And It Came To Pass
Notes
Transcript
Life of the Church
Good morning everyone, happy Mother’s Day. It’s good to see you here as we worship together.
I have a few announcements to mention as we begin our worship service.
There will be no men’s group tonight in honor of the holiday, but they will be meeting next week.
I’ll remind you that during the month of May we’re collecting toys for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. You can leave those in the room across from Randal’s Sunday school classroom.
The safety team will be meeting tomorrow evening. If you’re on the team, please try to attend.
Our quarterly fellowship lunch will be held next Sunday after our worship service. All the food will be provided. Just bring yourself and an appetite.
We have exceeded our Annie Armstrong Easter Offering goal for this year. Thank you all for your generosity in making that happen.
Next Saturday we will be helping out at The Gathering Place. Meet at the store from 10-noon to help out, and please let either Della or Sandy know if you plan to go.
Amy, do you have an announcement this morning?
I’m sure you’ve all by now heard of the passing of Hutch Hutchins. Hutch is enjoying his first Sabbath at the throne of God. Unfortunately, we’re all still here. Please be in prayer for Sandy during this difficult time, and keep her close.
And lastly I’ll remind you of the basket out front by the door for gift cards and monetary donations for the Bethel family, who were victims of a fire. Please give to help get that family back on their feet, and please be in prayer for them.
Jesyka, do you have anything this morning?
Sue, do you have anything?
Opening Prayer
Let’s pray:
Father, on this day when we acknowledge the importance of motherhood among us, we first give thanks that you are a loving parent to us all. From your being all life was born. You have formed us in your image as your children, and gathered us together as a brood under your wing. You have united us as kindred members of one human family, and we are grateful to be your children together. We celebrate your divine love, reflected in human expressions of motherhood. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Mother’s Day
God’s love for mothers is spoken of throughout scripture. The Bible describes motherhood as a blessing, a hope, a joy, a calling, and an honor. Motherhood is even used as a metaphor to describe the ways that God loves and cares for his children. Today we’d like to honor the mothers in our church. Jesyka?
Let’s pray for our mothers:
Father we’re so thankful for the mothers among us and ask that you strengthen them in their daily tasks. Grant them wisdom in the lessons they teach, patience in the discipline they foster, and persistence in the decency and compassion they pass on to the next generations. May they be given the honor and thanks they deserve but do not often receive. For it’s in Christ’s name that we ask it, Amen.
Sermon
We all know that every book of the Bible is important. Every book is valuable and meaningful and teaches you something about God. Every word is blessed, and as Christians, God calls us to be as familiar with the Old Testament prophets as we are with the New Testament apostles.
But there are some books of the Bible that we hold up as favorites, don’t we? Certain ones that we come back to time and again for comfort and encouragement. It’s not that any of the other books are less, it’s just that some speak to us more individually than others. The Psalms are like that for me. The Gospel of Matthew. The book of James.
If you do one of those “Read the Bible in a Year” plans, it won’t take you long to find out that some of those books you can just breeze right through because you get caught up so easily into what it’s teaching. But then there are those couple of months when you’re trying to get through Leviticus and Numbers and you’re not sure if you’ll ever finish.
We don’t just have favorite books of the Bible, though. We have favorite chapters inside those books — Psalm 23; the Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew; the resurrection of Christ in John chapter 20. We can get even more specific and say we have favorite verses — John 3:16, Psalm 91:1, Romans 8:28.
But we can go even deeper than that. A lot of us have favorite phrases in the Bible, two or three words — or even just one — that we find scattered in verses all through scripture that get our attention every time we see them. Phrases like, “Thus says the Lord” and “Nevertheless” and “in the fullness of time.”
It’s easy to overlook those phrases, but they’re so valuable because they become the glue that holds scripture together. You can pick one verse out of the Bible and twist it around to say pretty much anything you want. But if you really want to know what God is saying about something, you have to look at what the whole Bible says instead of a single verse. That’s what these phrases do — they’re just a few words, but those few words connect different parts of scripture to form a larger message.
Today I want to talk about my favorite phrase in the Bible, because it was actually one of my mother’s favorites too. It’s just five words — “And it came to pass.”
“And it came to pass” — what do you think of when you hear that phrase? I looked up the official definition of that phrase in a dictionary and found that it means “something happened.” That doesn’t tell us a whole lot though, does it?
But the Bible speaks of that phrase in a much richer way. Wherever you see those five words in scripture, it’s always talking about one of three things — it’s either a warning, an ending, or a promise. We’re going to look at examples of all three today, because understanding how the Bible uses this phrase isn’t just going to help us understand God better, it’s going to help us understand life better too.
Depending on what translation you’re using, the words “and it came to pass” are found 452 times in scripture. That’s mostly in the King James, and that’s the translation I’ll be using today. What’s interesting is that those words aren’t found at all in the first three chapters of Genesis, and that goes back to what my dictionary says that phrase means. “And it came to pass” has to do with time passing, and even though in those first few chapters of the Bible God creates light in the heavens and set a day as 24 hours, time doesn’t really matter yet. He creates Adam and Eve and give them access to the Tree of Life, which means they can live forever.
But then everything falls apart. The devil comes along and tempts Eve, who gives in to that temptation. And then Adam does too. Suddenly, sin enters the world. Sin can’t result in anything but death, and so God can’t allow his children to be near the Tree of Life. He has no choice but to banish Adam and Eve from the garden.
Eve then has two sons. The older is named Cain, the younger Abel. And then in Genesis 4, we find the first mention of this wonderful phrase. Turn there with me now, Genesis chapter 4, verses 3-8. Again, this is from the King James:
And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.
And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
And this is the word of the Lord.
It’s no accident that the first time we see these words, it’s connected with sin. This passage is about a lot more than the world’s first murder, it’s about the effects of sin and the horrible things that sin always leads to. And here we see the first definition that the Bible uses for the phrase “and it came to pass” — it means the unavoidable result of prior choices.
Look at verse 7. God says that sin is crouching at Cain’s door. That’s a remarkable image, isn’t it? It’s the picture of a lion or a tiger crouched in the shadows where we can’t see it, stalking us, ready to jump and devour us. God says that’s what sin is. When he uses that image, he’s saying that sin is always lurking, it’s always following, and if we’re not careful it will grow to have more and more of a presence in our lives. That’s why we have to treat sin like a sickness. We have to attack it as soon as it’s detected. If you have cancer, you don’t say, “Well, I’ll take care of that later,” because that cancer will consume you if you don’t do anything about it.
So you have to be careful — that’s the other half of the image that God gives to Cain. Sin isn’t just a lion that’s ready to devour you, it’s crouching. It’s sneaky. Sin hides itself because it wants to surprise you. If you see a lion in the distance, there’s a chance you might be able to get away. But if it’s crouching in the dark, if it’s hidden and waiting, then you’re not going to see it. And if you don’t see it, you’re dead.
Here in Genesis 4, we have two brothers. One of them, Abel, is accepted by God. The other, Cain, is rejected. And what we really like to do with this story is say that Abel represents all the good people who follow God, and Cain represents all the bad people who reject God. But that’s not really the case here, is it? Both of these brothers are trying to follow God. They’re both making an offering and they’re both seeking God’s blessing. The only difference seems to be that Abel raises animals, and Cain is a farmer.
So for his offering to God, Abel brings the firstfruits of the new animals born that year — that’s his income. And Cain brings some of the crops of his fields — that’s his income. But here’s where those offerings are different. Cain is giving part of his crop, but it’s not the first harvest. Cain gives God what’s left over, and here’s what he’s thinking: “I’m not going to give God the first crop that comes up, because I don’t know how the rest of the growing season is going to go. If I give God this portion and the rest of the year is dry, I won’t have enough food to live on. But if I wait until all of my crop is in and then I give an offering, I can make sure there’s plenty left over.”
That’s Cain. But what’s Abel giving to God? He’s giving God the firstborn of his animals. Cain’s making sure he gives God what he has to and nothing more, but Abel’s being openhearted. Abel has a trust in God that we don’t see in Cain, and that lack of trust opens the door to sin. That’s why the lion is crouching in the dark and waiting to pounce.
There are only two reasons why you bring an offering to God. Either you’re giving thanks for his goodness, or you’re trying to get him to bless you. That’s the difference between these two brothers. As much as he can, Abel is putting his trust in God’s promise of salvation. Abel thinks that that no matter what, God’s going to take care of him, and so that’s the way he lives his life.
But Cain thinks that if he works hard and does what God says, then God’s going to owe him. That’s why Cain gets angry in verse 5 when God doesn’t accept his offering. Because Cain thinks that’s not fair. He can’t see that God doesn’t want his crops, God wants Cain’s heart. He wants Cain’s trust. But Cain won’t let himself hear that. Sin’s already taken root in his heart.
God’s warned him. He’s said, “You have to rule over your sin, and I can help you,” but Cain doesn’t listen. He knows what God says, he knows what God expects, but Cain refuses to deal with his anger and rage and disappointment, and so all of those things just keep growing inside him. He’s said yes to sin so many times that he can’t say no anymore, and that’s why that phrase is there in verse 8 — “and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.”
Cain had every freedom in the world to choose good, but eventually every one of his choices to give in to sin narrowed down to only one possible result — the first death in human history, the first moment of hatred, the first act of violence, the first argument, the first crime, and the first murder. Because of Cain’s choices, the murder of Abel came to pass.
But the first definition of this phrase doesn’t just mean something bad. Turn just a few books over to Deuteronomy chapter 28. One of my favorite Old Testament books. Deuteronomy chapter 28, verses 1-2. Again, from the King James:
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
This is the exact same principle that we just saw with Cain, but turned on its head. If you use the freedom God’s given you to continually surrender yourself to sin, the only result can be spiritual death. But if you use that freedom to always turn to God and to daily move closer to him, the only result can be God’s blessing.
This whole chapter of Deuteronomy 28, which is 68 verses long, is only about two words — blessing and curse. If you turn your life over to God every day, there can be only blessing. If you ignore God and live for yourself, there can be only curse. Those are your only choices. Your life will be one or the other.
And the scripture here is very careful to put those blessings first for one simple reason — God is slow with his anger but fast with his mercy. He wants to bless you. He can’t wait to bless you. But he’s not going to force himself on you. You have to invite him in, and verse 1 says the key to that is to listen to what he’s saying, whether it’s from the Bible, from what he tells you in your prayers, or from what other godly people are telling you.
“Harken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God” — always make it a priority to know what God says. That’s the first condition. And the second one is this — once you know what God is saying, obey it. Listen and obey. That principle is so essential to living the Christian life that Moses repeats it at the beginning of chapter 28, then again in the middle, and one more time at the end. Listen and obey, because that’s going to keep your life from sin. Not all sin, because you’re still human and you’re still going to screw up. But you’ll be able to see that lion crouching in the shadows. You’ll be able to spot him before he pounces. And even if he does pounce and you find yourself taking two steps forward and one step back in your life, you’re still going to be on the right path, and in the end being on the right path is what matters.
God’s rules aren’t there to keep you from enjoying life. That’s what a lot of people think — “I don’t want to follow God’s rules, I just want to follow my own, because that makes me free.” But that doesn’t make you free. Making your own rules is what Cain tried to do. God’s rules are there because he knows your heart. Those rules are there because he loves you and because following those brings the best life you could ever want.
So because you’re always listening to God’s voice and always obeying what God says, sin’s not taking up all that room in your life. Which means now you have all this space for God’s blessing. And those blessings will come so fast and be so much that verse two says they’ll overtake you. You’ll be drowned by them. Your entire world will be changed because of them.
Cain chose not to listen and obey, so it came to pass that his life was ruined — no other outcome was possible. But if you do the opposite and choose to listen and obey God’s voice, it will come to pass that he will bless you beyond anything you could hope for — no other outcome is possible.
So that’s the Bible’s first definition of the phrase “and it came to pass” — it’s the unavoidable result of prior choices. Here’s the second definition that the Bible uses of the phrase: it means the end of a period of suffering and the beginning of a period of blessing.
Turn with me to the book of Exodus, chapter 12. The end of Genesis and the first 14 chapters of Exodus tell a story that most of us grew up being told. Joseph brings his father Jacob and his brothers to Egypt to escape a famine, and there the Israelites grew in number until a point where the Egyptians became afraid that the Israelites would overtake them. So the Egyptians forced the Israelites into slavery. For generations the Israelites suffered and died at the hands of the Egyptians until God calls Moses to lead the people to the Promised Land. And in Exodus 12 verses 40-42, here’s what we read:
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.
Four hundred and thirty years. That’s a long time to suffer, isn’t it? A long time to wait. But that’s not how long the Israelites were held in slavery, though. They were slaves in Egypt for about 215 years. So what does that 430 years mean?
Back in Genesis 15, God makes a promise to Abram. He brings Abram outside and tells him to look up at the night sky and says, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars … so shall your offspring be.” God says that they’ll be servants in a land that isn’t theirs, but they’ll come out with great possessions to a new and better land.
From the same day God made that promise to Abram to the very night Moses led the nation of Israel out of Egypt was 430 years, matching what God said exactly. All of that suffering, all of that pain, all of that crying out for generations. All the hardships of that terrible time when God was bringing the ten plagues on Egypt and Pharaoh was hardening his heart. Don’t forget those first three plagues — the water turned to blood, the frogs, and the gnats — didn’t just affect the Egyptians. The Israelites had to suffer those too. Years and years of the people crying out for God, wondering where he is, what he’s doing.
And all of it comes down to these verses here in Exodus 12, when the nation of Israel is finally freed. And what verse 42 says that God is doing all that night is exactly what God has been doing for every moment of those 430 years.
The King James says “much observed unto the Lord.” Other translations have it “a night of watching.” Either way it’s the same. All this time, God has been watching over them. All those years of suffering had given the Israelites discipline enough to make it through the wilderness, and every step of the way God was watching to bring his plan to completion. But it’s more than just God looking down and observing what was happening to his people. The verb for “watch” or “observe” (depending on your translation) is a Hebrew word that means to actively guard and to keep. It means to protect.
I want you to picture this night when the Israelites are leaving Egypt. Ten plagues have come upon the land, plagues of a magnitude and severity that have never before been seen, ending with the worst one of all, the death of every firstborn male in Egypt. Now imagine the Israelites walking out in the very sight of all those Egyptians burying their sons. Imagine the hate, the anger. But God is watching over his people, God is protecting his people, and God promises in Exodus 11:7 that not even a dog will growl as they leave for the Promised Land. An entire nation of slaves just got up, and without so much as lifting a hand against their masters, walked into freedom.
Why? Because God always watched. Because God was with them during those hard years of suffering, helping his people to hang on when they didn’t think they could hang on any longer. They cried out, he heard. They begged for mercy, he gave it. They prayed, “Save us,” and it came to pass.
I have one last definition for you that the Bible gives about the phrase “and it came to pass,” and this one is very closely related to the one we just talked about. God made a promise to Abram. God fulfilled that promise in his own time and in his own way, and every step of that way he guided, protected, and comforted his people. There was not a single moment even during the deepest suffering that God was not present, and there was no moment even during the darkest that God’s perfect plan was not being fulfilled. God kept his promise to Abram. That’s our last definition — in the Bible, the phrase “and it came to pass” is used to remind us that God always keeps his promises.
Turn with me to the book of Lamentations (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations), which is one of those books of the Bible that Christians often pass over because the title of the book describes it’s tone — it’s a lament, it’s a cry of sadness and despair over the fall of Jerusalem. The writer isn’t named, but scholars tend to agree that it’s the prophet Jeremiah. Lamentations has been described as a funeral song for Jerusalem, but tucked into these words of grief and despair is a beautiful verse in Lamentations 3:37.
Lamentations 3:37:
Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
In the middle of all this grieving over Israel’s exile and the loss of Jerusalem, Jeremiah offers these few words that give us all a firm foundation for a faith that’s both patient and unshakable — God cannot lie. Once he has promised something he cannot be unfaithful to that promise, because God doesn’t change. This verse here is a direct call to Psalm 33:9: “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”
This truth is so important to your life, because everything of this world will let you down. Your job will let you down. Your church will let you down. Your family will let you down. The people you love and trust most will let you down. But God will never let you down. Whatever God promises is already settled in his mind. To him it’s as if it’s already happened, and that’s your rock. If God says it, then it’s true. If God promises it, it will happen.
That book in your hands — and that book better be in your hands — is precious because it contains the promises of an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing God not to the world, not to others, but to you. To you. That Bible is for you. It’s there to pick you up when you’ve fallen, it’s there to heal you when you’re broken, it’s there to encourage you when you doubt, but it can only do that if you keep one very basic and very important thing in mind — those words are true. And I know that can be hard sometimes. We live in an age where we’re tempted to think we can’t believe in anything anymore. The only safe thing to do is doubt. But don’t doubt those words. Don’t doubt that book. Because if you do, then you’re doubting the God who provided inspired those words. Mark it down, set your watch by it, stake your life on it — if God said it, it will come to pass.
Amazing, isn’t it? All of that wisdom and guidance collected in just five words that our eyes most times just glance at in order to get to what we think a verse is really saying. But no matter where you are in your life, no matter what season it is, those five words are there to guide you.
They’ll guide you when your life’s cruising right along and everything’s going great, because they help you take stock of where your heart and your faith is. What kind of choices are you making? Are you keeping God first in your life, or has he been nudged down below something else? Are you skipping out on church or on your duties in church, or are you joining in and using the gifts God’s given you to make this church a light to the community? Either way, the decisions you make, even the small ones, shape the direction of your life. What you choose today will come to pass tomorrow.
Are you hurting now? Does life no longer make sense? Does it feel like God’s turned his back on you? We have an amazing responsibility as Christians not just to accept Christ in faith, but to maintain that faith, to grow it and lean on it. Our response to our bad times depends completely on our faith. If you know God loves you and you know that God has everything in his hands, then you can rest knowing that your troubles are temporary because God’s care is eternal.
Both the good and the not-so-good exist in this world for a certain length of time. Just as you sigh with sadness when the hard times come, you’ll sigh with relief when they finally pass, and God will be with you in both of them. If you don’t trust God to help you through, though, your tough times will lead to confusion, depression, and hopelessness. But if you lean on God to provide a way out and stand firm in your trust in him, even your darkest nights will come to pass with the break of a clear and bright morning. It will come to pass, and in its place will be something greater, something more fulfilling, a new page turned and a new chapter begun that brings you not only closer to Christ, but closer to heaven.
And how do we know this? How can we trust it? That’s easy — because God says so. You might not be able to trust what you hear on TV or what you see on the internet, but you can trust him, because God doesn’t lie. Ever. To lie is a sin, and God can’t sin because God is perfect. And because God is perfect, he’s unchangeable. Don’t just skip over that either, because the fact that God doesn’t change is the most important reason we can worship him. Every single thing in the universe is in the process of becoming something. We’re becoming older. Our mountains are becoming smaller, inch by inch. The stars are becoming farther apart as the universe expands. Spring is becoming summer, and summer will become fall. Every single thing is always changing into something else, but not God. God is perfect; he has nothing to change into. And since he’s perfect, everything he does is perfect. Everything he commands is holy. And every promise he speaks for you will come to pass. It’s guaranteed. It can’t be any other way.
If Christ says he goes to prepare a place for you, he’s preparing a place for you in heaven right now. If God promises to take care of all your needs, he will take care of all your needs. If he says, “I will be with you,” he is with you.
“And it came to pass.” Keep those words in your heart. Lean on them. Let them inspire you and comfort you. If it’s coming to pass that you need a new life in Christ, come up here as we sing our closing hymn. If it’s coming to pass that you need prayer, come on and we’ll pray with you. God gives you all you need to endure and to heal and to live the life he wants for you. All you need to do is accept it.
Let’s pray:
Father we’re so thankful that in all the struggles that life can and will bring us, you are there guiding us, protecting us, and promising us. We’re thankful for your guiding hand and wisdom to let us know that the choices we make today will become the reality of our tomorrow. We’re thankful that in every time of darkness, the dawn of a new and brighter day is coming. We’re thankful that every word you speak and every promise you make is a truth that cannot become untrue. That it is certain, and worthy of our trust. We’re thankful, Father, that no matter what it is, it will come to pass according to your good and perfect will because of your love for us. For it’s in Christ’s name we pray, Amen.