5_28_2023 - The Encouraging God

Opening Prayer)

(Sermon Introduction)

Today we begin our new series entitled “New Eyes,” focusing on seeing what we call the “Old Testament” with “New Eyes.”

(Series Context)

We recognize that it takes a lot of time and study to unpack the Old Testament with “New Eyes.”

However, we cannot overlook the importance of the Old Testament to the development of the Early Church and to the understanding the Gospel message and the depth of what Jesus the Christ has done for us.

I cannot tell you the number of times over the years that I have had well meaning people tell me, even those claiming to be Christians, that Jesus Christ hasn’t always been.

As we begin today I want to set the stage for this series with an understanding that Jesus has always been, He is, and He will be forevermore.

Jesus is a distinct person of the Trinity.

As we take a look at the First Testament with New Eyes, I find it interesting how many western believers miss the obvious things that eastern believers would see quickly.

For instance, Eastern Eyes when they meet Jesus for the first time, find that He is all over the texts of Scripture.

They see Him readily, while we struggle to make the connection.

Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon

“Just as every road of England leads to London, every road of Scripture leads to Christ.”

“Don’t you know, young man, that from every town and every village and every hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London? So from every text in Scripture there is a road toward the great metropolis, Christ. And my dear brother, your business is, when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ I have never found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it and if ever I find one…I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a Saviour of Christ in it.”

(Spurgeon. “Christ Precious to Believers,” sermon at Music Hall, Royal Surry Gardens, London, March 13, 1859.)

As we work our way through Scripture, we are going to be looking at different accounts in the Old Testament where Christ is revealed in a powerful way.

I believe that God is going to give you new eyes as you read the Scripture, so that you see Christ!

(Context: The Angel of the Lord / Jesus Christ)

I want to remind you once again about The Angel of the Lord in these texts that we are studying isn’t some random angel.

The way He is referenced and the way that Scripture reveals Him it is clear that this “character” is in fact the Lord Jesus Christ.

William Pakenham Walsh

The unanimous voice of the early Christian Church acknowledged that “The Angel of the Lord,” who so frequently appeared as the Revealer of God’s will to man in the older dispensation, was none other than the Second Person in the glorious Trinity.

(Walsh, The Angel of the Lord, Or, Manifestations of Christ in the Old Testament, pg. VII, 1856.)

John F. Walvoord

(a) The Second Person is the Visible God of the New Testament.

(b) The Angel of Jehovah of the Old Testament No Longer Appears after the Incarnation of Christ.

(c) Both the Angel of Jehovah and Christ Are Sent by the Father.

(d) The Angel of Jehovah Could Not Be Either the Father Or the Holy Spirit.

There is not a single valid reason to deny that the Angel of Jehovah is the Second Person, every known fact pointing to His identification as the Christ of the New Testament.

(William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995, 271.)

(Context: Moses, Joshua, Judges)

Moses dies on Mount Nebo overlooking the promised land that has been promised to the people of Israel, known as Caanan.

Joshua, leads the people of Israel to take Jericho and the land of promise.

The people settle in the land but not all of the tribes of Israel did what they were commanded to do with taking all of the land that was alloted to them.

They did not drive out all the nations from every part of the land.

After Joshua dies, the people do as they please and turn from the Lord.

The Lord raises up leaders, or Judges to lead the people and deliver them for a time.

After Deborah and Barak defeated Sisera and were gone the Midianites began raiding the land of Israel.

God reveals Himself to a man named Gideon.

(Context: Gideon)

The marauding Bedouin bands known as Midianites conducted raids on Israel’s crops, stripping the land like locusts and stealing the livestock.

Israel’s backsliding resulted in poverty, slavery, and fear.

It is at this point in the story that the Angel of the Lord, whom we believe to be the preincarnate Christ, appears to Gideon as he was secretly threshing wheat in a winepress … to hide it from the Midianites.

Judges 6:11–24 (ESV)

11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

14 And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”

15 And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

16 And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

17 And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

18 Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”

19 So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them.

20 And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” And he did so.

21 Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

22 Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, “Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.”

23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”

24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

(Context: Gideon)

The Angel told this “mighty man of valor” that God would use him to deliver Israel from Midian.

Despite Gideon’s protests, the Angel repeated his call to this important task.

Sensing that he was talking to the Lord, Gideon asked for a sign. Then he prepared an offering of a young goat and of unleavened bread.

When God exhorted Gideon to save Israel from the Midianites, Gideon immediately informed Yahweh of his inadequacies and requested that Yahweh give him a sign (Judges 6:14–17).

Gideon was a man defined by fear, and despair.

We can see that clearly by the way he responded to the Angel of the Lord/Christ.

I believe the Lord wants to encourage people here today!

We cannot live out who we were created to be without the intervention and encouragement of the Lord!

(Sermon Title: The Encouraging God)

The title of the sermon today is: The Encouraging God.

1. Gideon’s Strength Came From the Lord

(Gideon: Mighty Man of Valor)

The Lord pointed out an important detail in the story.

The Lord calls Gideon a “mighty warrior of valor.”

This is a special moment between the Lord and Gideon.

1439 / Gideon / Gı̂d˓ôwn / גִּדְעוֹן / Warrior

from 1438; feller (i.e. warrior).

James Strong, The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996).

Gideon is not living up to his name.

It is important to understand that someone’s name was their strength, their identity.

We have already seen the importance of this with Abram-Abraham, and Jacob-Israel.

Gideon is failing to be who he was always meant to be.

Fear and despair.

There is no strength in him.

Is there hope for Gideon?

The Lord reminds him of his name and then He reminds Gideon that He is with him.

That is the secret to Gideon’s strength and identity—Walking in the Lord and not on our own.

Judges 6:12 (ESV)

12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

2. Gideon’s Peace Came From the Lord

(Gideon: The Peace of the Lord)

When the Angel/Christ … touched the offering with his staff and it was consumed by fire, Gideon knew he was in the Lord’s presence and feared he would die.

But the LORD assured him with the words “Peace be with you,” and Gideon thereupon built an altar and named the place Jehovah-Shalom (The-Lord-Is-Peace).

Judges 6:23–24 (ESV)

23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”

24 Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

(Gideon: Tears Down the Asherah Altar)

That night, in obedience to the Lord, Gideon destroyed an altar which his father had erected to Baal and the wooden image … beside it, and instead erected another altar to Jehovah (Judges 6:28-35).

Some people might fault Gideon for tearing down the altar at night because of fear.

But we must not lose sight of the fact that he did obey the Lord.

His fear did not stop him from being obedient.

All of us have fear, and fear in and of itself is not necessarily wrong.

But when it keeps us from obeying the Lord, it has become an obstacle to faith and is sin.

(Gideon: Asks God For Confirmation With A Fleece)

Before Gideon went into battle, he desired a pledge of victory from God (Judges 6:36-40).

Gideon again requested a sign that Yahweh would use him to deliver Israel.

The first pledge came when dew fell on his fleece of wool but not on the ground around it.

The second came the following night, when the dew fell on … the ground but not on the fleece.

Gideon’s fleece is often misunderstood by Christians.

There are two things about this incident that we should keep in mind: Gideon was not looking to the fleece for guidance but for confirmation.

God had already told him what he was to do.

Gideon was just seeking assurance of success.

People who talk about putting out a fleece to find the will of the Lord in a certain matter are misapplying the passage.

Secondly, Gideon had asked for a supernatural sign, not a natural one.

Naturally speaking, what Gideon asked for would never have happened without the direct intervention of God.

Today people use things as a “fleece” that could happen naturally, without divine intervention.

This, too, is a wrong way to use the story.

What we see here is God condescending to a man of weak faith to assure him of victory.

God can, and does, give such assurances today in answer to prayer.

(Gideon: Cuts His Army From 32,000 to 300 on the Lord’s Order)

In order that victory against Midian might be clearly divine, the Lord first reduced Gideon’s army from 32,000 to ten thousand by sending the fearful and fainthearted home, as the law commanded (Deut. 20:8).

In order to reduce the army still further, God tested the soldiers at the river.

Those who took time to get down on their knees for a drink of water were eliminated.

Those, on the other hand, who lapped up water like a dog and quickly moved on were kept in the army.

These numbered three hundred men (Judges 7:1-8).

Gideon and his army encamped against the Midianites at the well of Harod. God reduced Gideon’s army to 300 men in order to prevent Israel from claiming glory for itself.

(Gideon: Surrounds the Midianites Camp At Night)

The LORD then directed Gideon to visit the outskirts of the camp of the Midianites by night.

Accompanied by Purah his servant, Gideon went to the outermost part of the enemy’s encampment.

There he heard a Midianite telling his friend of a dream he had had in which a loaf of barley bread rolled over a Midianite tent, crushing it.

The friend understood the dream as meaning that the Israelites would defeat Midian.

Barley bread was the food of the common farming people and represented Israel.

The tent typified the armies of the Midianites.

Perhaps the thought of his diminishing army rekindled Gideon’s fears, and justifiably so.

God was asking him to face an army of 135,000 with a force of 300!

But this word from the mouth of his enemies strengthened his faith.

In response, he first worshiped, then warred (Judges 7:15).

Thus assured of victory, Gideon returned to the camp of Israel and summoned his men to war.

3. Gideon’s Victory Came From the Lord

(Gideon: Gains Victory of the Midianites By God’s Hand)

Gideon divided his men into three groups and gave each man a trumpet, a pitcher, and a torch (Judg 7:16).

The three groups went down to the outpost of the camp, blew their trumpets, broke their pitchers, held their torches, and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon” (Judges 7:17–20).

When Gideon and his men blew their trumpets, the men of the camp began killing one another, and their armies fled (Judges 7:21–22).

Judges 7:9 (ESV)

9 That same night the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand.

The divine interpretation of this incident is given in 2 Corinthians 4:7.

2 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV)

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Our bodies are the earthen vessels.

It is only as we are constantly delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shines forth to others.

(Response)

(Invite the Worship Team and the Prayer Team)

(Sermon Recap)

The Encouraging God:

Gideon’s Strength Came From the Lord

Gideon’s Peace Came From the Lord

Gideon’s Victory Came From the Lord

(Worship Song)

(Closing Challenge)

(Closing Blessing)

Numbers 6:24–26 (ESV)

24 The Lord bless you and keep you;

25 The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

(Response Card)

1. What did you hear? (Blank Lines)

2. How will you live it out? (Blank Lines)

3. Who will you share it with? (Blank Lines)

4. Who are you discipling? (Blank Lines)

5. What are you praying for? (Blank Lines)

6. How has God answers your prayers? (Blank Lines)