There’s a strange unsettledness to life. It’s like we were living in a bubble. It was not as if things were perfect, or great, they certainly weren’t pain-free. But times were good. And then everything began to shake.
I was in Chicago this past month for a church planting think-tank, then an evangelism conference, and then a church networking conference. On three different occasions, I’ve listened to Ed Stetzer give the same talk about what’s happening. Ed Stetzer is the President of Billy Graham Institute, at Wheaton College. He put words to what many of us pastors from around the country have been experiencing. He refers to this as “A Time of Cultural Convulsion.”
He explains how David Brooks, a NYT writer, wrote an article for the Atlantic Monthly called, “America’s Moral Convulsion.” Every 60 or so years, something happens that changes everything. Before the 1960’s you had widespread prosperity, family stability, cultural cohesion, and peace. 77% of people trusted the government to always do the right thing.
But then came things like: nuclear proliferation, the Cuban Missile crisis, the space race, the heating up of the cold war, Kennedy assassination, Civil Rights movement, widespread rioting on campuses and in cities, invention of the birth control pill, Woodstock, sexual revolution, Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I have a dream” speech, Luther’s assassination. Malcolm X’s assassination, birth of the feminist movement NOW, Watergate. global pandemic--Hong Kong Flu. You had “wave after wave of collapsing layers of trust.” Everyone and Everything being rattled.
One could list the ways we’re presently convulsing. Think of all the flashpoints. Resurging white nationalism. Young socialists movement. Widespread student activism, outrage over social injustice—everything from kids in cages. #MeToo. Black Lives Matters. Anti-racism. Anti-Bigotry. Clashes between conservatives and feminists and trans-activists. Battles over Critical Race Theory. Rabid cancel culture. Environmental policy. Skyrocketing crime. Homelessness. Drug addiction. We have a global pandemic that keeps mutating, wreaking hell globally. We have new cold war, a space race, hypersonic nuclear proliferation happening between USA, China, & Russia. Energy crisis. Runaway inflation. Economic volatility.
There is a verse in Hebrews 12:26-27 that describes how God’s shakes the earth and the heavens. But everything’s being shaken for a purpose—it's so we might identify that which is unshaken, and unshakeable. In Hebrews 12:28 says, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe.”
When all the foundations are being shaken, what do you most cling to? This Christmas month we're doing a short series called Everlasting. The testimony of Scripture is that we can lay hold of God’s everlasting faithfulness. We can lay hold of God’s everlasting comfort and peace, his everlasting goodness and grace. Indeed we can lay hold of God himself, who is our everlasting hope and our resurrection life.
This morning I have the assignment to talk about God’s everlasting faithfulness. We saw how in Genesis, in generation after generation, God establishes His faithfulness. It begins in the Genesis 3:15 when God tells the serpent, “I will put hostility between your offspring and her off offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” Satan, you will nip at humankind's heel, but an offspring of Eve is coming who will crush your head. From this point forward, all eyes were on Eve. Who would this child be? In which generation would one of her offspring rise up to fulfilling God’s promise?
So it wasn’t Abel, killed by Cain. It wasn’t Cain Eve’s second-born. It wasn’t Seth Eve’s third-born. Do you remember how in Genesis we watched the generations flowing from Seth? You had Seth… then Enosh… then eventually Enoch who walked with God but was taken? From Enoch we eventually get to Noah, and then Noah’s Sons, and from Noah’s son Shem, and from Shem eventually comes Terah and his son Abraham.
God promises Abraham in Genesis 12:3b, “. . . all the people’s on earth will be blessed through you!” Against all odds, Abraham and Sarah have a son named Isaac. God shows Abraham how great a sacrifice would need to be made to redeem humankind from sin. As Abraham is about to sacrifice his precious son Isaac God intervenes and says, “NO… it will not be your son who will die… but I myself will provide a substitute, a ram, to atone for your sin!”
So move from Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob. And in every generation God renews his covenant promise, that a Christ child is coming, through whom all humankind will be redeemed. As we come to the end of the Genesis, Jacob is faced with prospect of losing his beloved son Joseph. He assumes Joseph, his most precious and favored son is dead. Through God’s providence Joseph has become second to the king of Egypt, and it's Benjamin who becomes Jacob’s most precious son. For the second time in his life, Jacob is faced with the prospect of losing a precious son. But its “Judah” who intervenes, and nobly offers to lay down his life for that of his brother Benjamin. But none of it was to be—because God wouldn’t demand neither Joseph's , nor Benjamin's, nor even Judah’s blood!
In death, Jacob finds himself in Egypt. He makes Joseph promise that they carry his dead bones back to Canaan. So, in Genesis 50 there is this huge funeral procession that leaves Egypt, and Joseph buries Jacob alongside where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah were buried. And when Joseph eventually dies, in Genesis 50:24-25 he says, “I am about to die, but God will certainly come to your aid and bring you up from this land to the land he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath: ‘When God comes to your aid, you are to carry my bones up from here.’”
In Genesis the whole arc of history is set. The hope of every generation from Adam through Joseph is bound up in this promise that God will bring salvation and great deliverance to all of humankind through some male child! One of the greatest men in all the Old Testament is Moses. In Exodus we read how Moses is born under extraordinary circumstances. The King of Egypt demanded that every male child be thrown in the Nile River. But instead of killing Moses, he’s placed in a basket, and as he floats down the river, is saved through water, by Pharaoh’s daughter! Moses’ name means “Saved through water” or “Drawn out through water.”
Moses birth echoes the salvation of Noah and his family. Noah and his family were saved through water! But Moses birth also foreshadows the great salvation deliverance Israel is about to experience. After breaking Pharaoh's pride, Israel (the Twelve Tribes who are descendants of Jacob or Israel’s twelve sons) flee Egypt. And how does God save them from certain death? He saves them through water! God raises up Moses as their Redeemer, and Moses parts the mighty waters, and Israel passes through the Red Sea on dry ground… they are drawn out… literally saved through water! And the water through which this beloved nation is saved also consumes the enemies of God. In the same way, the water through which Noah and family were saved consumed the evildoers of Noah’s day.
Did you know when Moses left Egypt (in a great hurry… they couldn’t even let the bread set and rise)… but what did Moses do? He gathered up Joseph’s bones! In Exodus 15 Moses and the Israelites sing to the Lord!
“The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. . . the Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. . . Lord your right hand is glorious in power. Lord’s your right hand shattered the enemy. You overthrew your adversaries by your great majesty. You unleashed your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble. . . Lord who is like you among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders? You stretched out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them!” Exodus 15:13, “With your faithful love, you will lead the people you have redeemed; you will guide them to your holy dwelling with your strength.” And Exodus 15:17-18, “You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your possession; Lord, you have prepared the place for your dwelling; Lord, your hands have established the sanctuary. The Lord will reign forever and ever!”
You might remember how when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, God showed himself to Moses. In Exodus 34:6-7 God says, “The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.”
Oh how I'd love to march right through the thousand generations from Abraham through Moses all the way through the Old Testament, through King David. But you in Moses tells the Israelites that he is “The One”. But rather, one is coming who will be “like Moses”. In Deuteronomy 18:18-19 God says to Moses, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” God says much the same thing, much later to Samuel, and then again to King David, 2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’”
In 2 Samuel 7:22-26 David prays, “This is why you are great, Lord God. There is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, as all we have heard confirms. 23 And who is like your people Israel? God came to one nation on earth in order to redeem a people for himself, to make a name for himself, and to perform for them great and awesome acts, driving out nations and their gods before your people you redeemed for yourself from Egypt. 24 You established your people Israel to be your own people forever, and you, Lord, have become their God. 25 Now, Lord God, fulfill the promise forever that you have made to your servant and his house. Do as you have promised, 26 so that your name will be exalted forever. . .”
For a thousand generations there is this longing … this expectation… for God to fulfill his promise to bring Satan to his knees, to bring salvation not just to Israel, but to bless all nations on earth through Eve’s offspring.. through the tribe of Judah… through one “like” Moses, through one who will establish David’s throne forever and ever!
In your Bible you possess the single greatest testimony of all history. A true, yet spectacular history, that spans a thousand generations and culminates in the Advent (the appearance, the birth of Jesus). When its revealed to Mary (the distant ancestor of Eve), that the Christ King would finally be her offspring… her child… Mary breaks out in praise.
In Luke 1:46-55 she sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 because he has looked with favor on the humble condition of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 because the Mighty One has done great things for me, and his name is holy. 50 His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear him. 51 He has done a mighty deed with his arm; he has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. 53 He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he spoke to our ancestors.”
Don’t you see? Those who looked to the Everlasting God of Israel… though shaken… received that which cannot be shaken. They received their Christ, as God’s King. And by receiving God’s Christ as King, they received an everlasting Kingdom that cannot be shaken. Hebrews 12:28 says, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe”
In Luke 1, Zechariah would also sing, alongside Mary, alongside Moses.
[Jon will Read Luke 1:67-79].
This morning we marvel over God’s everlasting Faithfulness…
Next week is God’s everlasting Comfort…
Then God’s everlasting Goodness and Grace…
Then God’s everlasting Hope and Eternal Life…