Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Ark Encounter Video

Tension

A couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, my wife told me that her mother said that she wants us to all take a trip to this Ark Encounter in Kentucky, so I thought it might be a good way to introduce our teaching this morning.

Who has been down to see this exhibit?

I am not sure when we are planning to go , but I am excited about seeing it in person, I think it will be cool experience.

You might have picked up on the fact that this video was not created or endorsed by the Ark Encounter and I bet you were able to hear as I was the sometimes subtle, and sometimes not so subtle sarcasm throughout the video.

He kept saying that he never really got his simple question answered: Why?

Why build something like this.

Sure it is fun, but what is the point.

Why do we need to spend so much time, money and effort on his story of Noah and the Ark.

And if you were to read the many comments below the video you would see that many people strongly affirm his position of skepticism, and that is probably putting it lightly, as many of the comments were completely hostile toward it’s existence.

Why build something like this.

Sure it is fun, but what is the point.

Why do we need to spend so much time, money and effort on his story of Noah and the Ark.

And if you were to read the many comments below the video you would see that many people strongly affirm his position of skepticism, and that is probably putting it lightly, as many of the comments were completely hostile toward it’s existence.

I would like to tell you that this is one of those times when those who call themselves Christians have banded together with our common world view and that any opposition to a focus on this story is only from the athiest, agnostics or people from a myriad of other World views, but unfortunately this is just not the case.

Many people who call themselves “Christians” agree that it is a waste of time to focus in on the stories of the Old Testament like Noah and the Flood.

They don’t see value in focusing in on a controversial story that happened thousands of years before Jesus and the New Testament.

Instead, let’s talk about how much God loves us and how He sent Jesus to die for us and stay away from all that doom and gloom found in the Old Testament stories like Noah and the Flood.

I would like to tell you that this is one of those times when those who call themselves Christians have banded together with our common world view and that any opposition to a focus on this story is only from athiest, agnostics or people from a myriad of other World views, but unfortunately this is just not the case.

Many people who call themselves “Christians” agree that spending this much time on a Old Testament story seems to be a waste.

They don’t see value in focusing in on a controversial story that happened thousands of years before Jesus.

They would rather that we all just agreed that their was bad stuff that happened back there just as their is not and then move on to talk about the New Testament.

Let’s talk about how much God loves us and how He sent Jesus to rescue us and stay away from all that doom and gloom in the Old Testament.

I can’t blame them for wanting to avoid talking about doom and gloom, but it is unfortunate that this is all they see in the story of Noah.

Because there is so much there for us to learn from.

Typically, Christians consider the Noah and the Ark irrelevant for two reasons.

The first one is because they have only encountered the fit for children, family friendly, Noah and the Ark Story.

This story offers a picture of a plump and jovial Noah who appears to be taking a bunch of animals our for a boat ride on a sunny day.

There are always smiling Lions, Tigers and Bears and of course you have to have a couple of Giraffes are always poking their long necks out a window enjoying the boat ride.

Many of us grew up going to Sunday School with a mural like this plastered all over the wall, complete with fluffy clouds and a happy rainbow.

The problem with this happy Sunday School version is that it seems to miss the weightier matters of the story.

Noah, his family and these particular animals were the only ones rescued from a devastating, world wide, ecologically altering flood.

Real people died.

Real sin was punished.

While the rescue of Noah is worth celebrating, no one was smiling that day.

The second way in which Christians often dismiss the Noah and Ark as irrelevant is in focusing too much on the catastrophic events and not enough on the rescue.

It is just hard for people to believe that this God who judged peoples sin by sending a world wide flood is the same God of the New Testament.

How could a loving and forgiving God even allow, much less initiate something that destroyed every living thing on the earth?

And yet that is exactly how the book of Genesis describes it.

That this was a premeditated act of God to judge and punish sin by destroying every living thing on the earth except for one man’s family and a boat full of animals.

On one far side of the Noah story we have the fit for children, family friendly, Noah and the Ark Story.

This story offers a picture of a plump and jovial Noah out on the lake with his boat filled with smiling Lions, Tigers and Bears.

And also a couple of Giraffes are always poking their smiling heads through a window enjoying the boat ride.

Many of us grew up going to Sunday School with a mural like this plastered all over the wall, complete with fluffy clouds and a happy rainbow.

I understand the motivation behind this.

If you were an artist trying to paint a picture of a Bible story that would connect with children, then why not one with lots of animals.

Truth is that most of the other Bible Stories involving animals involved death, blood, and sacrifice so not exactly fit for children’s classroom.

While the truth behind what God for did for Noah during the flood is a positive one, the idea that Noah and the animals were just floating along in peaceful bliss is not accurate.

Especially when you consider how turbulent every aspect of creation became in causing the flood, and the many people, animals and creatures that lost thier lives in the process.

The larger picture is one of darkness, where God’s wrath over sin was displayed through this catastrophic event.

he second way in which Christians often dismiss the Noah and Ark as irrelevant is in focusing too much on the catastrophic events and not enough on the rescue.

It is just hard for people to reconcile that this God who judged peoples sin by sending a world wide flood is the same God of the New Testament.

How could a loving and forgiving God even allow, much less initiate something that destroyed every living thing on the earth?

And yet that is exactly how the book of Genesis describes it.

That this was a premeditated act of God to punish sin by destroying every living thing on the earth because that is how much God hates sin.

Not just how the events on Earth happened, but we hear God telling Noah exactly what He is about to do and exactly why he is going to do it.

Even though it is plainly there in black and white, there are still Pastors and Theologians who have such a hard time reconciling the devastation of the flood with the goodness of God that they ignore, downplay or completely reject the story of the Flood as anything that we could or should learn from.

Either one of these perspectives are so limited that holding them will cause you to miss the importance of this story.

So before we even go any further let me just answer the question right from the start.

you are on this side rolling your eyes at naivity of “Happy Noah” and seeing the whole story as a gory display of something that cannot be good, you would still wonder like the guy in the video: Why?

Why invest anything in knowing about this controversial and somewhat crazy story?

Because we can find a picture of the Gospel here.

The Biblical record of Noah and the Flood is one that affirms vital aspects of the message of the Gospel - aspects that many of us in this room might have been quick to forget.

But on the other

We don’t want to believe that God has wrath or judgment

Why should we concern ourselves with the story of Noah and the Ark?

Because we can find a picture of the Gospel here.

We are continuing in our series in Genesis from the Gospel project and the Biblical record of Noah and the Flood affirms for us an aspect of God’s character that is vital to the message of the Gospel, even though it is something that we might not really want to spend much time thinking about.

So open you Bibles with me to , starting in verse 5 (page 5) I’ll pray and we can get started.

This is our fourth

vs.

This is our fourth

Truth

To get us up to speed, we have establised that the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings.

The first week we looked at the beginning of all life.

How God had work to create all things on this earth good, and He saw that they were good.

Then the following week we saw the pinnacle of God’s creation being formed in Adam and Eve.

That mankind was the only thing that God made “In his image” and as such every human life, in any stage, is marked with intrinsic dignity, value and purpose.

And God said that his creation in man was “very good” and then he rested because he had perfected his creation so that it now was all “very good”.

To get us up to speed, we have establised that the book of Genesis is the book of beginnings.

The first week we looked at the beginning of all life.

How God had work to create all things on this earth good, and He saw that they were good.

Then the following week we saw the pinnacle of God’s creation being formed in Adam and Eve.

That mankind was the only thing that God made “In his image” and as such every human life, in any stage, is marked with that dignity, value and purpose.

And God said that his creation in man was “Very Good” and that “very good” made all things “very good”.

And we would have liked to stay in chapters One and Two, when things were very good in God’s very good world, but our first parents, Adam and Eve, made the choice that each one of us would have made in the same situation.

They rejected God’s good Word and missed the mark that God was aiming them at.

So enters Sin into our world, to forever alter everything in it.

Eve gave b

No one sought the Lord.

No one desired to walk with God.

This how chapter 6 begins: