We Have the Good News of a Savior Who Gives Us a New Beginning based on Genesis 6:5-22

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you ever hit rock bottom in life? Have you ever felt like you had made such a mess of your life that you did not know which way to turn? Have you ever thrown up your hands in defeat and despair? Have you ever felt like a complete failure in life? Have you ever wondered if a new start in life was even possible any more?

In our third weekend in Lent, we continue to look for the Gospel good news of God in the Book of Genesis. Two weeks ago we looked at the Gospel good news that God provided a Savior to cover over our sins and wrongs, like Adam and Eve were given a covering of a sacrificed animal to cover them after their sin in the garden of Eden. Last week we looked at the Gospel good news that God provided a Savior to conquer evil by bruising the devil through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Today we hear about the human race hitting rock bottom during the days of Noah. In Genesis 6:5–8 we read, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Things had gone from bad to worse. The Lord was considering getting rid of every man and animal in the whole world. Noah was the exception. Noah looked to the Lord with trust and faith. Noah was the reason that the Lord did not destroy all creation and start over again.

Still Noah was not perfect. He was a sinner and wrongdoer. The real difference was the gracious favor of the Lord. Because of the Lord’s gracious favor He spared Noah and his wife, Noah’s three sons and their three wives, and a male and female of the animals and birds that roamed the earth. The Lord told Noah to build an ark to float on the water when the rest of the men and animals and birds outside the ark all perished.

In 2 Peter 2:5 Noah is referred to as a “herald (or preacher) of righteousness.” The people of Noah’s day did not listen though. Over the course of 120 years Noah preached to the people about the coming worldwide flood and about trusting in the Lord and worked to build the ark. At the end of those 120 years the Lord shut Noah and his family and the animals in the ark. Then the flood started. The waters covered the entire earth. The rains came down for 40 days and 40 nights. The ark kept Noah, and all those with him in the ark, safe. The ark eventually came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. After about a year in the ark, the ground was dry enough for Noah and all those with him to walk out of the ark. Noah and his family and the animals and birds all had a new beginning.

The problem of sin and wrongdoing did not disappear. Noah later planted a vineyard. One day he became drunk with wine and lay naked in his tent. After awhile the people increased in number and built a tower in Babel and wanted to make a name for themselves, but God confused their language and scattered them to other parts of the earth.

Even though God had given human beings a new start, sinful rebellion against the Lord continued to cause troubles. God prepared another way of rescue for the people of the world, because He refused to ignore sin and wrong.

A Lutheran pastor writes the following: “To deliver us from sin and give us a fresh start in God’s grace, our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself into death, as on the cross he experienced in our place the flood of God’s righteous judgment for our sins. He bore your sins and mine—the sins of all people of all time—and he let the just judgment for those sins pour over him. For each of our thoughtless words, the waves crashed down on him. For all our unholy thoughts, the torrents of judgment beat against him. For all our loveless deeds, the waters rose higher and higher—until that flood of judgment took his life.

“And as he took our place in that flood, he also provided an ark of salvation for us. By the power of the Gospel, through his means of grace, he brings us into the ‘ark’ of the Holy Christian Church, where by God’s grace we are sheltered in Christ Jesus and his righteousness. In this ‘ark’, we are saved from judgment and given a new beginning—with our sins taken away, and with new peace, new light, and hope that does not disappoint.

“Through the washing away of your sins, God has given you a cleansed conscience. In the power of Christ’s resurrection, he has raised you up to new life. Through the power of his Word, he keeps you in this new life—so that your life in him is always new.

“And that new life will never end. On the day when Christ comes again in glory to judge the living and dead, he will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Christ. Those who have rejected him and the life he offers will be taken away in judgment, like the people at the time of flood. And, as in the days of Noah, those who have trusted in the Lord will remain to begin another new day together with the Lord—joining him and all believers in Christ to live together in God’s renewed creation. There all things will be new—and there will never again be a need for a new beginning.

“After the flood, God placed a rainbow in the sky and said the rainbow would serve as a reminder of his promise that a worldwide flood would never be repeated. From now on, look to the cross of Christ; look to his empty tomb; look to your baptism into Christ; look to the words of eternal life God has given you in Holy Scripture—and see in them God’s promise to you that your sins have been dealt with once and for all and that new and everlasting life is yours, never to be taken away.

“All glory, honor, and praise be to Christ Jesus our Savior, who makes all things new. Amen.” (CPR Volume 35, Part 2, Series C, pp. 55-56)

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.