Presentation 29

Presentation 29

BBC’s former science editor, Dr David Whitehouse wrote, “there is a physicist in Germany who claims to have transmitted a message faster than the speed of light, which is impossible. Or is it? Into one end of his equipment he feeds a signal, in this case one of Mozart's symphonies, and out of the other end comes the symphony but, and this is the important bit, it comes out sooner than one would expect…”

Introduction

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Scientists regard travelling faster than the speed of light to be impossible. Man puts sets boundaries that are based on his understanding and experience, not to mention natural laws that have been observed over the centuries. But God is not bound by the laws of space and time and if the Creator of the laws of physics is not bound by them then for him nothing is really impossible. Roughly 4,000 years ago Abraham discovered this remarkable fact for himself.

Introduction

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24 years had passed since God first made covenant promises to Abram. The fulfilment of these promises required Abram to have an heir. Abram and Sarah had tried to help God out by going down the route of surrogacy. After all Sarah was barren and impotency was just around the corner for Abram.

Ishmael was born to Hagar, Sarah’s slave, and heaven’s silence for the next 13 years made it clear to Abram, that his interference did not meet with God’s approval.

An impossible Situation

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But something else happened during those 13 years. For now, humanly speaking, neither Abram nor Sarah were capable of having children. It was humanly impossible! Paul makes this point in Romans 4.19 “he [Abram] faced the fact that his body was as good as dead- since he was about a hundred years old- and that Sarah’s womb was also dead”.

All human hope of having children was gone. Their back was to the wall. There was no other possibility on the horizon, or so they thought!

An impossible Situation

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At this crucial stage God made himself known. Remember Abram had no Bible. He never went to Sunday School. His knowledge of God grew only as God made himself known. How does God reveal himself? Cf v1 “I am God Almighty”. The Hebrew term is ‘El Shaddai’. This is the first use of the word in scripture. It was a though God was saying to Abram, “It is important for you to realise that there is no limit to my power. Not only do I not need you to help me out but once you are at an end of yourself, once you are prepared to pronounce the situation absolutely hopeless then stand back and you will see me work. I am the God of the impossible!”

It took time for this great truth to register with Abram… for Abram is still asking, ‘can Ishmael not be my heir?’

An impossible Situation

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Again and again God leads us into situations where, humanly speaking, there is no way out and he asks, can you trust me to do the apparently impossible? Think of Israel with their backs to the Red Sea and on the horizon the dust clouds of Pharaoh’s army bearing down on them. When the situation seemed hopeless, Moses told the people to ‘stand still and see the salvation of God’.

They were about to be bowled over by chariots of iron surely the last thing to do was to stand still. And as they placed their trust in God the waters parted and they crossed safely to the other side while their Egyptian pursuers were drowned. God leads us into difficult situations in order to deepen our understanding of his character and to ask, ‘Can you trust the God of the impossible?’

An impossible Situation

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God gave both Abram and Sarai permanent reminders that ‘God Almighty’ can make a difference. This is how we are to understand their name changes in v5 and 15. Inappropriate names are often a source of embarrassment to people. In a country and western song the male cowboy singer bemoans the fact that his father gave him a girl’s name, Sue. One unfortunate boy in Glasgow was named after every member of the Rangers football team. Until recently a doctor on the medical register had the unfortunate name of Dr. Donald Duck.

Positive Encouragement

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I want to suggest that Abram had been embarrassed by his name which means ‘exalted father’ or ‘the father of many’. Abram’s camp was on the main trade route to Egypt and many travellers would have enjoyed his hospitality. Even today in the middle-east, there are a number of questions you are always asked, ‘Where to you come from? What is your name? and very soon, ‘How many children do you have?’ How often had Abraham braced himself to answer? ‘My name is the father of many and I have no children’. The stifled sniggers must have crushed his sensitive soul. Ishmael’s birth may have brought some relief but not a lot.

But now God would change his name. Good but to what? ‘You will be Abraham, which means ‘father of a great multitude’. The God of the impossible gave Abraham a potentially more embarrassing name if he did not trust the God of the impossible!

Positive Encouragement

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And the manner in which God would so is again provided within their new names. The Hebrew letter God adds is the sound of breath... ‘ha’. You cannot pronounce their new names without breathing out. God adds the sound of breath to their names. How could that excite hope in the hopeless? In ancient languages ‘breath’ and ‘spirit’ were associated with the creative operation of God’s Spirit.

And so in the opening chapters of Genesis it is God’s creative ‘ruach’ or ‘breath’ that moves upon the face of the waters.

Positive Encouragement

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In Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, which pictures God’s spiritually dead church, it is the creative ‘ruach’ or ‘breath of God’ that transforms it into a mighty living army. And John describes how Jesus commissioned his disciples for the humanly impossible take of continuing his work. We read in Jn20.21-22 “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.

Positive Encouragement

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By adding his creative breath to Abraham and Sarah’s names, God indicated that it was through the empowering of his Spirit that his covenant promises would be realised. Do you see what is happening? God will often bring us to an end of ourselves, making us aware of our own impotency. We may find ourselves saying, ‘I do not see how I can achieve what God wants from my life. I do not see how I can change. I am too old. I have lost the vigour of earlier years. I am only fit for the spiritual scrapheap of dry bones’.

God replies, ‘Do you know who I am? God Almighty. The God of the impossible. My breath brings life out of death, hope out of despair, possibilities out of the impossible. Can you trust me to do that? Not by your might, not by your power but by my Spirit says the Lord.’

Positive Encouragement

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A Christian is someone who has entered into a covenant relationship with God. Just as God kept saying to Abraham in v6-8, ‘I will, I will, I will…’ we discover that our ability to live the Christian life comes from God. The ability to do a whole variety of things is not the product of human energy, it comes not from ourselves but from God, who breathes his life into us. This helps us to understand the Apostle Paul’s claim, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’. Phil. 4.13

Positive Encouragement

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Notice too, that along with the covenant God made with Abraham he gave him a sign v10-11 - circumcision. This sign was to be viewed as a renunciation of human effort and of trust in the God of the impossible. The sign was also a mark of his identification with and dependence upon God. Such signs are necessary reminders within God’s covenants of man’s powerlessness and God’s power, of man’s failure and God’s grace.

Positive Encouragement

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We should therefore not be surprised to discover that the signs of the New Covenant are similar in meaning. Baptism, among other things, points to the grace of God that saves us and makes it possible for us to become members of the body of Christ. At the same time the Lord’s supper, is a regular reminder of our union with Christ and of our need to live in constant dependence upon Christ’s resurrection life which equips us to live lives that bring pleasure to God.

Positive Encouragement

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Conclusion

When God enables us to do what we cannot do for or by ourselves, he shows himself to be the God of the impossible. When the rich young ruler turned his back upon Jesus and what he believed to be the impossible demands of discipleship, Jesus’ disciples began to think that their faith journey was impossible. They asked one another, “Who then can be saved?” Matt.19.25 How did Jesus reply in v26 ? “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” And the disciples went on to discover that. Abraham discovered that. The people of God down the ages have discovered that. May it be your discovery too as you sin prayerfully in your heart;

‘Breathe on me breathe of GodFill me with life anewThat I may love what thou dost loveAnd do what thou wouldst do’.

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