Untitled Sermon (2)

Context

This passage takes place in the latter half of Abraham’s story in Genesis

God has called Abraham out of his land to wherever God would lead him, which came with the promise of Abraham having a great number of descendants, or essentially a nation coming from him

He sets out, leaving his father's home at the age of 75 and embarks on the journey God has led him through

Abraham has left his father’s house, travelled through Egypt and arrived in the land of Canaan

He saves Lot from the corrupt kings and gets a blessing from Melchizedek

God promised Abraham a son of his own in chapter 15, in which Abraham believed, and later in chapter 17, God solidified the promise again and made his covenant with Abraham

In between the promise and the covenant, Abraham had Ishmael with Hagar

After appearing to Abraham to establish the covenant, God appears again to Abraham, not too long after

The Appearance of the Lord (v.1-2)

Here we see that the Lord appears to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre, which was near/next to where Abraham was camped out

However, what Abraham sees is three men standing by the trees

Now it seems Abraham is somewhat aware of what is going on here, not necessarily of how these men are God and 2 angels, but that they are important, especially one of them

V. 2-3: He bowed himself down to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favour in your sight, do not pass by your servant.

One of these Men is as the text implies, the Lord, and the other two as explained later in the story, are angels (19:1)

But how is this God if 1. God isn’t a human and 2. no man is able to see God and live as it says in Exodus 33:20 or as in John 1:18

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known (NIV)

The man who is standing before Abraham here is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, who is himself God and closest in relationship to the Father

This touches on the topic of the Trinity, and for time's sake I'm not going to go very in depth, but for a quick understanding, God is three persons one being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

This is why John clarifies that Jesus (the Son) is God himself, and closest in relationship to the Father

So to briefly explain this concept, there is WHAT which refers to being and WHO which refers to person`

So for a quick analogy, [point to example person]

What is he? [a human]

And who is he? [the person we know and talk to]

person doesn’t refer to the stuff he's made of, he is flesh and bone, made up of atoms and all that, but it refers to the person we know

So what is God?

The one true God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal, the creator, etc.

Who is God?

What does the bible say?

We see that in the Bible, Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and the Father is God

This does not make sense to us, we as humans are just one person right? And so to make sense of it, we try to kind of impose our humanity on God as the late Voddie Baucham once said

But just because we are only capable of having and comprehending a being max one person from ou own experience, does not automatically mean that it is impossible for God

We have to remember we are talking about God, the ultimate being who is beyond us in every kind of way, beyond even what our imaginations can think of, and even me trying to explain to you in words how much greater God is, already pale’s in comparison to his actual greatness, so much so that to approach and reveal himself to Abraham it has to be in the form of a man, Jesus, because if not a man would not live like we saw in exodus 33:20

If your confused, I understand its a hard thing to grasp from a human perspective, but feel free to ask afterwards

Love in Service (v.2-8)

Next we see Abraham’s beautiful display of Hospitality and Generosity (V. 2-8)

We see that immediately after seeing the three men he runs out of his tent in mid-day,

Where is Abraham? It mentions that all this is happening at the trees of mamre which as said in chapter 13 is at Hebron

Hebron is a place in the southern part of Israel essentially between egypt and the rest fo the middle east

Hebron is in the middle of the mediterranean sea and the dead sea, but its not close to either

SO in other words its a desert, I don’t know if any of you have been to a desert before, but its HOT

And Abraham in the heat of the day runs out and shows outstanding hospitality to the three in front of him

In the ancient near east, it is common to be very hospitable to passerby’s, you would give them a place to rest maybe some water and a snack, it was not only a custom but also a tactic to make sure you have less enemies

But we see Abraham isnt just getting them some apple slices and a juice box as if he’s a soccer mom at the end of a game

THIS IS A WHOLE FEAST

He brings out the water for them to wash their feet, he brings out yogurt, milk, cheese, he prepares a whole calf which he hand picks, and 3 seahs of bread

2 things to note: 1 they didnt just casually eat meat like we do today, you saved the calf for a proper feast or event and 2 do you know how much bread that is? Thats like 2 of those dutch oven pots full of bread

Abraham’s hospitality and generosity goes above and beyond,

Paul talks about this as a reality for Christians, in Galatians 5:13-14 he essnetialy shows that this isn’t just something thats nice to see happen once in a while, instead we are called to use our freedom in Christ to serve one another humbly, loving our neighbour as ourself.

Not just to people we’re cool with though, Hebrews 13:2, Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.