Sermon Central
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The Way Hom
Contributed by Richard White on Oct 17, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: There is assurance of a way home. No matter who we are or how lost we are. Just as He did in the days of Noah and the Ark, God has provided a way home.
The Way Home
Judgment was at hand. Since the time of Adam and Eve humans had multiplied, spread across the earth, and progressively turned away from God. Evil was running rampant; God grieved over creation and what it had become. Slowly man was turning from God. Every inclination of their heart was evil. Yet God found Noah. Through Noah God would provide a way back for the people, through Noah God would provide a safe haven, and through Noah God would provide a rest.
God found Noah, and God used Noah to his great purpose.
GE 6:9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Even though the world around him was evil, Noah walked with God. It is believed that Noah would have proclaimed the righteousness of God to all around him. He walked with God, and God used him to do his good work.
Today Noah exists in each and every follower of Jesus Christ. Just as Noah was God’s witness back then, today we are called to be his witnesses
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."(Acts 1:8)
MK 16:15 He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
Matthew 28:9 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Just as Noah preached, we who are in Christ are commanded to do so. And Genesis 6:22 says: Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
It is not wrong to see the Ark as a type of the church, built by human hands and instruments, but fashioned by divine appointment. Just as the Ark was to carry these people and the animals to safety, so the church is called to do the same.
1. The Ark is a memorial of Divine goodness.
a. It is salvation to all who enter into it.
Noah walked with God, we believe he preached to the people warning them of the flood yet to come, something they had never seen before. There is a calamity that is coming, Revelation calls it the “Wrath of God” Jesus has told us “such as the world has never seen before” Yet in order to be spared from it, the people must enter the Ark, in order to be spared from the Wrath of God, we must enter the church.
b. The ark was not for the select few, the church is not for a predestined few.
There is group out there who teach that only a few will make it to heaven, they have a number of 144 thousand. The ark was limited in space, but God provided. The church is not limited in space, and God has provided for all to enter. We know John 3:16 yet do we know the verses after it? 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
John 6:40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Just as it is not God’s will for any to perish today, it was not God’s will for any to perish then. God wants to save us, and has provided us with a way home.
2. The Ark is a testimony to God’s great love
A. He was providing the way out then for Noah and his family and the animals.
b. He has provided a way out for us today. It is through Jesus Christ and the Church proclaiming the Good News.
c. 1 Peter 3:20ff God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
3. The Ark is a symbol of a Savior.
a. It was home for these 8 people. The church is home for all who seek Him
