Salvation History: An (Un)Expected Journey

Good morning. Today's scripture reading is found in Genesis 11 and Genesis 12.

Please follow along in your bulletins as we share these passages with you.

This is the account of Terah's family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

And Haran became the father of Lot.

While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans in the land of his birth.

Abram and Nahor both married.

The name of Abram's wife was Sarai and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah.

She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Ishka.

Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.

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

And together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan.

But when they came to Haram, they settled there.

Terah lived 205 years and he died in Haran.

In Genesis 12, the Lord had said to Abram,

Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.

I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you.

And whoever curses you, I will curse.

And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.

Abram was 75 years old when he set out from Haran.

He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated,

and the people they had acquired in Haran,

and they set out for the land of Canaan.

And they arrived there.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Morai at Shechem.

At the time, the Canaanites were in the land.

The Lord appeared to Abram and said,

To your offspring I will give this land.

So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

From there he went on towards the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent,

with Bethel on the west and I on the east.

There he built an altar to the Lord and called the name of the Lord.

Then Abram set out and continued toward Negev.

This is the reading of God's word.

Good morning, Watermark.

My name is Mike, and I'm helping here at the church with the ministry to university students.

And if you're new here or maybe some of you have been traveling the past few weeks

and you have missed out, let me just get you up to speed with what we have been looking at

and what we have been studying at the church here.

For the past few months, we've been walking through the first few chapters of the Bible.

We looked at the creation story, and then we looked at the story of Adam and Eve in the garden,

and then we talked about Noah and the flood,

and last week we talked about the Tower of Babel.

So all the chapters that we have looked at so far,

they all had to do with how humanity, how we,

broke our relationship with God and how we reached for greatness,

for our own greatness,

and how humanity turns their back on God,

on this journey to putting me in the center.

Now, to illustrate to you

this reaching for greatness

of humanity, I don't have to go

back too far, being a German,

I only have to go back about one week.

It was the Champions League final in London,

but I don't want to start

a church hooligan war,

and so my Dutch and British friends here are getting a little antsy,

and my American friends, I don't want to bore you with more

soccer analogies that I like to use.

So I'll tell you a different story.

I'll tell you a story, a tale of three German villagers,

who after a hard day of work, they would usually get together,

and these three villagers would then talk about their day.

Now, last week, Chris Thornton shared with us about the Tower of Babel,

and he talked about how some people like to talk about how great they are,

and how they exaggerate,

and exactly that, what Chris described,

happened with these three people,

these three villagers,

and one who used to be a fisherman.

And this fisherman did exactly,

every time he came back, he said,

today I caught a fish, and it was so big.

But, we have a deal,

a way of dealing with that kind of attitude in Germany.

So every time this guy came up,

they got a little angry, the other two,

and so next time he came up,

right when he wanted to start telling about his day,

they stopped him in his tracks,

and they pulled out a pair of handcuffs,

and put the handcuffs on his hands,

and he looked a little confused and said,

don't worry, just tell us about your day.

And they were all with a big smile standing there.

And so he said,

yeah, yeah, today I was out,

and I was fishing,

and you won't believe,

I caught a fish,

and it has eyes that big.

Anyway, so it shows like it's just in us.

The stories of Genesis that we have studied so far

have told that story of how

this striving for our own greatness

is just something that humanity is,

it's just in our nature,

and we look for our glory,

not for God's glory.

But then as I'm also reading through these chapters

in Genesis,

and hear these stories of the Tower of Babel,

and so on,

I sometimes find it very hard

to place myself in these grand stories.

Like seriously,

when you hear about Adam and Eve,

and Noah,

and the Babylonians,

like do you find it easy to just think,

yeah, I could be right there.

This is just kind of like my life.

And then automatically,

like think of like,

how does it relate to me?

I don't.

And I mean,

there are these bigger than life characters

that grow like 200, 300 years old,

and they built like gigantic boats in deserts

just because God told them,

and they play hoops with angels,

and not that,

but you know what I mean?

Like it's just these out of like

real life kind of experiences.

It's like these bigger than life characters,

and today we look at Abraham.

And Abraham is one other

of these bigger than life characters.

So today,

as we look at his story,

I want to see

how can we actually relate to that?

How can we place us in that story?

Where am I in that story?

Where are you in that story?

And what does it have to do with us as a church?

I personally,

I did not grow up in a church.

I actually did not grow up Christian.

So for the first 23 years of my life,

the Bible and all these stories,

they didn't really have a lot of meaning

for me,

for my journey,

and Adam and Eve,

they were actually on the same level

with Hansel and Gretel.

Like they were fairytale characters.

I did not think they had anything to do

besides like a moral teaching of,

I don't know,

some fairytale story.

I simply lived my life,

the normal life.

I had a job in banking.

I wanted to start my business one day,

make money,

enjoy my life,

just what normal people do.

And I could care less about

what life lessons Noah had for me.

And so in August 2000,

that started to shift.

That's when I became a Christian.

And I started to engage with these stories

and I tried to see how these stories

in the Bible relate to my life

and how they actually tell a story

that has something to do with me.

Actually, two years into my Christian journey,

that desire had grown so much

that I actually decided to study a master's in theology

instead of continuing my business career.

At the time when I went to Bible college,

I did not think about becoming a pastor.

I actually wanted to go to see

how it relates to my life

and I just felt this urge to learn and grow.

And so my friends would ask me,

so are you like in banking?

Like what are you doing?

Like studying theology,

going to Bible college?

And I said,

I'm thinking about becoming a consultant

for business ethics.

That was the best way

that I felt like I could make sense of these things

and maybe it was also because

I couldn't make sense of that.

It was just,

there was this calling

that I couldn't resist

and that I knew I had to do this.

And so I went to seminary

and growing up in Germany

and then going to seminary in the States

has been quite an interesting experience.

So especially when you have not grown up

in like Sunday school culture

and so compared to all my classmates,

who most of them came from the American Bible Belt,

that was a totally new world for me.

My worst class in seminary ever

was the introduction to Christian scriptures

because I had to memorize

and repeat in the exams

who was the son of who from the tribe.

I couldn't even pronounce.

And all around me

were these like Sunday school raised people

that like in the exam

would sing like a What Are My Kids song.

And they remembered like all these names

and yeah,

I was four years old when I learned that.

But for me,

I had no contact with these stories.

And so it all reminded me

that kind of, you know,

this Bible story,

I did not find my place in God's history.

I did not connect with this history

that he was telling.

And I'm sure you here today

may feel the same way

depending on how you grew up.

You may not.

You know, when you hear this Bible passage

and thanks to the readers

going through all these names,

you may feel like,

I don't connect.

I don't know.

I don't get this.

Like all these strange Old Testament names.

And so as we go

and now look at the story of Abraham,

so how do we not view him

as this like superhero

of the Christian faith,

this out of the,

you know,

out of real life kind of character?

So I hope that

when we go on this journey

that we can relate to him.

So let's have a look at the text

and see what it has to say to us today.

So the text in your bulletin

starts with a genealogy.

It's telling who is the son of who

and from which tribe

and all these complicated names.

And if we are honest,

most of us,

if you do read the Bible,

you may just skip that part.

At least I have never heard anybody

to say Genesis 11, 27, 32

when someone asks you

for your favorite Bible verse.

It just seems to have no meaning,

no content.

It's just a list of random names

and you just go over it.

But I want to see

whether we can actually make some sense

of even the genealogy.

And so here are some things

that I want to highlight.

First,

the passage in chapter 11 begins with,

this is the account of.

And if you have gone through

your Genesis devotional

or study book,

we have the study book

that we prepared

for the church to go through.

So you can pick up a copy outside

if you haven't done that yet.

But there's a devotional

and a study guide.

And so if you have gone

through that already,

then you will see

that this is not the first time

that this phrase,

this is the account of,

appears.

Actually,

it has happened like six times,

I think,

to this point.

So,

one of the times

that it appears

was in chapter 10.

And it also started

with the same construct

introducing the family tree

of Noah.

So when we see

a family tree,

this tree seems

to introduce

something

of significance

or rather someone

that if someone's history

is recorded,

there must be something

that comes out

of that story,

out of that family

that we should

pay close attention to.

And so here in this text,

it's the family tree

of terror

that's introduced.

And so the text continues

introducing his sons.

And then like

in Adam's family tree

or Noah's family tree,

we also hear

find the family tree

with three sons.

And here the son

that we will hear

a lot about

is Abram,

who will later

be called Abraham.

Another thing

that we may easily

skip over

when we don't read

that genealogy

is in verse 29,

we hear about

Nehar,

Milka,

Ishka,

and in these names

we actually see

that the whole tribe

has become idolatrous.

The names actually

refer to the cult

of moon worship.

So the clan

after scattered

from last week's story

has been scattered

throughout the land

and they started

to embrace

the surrounding cultures.

So the generations

had passed

and people had made

their home.

Tara's family

had made a home

in this foreign culture.

So the genealogy

not only introduces

that someone significant

is coming

or something significant

is about to happen,

but also that there

were certain circumstances

that something

had gone wrong

and God is beginning

to intervene

and speak into it.

And thirdly,

as we read

this introduction,

there's also something

to learn from

what is not being said.

Nothing that introduces

Abraham

indicates that he was

anyone special.

He's not introduced

as a bigger-than-life

character

with some special merits,

no amazing achievements,

no reason for why

God would call him

specifically.

It is a simple genealogy

and not that of a great king

or someone who

has proven himself.

He's just not portrayed

as that bigger-than-life

character.

In the following passage,

God is calling

a simple person

from a broken family,

from a tribe

that has embraced

idolatrous worship,

that didn't have

special achievements,

and he calls him

to be used by God.

So in the same way

as God calls

simple people,

I think that's where

we can find ourselves

in that story

because he still today

uses simple people,

called simple and broken people,

to bring glory to himself.

So let's look at

the second part

of that text

and let's dig a little bit deeper

in that calling

that we find

in chapter 12.

The chapter starts

with God interacting

with Adam

and it's the first time

since the time of Noah

when God had established

the covenant

that there's a recorded

conversation

or some kind of dialogue

between God

and his people.

And I'm sure you have studied

all your genealogies

very carefully

and the numbers

and then you have all figured out

that it's about 400 years

from Noah till now.

So for 400 years

there has been

somewhat of a silence,

nothing that God has revealed

is so significant

that it would be mentioned

in the scriptures.

And so in verse 1

he says,

Now we said we want to look

at Abraham as a real person

and I think this

is one of these situations

where that gets

a little difficult

because we start

to read these things

and God said to Abraham

and it gets tough

because suddenly

he starts to sound unreal.

Like he has this like

dialogue going on

with God

and they are like good bodies

and what do we do with that

when it says God said?

Was it a vision?

Was it like a voice from heaven?

The text doesn't say it

but I do want to point out

that from we gather

this is the first time

that Abraham has such

a clear encounter

with the true and living God.

Something that is so

out of the ordinary for him

that it changes his tracks

and is significant

in his story.

And so

this encounter

is something that

that I think

when we relate it

to our situation

we have to kind of

understand

what is it

that it takes

for us to change

our direction.

The encounter

is enough for

Abraham

to take God

by his word

and I mean

what is being said

is quite significant.

it's to leave his people

to leave his tribe

to leave his family

and to do that

like what would it take

for us to do that?

What kind of encounter

would that take for us?

When I think about my life

I had several

encounters with God

that I would say

were significant

in my story

that I would record

about my story

but there was never

like an audible voice

from heaven.

Like one of the first times

that I would say

in my life

I have seen

like a significant

change of direction

in my life

was when God

called me

into following Christ

when I was 23.

But it was not

that something happened

right away

but there were

certain moments

certain questions

that I had

but then in August 2000

I had this

encounter with God

when I was in Egypt

where I just was

reading about his story

and I could not

not follow him

and it's something

I cannot explain

but if I would

write my story

this would be something

I would say

God said to me

come follow me

and I had the same thing

when I decided

to go to seminary

it's not like

oh yeah

and then I had

this dialogue

with God

I said what do you think

should I go to seminary

should I be in banking

and I think

it's pretty good

I go to seminary

but it was something

where as I started

walking my journey

with God

he started to talk

to me through people

through his word

and there was

this tension

building up inside

of me

that I could not

not do

and so there again

if I would write my story

I would say

and God spoke to me

that I should

leave my stuff behind

and go to seminary

it happened to me

again like seven years ago

when I decided

to come to Hong Kong

it was never on my radar

but suddenly

God opened a door

and everything

pushed me

to that journey

four years ago

I wanted to quit

my time in Hong Kong

and God used

so many ways

that I could not

not do this

so these are

the circumstances

where I would say

okay

this is where God

spoke to me

so when you look

at the scripture passage

you see Abraham

having this conversation

with God

is he a bigger

than life character

or are there moments

in your life

where you would say

this is a time

in my life

where I have seen

God calling me

where I have seen

God interacting

with me

and if you are here

and you think

I don't really know

where that could be

found in my life

then maybe it's

like the time

before Abraham

had this first encounter

that there is something

building up

towards something

where God

is speaking

so what kind of

encounter

would it take

for us

to drastically

change direction

in our life

what kind of

God says to you

would it take

for you

to make such

a significant life change

that you may leave

Hong Kong

your country

your family

your relationships

and take a drastic

turn in your life

I want to look at

verses 2 and 3

and see kind of

what kind of

encounter

Abraham

had

with God

here

so

God says to

pack his

stuff up

or leave his place

and then he says

I will make you

a great nation

and I will bless you

I will make your name

great

and you will be

a blessing

I will bless

those

who bless you

and whoever

curses you

I will curse

and all peoples

on earth

will be blessed

through you

what strikes me

about this passage

is first of all

that it's not

a blessing

I mean all these

blessings

that God promises

they are not things

that Abraham

ever asked for

but it started

with God

reaching out

to Abraham

it's not like

Abraham was

on his knees

asking to God

if you're real

come show up

and tell me

how you want

to use my life

or bless my business

but when I look

at my life

that's often

how I look

for God

to show up

how God

fits in

my plan

and my

life story

but here

it says

that

he comes up

and he says

I will

I will

I will

I will

so God

comes with

a very clear

plan

and calls him

into following this

this plan

is something else

that is so easily

to be missed

and we could

read through

this two verses

so quickly

but actually

there are scholars

that suggest

that you could

divide the Bible

right at these verses

that you could

basically say

chapters 1 to 11

could be the first half

of the scripture

and everything else

from chapter 12 on

from this

this calling

could be the rest

let me explain

what is so significant

here

so up to this point

the story has been

about how things

are falling apart

it's how

something that was

created for good

has now gone

on a journey

but this is a journey

of destruction

things are falling apart

and we have seen

humanity breaking

with that relationship

with God

we have looked

into the results

of Adam and Eve's

rebellion

and them being

banned from the garden

we have seen

the flood

bringing creation

to the brink

of destruction

and we have also seen

last week

how humanity

now was scattered

all over the world

but here we see

a turning point

in human history

while up to this point

things have been

falling apart

and humanity

is moving

further and further

away from God

here we see

God calling Abraham

to be the father

of a people

who would make

his name great

as a beginning

point of a movement

back towards him

the beginning

of a journey

to restore

all these broken

things

I mentioned before

how it was

difficult in seminary

for me

to relate to

this great story

that God is writing

but I thought

okay this is like

biblical studies

once I learn

all these terminologies

that's okay

but oh theology

maybe that's something

that may work

better for me

like a lot of

German writers

and German theologians

maybe that gives

me an advantage

so one day

I was in theology

class

and one of my

professors

started talking

and he wanted

to use a well

known German

theological term

which is called

Heilsgeschichte

Now I had never

heard of that term

in my life

in German

and so he

pronounced it

and he wanted

to see whether

it's correct

and I looked

at him very confused

and so he tried

to pronounce it

over and over again

and all the

classmates were

looking at him

and thinking

he has a really

bad German pronunciation

I was sitting

oh my gosh

I have no clue

what the word

even means

so after class

I went home

and I had to

do that quite a bit

so I had to look

up kind of like

okay what's the

translation

what does it

even mean

so I looked

up this term

and so the term

is called

salvation history

it's a term

that was coined

in the 19th century

if you ever want

to read German theology

stop in the 19th century

don't go into

the 20th century

just a disclaimer

there's just a lot

of dodgy stuff

we came up with

afterwards

so 19th century

salvation history

is the term

and the definition

is salvation history

refers to all

redemptive activity

of God

with human history

to effect his

eternal saving

intentions

so salvation history

views all events

in human history

especially those

recorded in the

scripture

as arranged

toward bringing

about God's

plan of saving

his people

everything from

the beginning

and end of history

is arranged

to bring about

God's plan

of saving people

let me put that

into some kind

of real life

example

any fans of

CSI here

CSI is a TV show

I'm sure some of you

have watched it

it's an American TV show

and it follows a crime scene

investigation team

as they search for evidence

to resolve murders

basically

so every time

it follows pretty much

the same format

some kind of murder happens

and then

as something goes wrong

about two minutes

into the show

the crime scene

investigation team

shows up

at the murder scene

and they're starting

to try to figure out

what's going on

so the rest of the show

is them trying to put

the pieces back together

that at the end

of the show

that things are being resolved

they have solved

the puzzle

and justice can be served

now there's something

pretty frustrating

when you want to watch CSI

and you turn on

in minute three

because you have just

missed out on the crime

now they do an okay job

as kind of like

revisiting that

but it can be

kind of like

take a long time

to even like

put together the piece of

okay what just happened here

like they are trying

to figure something out

but I don't know

what it is

and this is how I felt

about salvation history

that I jumped in

into that story of God

having missed the beginning

having missed like

most of it

and feeling like

okay where am I in this

and so this is the journey

of salvation history

and trying to figure out

where we put in

so as we look into

Genesis chapter 12

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

we see the starting point

of the crime being resolved

the greatest crime

being an offense to God

the relationship with humanity

breaking

and now

God introduces

his rescuing plan

his way of restoring things

of bringing justice

bringing restoration

to that which is broken

as God invites Abraham

on this journey

to bring restoration

I think it's really interesting

because it's not like

he goes to Abraham

and says

hey I want you to have

a really prosperous life

for yourself

or you know

I want to bless your plan

but it's about Abraham

leaving his plan behind

and there will be

a greater blessing

the blessing of taking part

in God's plan

of salvation history

the history

of salvation

starting here

continues from one person

to a tribe

to a nation

and we just had a team

from Israel returning

that went to that nation

and so 30 of us

went to Israel

to the nation of Israel

where God

promised a nation

to be haunted

thousands of years ago

in this promise

and they came back

and one of the spots

they visited there

was the place

where Jesus was baptized

in Luke 3

and you can look it up

in your Bible

or I will read it to you

in Luke 3

Luke 3:21

verse 21

and I want to just

read this to you

it starts saying

when all the people

were being baptized

Jesus was baptized too

and as he was praying

heaven was opened

and the Holy Spirit

descended on him

in bodily form

like a dove

and a voice came from heaven

you are my son

whom I love

with you

I am well pleased

now Jesus himself

was about 30 years old

when he began his ministry

he was the son

so it was thought

of Joseph

the son of Heli

the son of Methad

the son of Levi

the son of Melchi

the son of Janai

the son of Joseph

and for 10 verses

generation after generation

the sons

and the sons

and the sons

are listed

till in verse 34

it says

the son of Jacob

the son of Isaac

the son of Abraham

the son of Terah

and it continues

through the generations

we have seen today

and the son of Noah

and finally in Luke 3

Luke 3:38

verse 38

it says

the son of Thess

the son of Adam

the son of God

and as I'm reading

through this genealogy

I'm in awe

of God's plan

and

I

I said that to him

preparing for this

is the first time

that I've tried

through a genealogy

just seeing

God's plan

of salvation

being worked out

and spanning

generation

after generation

it's an unbelievable

pointer

to God's salvation

history

that he invites us

into a story

that is bigger

than any story

any human being

could ever write

it spends from

the beginning

of time

to the end

of time

this is the story

of a covenant

established with Abraham

that finds its climax

in Christ

coming and being

crucified

and bringing

redemption to all

inviting us

to his ultimate

goal in heaven

and making peace

and reconciliation

with creation

and so we see

this promise

in this chapter

then fulfilled

and all people

on earth

will be blessed

through you

this blessing

spends on

to all of us

here today

and seeing

the grand scale

of God

what God is saying

here to Abraham

that the promise

he is calling him

into

going over

generation and generation

it just blows my mind

you start to look

at your own story

and you see

that selfishness

and it calls you

to humility

about how

I approach

my life

that I feel

like okay

I want you

to bring about

my plan

but one day

all of us

will see God

and we'll see

the big picture

of his plan

of salvation

spanning through

all generations

and we will stand

there with our

chapter

our accomplishments

the plans

that we have

carried out

and the question

will be

did they have

any part

in God's plan

how do they

fit

into the

salvation history

and let me

encourage you

as a church

that

what this text

says

is something

I see

all around

in this body

of believers

I see it

in the love

and care

that you show

to the ICM kids

and how you invite

them into God's

redemptive work

and I see it

in the way

the community

was built here

for people

to be the hands

and feet

of Jesus

in the St. Barnabas

ministry

to the homeless

to the elderly

homes in the area

I see it

through the guys

that have served

in the university

ministry faithfully

and mentored

young guys

that are lost

on their journey

and I've seen it

everywhere I walk

in this church

when people

leave their

own plans

behind

their own

goals

and they put

them under

God's great plan

of salvation

history

so I want to

close with

this final part

of the scripture

that we have here

so as Abram

went

as the Lord

had told him

it says that

Abram traveled

through the land

as far as the

side of the

great tree

of Merah

at Shechem

at that time

the Canaanites

were in the land

the Lord

appeared to Abram

and said

to your offspring

I will give

this land

so he built

an altar

there

to the Lord

who appeared

to him

from there

he went

toward the

hills east

of Bethel

and pitched

his tents

with Bethel

on the west

and I

on the east

there he

built an

altar

to the Lord

and called

on the name

of the Lord

and then

Abram set out

and continued

toward the

Negev

so what the

text leaves

us with

as a reminder

is that

Abram sets

on this

journey

to join

in

into that

great story

of God

that he

built an

altar

on the

way

as a

reminder

that it's

not about

his glory

but about

God's

glory

and so I

think about

this day

when we

will stand

in front

of God

and we

look at

our story

and we

realize

that it's

more worth

to have a

line or

even a

footnote

in the

great story

of God

than having

written a

great book

that brings

glory to

us

we pray

Father

as we

just see

your

word

and

as we

see

your

salvation

history

and your

plan

we just

send it

off

how you

carry out

your plan

from the

beginning

of time

to the

end

how you

in control

even if

we don't

feel like

it

and so

today

we pray

that

we would

hear you

speak

in

whatever

way it

takes

for us

to leave

our

ways

behind

our

dreams

behind

our

plans

behind

to follow

you

to join

in your

great

story

to see

that this

is all

about your

history

of saving

everything

and redeeming

everything

to yourself

and we

thank you

that we

see that

in you

coming to

this world

and that

in your

dying on

the cross

you have

shown the

greatest

sign of

what it

means for

you to

lay down

everything

to redeem

us

that

your

plan

is

about

redeeming

us

and pray

this

in

Christ's

name

and

that

will

fight