Covenant Upgrade

Today our reading is from Genesis chapter 17 and it's the full chapter so yeah settled in for a bit of a long read.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

Then Abram fell on his face and God said to him,

Behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

No longer shall your name be called Abram but your name shall be Abraham for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I'll make you into nations and kings shall come from you.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout the generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.

And I will be their God.

And God said to Abraham,

As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout the generations.

This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.

Every male among you shall be circumcised.

You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.

Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,

both he who is born in your house and he who is born with your money shall be circumcised.

So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people.

He has broken my covenant.

And God said to Abraham,

As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her.

I will bless her and she shall become nations.

Kings of people shall come from her.

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself,

Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old?

Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?

And Abraham said to God,

Oh, that Ishmael might live before you.

God said,

No, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son.

And you shall call his name Isaac.

I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you.

I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly.

He shall father twelve princes and I will make him into a great nation.

But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.

When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

Then Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all those who were born in his house, all bought with money.

Every male among the men of Abraham's house.

And he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.

Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

That very day, Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.

And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner,

were circumcised with him.

This is God's word. May he bless it to us today.

Good morning, everyone.

It would be a great help if you have your Bibles open at Genesis chapter 17.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

And also, if you have an outline, I think that may assist you this morning as well.

Now, if you do have an outline, which is in the bulletin there,

it may feel ominously long and detailed.

It is there to help you follow the flow of thought in Genesis chapter 17.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

I'll be spending more time speaking about the first half of the outline than the second half.

So don't get too nervous.

But yeah, it will just help you follow the flow of ideas.

And I'll be stepping through most of the ideas on that outline bit by bit as we go through the text of Genesis 17.

Now, Genesis 17 is a chapter of monumental significance,

which reverberates through the rest of the Bible.

Genesis 17, it may not have quite the same human drama as chapter 16,

which we looked at last week.

But in the scheme of the Bible's unfolding story,

Genesis 17, chapter 17, is by far the more important.

It's the first time in this chapter that we hear the name Abraham.

We've met him before, of course, by a different name, by the name Abram.

But this is Abraham is the name by which he will be known throughout the rest of the scriptures.

The name which we mentioned 73 times in the New Testament,

second only to Moses as an Old Testament figure in the New Testament.

The first mention in the Bible of circumcision.

Genesis chapter 17, in this chapter, the word covenant occurs more times than in any other chapter in the Bible.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

Thirteen times the word covenant occurs in Genesis chapter 17.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

The closest any other chapter in the Bible gets is seven.

There's a lot going on in Genesis 17.

So I want to give you something to hang on to as we get into it.

And what I'm going to give you to hang on to is five speeches, four names, one promise.

Five speeches, four names, one promise.

The covenant God announces in this chapter unfolds over five speeches.

Five times the speech of God is introduced.

In four of those five speeches, God gives someone a new name.

Simon spoke about a couple of those in the kids' talk.

And those names are keys which unlock the key ideas, the key themes of the covenant in this chapter.

But everything God says, all five speeches, all four new names, are all for the sake of one staggering promise.

Five speeches, four names, one promise.

Now God makes various promises in this chapter and many more throughout the Bible.

But of every promise God has given, there is one specific promise in this chapter that I would suggest is the most important promise of all.

It's the most important promise because it is the whole point of every other promise.

And in the Bible we hear it for the first time in Genesis chapter 17.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

So let's get into this chapter together.

Five speeches, four names, one promise.

It begins in verse 1, when Abram was 99 years old.

Now 13 years had passed since the end of chapter 16.

13 years had passed since Abram's son Ishmael was born to Hagar.

And Hagar, if you were here last week, you will remember, was an Egyptian servant girl who belonged to Abram's wife Sarai.

It's been 13 years with Abram, his wife Sarai, Ishmael and Hagar living together under the one roof, so to speak.

13 years, we might imagine, of some domestic tension.

But nonetheless, at the end of those 13 years, at age 99, as an old man, Abram probably thought that the most important events of his life were past.

God had given him promises in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

He had journeyed to the land of Canaan.

He had defeated a coalition of eastern kings in chapter 14.

God had made a covenant with him in chapter 15.

And we had the birth of Ishmael in chapter 16.

The major events of Abram's life seem complete.

He has a son.

He has an heir.

Sure, it may have come about in an awkward way, but his line would continue.

God's promises would continue.

But God was about to interrupt Abram's thoughts.

And so we come to the first of God's five speeches in this chapter.

Verse 1.

First, God says, I am God Almighty.

In Hebrew, El Shaddai.

I am El Shaddai.

This is the first of the four new names in this chapter.

God identifies himself here as El Shaddai for the first time in the Bible.

And that's not the most common name for God in the Bible.

I think it occurs 48 times through the Old Testament, mostly in the book of Job.

It pops up at some significant places in Genesis.

And there is some uncertainty about how it should be translated, El Shaddai.

But God Almighty is probably close to the mark.

Or maybe, as the New English translation has it, the sovereign God.

El is easy.

That just means God.

What about Shaddai?

Well, I think the most likely suggestions for Shaddai are that it's related to either the Hebrew word for sufficiency

or to a Hebrew word to destroy and overpower, a word for strength.

Either way, here is a name that suggests God's absolute power, sovereignty and strength.

The early Christian scholar, Jerome, 4th century scholar who translated the Hebrew Old Testament

into a Latin version called the Vulgate, he consistently translated this word Shaddai with the Latin word omnipotence.

El Shaddai is not a God to be trifled with.

He is a God who can do whatever he wishes.

I am El Shaddai.

And what El Shaddai had for Abram in this first speech was a two-part command and a two-part promise.

And in each case, the two parts work together really to convey a single idea.

So first the command, walk before me and be blameless.

God calls Abram to allegiance, obedience and moral integrity.

Walk before me and be blameless.

And what follows is a two-part promise that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly.

Now let me say something in general about covenants and then we'll look at the specifics of this particular covenant.

A covenant in the Bible is a solemn agreement which establishes a lasting relationship.

It's similar to a contract, we have contracts today, but contracts in our context have a very different spirit to the covenants God makes in the Bible.

Contracts, our modern day contracts, are transactional.

They're agreements that serve the self-interest of each party.

They're limited, narrow and clearly defined in scope.

But God's covenants are deeper and much more open-ended than that.

So my wife and my family, we've just moved house.

But at our old house, some years ago, we were doing some renovation work and we engaged a plumber by the name of Anthony.

And Anthony had just started a new business.

We were one of Anthony's first customers.

The first invoice we received from Anthony was number 20.

His invoice number 20.

And we got Anthony, you know, I got on well with Anthony.

He was a hard worker.

We seemed to have a good relationship.

He charged reasonable prices.

He did a good job.

We got him to do more and more work.

We had invoices 20, then 22, then 34, then 52, then 86.

Five of his first hundred invoices written out to us.

We must have been a significant customer for Anthony in the early years of his business.

So we stuck with Anthony from then on.

But over the years, things changed.

His business grew.

We stopped seeing Anthony.

Someone else would answer the phone when we rang.

Someone else would come out to our house to attend a job, a junior plumber.

The fees increased.

The invoice numbers rose.

The most recent invoice we received this year was number 21,340.

The reality is, although my relationship with Anthony was warm, it was only ever transactional.

You do this for me and I'll do that for you.

You unclog our drains and I'll pay your fee.

A lot of people have a transactional approach to God.

Heal me of this affliction and I'll start going to church.

Give me a wife and I'll consider missionary service.

Or maybe we put it around the other way.

God, I've been giving money to church and a mission.

You owe it to me, God, to make my business prosper.

Much ancient religion was transactional in nature.

But El Shaddai does not make contracts.

He makes covenants.

And his words in verses 1 and 2 are more marriage proposal than business deal.

He calls Abram to complete wholehearted allegiance and promises to bind himself to Abram in a covenant.

A covenant that's summarized in the words that I may multiply you greatly.

Now God had already made one covenant with Abram in chapter 15.

The covenant to your descendants I give this land.

But here in chapter 17 he proposes a second covenant.

Or at the very least an expansion of the covenant.

A covenant upgrade.

Now why do I say this is a second covenant or at least a covenant upgrade?

Because the covenant in chapter 17 is future, not past.

The one in chapter 15 is already given.

But this one in chapter 17, when God announces it here in verse 2, it hasn't yet been made.

It's not yet ratified.

He proposes giving Abram this covenant.

But first Abram must walk before him and be blameless.

Chapter 17 is the engagement.

The marriage is yet to come.

So the Lord appeared to Abram with this searching command and this priceless promise.

And Abram did what we might expect a human being to do, a mere mortal to do in the presence of El Shaddai.

Verse 3, he fell on his face.

Which brings us to the second speech in verses 3 to 8 and the second new name.

Verse 3, Abram fell on his face and God said to him,

Now the Hebrew word Ab means father.

And the name Abraham means, or Avram, probably a better pronunciation, means exalted father.

But the name Avraham, as Simon explained in the kids talk, means father of many.

Father of many.

In chapter 15, God had promised Abram many descendants.

And it's implied that they would form one nation in the land of Canaan, the land God was giving.

But in this second covenant, or this covenant upgrade, Abraham would be the father of many in an even greater sense.

He would be the father of a multitude of nations, not just one, but many.

Now that's the promise that's at the heart of this covenant.

Verse 6, I will make you exceedingly fruitful.

The word fruitful there echoes Genesis chapter 1, the promise at creation, or the mandate at creation.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And Genesis chapter 9, the command to Noah, the blessing of Noah after the flood.

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into nations, God says.

That's the promise that's at the heart of this covenant in Genesis chapter 17.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

That's the sense in which God will multiply Abraham greatly.

Making him the father of many, not just descendants, but many nations.

But in what sense would Abraham be the father of a multitude of nations?

That's the question we need to ask.

But hold that question.

First, I want us to see three other elements of this covenant.

Kings, offspring and everlasting.

First kings.

Look at verse 6.

Again, I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you.

The Lord says.

In making this covenant, God emphasizes your descendants will include kings.

For some reason not yet explained, a royal line will be important for this covenant.

Second, your offspring, verse 7.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you.

Throughout their generations.

The covenant in chapter 15 was made with Abram alone.

This covenant God specifically makes with Abraham and his offspring.

It would fully belong to future generations.

Third, everlasting.

Between me and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

For an everlasting covenant, God says.

This covenant would be perpetual.

It would endure.

It concerned God's ultimate plans.

His plans for an everlasting future.

For days without end.

God's everlasting covenant.

His eternal plan was that Abraham would be the father of a multitude of nations.

So let's return to that question.

In what sense would Abraham be the father of a multitude of nations?

Well, one option is maybe he's the father of many nations by physical descent.

Now, he's their ancestor.

Now, getting ahead of ourselves a little bit here, but I have a family tree for Abraham that I think will come up on the screen.

There we go.

There we go.

Showing Abraham's descendants.

And ultimately, Abraham would have children by three women, by Hagar, Sarah and Keturah.

And from them came multiple nations.

The Arab tribes descended from Ishmael.

Edom and Israel descended from Sarah, through Sarah.

And Midianites and others through Keturah.

Now, maybe you could say that if you take all of those different people, groups and nations together, that adds up to a multitude.

And in that sense, Abraham is the father of a multitude of nations.

Although maybe that feels like it's stretching the language a little.

I think next slide we go.

But actually, Genesis doesn't really let us reach that conclusion anyway.

Because later on in this chapter, in verses 19 to 21, God distinguishes between Isaac and Ishmael, two sons of Abraham, and says the covenant will be through Isaac, not through Ishmael.

So that seems to narrow it down even further.

Maybe the multitude of nations, next slide, is just Edom and Israel.

But then that doesn't really sound like a multitude at all.

That's just two.

Even more definitive, though, is when we get to it, Genesis chapter 35, verse 11, when the Lord repeats this or reaffirms this covenant to Jacob, Abraham's grandson.

Genesis 35:11

Genesis 35, verse 9, God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan Aram and he blessed him.

Genesis 35:9

And God said to him, I am God Almighty, El Shaddai.

Be fruitful and multiply.

A nation and a company of nations shall come from you and kings shall come from your own body.

Can you hear all the echoes of Genesis 17 there?

I am El Shaddai.

Be fruitful.

A company of nations.

Kings.

I mean, this is the Genesis 17 covenant being reaffirmed to Jacob.

And about the kings, God is explicit.

He says, kings shall come from your own body.

That is, by physical descent from you.

But what about the first part?

A nation and a company of nations shall come from you.

Well, physically, Jacob was the ancestor of only one nation.

Israel.

Israel.

So God distinguishes.

A nation would come from Jacob, a nation by physical descent.

But a company of nations could only come from Jacob in another sense.

In other words, to bring us back to Genesis 17, the covenant in Genesis 17 is not about Abraham's physical fatherhood of a few nations,

but his spiritual fatherhood of a multitude of nations.

The covenant of Genesis 17 is God's formal, binding, eternal ratification of the promise initially announced in Genesis 12, verse 3,

Genesis 12:3

in you, all families of the earth shall be blessed.

That's the meaning of the name Abraham.

It signifies God's promise and plan and purpose to gather together all nations, all peoples, all the families of the earth,

that they might receive his blessing.

And what is the blessing?

What is the ultimate goal of this covenant?

Well, it's there before us in that one promise, that one most important promise, which is the purpose of every other promise.

Verse 7,

And I'll establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant,

to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Or as God puts it simply at the end of verse 8,

And I will be their God.

God has made an everlasting covenant, from which he will not budge,

to bring together a multitude of nations, all the families of the earth,

so that he might bless us by being our God.

Now think about that promise, and I will be their God.

God has made an everlasting covenant, from which he will not budge,

promise that, because that is just a given of reality.

What God promises here, when he says, I will be their God,

is the kind of relationship with God that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the garden.

When they dwelt in his presence,

heard his voice,

delighted in his blessing,

when they walked with the Lord in the cool of the day.

It's the kind of relationship in which God is over us,

and with us,

and for us,

and nothing in all creation can separate us from his love.

God pledged himself to restore,

with a multitude of nations,

all the spiritual offspring of Abraham,

that perfect union of love,

and worship,

and joy,

for which we were made.

God promised to give himself to us,

that we might glorify him,

and enjoy him forever.

And that promise is for people of every nation.

And I will be their God.

Now I want us to think about some implications of that.

We're going to think about one implication now.

We're going to think about some further implications

after we've looked at the rest of chapter 17, briefly.

One implication now.

Martin Luther King used to say,

11 a.m. Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America.

That is,

he's making the point that in mid-20th century America,

nowhere was the division between black and white

clearer than on a Sunday morning,

when the country divided into black churches,

and white churches,

African-American churches,

and European-American churches.

Now,

at one level,

it doesn't matter if there are ethnic churches.

Think about it.

If in Glendale here,

we had a Chinese church,

and an African church,

and a Korean church,

and a Spanish church,

and an Aboriginal Australian church.

Well, if that happened,

if we had all those churches here in Glendale,

praise God.

There was a 1969 song

by Blue Mink,

which proposed putting all the people of the world

into a melting pot.

And then,

stirring the melting pot

for a hundred years or more,

and then turning out

coffee-coloured people

by the score.

Anyone know that song?

I could sing one or two nods, right?

It's not a very good song.

But,

but,

but while God's plan

is to gather

one church,

that one church

is not uniform,

it's not monochrome.

God wants to be known

and worshipped

in English,

and in Mandarin,

and in Swahili,

and in Spanish,

and in Arabic,

and in Indonesian,

Telugu,

Creole,

and thousands of other languages.

Abraham is not the father

of one coffee-coloured nation,

but of a multitude of nations.

So there's no problem

with specific ethnic

or language-based churches.

Every,

in fact,

every congregation

is a language-based church.

You can't avoid it.

At the same time,

every church,

while it may operate

in a specific language,

should in principle

be a place

where people

of every nation

and ethnicity

and background

are welcome.

Now,

when the multitude

of nations

in the church

is mirrored

in a plurality

of nations

in a church,

well,

that's a beautiful thing.

we have some

of that diversity

here at Grace.

Praise God.

We might pray

for even more.

So let's strive

to be hospitable

to one another,

to build bridges

across culture

and across language,

so that anyone

who walks through

the doors

of our church

will know

they belong,

wherever they come from.

And so God's

covenant with Abraham

might be visibly

displayed

right here

in this place.

Okay,

I have some more

implications later,

but let's just

fly through

the rest of chapter 17

because there are

some more things

we need to notice here

and then we'll

wrap it up together.

The third speech

of God

in verses 9 to 14

begins,

verse 9,

And God said

to Abraham,

As for you,

you shall keep

my covenant,

you and your offspring

after you

throughout their

generations.

Now what God

means by this

when he calls

on Abraham

to keep his covenant

is to keep

what he calls

in verse 11

a sign

of the covenant.

Abraham's descendants

were to be marked

by that sign.

It was a way

of saying

we belong

to the covenant.

We are waiting

on God's promises.

God is our God.

The sign

of the covenant

was circumcision.

Now why circumcision?

Well,

this chapter

doesn't directly

answer that.

In fact,

I don't think

really anywhere

in the Bible

directly answers

that question.

but I think

it's reasonable

to suppose

that there is

some relationship

between the sign

and between

what God

has promised.

Just as you

think about

the covenant

with Noah,

there's an obvious

connection between

the sign,

a rainbow,

and the promise

not to flood

the earth.

Well,

the promise

of the covenant

in Genesis 17

is,

I will multiply

you greatly.

I will make

you exceedingly

fruitful.

I will make

you into nations

and kings

shall come

from you.

So perhaps

the best suggestion

as to why

circumcision

is because

of the association

with procreation.

Circumcision

was to serve

as a visible

sign

that fruitfulness,

multiplication,

descendants

are from

the Lord.

They are the

blessing of

El Shaddai.

And ultimately

it was a

reminder that

it was God

himself who

would fulfil

his promise

to bless

all families

of the earth

through the

seed of Abraham.

God commands

in verse 10

that every male

among you

shall be

circumcised.

And verses

12 to 13

go on to explain

that this includes

both those

born in your

house and

any bought

with your

money from

any foreigner

who's not

of your

offspring.

That is,

this sign

of the

covenant

wasn't only

for the

natural

descendants

of Abraham,

it was for

any who

became

attached

to Abraham's

family.

Whatever

people or

tribe

they might

be from.

All could

be included.

And so

the covenant

with Abraham

was both

universal

and

particular.

We've

seen the

universal,

Abraham the

father of

a multitude

of nations.

But there's

also a sense

in which this

covenant is

particular.

And the

fourth and

fifth speeches

of God in

this chapter

sort of draw

out the

connection

between the

universal and

the particular.

Speech 4,

verse 15,

And God

said to

Abraham,

As for

Sarai,

your wife,

you shall

not call

her name

Sarai,

but Sarah

shall be

her name.

I will

bless her

and moreover

I will

give a

son by

her.

I will

bless her

and she

shall

become

nations.

Kings

of peoples

shall come

from her.

Now,

when God

says I

will bless

her,

I will

give you

a son

by her,

that's the

particular.

family

line.

Physically,

Sarah would

be the

mother of

a particular

family

line.

When God

says I

will bless

her and

she shall

become

nations,

that's the

universal.

Spiritually,

Sarah would

be the

mother of

a multitude

of nations.

So what's

the relationship

between the

two,

between a

son and

nations,

between a

particular

family line

and all

the families

of the

earth?

Well,

Genesis 17

is giving

us hints,

right?

It's laying

seeds,

it's beginning

threads that

will flow

through the

rest of

the Bible.

Here's

another hint.

Kings

of peoples

shall come

from her.

The

particular

line

through

Sarah's

son

would be

a royal

line,

a line

that would

produce

kings,

which

may well

explain the

third new

name we

encounter in

this chapter,

Sarah.

No longer

Sarah,

but call

her name

Sarah,

because Sarah

means princess.

It's a name

fitting for the

mother of

kings.

Kings of

people shall

come from

her.

So as the

Bible unfolds,

the particular

promise,

Sarah's line,

is the

key to the

universal

promise,

all

nations.

It's

through

the son

of Sarah

that the

nations would

be blessed.

The promise

to Sarah

sets us

waiting for

a king,

a king

to whom

would belong

the obedience

of all

nations.

nations.

Now

Abraham

responds to

all this,

the promise

that Sarah

will have

a son in

verse 17,

by falling

on his

face again

and laughing.

And then

he speaks to

himself and

he speaks to

God.

In verse 17,

Abraham says

to himself,

shall a child

be born to

a man who's

a hundred

years old?

Shall Sarah

who's ninety

years old

bear a

child?

I mean,

it's impossible.

His laughter

is laughter

of disbelief.

I'm too

old.

Sarah's

too old.

This can't

happen.

It's

ludicrous.

And so

Abraham

speaks to

God in

verse 18

and offers

a very

practical

solution.

And Abraham

said to

God,

oh that

Ishmael

might live

before you.

Abraham

already had

a son.

Oh may

that this

son,

the son

born according

to the

flesh,

the son

born through

Sarah's

and Abraham's

scheme back

in chapter

16,

may this

son be

enough.

Abraham

laughed at

the impossible

but in his

fifth speech

God picks up

on Abraham's

laughter.

Verse 19,

no but

Sarah your

wife shall

bear you a

son and

you shall

call his

name

Isaac.

Which means

he laughs.

You shall

call his

name Isaac.

I will

establish my

covenant with

him as an

everlasting

covenant for

his offspring

after him.

As for

Ishmael,

I've heard

you and

behold I've

blessed him

and will

make him

fruitful and

multiply him

greatly.

He shall

father twelve

princes and

I'll make

him into a

great nation.

but I

will establish

my covenant

with Isaac

whom Sarah

will bear to

you at

this time

next year.

Here's the

fourth of the

new names.

Isaac, he

laughs and

the name

here, the

naming of

Isaac points

to the

improbability

of what God

was going

to do.

How

ludicrous

it was.

But you

see the

blessing of

all nations

couldn't be

achieved by

man but

only by

God, by

El Shaddai.

It couldn't

be achieved

by the

flesh or

our plans

but only by

the promise

of the

Lord.

And as

for Ishmael,

well Ishmael

wouldn't be the

son through

whom all

nations would

be blessed.

Rather Ishmael

would come to

be a nation

who must

come to

that son

for blessing.

Let's draw

together some

implications for

us.

What does

this mean

for us?

One of the

places Genesis

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17 is

picked up later

in the New

Testament is in

Galatians

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3.

Here are some

verses from

Galatians

Galatians 3:26–29

chapter 3,

verse 26

to 29.

In Christ

Jesus,

you are all

sons of

God through

faith.

For as many

of you as

were baptized

into Christ

have put on

Christ.

There is

neither Jew

nor Greek,

there is

neither slave

nor free,

there is no

male and

female,

for you are

all one

in Christ

Jesus.

And if you

are Christ's,

then you

are Abraham's

offspring,

heirs

according to

the promise.

God's

covenant,

God's

plan,

God's

promise was

that whoever

you are,

whatever your

nationality,

whatever your

background,

whether you're

rich or poor,

whether you're

educated or

illiterate,

slave or

free,

male or

female,

whoever you

are,

that you

might know

him through

the Lord

Jesus

Christ.

Jesus

Christ

is the

King of

peoples.

He is the

royal son of

Sarah,

the son of

Isaac,

the son of

Jacob,

for whom

the covenant

was waiting.

Circumcision's

no longer

required of

us,

Paul makes

that very

clear in

Galatians,

circumcision's

no longer

required,

because we're

no longer

waiting for

the promise.

The son we

were waiting

for has

come.

Through

faith in

Christ,

the promise

that is the

purpose of

all promises

is yours

and I will

be their

God.

He is our

God and we

are his

people,

not just

his people,

his sons.

because the

one Genesis

17 is

waiting for

has come.

Four names,

one promise,

El Shaddai,

Abraham,

Sarah,

Isaac

will be their

God.

But let me

make one

last point

in closing.

Because

brothers and

sisters,

heirs of

Abraham's

promise,

the task

isn't finished

yet.

God

will be

saved.

You can

jump online

and go to

a website

called the

Joshua

Project,

which kind

of tracks

the progress

of the

gospel

throughout

the world,

the progress

of the

promise of

salvation in

Jesus Christ.

Christ.

And according

to the

Joshua

Project,

1.9

billion

people,

that's

one quarter

of the

world's

population,

1.9

billion

people live

in 3,215

frontier people

groups.

Now,

a frontier

people group,

according to

the Joshua

Project,

is a

people group,

a tribe,

a people

group,

in which

there are

fewer than

one in a

thousand

Christians,

often far

fewer.

These are

unreached

people groups

in our

world,

with virtually

no followers

of Jesus,

with no

known

movement

to Jesus,

but people

groups still

in need of

pioneering

cross-cultural

mission.

3,215

people groups,

1.9

billion

people,

a quarter

of the

world's

population.

Among

them are

the

Khunbi

people.

This is a

people group

in central

and western

India,

a people

of 22

million

people.

They speak

Gujarati,

Kannada and

Telugu,

they're the

main languages

of this

group.

Their

religion,

they're Hindu

by religion,

99.3%

Hindu.

The Bible

is available

in their

language and

yet people

in this,

Khunbi

people,

regard

Christianity

with fear

as an

intrusive

religious

system which

will disturb

their culture

and their

families.

people.

There are

very few

believers,

perhaps one

in 2,000.

But God's

plan is to

bless the

Khunbi

people through

faith in

Jesus,

that he may

be their

God.

and that's

just one of

thousands of

unreached

people groups

in our

world.

So brothers,

sisters,

let's keep

praying for

the unfinished

task.

Let's

support those

who are

engaged in

reaching the

nations with

the message

of Christ

and even

let's pray

that God

may send

out people

from our

midst

to the

furthest

reaches of

the world.

Will you

pray with

me?

Heavenly

Father,

we thank

you for

your

everlasting

promise

and covenant,

your

commitment

to us

that you

will be

our God

through your

Son,

the Lord

Jesus

Christ.

Father,

we pray

that at

church here

we might

be welcoming

to people

of all

nations

and all

backgrounds

and all

cultures.

Please,

may we

be a

visible

demonstration

of your

covenant

with

Abraham.

And

Father,

we pray

for the

progress

of the

gospel

of Jesus

Christ

throughout

the world.

There are

still so

many people,

billions of

people,

Lord,

who will

live and

die

without any

real opportunity

to know

their

saviour

unless

someone

goes to

them.

So,

please,

Father,

continue

and speed

the work

of

worldwide

mission.

Help us

to be

prayerful

and to

support

those who

go to

do that

work.

Please

raise up

more from

here and

throughout

the world

to send

to those

unreached

frontier people

groups.

we pray

for the

Kumbi

people and

thousands of

people groups

like them.

We ask

that in

this

generation

you would

bring

Christ,

his name,

his gospel,

the saving

word,

to them in

such a way

that their

hearts are

gripped,

that they

are convicted

and that

they call

on the

name of

their

saviour.

And we

ask all

this for

Jesus'

sake.

Amen.