Hebrews 11: 7 – Noah, the hero of faith10 February 2019 Summerstrand 09:00 Confirmation

Welcoming

Entry

Flam 112b:1-2 I glorify thy name – sit

Votum and blessings

Praise song

Song 209 x 2 Lord, with my whole heart – standing

Song 175 - Majesty, worship his majesty – standing

Children

1. Long, long ago there was a man. His name was Noah. He was a righteous man. He lived near God. And he did everything right. He believed in God. And he didn't do anything wrong.

2. God warned Noah that he would send a lot of rain. So much rain that there will be a flood. God then told Noah to build a boat that all the people who believe in God could be safe in the flood. Noah obeyed God and built the boat. God called it the ark.

3. For a hundred years, Noah told people that they should believe in God. He preached. He told them about God. But they would not believe him. They didn't want to believe in God.

4. Finally, the ark was finished. God told Noah to get into the ark with his family. They obeyed God. God also said they should take two animals of every kind with them, a mom and a dad. The animals also obeyed God. When everyone was in the ark, God closed the door of the ark.

1

5. Then it started to rain, and rain, and rain! All the fountains of the world overflowed. It rained forty days and nights until the whole earth was covered with water. Noah and his family were the only people in the whole world who survived. For, they believed in the only true God. They obeyed Him. But all the other people died because they didn't want to believe in God.

6. The story teaches us a very important lesson. Just like Noah and his family were safe in the ark with all the animals, we are safe in Jesus. That's why we were baptized. Baptism says, we are His. The Lord Jesus is our ark, our safe place. When we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, nothing can separate us from His love. We are God's children and heaven is waiting for us forever.

Prayer

Scripture reading and preaching

Hebrews 11:7

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (ESV)

Is it wrong to tell people about Jesus?

It may sound strange to many of us that I ask this question at all. It is very clear from the Bible, it seems, that we must tell all people of Jesus. Didn’t Jesus himself say, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." (Mark 16:15). This is the heading on our world map on the wall. This is what our missionaries do. This is what each of us should do.

But, for young people, this is not such a strange question. Not true?

Half of millennials say it's wrong

Research shows that half of Christian millennials (born between 1984 and 1998 – 21 to 35 years old) think there is something wrong with telling other people about Jesus. So says the latest research by the Barna Institute: "About half of millennials believe it's 'wrong' to evangelize."

Many of our own young people also think that it is wrong to tell people about Jesus.

It is not that young people do not know the gospel. It is not even that they do not know how to tell others about Jesus. In fact, they sometimes have more skills and opportunities to do that than previous generations.

2

But they feel it's wrong to share your personal faith with someone else. Especially if that person is of a different faith.

Can you identify with that? Is that how you think too?

Why is it so with millennials ?

Why is this so? The research says millennials live in a world that makes it increasingly difficult to talk about Jesus. Millennials are very sensitive to the cultural temperature surrounding spiritual conversations. They are very aware that Western culture is hostile to the gospel. Therefore, they are very careful to tell others about Jesus.

Millennials are particularly afraid that if they still talk about Jesus, and people differ, that others will think they are judgmental. And this makes them extremely careful to tell others about Jesus. They don't want to condemn.

They know the culture says, live your life as you want, and allow others to do it themselves. They often think so. Feelings, for the culture, comes first. It is how you feel about yourself that matters, not what others tell you. And they don't want to challenge the culture. They don't want to come across as judgmental.

And let us not forget the generation X's attitude about this, the group up to 53 years old. A quarter of them think so too. That it is wrong to tell others about Jesus. That others will take offense. Therefore, they rather remain silent.

It is therefore a growing reality among many of our people that they think it is wrong to talk to others about Jesus.

So is it wrong to tell others about Jesus?

Well ... no ... the Bible is clear about it. But there is great resistance to it. Many think there is something wrong with it. Especially because others can take offense.

The question is therefore vital to us. Is it wrong to tell people about Jesus? Your answer to that will contribute to either a church that falls before the culture, or to a church that will remain steadfast in culture, sometimes even determine the culture.

How will we manage to tell people about Jesus?

The second question is, how can we overcome the cultural resistance, not only of people of other faiths, but the resistance deep within ourselves? So that we can fulfil our calling as children of the Lord, with a message for the whole world.

And it is important for you as the confirmation class to gain clarity about this. Because, even if you aren’t millennials, but Generation Z – the so-called post-millennials – you are going to deliver your testimony in the same culture. And you're going to get resistance. You will be tempted to stay quiet and stay under the radar. To offend no one. To condemn no one.

Your testimony matters

How are we going to tell people about Jesus?

3

Well, the place to begin with, is to realize that our testimony really matters. That God has indeed given us a message that this world needs. That without our message this world will be lost. Every child and every man and woman who does not accept salvation in Jesus will have to spend eternity without Him.

And your testimony matters. To you the message of salvation in Jesus Christ is entrusted. God has entrusted it to you.

The story of Noah

And this is where the story of Noah helps us. For, God also chose Noah to bring a message to the world of his time, a world that has become increasingly apostate from God. That wanted to know nothing from God. That wanted just to do what they wanted and tolerated no opposition to their life in pleasure.

And we can get courage from his perseverance, his faith, his obedience. He is an example of excellence for us. One that consoles and encourages us to seize our calling and carry it out.

Noah is a huge figure in the whole Bible

We read of Noah in ten places in the Bible. Throughout the Bible. In the law, the writings and the prophets of the OT. In the gospels as well as the letters of the NT. He is a giant figure in the Bible, a hero of faith, an intercessor and preacher .

Here are ten aspects of his life that I want to encourage you with.

1. Noah the comforter

To ground his story in ancient history, there are two places in the Old Testament where Noah's name appears in genealogies (Gen. 5:29; 1 Chron 1:4). He is the tenth generation after Adam.

Just hear what his dad, Lamech, says when he calls him Noah:

Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.

Lamech therefore speaks about the meaning Noah's birth will have for him. For the whole human race.

In fact, if one considers the story well, there is another that is comforted. It is God, as we will see below. Noah reduced God's grief over his people. He could be used by God to write a new future for mankind. As he would do finally in Jesus Christ.

However, it took some time for Noah's life to bear the fruit his father predicted.

2. Noah the graced

Noah is already five hundred years old when the Lord decides He has had enough of the sinfulness of the earth. We read in Genesis 6:

4

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” (Gen. 6:11-12)

It grieved God’s heart. He was sorry that He made the effort to create man (Gen. 6:5-7). We can hardly imagine how deep this grief was in God.

But, fortunately, we read in Genesis 6:8-9 , there was a man named Noah. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah, the comforter, finds grace in God's eyes. Prevents God's grief from turning into a total tragedy.

3. Noah the righteous

Why could God use him as a way out? We read the answer in Genesis:

"Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” (Gen. 6:9)

Noah lived on the one hand in an intimate relationship with God. "He walked with God." He was a true believer. He lived near to God; walked with God. Unlike the other people who walked a pernicious road.

This is what it means when translators translate: Noah walked with God. Noah listened to what God was saying. He walked on the road that God spelled out. God's words were his first and highest priority. He believed what God had told him. He trusted God's words.

Noah, on the other hand, was also: "a righteous man, blameless in his generation."

Noah was a righteous man, a ṣaddîq, someone who lived in a right relationship with God. Someone who satisfied God's heart.

Noah remained firm in a world of absolute moral decline. He obeyed God's Word in every facet of his life. No idolatry. No immorality. No greed. Those things that the law would later spell out clearly than were immoral. So Noah lived according to the law, before the law put it down black on white.

Of course, the writer of Hebrews tells us that this righteousness came from God. And that's true. It is God who justified him. That is what happens to people who live near Him.

But, it is just as true that this righteousness did not become a full reality without his faith and obedience.

That God justified Him, showed in his obedience to all that God had told him.

4. Noah the called

Therefore God included Noah in his plans. God called him to be a new beginning for mankind:

“And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.’" (Genesis 6:13-14)

5

He commands Noah to build an ark. It will not only save him and his family, but also the animals and birds (Gen 6:14-21). Through the ark, God could make a new beginning for all who were willing to believe in Him, to trust Him.

5 . Noah the obedient

And Noah's reaction? Genesis 6:22:

“Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.”

Although it took him a hundred years. Some think it was finally one hundred and twenty years.

Why did God do this? Why did God choose Noah? Genesis 7:1:

"for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation."

And that included his entire family. Therefore, God concluded a covenant with them on the basis that God honoured Noah's faith in Him.

As the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 11:7, Noah became an heir of justification by faith through his faith in God. God justified Him through faith and His obedience.

And we know the further development of the story, that the rain came, that Noah and his family were saved, and that God could again walk with mankind.

He looked like a fool, building the ark ... until the rain came.

6. Noah the encourager

That is why the prophets are so full of respect for this man, Noah.

Isaiah utilizes this promise to Noah of the water that will not be used again as a punishment, to encourage the people in captivity (Isaiah 54). He honours Noah's legacy by encouraging the entire nation with the message of the rainbow. To encourage them to hope for a new future.

7. Noah the intercessor

Ezekiel also writes with great awe of Noah (Ezek. 14) . Something you may not know about Noah is that he was a formidable intercessor. God talks about Noah  on an equal footing with the great intercessors Job and Daniel.

Job who interceded for his children, and for his foolish friends. Daniel, praying for the fulfilment of a promise from God, so that the people can go

back from captivity to Israel.

Noah was of the same fabric as Job and Daniel. In God's eyes. In the approximately one hundred years he had built the ark, Noah not only built, but also spoke, and especially prayed.

8. Noah the faithful

6

The same applies to Noah in the New Testament.

Jesus uses Noah's story as an example of what will happen at His second coming. Jesus is very clear about the fact that at the end of days things will continue again as it was in Noah's time. The apostasy of God will increase. Most people will do what they want.

Until unexpectedly a line will be drawn. The second coming will come. Those who believe in Jesus, who not only trusts in Him, but remains faithful to Him, will be separated from those who do not. Forever (Matthew 24:36-44 ; Luke 17:20-37).

Noah is therefore a champion. A formidable believer. Someone who, in the midst of a time of absolute rottenness, of unprecedented immorality, of unprecedented idolatry, chose to believe in God and obey Him, comes what may. He was faithful to the end.

9. Noah the messenger

Noah was thereby a messenger of righteousness. So says Peter. When God decided to destroy the world, Noah did not keep the news to himself. He did, however, immediately work to build the ark for his family's sake. But, by doing so, he gave an unambiguous message to the world. That, the only way that will lead to life, is the way of repentance and faith in the Lord (2 Pet 2).

That is why Peter can describe him as a messenger of righteousness. One who persevered for a hundred years to warn men of his time that a catastrophic disaster is coming, and that they have to repent.

Not being able to convince them is not his fault. He was the faithful witness to the end.

10. Noah the hero of faith

That is why the Hebrew writer describes Noah as a hero of faith (Hebrews 11:7).

“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

So powerful is his legacy that with every baptism we commemorate Noah's faith and obedience. Peter uses Noah's ark as a symbol of baptism (1 Pet. 3:8-22).

Therefore, Noah is an example of what can happen when a man against all odds believe in God and obey Him.

We have a message to proclaim

Noah is therefore the man with whom I want to encourage you today. With whom I want to develop marrow in your pipes. With whom I want to make sure your legs do not get lame. And your spine is not crooked.

Because, we have a message to bring. Like Noah. And it is a message of repentance. A message of salvation in Christ. A message that God will not leave sin and idolatry unpunished. That the only hope is the death and resurrection of Jesus.

7

Jesus paid the price for our sin. He offers us a way out of our sin. He took the guilt of our sin on him and wrote it off. He acquitted us. He also gives us His Spirit which is our guarantee of eternal life. Who changes our sinful bodies through a process of sanctification that we can be like Noah, and of course par excellence, like Jesus.

Jesus promises to those of us who give ourselves for sanctification, that his return will be an incredible future for us.

As Noah prepared himself and his family for the coming of the flood, so says Jesus, we must prepare ourselves and all who walk with us in the way of the Lord for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We will have to tell others about Jesus. Even if it's difficult. Even if people are offended. Even if we are rejected and maligned.

Their future is at stake. Your future is at stake.

Prayer

Thanksoffering

Song 514 1-2 variation of I know for sure: Jesus is Lord – choir

Confirmation

I want the parents of these five young people to stand up.

I want to thank you for your love and care. Not only in the house, but also here at the church. From the baptismal events in East London, Krantzkloof, Kuilsriver, and PE Hoogland throughout childhood, catechism and confirmation, you supported them. Here is now the fruit of your work done under the guidance of the Lord.

All the friends and family who are here to make this event special will you please stand up too. I would like to thank you for the network of relationships with which you supported these young people. It takes a whole town to bring up a child. Your input is appreciated. You can sit again.

Formulary and confession

Personal word to each one

Nicola Cilliers

You are blessed with a spiritual curiosity. You want to go deep and understand. The text that has meaning to you is Paul's summary of his life. Through thick and thin he experienced:

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

May you experience it too!

8

Christiaan Diedericks

You have the experience that God is near you, like a good friend. That is why I give you a text conveying the essence of your God-relationship:

John  15:14

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

May you experience it too!

Marcell Muller

You experience God as the One who makes the impossible possible. That is why I give you one of the texts in the Bible that expresses it. Jesus' salvation is also meant for you:

Matthew 19:26

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

May you experience it too!

Mark Muller

You experience God as the One who guides your life. That is why I give you the first two verses from Psalm 23 that mean so much to you:

Psalm 23:1-2

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

May you experience it too!

Kirsten Rautenbach

You have an inner peace and rest that few people at your age already possess. Therefore I give you the verse that has so much meaning to you, also from Psalm 23, verse 6:

Psalm 23:6

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

May you experience it too!

Song of blessing

Song 305 1,3 Adorated God, Triune ... Give power, O Lord, to these members where they now confess your Name – stand

Final Song

Vonkk 174 Streams of blessing from heaven – standing

9

Benediction

Amen

Response

Song 311: 1-2 choir lead singers This that we received here – standing

10