, “Irwyn, it was like tearing off my right arm.

But I had to do it.

I called up my closest fraternity brothers and told them that I was disassociating myself with the fraternity.

I was still their friend, but don’t call me by any of those fraternity names because I will not respond.”

Then he said, “I cried like a baby.

I cried and cried and cried.”

His sacrifice was painful.

I left there as a non-believer, as one who was not a follower of Jesus thinking to myself, “Brian has gone crazy.

He’s gone off the deep end.”

I remember telling that to mutual friends on campus.

It didn’t make sense to me.

I couldn’t reconcile in my mind the radical sacrifice he was willing to make in obedience to this Jesus he had come to trust and believe in.

And as we come to this text in , “The Binding of Isaac,” we’re confronted with one of the most difficult passages in the OT.

What is God doing is asking for this type of unreasonable obedience from someone he has committed himself to?

God had committed himself to Abraham.

If you want to read about God’s commitment to Abraham, start at the end of and the beginning of and keep on reading.

What Brian was expressing in his testimony to me is the same thing underlying this passage.

Not only had he committed himself to the Lord by faith, but our God is a God who commits himself to his people.

In other words, we’re bound to him and we are bound to one another.

And the desire to worship and serve him trumps everything else because there is nothing and no one more worthy of our trust and worship.

If you’re here this morning and not a follower of Jesus Christ, this text might seem strange to you, just like Brian’s testimony was to me.

But here I am before you, following the same Jesus who Brian follows.

So, I say to you at the outset that the foolishness of God is wiser than people, and that the weakness of God is stronger than people.

And God saves those who believe through the folly of what we preach.

Our three points this morning are marked by the three sections of this text.

The three sections are delineated by Abraham’s repetition of these three words, “Here I am” (vv.1-6, 7-10, and 11-18).

Abraham’s simple response to God in v.1, to his son Isaac in v.7, and to the Angel of the Lord in v.11 convey to us Abraham’s attentive and receptive response to God’s word and command, his trust in God’s provision, and God’s blessing.

God is bound to his people.

He is Bound in Cloudiness, Bound in Crisis, and Bound in Comfort.

(This is not a do better or work harder sermon.

It’s a trust wholly and completely sermon.)

Bound in Cloudiness

The first, “Here am I,” comes in v.1… (rd.

vv.1-6)

After these things… after the events of chapter 21, the birth of Isaac, the sending away of Ishmael, the making of a treaty with the Philistines… God puts Abraham to the test.

As the readers, we have insight that Abraham doesn’t have.

We know that God is testing Abraham, but Abraham doesn’t know that it’s a test.

We know that Isaac is going to be alright, but Abraham doesn’t.

Because he is bound to his Lord, he simply responds to God’s call in a way that says, “I’m attentive and receptive to your word God.”

This response is in spite of the cloudiness.

Abraham can’t see into the future.

He doesn’t know what’s going to happen on that mountain.

All he knows is what God has said.

This seems utterly unreasonable to us because we need evidence.

But can I tell you something?

Everybody has to live by faith because we’re not God.

That means we’ll never have all the information and all the facts.

We will never be able to remove all of the cloudiness when it comes to life in this world.

Understand this.

We are not like Abraham in the sense that God’s direct interaction with him is a key part of God’s plan to reclaim, redeem, remake, and renew this world through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This text points us forward to Jesus Christ.

God isn’t going to come to any parents and make this kind of request.

This is a one off in the history of redemption.

But we are like Abraham in that he was a real man with real fears and the need for a real faith.

And faith in the Lord is always put to the test.

And the testing of faith in the Lord and his promises is regularly undesirable.

When the test comes, it’s not normally something you desire.

Because, while God’s command might be clear, the outcome is always cloudy.

Christians might quote to themselves passages like

But we quickly realize that “all things working together for good” doesn’t mean that all things “feel good,” or “are good.”

There’s often pain in the testing.

This reality leads the apostle James to say in 1:12 of his letter,

This reality leads the apostle Peter to say in 4:12 of his first letter,

You don’t get to be a Christian without having to embrace the cloudiness that comes with faith in the Lord.

However, Abraham’s response gives us hope.

Why is that?

Because, from ch.12 to this passage in ch.22 Abraham’s faith has been on a roller coaster.

It ebbs and flows.

It’s up and down.

But here’s what I want you to realize.

Abraham’s life or journey of faith is framed by God’s call in 12:1-9 and God’s test in 22:1-19.

In between you see successes and failures when it comes to his faith What’s the point?

Two things.

First, in 12:1 God says

In 22:1 God says

… and in 22:1 God says… In both instances Abraham responds with faithful obedience.