Passage: Acts 7:2-4; Genesis 11:31-12:-7
READ ACTS 7:2-4, Gen... 11:31-12:7
Steven’s sermon in Acts gives us by the Holy Spirit’s revelation a glimpse at the first of two calls on Abram’s life. When Abram was still living in Ur, before he moved to Haran, God called him to pull up stakes, God told Abram to leave his family, all of them, and he told Abram to leave his people, All of them and God said "go to a land I will show you"
So Abram ½ obeys and he pulls up stakes and according to Genesis 11:31, Abram is joined on his journey by his father and his nephew, but God had told him to leave his family. And since Abram is slightly disobedient he settles in Haran instead of Canaan, and I wonder but what that move didn’t cost Terah (Abram’s father) his life.
So now, here they are living in Haran and Abram’s dad dies and I bet the whole clan of people were just going to settle down there for good. Because they would want perhaps to be near dad’s grave. I mean, we like to be near the grave of our deceased loved ones, family ties run deep and especially so for Abram, because he was a righteous man and he loved his family dearly. So as they settle down in verse 31, God has to repeat himself, and let me remind you, whenever God repeats himself, he does so because it’s important.
God wanted Abram away from Idolatry, he wanted Abram away from a family that would lead him astray and he wanted Abram separated to God himself. So in verse 1 of chapter 12 God comes to Abram and he calls him again.
Now, I know that your Bible like mine probably reads "the Lord HAD said to Abram" But the word "Had" doesn’t belong there, it was inserted because the translators of the KJV and the NIV saw The first call found in Acts 7 as the ONLY call. But I don’t think God’s word needs extra help. The translators of several versions including the New American Standard which is highly accurate do NOT have the extra word in there. So don’t scratch it out, but put a note to the side indicating that HAD doesn’t really belong there.
SO the text ought to read "Now the Lord said to Abram..."
So Now back to the story, Abram is sitting in his living room one day and God tells him for the second time, Get up, and get going. Leave your country (he’d taken up residence in Haran now) and Leave your people, and Leave your Fathers Household. And then God makes a covenant or a promise with Abram, and that promise known as the Abrahamic Covenant is what much of the rest of the entire Bible is about.
And verse 4 of Genesis 12 tells us, that Abram left, as the Lord had told him. This time Abram left everything just as he was supposed to. And Lot as it happened Followed him. Since Lot followed him; Abram as the Senior is responsible for him and so verse 5 says that he took Lot. At any rate God is going to use the rest of Abram’s life to get Abram to obey him and to trust him. The text says that Abram took it all and in verse 5 "...they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. And When they got there, Abram wanders around till he gets to Shechem which is just north of Jerusalem and There God appears to him and blesses him by saying I’m going to give THIS land to your descendants."
I want to focus on three items from the text this morning as it relates to us today.
1. God has called us and we have stopped obeying
2. God is repeating his call to us and we must decide if we will obey.
3. God has called us and he will bless us if we obey.
When this church was founded, it was done upon the foundation of the great commission, that commission or rather that order from the lips of Christ Jesus himself is that we make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit.
And so during the revival services converts were made, and not just being converts they were then taught the truths of scriptures in the Old Fame School house, and in so doing they were made into disciples. Do you know what the term disciple means?
Disciple in the American Heritage Concise Dictionary reads "one who embraces and assists in the spreading of the teachings of another."
There are different failures that have crept into the church as a whole on the subject of what a disciple is. First there is the focus of some Christians that a disciple is a Christian, that is to say it another way, that a disciple is a convert to Christianity. Some have concluded that as soon as a person accepts Christ than he is a full fledged disciple.
Others have assumed that a Disciple is a Christian who has a daily prayer and Bible Study time, and so there is no shortage of courses out there that begin and end with developing a prayer and Bible Study Time.
Others have assumed that a Disciple is a person that has a set amount of Knowledge regarding the Scriptures or stated differently some assume that to be a disciple is to be continually growing in your knowledge of Christ, and so once again, there is no shortage of "Discipleship" curriculum, and the end of them all is that there are churches loaded with smart Christians who have a better understanding of theology than Timothy or Titus and yet the church still isn’t growing.
But that’s not the case. A disciple is more than a convert, and a disciple is more than a smart convert. Go back to the dictionary again, "one who embraces and assists in the spreading of the teachings of another." So a Disciple is something simpler than we’ve been trying to pursue.
** A Disciple is someone who Has accepted Christ as their savior, and then they tell other people about Jesus. **
Do you see the problem? Going by that definition, this church isn’t full of disciples, it’s full of believers. In most cases, I dare say smart believers, in fact I’d say we’re the kind of People about whom the writer of Hebrews says "in fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again."
In fact if I can say this kindly and with the correct attitude We’ve had enough Bible Studies, we’ve had enough lessons on scriptures, we ought to be all teachers by now. The only problem is that we haven’t students to teach.
Let me ask you this, are YOU a disciple or are you just a believer? Jesus said make disciples, he commissioned the church, which means he commissioned me, and he commissioned you to make disciples. We, you and I, are supposed to be telling other people about Jesus, and as long as we’re not doing that one thing then we are not being obedient to God’s command.
1. God has called us and we have stopped obeying
2. God is repeating his call to us and we must decide if we will obey.
3. God has called us and he will bless us if we obey.
God called Abram out of Ur to leave it all and go to a land he would show him. And Abram gave only partial obedience, he took his family and launched off to Canaan in Genesis 11:31 but when they came to Haran they settled there and the word used for settled has a permanent idea to it. But fortunately for Abram and fortunately for us, God is gracious and he extends his call again.
The NAS starts 12:1 off with "NOW, the Lord said..." Once they settled and once Terah was dead, and since Terah was the leader of the Clan he was the one responsible for the family settling. So once Terah was dead, God called Abram again.
A second time God came to Abram and he said get up and go to a place I’ll show you, and we get the full promise this time of all the blessings that God intended to do for Abram if he would just obey.
And though it’s not in the narrative and it’s not in the Bible, I wonder if there was a moments hesitation for Abram between verse 3 and verse 4. After all Abram had acquired servants and possessions while he was in Haran, I mean let’s face it, he’d been fairly prosperous so far. Did he really want to go through the expense and trouble of moving all of that from Haran to a tent who knows where? I mean that was kind of risky, he could lose it all! And he had his family to think of, he couldn’t just abandon Lot and his wife could he? Would it really be fair to take them through this dusty desert and to subject them to the hardships that would surely come? And what if God didn’t come through? I mean what if he misunderstood or well, what if God didn’t bless Abram like he said he would?
We’ve got the same problem.
We’ve been pretty prosperous, I’ve never seen a church this size with this much money in the bank. And it’s pretty risky if we decide to be obedient to God. If we move from being believers to being disciples, than it might cost us our prosperity. We might spend money to try and attract unbelievers into our church or our personal finances might suffer if we tell someone about Jesus at work. Or our pride might be injured if someone calls us names because of the way we are. Or perhaps our families just won’t stand for the kind of devotion to Christ. Is it really fair to our spouses, our parents or our children to make them come along with us on a journey into obedience to Christ?
Or is it possible that we’ve misunderstood God? Or perhaps the question that we really don’t want to ask out loud, what if God doesn’t come through? What if God doesn’t take care of our food and shelter like he promised when he said seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things will be added unto you?
What if God really didn’t mean it when he was talking about heaven and when he was talking about salvation, and when he was talking about protecting his people?
Or better yet, what if God did mean it? What if God really does want us to throw everything away, or in the very least to authentically place it all in his hands, and simply to follow him in obedience.
Remember, when Jesus said take up your cross and follow me, he wasn’t promising a picnic he was promising pain, and loss of liberty, loss of life, loss of financial gain here on earth. The plain fact is that God promised us suffering on this earth and pleasure in heaven.
*** Anytime God’s people have opted to obey him, he has come through. ***
For Abram that meant for the next 25 years he would be in a daily struggle for his faith in God’s promise, because he was 75 when he left Haran on God’s word, and he was 100 before he saw his son Isaac the son God had promised to him.
Are you willing to endure the desert? Are you willing to suffer for Christ? Are you willing to hear God’s call today that moves us from disobedience to obedience? Are you willing to actually be a full disciple of Jesus Christ? Then you have to stop simply believing in Jesus and you must take the next step and start telling people about Jesus.
1. God has called us and we have stopped obeying
2. God is repeating his call to us and we must decide if we will obey.
3. God has called us and he will bless us if we obey.
Abram obeyed God finally and he left Haran and so when he arrived in Shechem the text tells us that "The Lord appeared to Abram..." When God appeared to Abram he confirmed and expanded his covenant with him. God blessed Abram by appearing to him and by proving his previous covenant by extending it.
So too for us, if we look at the Bibles teaching regarding the command to make disciples, and if we decide to obey and we do obey then we will be blessed.
Look at James 1:22-25
When we obey God, he will bless us.
So with just the plain words of Scripture let me close "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me [Jesus]. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18b-20)
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." (John 20:21)
