A Blessing For All The Earth

Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian

Church and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today. A special welcome if you're new or

visiting with us. We're glad that you're here and we're glad that you're here not because we're

trying to fill seats but because we're following Jesus together as one community and as we follow

Jesus together we become convinced that there's no one so good they don't need God's grace and

no one so bad that they can't have it which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has

to say to us in his Word. We have taken a break from our series in the Gospel of Mark for the season of

Advent. You'll remember that the season of Advent is a time when we celebrate Jesus coming or arriving

here on earth and we do a couple things. First of all we celebrate what God has done in the past

already by sending Christ and then we also look forward to what he's going to do in the future

when we see Christ come again. And so as Christians we're always doing this. We're always looking back

to what God has done in the past. We're looking forward to what he will do in the future and we

use both of those things to keep going and to live faithfully now in the present. Last week we were in

Genesis chapter 3 and we saw that Jesus is the one who's going to come and put an end to shame. He's going

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

to be the one who comes and destroys and crushes evil forever. We saw that promise from chapter 3

verse 15. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Meaning that while Satan is going

to be able to hurt Jesus he will not crush him. Jesus on the other hand will crush the head of the

serpent. We're fast forwarding eight or nine chapters this morning all the way to Genesis chapter 12 and

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

we're going to look not as Jesus is the one who ends shame but this morning Jesus is the one who brings

the blessing to the nations. And so without further ado I'm going to invite you to turn with me now. You

can turn near the end of your worship guide. You can also turn in your Bible or turn on your phone.

No matter where you turn remember that this is God's word and God tells us that his word is a lamp to

our feet and a light to our path which means that God has not left us to stumble alone in the dark

but instead he's given us his word to show us the way to go. And so that's why we start now. Genesis chapter 11

Genesis 11:27

verse 27. Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran fathered

Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred in Ur of the Chaldeans.

And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah,

the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren. She had no children.

Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law,

his son Abram's wife. And they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.

But when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in

Haran. Chapter 12. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's

house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and

make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who

dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Verse 4.

So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed

from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that

they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran. And they set out to go to the

land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place

at Shechem, to the oak of Morah. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared

to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord,

who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his

tent with Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord, and called

upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev. I invite you to pray

with me as we come to this portion of God's Word. Our Father in heaven, we thank you again that you

have given us your Word, not just in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament. And we ask

that you would help us this morning to see your plan from the beginning of time, and that you would

most of all set our eyes on Jesus, that we would see him as more beautiful and more glorious than we

realized, that we would worship him, that we would serve him, that we would love him. We tell you this

morning that we do love you, but we need your help, and so we ask that you would speak to us clearly

in your Word. And we ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

So we've skipped a lot of territory since we left off in Genesis chapter 3. Things only got worse

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

and went downhill after Adam and Eve took part in the forbidden fruit. First of all, Genesis chapter 4,

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

the very next chapter, we had the first murder when Cain kills Abel. And then in that same chapter,

the first murderer starts the first city. Things continue to get bad, though. It's not just that

there's one man who's a murderer, but we see in Genesis chapter 6 through 8 that the earth becomes

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

so wicked that God decides he's going to wipe everything out with a flood. And so there's nothing

left except for Noah and his family and two of every kind of animal. Now there's such a steep and rapid

descent in the history of mankind that the flood itself is not enough. Wickedness continues. Chapter

11, we get back to mankind abandoning God. They make this claim that they're going to make a name

for themselves. And so they begin to build this tower, thinking that it's going to be able to reach up to

the heavens. And we see God at that point bringing his judgment on them by scattering the nations and

changing their languages. We're told in Genesis chapter 11 that everyone spoke the same language

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

until God decided they were going to speak different languages. And of course, that it destroyed their

ability to work together to build this great tower. And so the point is this. As we move on from Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, we saw the beginning of shame and pain in the world. The story gets darker and darker.

It gets more and more bleak. And so that's where we're at when we come here to chapters 11 and 12.

You'll remember our paradigm from chapter 3 that there are these two offspring that are going to

be battling it out. And there's a promise that one offspring is going to crush the other. And so I

mentioned earlier, chapter 3, verse 15, this promise, or I guess a threat given to the serpent,

he shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel. There's going to be two seeds that are going to

compete against each other. One is going to win. One's going to be the one that bruises the head.

And so it's with that that we come to this setting, this passage here in chapter 11 and 12,

and things are not looking good. So as we ended chapter 11 here, we have this background of tragedy

and barrenness. First of all, we have this tragedy. Chapter 11, verse 28, Haran dies. So Terah,

who's continuing this seed, he's got three sons, only one grandson. His grandson Lot, who's the son of Terah,

or the son of Haran. Haran dies, so he has only two sons and one grandson. So there's that tragedy,

right? It's supposed to be sons who bury their fathers, not fathers who bury their sons. But to

make things even worse, we find out here that Sarai, verse 30, is barren. And so as we're hoping that

there's going to be this offspring, this seed that's going to crush the head of the serpent, things are

not looking good. Things are not looking good for the family of Terah, and things are not looking good

for humanity. We have this picture here of frailty and wickedness. That's the background we're given

here in chapter 11, frailty and wickedness. That shouldn't surprise us, though, because Advent is

about light in the darkness. That's what we looked at last week with our lighting of the Advent candle,

Isaiah chapter 9. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

of deep darkness, on them has a light shown. And so our pattern that we saw in chapter 3 continues here

in chapter 12, which is this. God still shows up as the light in the darkness. God still shows up as the

light in the darkness. In this background of wickedness and human frailty, God has not given up on

his promise. As things look bleak, he continues to show up and pursue his people. And so we see at the

beginning of chapter 12 these promises that he makes to Abram. First, verse 1, he tells him to leave his

country. And in verse 2, because of that, he's going to make him a great nation. And so we're supposed to

feel the dissonance right away. His wife can't have children. God's going to make a great nation out of

him. Okay? Then he continues, though, verse 3, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And so we have this impossible scenario, this impossible situation where God has promised

that he's going to bring his redemption to bear on the earth through a seed, and yet all evidence would

be given to the contrary. This man, Terah, is not able to generate the offspring that he might like.

His son has died. And the man that we're encountering here, who's promised to become a great nation, his wife,

is not able to have children. It's against that backdrop that God shows up making this great

and seemingly foolish promise to Abraham. Not only are you going to have many children, but you're going to

become a great nation. And not only are you going to become a great nation, that nation is going to

bless the entire world. You and your wife who can't have kids are going to affect the entire globe with

your offspring. Now, if we're familiar with the story of the Bible, we just need to pause for a second and

think about how ridiculous that is. Ridiculous first in the sense that he's going to have lots of children.

Ridiculous second in the sense that they're going to affect the entire world. This world that's been

scattered. Remember, people are speaking different languages now. They're not able to communicate with

each other. And somehow, Abraham's line is going to be able to break through to that. Now, if we're

Abram here... By the way, I'm using Abram and Abraham interchangeably, and I'm going to keep doing that

because if you know the story, you know his name gets changed in Genesis chapter 17. Fun Cheyenne Mountain

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

Trivia Fact, I preached on Genesis chapter 17 in April of 2017 when I came to candidate many, many years ago.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

So, I did preach to you on that, but very few of you were here back then. Anyway, his name gets changed,

right? So, if I say Abraham or Abram, same person. This is the promise that's been made to him. He would

not have understood in what sense he was going to be a blessing to the entire nations. Some of the people

reading the Old Testament before the time of Christ would not have understood exactly in what sense

this person was going to be a blessing to the entire nations. Brothers and sisters, we know this

morning exactly in what sense this offspring of Abraham is going to be a blessing to the entire

nations. And the reason that we know it is not just because of the time of history that we live in,

but because the Apostle Paul spells it out for us clearly and directly. So, I'm going to invite you

to turn with me in your worship guide to page 4. We read from Galatians chapter 3 where Paul explains

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

to us exactly what is going on in Genesis and the exact way in which Abraham's seat is going to be a

blessing to the nations. And so, track with me then here. Look at verse 8 first. The Scriptures foresee

that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Gentiles being a word here that means people who aren't Jews.

When God chooses Abraham, He chooses a people. Throughout the Old Testament, what we see is God

being gracious to the Jewish nation. However, the plan was always that it would extend to all the

nations of the earth. And so, here's the plan given us. Verse 8, He would justify the Gentiles. He would

take people who are not Jews and He would save them. Then we're told that God preached the gospel

beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. And so, we know clearly what it

means here in Genesis chapter 12 that all the nations would be blessed. It's a way of God telling

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Abraham about the gospel. In other words, He is giving them the good news that even though humanity

is caught up in this scheme of wickedness that we've seen in the preceding chapters of Genesis,

God has not given up on His creation or His people. He is going to come and He's going to provide them

salvation by a Redeemer, sending His Son, Jesus Christ, who's going to do a few important things.

First, He's going to live the perfect life that we should have lived but didn't.

Second, He's going to die the death that we deserve to die on our behalf. In that sense, He is the

blessing to the nations. And in that sense, God preached the gospel to Abraham. In other words, Abraham did

not see clearly what we do now, which was that His seed that was going to crush the head of the serpent

was going to come as one man, a person, Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ, in His death and His resurrection,

is going to destroy evil and wickedness forever. That is everything that was contained in these words

when God spoke to Abraham. Abraham did not fully understand it. We now do.

At the risk of being too obvious, the point is this. Jesus is the blessing to the nations.

Jesus is the one who brings this salvation, not just for the Jews, but for everyone. We're given this

passage, this promise against the backdrop of seeing how bad the world is. We looked at some of this last

week. It's so bad that God had to purge the entire earth with a flood. It's so bad that

all of mankind was united in rebellion against God, and He had to change their languages to confuse them.

It is so bad that it's filled with the kind of tragedy that we saw at the end of chapter 11,

that the fathers bury their sons rather than the sons burying their fathers.

It is in that that there is only one kind of hope for God's people and for humanity. It is supernatural,

divine intervention to come and save the world. And so that's what we see in verse 9 here of Galatians 3.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

In other words, everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is included in this blessing.

That is the blessing to the nations that is promised to Abraham. That is the blessing,

brothers and sisters, that brings us here together this morning. Galatians 3 tells us,

it explains for us exactly what's going on here. Chapter 12, blessing to the nations. Jesus is that blessing.

Now there's sort of a cognitive dissonance we're meant to experience here as we read these words,

and we know that Jesus is a blessing to the nations because what has just happened?

We've seen not a blessing of the nations, but a scattering of the nations.

Remember mankind's rebellion at the Tower of Babel? God scatters them across the earth.

He changes their languages. And so it seems like God is talking out both sides of His mouth here.

On the one hand, He's scattering people. On the other hand, He's pursuing them with His grace.

On the one hand, He's scattering them in punishment. On the other hand, He says that He's going to bless them.

How are we supposed to reconcile these things?

How do we make sense of this God who's doing both at the same time?

Well, the answer is we make sense of it in God's grace.

God's scattering people everywhere. He's sending grace to people everywhere.

His grace looks like this. Yes, He sent the nations all over the world.

And simultaneously, at the same time, He is acting to pursue and save the nations.

He has a plan, and He is executing it.

This is the same thing we saw in the garden in Genesis chapter 3,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

as God pursued Adam and Eve as they were hiding from Him, naked and ashamed.

God continues here His constant, relentless pursuit in His grace.

God, yes, brings punishment and judgment,

and at the same time, He is coming to save and redeem.

What we saw in Genesis 3 is true here in Genesis 12 as well.

And ultimately, we know what Paul tells us in Galatians 3,

that His pursuit of them culminates in the coming of Jesus Christ.

That is why we sing,

Joy to the world, the Lord has come.

That is why we celebrate the season of Advent,

because these two things, God's scattering of the nations

and His grace that He sends out to them,

make sense together when we see Jesus on the cross.

They make sense as we see Jesus, on the one hand,

receiving the judgments that the nations deserve,

and on the other hand, providing the grace that is needed

to save people of every language, nation, tribe, and tongue,

every language that God created at the Tower of Babel.

They make sense there.

They make sense as we see Jesus coming as a baby in a manger.

They make sense as we see Jesus living His life,

as we've looked at in Mark.

And they make sense as we see Jesus die and rise again from the dead.

That is where we see the scattering and the grace come together.

And so, brothers and sisters,

we are here together this morning

because of God's promise to Abraham to bless the nations.

That is why God has brought this group of people together right now

on December 5th, 2021.

Few, if any of us, are Jews.

We're different people.

We come from a variety of countries.

For some of us, English is our first language.

For others of us, English is not our first language.

We are here together

because God promised to Abraham to bless the nations.

And so, He brings that type of people together

every Sunday around the world.

There was a trend on Twitter

that started in September of 2020.

And the trend was called

How It Started, How It's Going.

And people would post these pictures side by side

to show how something had progressed over time.

So, you'd see things like this.

If someone switched political candidates,

they'd have a picture of them

wearing the shirt for one candidate,

how it started,

how it's going.

On the other side,

they'd be wearing a shirt for the other candidate

that they switched to.

Some people would do it for their fitness journeys.

They'd show a picture of them out of shape,

how it started.

And they'd have a picture of them

looking in amazing shape,

ripped,

how it's going.

Some people might have a puppy picture,

how it started.

And you have a full-grown dog picture,

how it's going.

This trend, however,

focused and started

with romantic stories.

And so, most often,

what you would see is this,

how it started.

The first time someone slipped

into someone else's direct messages,

the first time they texted them,

how it's going,

a picture of them at their wedding.

You might see how it started,

a picture of them at their wedding,

how it's going,

a picture of them with their nine kids.

Okay?

You might see a first date picture,

and then them with their family

and all their pets.

The point is to show

that there's these things

that have changed over time.

We have things that start small

and go big.

As we look at Genesis chapter 12,

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

we get to see how it started,

and we know how it's going.

Okay?

How it started,

there's a 75-year-old man

who has an infertile wife

who's also his sister.

Think about that.

Okay?

How it started.

I'm going to say that again.

You have a 75-year-old man

with an infertile wife

who's also his sister.

How it's going,

there's estimated 2.5 billion Christians

around the world today,

more than any other world religion.

How it started,

in the desert of the ancient Near East.

How it's going,

all around the world.

By the way,

the ancient Near East

is not the geographic base

of Christianity anymore.

The geographic base of Christianity

is now the global south.

How it started.

Abraham abandoning his homeland,

becoming a nomad,

picking up all his possessions,

and leaving everything that he knew.

Some of you, by the way,

know something about that.

How it's going.

Jesus promised

that his people will inherit the earth.

How it started.

Jesus called to Abraham

to give up everything

and leave his homeland.

How it's going.

Jesus called to us

that we've seen in the Gospel of Mark

to follow me.

In other words,

we see now

how much power God has.

We see what Abraham

could only hope in by faith.

that God was going to spread

his grace

around the entire world.

We know and understand

the plan that God had

in a way that Abraham

could only guess at,

that he was going to send

his one and only son

as a sacrifice.

And how did we get

from how it started

to how it's going?

We got there

because Jesus is the one

who has come

and he is the one

who is coming.

We got there

because Jesus is the one

who comes and fulfills

and completes the promise.

We got there

because he is going

to heal the world

far as the curse

is found.

We got here

because Jesus came

for the salvation

of the world.

That is why

we're able to look

at Genesis 12

and say how it started

and look at what God

has given us

here this morning

at Cheyenne Mountain

Presbyterian Church

and the fellowship

that we have

with Christians

around the world

and throughout time

and say

this is how it's going.

That is what we celebrate

here at Advent.

The promise

from Habakkuk 2

we begin to see

how it's going to happen.

The earth will be filled

with the knowledge

of the glory of the Lord

as the waters

cover the sea.

Jesus is the one

who comes

as the blessing

to the nations.

and he comes

unlike any other religion

not tied

to a geographic place

but someone

who's come

for the whole world.

In his book

on Mark

called Jesus the King

Tim Keller

talks about

this reality

of Christianity

being a worldwide religion

and he tells

about an interview

with a man

named Andrew Wells

who noted that

wherever the other

great world religions

began

that is still

their center today.

Islam started

in Arabia

at Mecca

and the Middle East

is still

the center

of Islam today.

Buddhism

started in the Far East

and that's still

the center of Buddhism.

So too

with Hinduism.

Christianity

is the exception.

Christianity's center

is always moving

always

on a pilgrimage.

He listed

it was in Jerusalem

at one point

it moved

to the Hellenistic

and Mediterranean world

then for a while

the center of Christianity

was in Northern Europe.

In the 20th century

North America

became the center.

Meanwhile

in Latin America

Asia and Africa

it has been growing

at up to 10 times

the population

growth rate.

In the past decade

it has returned

more than 50%

of Christians

in the world

now live

in the southern hemisphere.

And we're not surprised

because Jesus

has come

as the blessing

to the nations.

In the year 1900

Africa was only

1% Christian.

Now Christians

make up nearly half

the African population.

In the next

50 to 70 years

the center

of Christianity

is predicted

to complete

this shift

away from

European countries

and from

the United States.

It will migrate

as it always migrates.

Jesus truly

is

the blessing

to the nations.

He is

the one

who has come

for every

people

place

tribe

and tongue

and nation.

He is the fulfillment

of this promise

to Abraham.

And so

how do we respond

to him?

What do we do

with a God

who has come

for people

who speak

every language?

Well we do

what Abraham

models for us here.

We answer his call

to follow him.

Abraham experiences

tremendous loss here.

He gives up

his family.

He gives up

the place

that he's known.

He gives up

permanence.

And instead

he takes on

this nomadic life.

And he does it

by the way

with a bleak picture

with bad odds.

everything would

say that Abraham

is headed into failure.

Everything would

predict that this

is a bad idea

and yet God's

promise here

is that he's

going to provide

for them

what no one else

can.

The hope

of those

at the Tower

of Babel

is that they

would make

a name

for themselves.

God tells

Abraham here

verse 2

I will make

your name

great.

I am going

to be the one

who fulfills

your greatest

hopes

and dreams.

And it's been

pointed out here

that God's

I wills

in this passage

far outstrip

and eclipse

anything he asks

of Abram.

Abram is just

told go

and then we see

this list

of I wills.

The land

that I will show

you.

I will make

of you a great

nation.

I will bless

you.

You will be a

blessing.

I will bless

those who bless

you.

I will curse

and you all

the families

of the earth

will be blessed.

God always

empowers

and enables

what he commands.

God always

gives all

the resources

for what he

has called

us to do.

God always

bankrolls

our obedience

with his promises.

True for

Abraham

and true

for us

as well.

We see

his blessing

to the nations

and so we

follow him

and we trust

him.

people are

often fascinated

by founding

stories

especially

when those

founding stories

show something

small becoming

something great

and so one of

the most famous

ones is Apple

computers starting

in this garage

with a pirate

flag flying on

the wall back

in 1976.

Now what most

people don't

remember is that

there weren't

just two founders

to Apple.

There were three

founders.

founders.

The third

founder was

this man

named Ronald

Wayne and

less than two

weeks after the

founding of Apple

Ronald decided

that he wanted

to pull out

and so he

sold his 10%

share in the

company for a

grand whopping

total of $800.

It's estimated

that in 2013

10% of Apple

would have been

worth $35 billion.

million.

Now maybe he

thought it was a

bleak picture

and bad odds

to be a part

of a computer

company that

was starting in

a garage with a

pirate flag on

the wall.

At the end

of 2020

Apple was worth

$65.34

billion.

Small to big

in a way that

would have been

hard, maybe

impossible to

imagine at the

time.

Brothers and

sisters, in this

passage in

Genesis chapter

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

12, we get to

see the greatest

founding story of

all time.

Something that

makes $65 billion

look incredibly

small.

when we

celebrate

Advent, we

are celebrating

that something

much greater

and more

glorious and

more powerful

than Apple

stock is

here.

In fact, we

see something

that is meant

to be a

blessing to

the entire

nations, not

providing wonderful

electronic experiences,

but providing

salvation and

redemption,

reconciliation in

our relationship

with God, and

therefore our

reconciliation with

one another,

knowing that God

is coming to

wipe every tear

away from our

eyes and

restore and

remake this

world better

than it has

ever been in

the past, that

he has come to

heal and

redeem and

restore.

And we have

the chance to

take part in

that now, like

Abraham, following

God's call, because

we have seen

his power.

We see a

world of

wickedness where

the nations are

scattered, and

we see that God

continues to

pursue, offering

his blessing to

every single one

of them.

Jesus is the

one who has

come as the

blessing for you

and for me.

Let's pray.

Our Father in

heaven, we thank

you for the

glorious and

wonderful work

that you have

done in our

lives and that

you do around

the world.

We thank you

that you have

come not for

people who

just speak one

language, but

people who

speak every

language.

We thank you

that you

haven't come

just for one

country, but

you've come for

every country.

We thank you

that you've

given us hope

and confidence

in you as we

see your power

at work in a

way that it is

not visible

anywhere else,

that we know

that you are

the one and

true God.

We ask that

you would use

that truth to

encourage us and

challenge us and

change us.

And we ask

these things in the

mighty name of

Jesus Christ.