Preview of Coming Attractions

“A Preview of Coming Attractions”

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I am not a big move buff, Tess and I don’t go to the movies very often. But we enjoy going at Christmas with our kids when a good movie comes out, like when the Hobbit came out. And this Christmas when Stars wars comes out, I will be there! Our students brought me and Jared a tickets to go with them, I am so looking for to it! Thanks you guys!! Don’t be jealous, God can’t bless you went your jealous!

Jared showed me the movie trailer for star wars, a small clip of what’s in the movie, a preview of coming attractions, the clip shows you what’s coming.

is like that, it is a preview of coming attractions, what we see in this chapter is seen it its entirety in the N.T. This is a clip of what was to come when God would give His only son as a sacrifice on the Cross for our sin. We call this typology, Abraham is a type of God giving His son, and Isaac is a type of Jesus willing laying down His life.

Jesus said, -“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

Abraham saw the preview of God giving His only son, and the future resurrection and he was shouting happy about it.

-“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham…

Paul said that God preached the gospel to Abraham, and I believe God did it right here on Mount Moriah.

We are going to look at this account of Abraham offering Isaac on the Altar, but we are going to look beyond this and see God giving His son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us.

1. The Person of the Cross.

V:1-2.

We are told in V:1, God tested Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice Isaac; would Abraham believe what God had promised to do through Isaac?

Abraham Love Isaac, It was from Isaac the nation of Israel would come. He was a special person, he was Abraham’s only son, Ishmael had been sent away.

V:2-“ God said to Abraham, Take now thy son, your only son Isaac, who you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering”

Isaac is an O.T. picture of Jesus; the things that are said about Isaac can be said about Jesus.

· Isaac’s birth was prophesied, so was Jesus birth.

God had told Abraham about the birth of Isaac years and years before it happened. The birth of the Lord Jesus is foretold in the O.T. years and years before it happened.

· Isaac’s birth was a miracle birth, and so was Jesus birth.

God intervened in Sarah’s life, and she conceived and had baby Isaac at 90 years old- that is a miracle!

Jesus was born of a virgin, the virgin birth of Jesus is a miracle.

· Isaac was name by God before he was born, Jesus was named before he was born.

The angel told Abraham call his name Isaac-laughter, the angel told Joseph, call his name Jesus, for he will save His people from their sin.

· Isaac was loved by his father, Jesus was loved by His father.

V:2-“ Take your son Isaac who you love…

This reminds us of -“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son”

V:2-"Take now thine son, thine only son Isaac who you love and get into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell you of."

Isaac was promised by God, conceived by a miracle, Abraham's only son, loved by his father; God says to Abraham, I want you to offer your only son as a burnt offering.

For Abraham it was a test of his faith, will God keep his promise that my future family and nation will come through Isaac? Abraham is thinking it that is true, and Isaac is the one who will carry on my family, then when I kill him, God will have to raise him from the dead. And that is what Abraham believed, he believed that that God was going to raise Isaac up from the dead. He passed the test of faith in God, he obeyed God and headed out to offer Isaac just like God had told him to do.

He loved the Giver, more than the gift, He trusted God enough to offer up Isaac and trust God to raise him from the dead.

. The Bible says that Abraham concluded that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figure.

Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead.

And he did in a figurative, symbolically way, because when Abraham left home with Isaac, Isaac was as good as dead as far as Abraham was concerned. Isaac pictures the Lord Jesus; His birth was prophesied, it was a miracle birth, His name was given before He was born, He was offered up as a sacrifice, and He was received back from the dead. Jesus Christ is the Person on the Altar; God put a picture of Jesus and the Cross and resurrection in the first book of the bible!! The death of Jesus on the Cross was no accident, the Cross of Christ has been on the heart and mind of God before He created the world. I see Abraham offering up Isaac, but I also see God offering up Jesus on the Cross. The person of the Cross is JESUS!

2. The Place of the Cross.

God told Abraham in V:2-“go into the land of Moriah and offer him on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”

Then in V:4-“Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off."

V:9-“ And they came to the place which God had told him of…

What was the place? It was Mount Moriah.

The name Moriah means-foreseen of the Lord.

This is not some random place that God told Abraham to go, this was a specific place, a place that God had picked out before the world began.

God created all of the billions and billions of stars in space, think of all of those galaxies, one hundred million universes out there in space, and all of those stars sing praise to God their creator. The Bible says in - "The heavens declare the glory of God.”

God created the heavens and the earth, and God chose one place on earth for His special place and

He calls it His land, the Holy Land, the land of promise, the land that He gave Abraham as an everlasting possession. Then in that land God chose a City Jerusalem. He calls it "the city of the great king. Then God chose a special place in that City, a hill, He calls it My Holy Hill. Do you know what that Holy Hill is? Mount Moriah. Moriah- "foreseen of the Lord." before God made anything God had that one place in mind. God said to Abraham, "Go to the mountain I tell you of. The Mountain was Moriah, it was on this Mountain that Solomon’s temple was build, it is on this mountain that the Lord Jesus died on the Cross. If you went to this place today it wouldn't look impressive to you.

It's not big, but the size has nothing to do with it; it is significant not because of its size, but because of what happened there.

, tells us when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him. The place was Calvary; Mount Moriah. Where Isaac was sacrifice; is where Jesus died on the Cross.

The Place where Abraham and Isaac went was a place of obedience.

Abraham saw what he saw and experienced the love and provisions of God because he was obedient to God.

Jesus said if you love me you will obey me…if you want to experience my joy, obey me. If you what to have the joy of the lord, obey me. If you want the joy of the Lord to be your strength this week, then obey Jesus!! The Christian life is not based on our feelings, I feel like praying, I feel like reading my bible, I feel like giving, I feel like going to church. Or I don’t feel like doing any of those things; the Christian life is not about our feeling, it is about our obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ!!

Jesus told his disciples when He gave them the great commission, teach people to obey everything I have said. God blessings are not based on what we know; but on what we do with what we know! Abraham obeyed what God told him, and then God told him more. Abraham got in the region of obedience, and then God gave him more details.

It was the place of sacrifice:

God said go to the place I TELL YOU OF… and then sacrifice your son on the Mountain I will tell you of. Picture Abraham and Isaac travelling 3 days to the Land of Moriah, they get within sight of the Mount of Moriah, V:5-Read.

Picture Abraham and Isaac leaving base camp heading toward and then up Mountain Moriah to the place of Sacrifice. Obedience and sacrifice go hand in hand; as we obey God we will be called to sacrifice. To walk the path of faith is to walk in obedience and sacrifice to God!! I will do what God tells me to do, BECAUSE I trust Him and I love Him!! I will sacrifice my life, vocation, money, time, comfort, pride, or whatever else he calls for. I will SACRIFICE TO GOD THAT WHICH I HOLD DEAR, BECAUSE I LOVE HIM MORE!!!

Abraham and Isaac go to the place…Mount Moriah, if is the same place that Jesus went in obedience to God and sacrificed Himself for us on the Cross.

3. The Purpose of the Cross.

Abraham and Isaac go where no one else could go, Jesus went were not one else could go, to do what no one else could do.

V:5-8-“And Abraham said unto his young men, stay here with the donkey; and I and the lad will go there and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father, and said, father: and he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Isaac can see there is going to be a burnt offering, they have everything they need by the offering; there is no animal for the offering. So Isaac asked his father, where is the Lamb for the burnt offering?

Somewhere on the way up the mountain, or when they built the altar on the top of the mountains, Isaac begin to understand, I AM THE OFFERING! Abraham told him what God had said, and Isaac trusted what God had told his father. Abraham faith in God had been passed on to Isaac. Isaac did not resist or refuse to be a sacrifice; it was the same with JESUS; He did not resist or refuse to lay down His life for us!! The Cross was in the plan of God, it was God who put Jesus on the Cross. It was not primarily the Jews, or the Romans; it was God the father!!

- "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief..."

When Christ took my sins, He also took God's wrath; He knew that when He died upon that cross He would be the object of the wrath of God. And, when Isaac walked up that hill, he knew He would die at His Father's hand. Can you imagine what went through the heart of Abraham on that mountain, he suffered; it tore his heart out. Jesus wasn't the only one who suffered at Calvary, God the Father suffered.

-“-God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.”

We see the Great love of the father, and the submission of the son!

V:6-“And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife”.

Isaac is not just a little boy, he's not a preschooler; he's a strapping, strong young man, how do I know that? He was strong, his father laid the wood on his back. He was the one who carried the wood up that mountain to build the alar. There would have been enough wood on his back to consume an animal sacrifice. Have you ever carried the firewood in? Have you? Have you gone out just to get a few logs? He's carrying that wood on his back, up a mountain, he's not child, he's a strong young man bible scholars put him between 25-33 years old.

Abraham over one hundred years of age, he couldn’t not have put him to death unless the son was willing? He could easily over power his father or if he didn't want to do that all he had to do was run. Do you think an old man is going to run down a young man?

And Jesus willingly laid down His life on the Cross to appease the wrath of God and pay the debt of our sin. Jesus said, -"No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.”

I see in everything that is happening here a preview of coming attractions:

· The wood on Isaac’s back.

Isaac carrying that wood for the sacrifice up that mountain for him to lay on as a sacrifice and die, speaks to me on the wood of the Cross that Jesus carried up Calvary’s hill. Wood in the Bible is an emblem of humanity and its weakness and sinfulness. Jesus took our sin on His back and carried it to the cross and died for our sin! The Cross is a symbol of judgement, Jesus took our judgment on the Cross, the just dying for the unjust.

-“He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him"

As Abraham stacked that wood upon the back of Isaac; Isaac bearing that load reminds us that God the Father hath laid on Jesus, the iniquity of us all. He took our sins, the wood of wickedness, our humanity and be bore it to Calvary.

· The fire in Abraham’s hand.

The fire speaks of the wrath of God poured out on sin. When Jesus died on the Cross God poured out His wrath on Jesus for the sins of the world, God judged sin in the person of Jesus Christ that you and I might go free. Because God is a Holy and Just God He must judge sin, yet He desire to justify sinners. That is why He sent Jesus.

-“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Who God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Jesus took the fire and wrath of God, that I might go free!

· The knife in Abraham’s hand.

The knife speaks for death, the wages of sin is death; Jesus tasted death for every man.

Jesus experienced death on the Cross, physical death, and separation from God that we might never have to experience separation from God!

· The chord that bound Isaac.

V:9-“Abraham bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar of wood”

The chords that held Jesus on the altar where not nails, or ropes, want held Jesus on the Cross where chords of love. Greater love has no man than this that He lay down His life for his friends.

V:10-12- "And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld you son, your only son from me" Abraham passed the test, he proved that His love and faith was the real deal! God gives us another wonderful illustration. V:13-"And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son”.

The scene shifts, and we have another picture, Isaac becomes a picture of me and you. And Jesus becomes the picture of the ram caught in the thicket. There is an altar, and someone is going to die, but it is not going to be Isaac, it is going to be the Ram.

We, like Isaac should have died, but we get off the altar and there is an innocent victim, somebody who takes our place. Here it was, V:13- "a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

I see the Son of God crowned with thorns, God's Lamb. Abraham with a grateful heart takes that animal, he releases his own son, that animal dies as a substitute. God is showing us the purpose of the cross is substitution.

Isaac was glad the ram had taken his place; did he say, thank you Ram for taking my place!!

V:14-"And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh".

Jehovah-jireh means "the Lord will provide." And, what will the Lord provide? Isaac had asked, where is the Lamb”?

V:8-“Abraham said by faith. "God will provide himself a lamb".

The Lord will provide Himself a Lamb; and century’s later Jesus was walking to the Jordan River where John the Baptist was baptizing when John saw Him he said, -“Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world"

God did provide HIMSELF a Lamb!!

God has shown us a preview of coming attractions, it is an O.T. picture of what Jesus Christ did oh the Cross that you might be saved, that you might be forgive and go free!! Jesus took the wrath of God, and died for our sins on the Cross, he was our savior and substitute; Jesus worn the crown of thorns, that you might be crown with grace and forgiveness.

Would you come today and receive Jesus as your savior. Child of God, thank Him, praise Him, love him and obey him.