Celebrate Promise

Scripture

Romans 4:3 , 13-25

Romans 4:3 NLT

3 For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

Romans 4:13–25 NLT

13 Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. 14 If God’s promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. 15 For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!) 16 So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. 17 That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. 18 Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” 19 And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. 20 Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. 21 He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. 22 And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. 23 And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded 24 for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.

Focus Statement

Abraham is a model of what it means to grasp hold of what God promises us through faith.

Like Abraham, we can embrace God’s calling on our lives,

believe that God will do what God promises,

and take courageous action.

POINT OF RELATION

There is a movie that I hope at least some of you have seen called Hacksaw Ridge, a WWII film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Andrew Garfield.

That film is about Army Medic Desmond Doss, a devout Seventh Day Adventist who believed in following the Ten Commandments to a T.

As such, when he was drafted in the army for World War II, he objected to holding any sort of fire arm or weapon.

The Army, then, wanted to put him into the “Conscientious Objectors Camp”...

But Doss refused that too. He did not seem himself as an objector…but a cooperator.

He told the Army recruiter that he could be a medic an serve while not holding a gun.

Which got him into a bit of trouble with the recruiter…because “you don’t tell me where you’re going son…I tell you.”

Well, needless to say. Desmond Doss was admitted into basic training...

Where he STILL was persistent in not holding a gun.

This, of course caused him to be berated by the Drill Seargants and officers, and hated by his fellow soldiers.

They picked on him, beat him up, through shoes and other objects at him and demanded that he be transferred out.

One soldier even said, “I swear to God, Doss, you go into combat, I gonna shoot you.”

Here’s Desmond in his own simple words:

"My dad bought this Ten Commandments and Lord's Prayer illustrated on a nice frame, and I had looked at that picture of the Sixth Commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill.' There's a picture that had Cain and he killed his brother Abel, and I wonder how in the world could a brother do such a thing? I've pictured Christ for savin' life, I wanna be like Christ go savin' life instead of takin' life and that's the reason I take up medicine."

Eventually he was given permission to train as a medic and, in his file, was given permission to have his religious objection to fire-arms respected...

But that did not stop the harassment he had to endure due to his faith convictions.

After all, not only was he not willing to bear arms, but he refused to work on Saturdays too…as Seventh-Day Adventists observe Sabbath on the traditional day of Saturday…as opposed to on Sunday like other Christians.

And to work on the Sabbath is to break the fourth Commandment.

The truth is, his value as a comrade didn’t get noticed until he saved a good many of their lives on the battle field…WITHOUT ANY WEAPON!

To make a long story short, Doss and his fellow soldiers ended up at the to of the Maeda Encampment, where the Japanese were awaiting them…

litterally…waiting to pickt hem off as they climb up a cliff and into an onslaught of bullets, granades, mines and whatnot.

Think of the shores of Normandy on D-Day…but instead of the soldiers coming from the water…they were coming from the bottom of a cliff...

NOT A GOOD SITUATION.

In the end, without a gun, Doss treated, rescued and saved 75 US soldiers and even one Japanese soldier.

In the process of that, again without a weapon, took the blunt of a grenade explosion...

having 17 pieces of Shrapnel in him...

and he also was shot by a sniper in the arm, shattering his arm bone.

Let me share how this shot happened...

He was being carried on a stretcher, after all the others had been supposedly rescued, when he saw another injured soldier on the ground.

Let me read to you what happened, as reported in HistoryVsHollywood.com:

[Following the grenade exoplosion.] Desmond waited for five hours until fellow soldier Ralph Baker was able to reach him. Baker, along with a few other men, carried Desmond on a litter (stretcher) through an intense enemy tank attack. As they were carrying him, he saw a guy on the ground badly wounded. Desmond rolled off the stretcher and crawled over to patch the man up. Desmond gave up his stretcher to the man, but while waiting for help to come back, he was wounded again, this time by a sniper's bullet that shattered his left arm. He fashioned a splint out of a rifle stock and crawled the remaining 300 yards under fire, eventually reaching the safety of an aid station. He was transported to the hospital ship Mercy.

In the end his persistence in his faith led him to be a miraculous, heroic witness to the power of God...

His life following his service was hard.

His injuries left him 90% disabled and he could only maintain part-time jobs...

His wife Dorothy had to got to school to get licensed as a nurse in order to support the family.

Still, Due to his heroic, patriotic and CHRISTIAN service to his country...

Desmond Doss was presented with the US Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman.

Wow! What a profoundly powerful witness to the fulfilling of God’s promises!

Things to Consider

We celebrate God’s promise for us (for our congregation) and for all God’s children.

We often forget to acknowledge that God’s promise extended even and especially to neglected and marginalized people.

We can find many examples in the stories of the Bible,

in which God made and fulfilled promises

to people who seemed unlikely to be at the center of God’s story.

Abraham is one of them,

a man who would end up becoming the “father” of three major world religions

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

What Scripture Says

Let’s briefly revisit the story of Abraham as told in Genesis 11-25.

Here are some of the key highlights:

Abraham began his new life chapter as an immigrant.

He left his hometown and followed where God called him to go,

no matter what, even though he was “too old”

and despite the fact that the journey was too long and uncertain.

God promised to Abraham and Sarah that they would have descendants that outnumbered the stars,

and…this is the IMPORTANT PART, so take note...they remained steadfast and persistant in their faith that God would keep that promise.

Because of Abraham’s faith in God’s promise,

he was counted as righteous.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he makes the point that God fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham

not because Abraham followed the law and got it right,

but because he had faith in God’s promises.

Sadly, Paul’’s words here have been misinterpreted many times and have been very harmful to the Jewish community as a result.

So, I want to make this clear, Paul is not stating that the Jewish people were legalists without faith...

Or that they were somehow misguided in following the Law of Moses.

In fact, it is equally important to note that Paul saw himself as a Jew who was charged with bring the message of Jesus, also a Jew, to the Gentiles.

What’s more, Paul is writing to a church that has both Jewish and Gentile Christians in it.

This context cannot be left out, otherwise Christians might think Paul is talking to Christians as opposed to Jews.

What I mean here is that there was NO distinction for Paul.

Christians were Jews who accepted Jesus as their Messiah, Lord and savior.

Non-Christians, were Jews or Gentiles who did not believe in Jesus.

Christianity at the time was a JEWISH sect of Jesus belivers.

Paul was seeking to expand that group to include the Gentiles as well.

As such, there was tension about who the true inheritors of the faith were

and whether observing the whole law (Torah) was necessary even for the Gentile believers.

Paul is not saying the law is bad or wrong to be a law observing Jewish Christian,

just that following it is not the basis for God fulfilling God’s promises.

Following the law, in and of itself, does not make us righteous.

Receiving God's promise is not about following the law and getting it right.

God loves us and saves us even if and when we fail.

First and foremost, God’s promise is freely made by God to us!

We celebrate this and accept it by having faith that God will do what God says and responding to this grace.

The promise worth celebrating is that we do not need to be perfect throughout our life’s journey,

but that by faith, we can follow where God leads and experience the journey of grace.

This promise helps us forge ahead even when things get difficult,

“hoping against hope” (verse 18)

and “growing stronger in faith” (verse 20).

Through our shared history of faith with Abraham,

we, too, are brought into the scope of God’s promise,

which is both being fulfilled and is not yet entirely fulfilled.

The specific promise is that Abraham will be the “father of many nations” (see Rom. 4:18)

and “that all the families of the earth will be blessed in him” (Genesis 12:3).

It is a promise about the broad scope of God’s reign and blessing throughout the earth.

Abraham did not get to see the totality of the promise fulfilled in his earthly life,

and we join in a long line of journeyers who will only see partial fulfillment in our earthly lifetimes.

But that line gives us reason to celebrate that,

even in our diversity,

our unity in the community of faith

draws us into a larger promise that is on its way to being fulfilled.

Because God so deeply loves us for who God created us to be,

we are continually a part of this promise of God’s everlasting presence and steadfast love.

The promise tells us that we are fully loved and fully known for who we are,

that Jesus never leaves us,

and that new life is forever and eternally ours through faith.

Abraham’s story also reminds us how we can respond to God’s grace and promise.

He embraced God’s calling for his life,

believed “God was able to do what he had promised” (verse 21),

and took courageous action in his faith.

He was willing to leave his hometown,

his comfort zone,

and take a risk to embrace challenges and changes in his life

so that God’s promise could be fulfilled in, for, and through him.

What This Means for You

God’s promise is for all people, even for you and your church. Invite congregants to reflect on this question:

How will you embrace God’s calling on your life, believe that God will do what God promises,

and take courageous action so God can fulfill God’s promise in, for, and through you?

What This Means for Us

How can we celebrate the promise that God is with us in all things, no matter what?

How can we celebrate both the promises that have been fulfilled

and those that we are still waiting to be fulfilled?

We are called to enter together into the promise with excitement and joy.

Let’s celebrate the promise that we all become a part of the families of the earth, blessed through Abraham in our journey. Amen? Amen!