Lent: a Season of Giving
Notes
Transcript
Lent is a time of preparation. (Pastor Julian produced a very good devotional video today that is available through our website, Facebook or YouTube.)
It is a season of repentance, humility and reflection. It is not necessarily a season of intentional sadness, but it is a time to think about all that Jesus did for us as we anticipate His passion.
But have you ever thought of Lent as being a season of giving? We certainly see Advent as a season of giving. God gave us His Son, which we all know to be Christmas.
Born in a manger to a virgin;
Announced by the angels;
Visited by shepherds and Magi;
But Lent has a vision of God’s gift to us in Christ, as well. Our reading from Romans 8:31-32 tells us as much.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Romans 8 is one of the great chapters of the New Testament, if not the whole Bible. In it, is the crescendo of all that has been communicated thus far in Paul’s greatest letter. God proves He is for us, the church, by
Jesus dying for us while we were yet sinners;
and that he justified us by faith, making us right with God, not by the deeds that we have done or failed to do, but by His grace offered to us in Christ.
giving us His Spirit who prays for us;
causing all things to work together for our good, even adversities and disappointments;
So Romans 8 invokes us to worship and lifts us to a place of victory.
But there is a hidden gem in these two verses. And it is found in the Old Testament story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, upon God’s request.
Of special note: Abraham and his wife Sarah were childless for most of their lives. But the angel appeared to them both and told them that they would have a son and he would be the seed of the people Israel. God would give Abraham as many descendants as there are sand granules at the shore and as many stars are in the sky.
But first there is this painful question by God that would test Abraham’s love and obedience. For that, we turn to Genesis 22. Verse two, we read that God asks Abraham to do the unthinkable.
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go the the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I tell tell you.”
How could Abraham do this thing, when God had promised so much through this only son? He believed that he would either offer an alternative or raise Isaac from the dead.
And he did the former.
10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
What’s interesting about Mount Moriah is that it would become the site of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
This is where thousands of animal sacrifices were made in the days of Solomon, always with a preview of what Jesus would do for us on the cross. On the day that the temple was dedicated under Solomon, 22,000 oxen were sacrificed and 120,000 sheep and goats.
Today, it is the site of the western or wailing wall, and Islam’s Dome of the Rock.
Leslie Allen states that this is an allusion to the Septuagint of Genesis 22:16. He states:
“The apostle regards Abraham’s unhesitating but painful surrender of Isaac as an illustration of what it meant to God to give up his own Son to death. The greatest gift carries a promise of all smaller gifts.” (A New Testament Commentary, 358).
Does it strike you as odd that what Abraham was asked to do, but ended up not having to do because of the substitute, God did, and provided our substitute.
16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
And so there is nothing that God will withhold from us.
And so the hard part was giving up Jesus for us. The easier part is saving us from the guilt and penalty of our sin. But One is attached to the other.
Dr. Royce Gruenler of Gordon Conwell said:
“As God has done the difficult thing in giving his Son for sinners, how much more will he do the easier thing and graciously give us the fullness of salvation, as well as a share in all things.” Royce G. Gruenler, “Romans,” Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 942).
And so what are we to do with this information?
Certainly renew our commitment to the Lord.
Be willing to do anything that He asks of us in His word.
Give Him the devotion that He is deserving of.
Finally treat our neighbor as we want to be treated.
Some would give up something for the Lord during the next 40 days. Certainly, yourself, most of all.
A chaplain was ministering to a soldier in the hospital and said, “You have lost an arm in the great cause.”
The soldier replied, “I didn't lose it—I gave it.”
Jesus did not lose His life either. He willingly gave it for us so we could be reconciled to God.
As we prepare for the Lord’s Supper tonight...
you will be prompted by a deacon.
Come to the center aisle and approach the cross.
Place a nail in the cross, while thinking of your own sin and the love of Christ in giving Himself for you.
Then proceed to the table of your convenience. Partake of the bread and then the cup.
Then return to your seats from the outside.
But first, let us join together in reciting a statement of our faith that has been used in the Christian church since the four century. Church, what do you believe?
