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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Lectures
Thank you, Darion. Good morning, everybody. How about Manny on those drums this morning?
I don't dance, but you might catch me dancing over there one of these days.
I love moments in music that swell. I don't listen to a lot of lyrics when I listen to music,
but I listen to the beats of things, and there's certain tempos and cadences that get me going.
And another thing that does that for me that really speaks to me and really captivates me is stories.
And we're storied creatures, right?
We all love good stories.
And we particularly love stories that have these themes of bad guys being judged.
We like that, don't we?
We might love revenge stories.
We might love victory stories.
stories that include moments where evil finally gets what it deserves, and especially when that
comes at great cost to the hero in our stories. We love when the win isn't cheap in stories,
in movies, in literatures, even in song. We love stories where salvation comes through judgment.
I know it's kind of Christian-y language, but it applies to many different stories,
stories where salvation, the saving moment, comes through judgment, judgment of evil.
Some of the most beloved stories in culture, they fit this pattern.
That's what makes them so compelling to us.
Evil rises, the cost of evil becomes unbearable,
and then through sacrifice, maybe even through violence,
judgment comes and the good is rescued.
And here's some of the stories that do this, like Luke in the Death Star, right?
Who doesn't love Star Wars?
Don't tell me if you don't love Star Wars.
There's a lot of sacrifice, lives are lost, but finally, they blow out the Death Star.
If you actually started there, you'd be like, what's happening?
Like, this is terrible.
But in the story, evil is judged.
Or one of my favorite moments in a Marvel movie is Thor entering Wakanda.
Oh, man.
Stormbreaker.
I mean, the Avengers, they're dying.
They're all, they're all, sorry to spoil it for you,
but they're like kind of losing the Chitauri, overrunning them.
And then Stormbreaker comes out of the Bifrost and there's this amazing scene.
And Thor arrives and wreaks havoc, right?
Salvation through judgment.
There's actually, well, I won't go there.
Never mind.
I'm saving up for later.
Or think of Gandalf arriving at the Battle of Helm's Deep.
Let's go.
Saw this in the big screen last night.
Gosh, those movies are so long.
But they're taking their final stand, kind of all hopes lost,
and you look to the east, light of the first day, there's Gandalf.
And then one of my favorite moments in any movie,
one I think I cry at every single time,
is Aslan arriving at the Battle of Baruna.
When the witch is overtaking Peter's army,
Aslan, in their mind, is dead.
And there's this moment where the witch is about to kill Peter, and Aslan appears.
And he comes rushing down to devour the witch, right at the moment when Peter needs him the most.
Salvation through judgment.
When we see or read these moments in movies or literature, we don't ask if the violence is too much.
We don't ask if the war is unjust.
We cheer. We're relieved.
We call it justice, because it is in these stories.
It is justice.
But when we come to stories like this in the Bible, we sort of pause, don't we?
Stories that are not much different than what we watch or read or listen to,
when we come to stories like the one here in Genesis 6, something changes.
Something happens.
Instead of cheering, instead of feeling relief, we hesitate.
We kind of have a moral shudder that runs down our spine.
We read, I have decided to put an end to every creature for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them.
Therefore, I'm going to destroy them along with the earth.
We read that and we say, ooh, yikes.
Instead of saying finally or cheering, we say, God, how could you do this?
Is this really good?
That's intriguing, isn't it?
That we're comfortable with salvation through judgment and violence in stories, just not when it's God doing the judging.
Stories like Genesis 6 remind us of stories where the enemy may be right, but we're uncomfortable with that fact, that reasoning, that outcome.
Again, Marvel, that's why I'm saving up all my rabbit trails for.
Marvel does as well, right?
Think of Endgame, the Infinity War. Thanos, he wants to get rid of half the universe to save
the world, and he does. And in Endgame, it starts off with the world's healing. There's dolphins
again near these different harbors. But we're uncomfortable with that. We don't like that
Thanos did that, even though it kind of seems like he was right. Or how about Dr. Doom? If you're
a Marvel fan, you know that Doomsday is coming. Oh my gosh. Darion, I know. I know. I'm a big
Marvel fan, especially of the comics. So bear with me as we learn out again, two weeks in a row. I
know. I know. It won't be every week. But what got me into the comics is reading the 2015 Secret Wars
series, okay? Okay, stick with me. Genesis 6 might make us think of this story, if you're familiar
with it, of Doom, who wants to save a collapsing universe. All these universes are collapsing and
they're going to die. And if one of them isn't saved, they all die. And so Doom, he goes and he
takes control. He steals power from the beyonders, and he becomes God-Emperor-Dume. Becomes a god.
And what he does is he saves the universe, actually, by stitching everything together into a single
yet broken world called battle world. And yes, reality is saved. Lives are saved. Life continues,
and so does the universe. Isn't that a good thing? Or in some twisted sense,
The universe is saved, but it's saved at a terrible cost.
God, Emperor Doom, he enforces peace.
He maintains order through fear, and he holds the world together through domination.
Domination. Is that salvation?
The story does not allow the reader to call this good.
You're not reading the story and saying, thank goodness, Doom is here.
And even Doom himself, again, spoiler, because I know you're all going to read it,
Even Doom himself later admits, this isn't a good thing I've done.
Selfish.
Now, the answer is clear.
This kind of salvation story is not truly good.
But that is a knee-jerk reaction we have to the story here in Genesis, in the flood account.
We might, on a surface reading, believe that God is saving the world by crushing it into submission.
And that he's restoring order by wiping everything out that's not working for him.
And he's doing this by sheer power.
If we're uncomfortable with Genesis 6, that might be why.
And so we ask again, is this really good?
Do the ends justify the means?
Is salvation through judgment actually salvation?
But we have to ask, honestly, another question first.
And for the third, we're going to go with another why question.
Why is God destroying humanity?
Why is God destroying humanity?
we don't want to understand whether or not this salvation is good we have to ask why is god
destroying humanity and you know what the text tells us so here are bibles look at verses five
and six of chapter six which says when the lord saw that human human wickedness was widespread
on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time
the lord regretted he had made man on the earth and he was deeply grieved
why was god wiping out mankind because mankind was filled with nothing but evil all the time
mankind was drunk on evil and this has been building and happening ever since the fall
that we talked about last week since adam and eve sought goodness away in life away from the life
and goodness of God, life has been unraveling and spiraling down into death. Out the gate
of Genesis 3, we get to Genesis 4, where Cain kills his brother Abel. Cain's descendants
perpetuate evil. Lamech, Cain's descendant, embodies rebellion, and he's the first to violate
the ordinance of marriage. And it doesn't slow down from here. In Genesis 5, we have the drumbeat
of death. Now, Genesis 5 might look like a boring genealogy that you're going to encounter again and
again as you read the Bible, but if you set Genesis 5 against the backdrop of what life
should have been in Eden, you'll notice something. You'll notice something highlighted over and over
again. Adam lived 930 years, then he died. Seth, 912, then he died. Enosh, 905, then he died.
Kenan, 910, then he died.
Mahalalel, 895, then he died.
Jared, 162, then he died.
That's quite shorter than the rest of these.
I had to make sure that I was right about that.
Jared, 162, then he died.
Methuselah lived 969 years.
It's a long life, but then he died.
Lamech lived 777 years, then he died.
Is that Eden life?
It's death, death, death.
you see the pattern evil is what we do evil is infecting and spreading throughout the world like
a plague and it spreads death death always when we ask ourselves what is god going to do about it
we ask that we read death about death we read about the fall we ask what is he going to do
about it and then we're shocked by his answer here in verse 16 of chapter 6 i have decided
to put an end to every creature for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them
Therefore, I'm going to destroy them along with the earth.
God, what are you going to do about it?
I'm going to destroy it all.
On the one hand, we want God to deal with evil.
Yes, God, come and judge the wickedness of the world.
And we read this and we say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Isn't this a little too far?
Isn't this a little too far?
Yes, God, judge, but isn't this kind of too far?
We actually might ask, God, how could you?
God, how could you do this?
but the reason we think that, if I'm being honest with us, is because we live in the 21st century
in the West, in America. Sure, life here is not all that it should be. We talked about those
challenges last week. I mean, we prayed about very real challenges in the country we're facing
right now. Life is not perfect, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be. And you're all here.
You're all safe. You're all well-fed. You're warm. In fact, I think most of us here are in the top
1% of income earners in the world globally. If we're honest, that life is pretty good. Life
could be worse. Now again, I don't say that to minimize the very real challenges that we face
today. I only say that to put into context the world of Genesis 6. God's decision to destroy
humanity might seem shocking to us because we are not familiar with the amount of wickedness
that was in the world in Genesis 6. Thank God we don't experience that in our day.
but the world that god is describing that we see from god's eyes at the beginning of the story
is nothing but evil evil beyond our imagination and what happens while we have those kind of
bad reactions is we import the wickedness and evil we experienced today back then and we say
well i don't know that i would flood all of america and kill all of us but that world was
far more evil i mean listen to how the nlt translates verse five and six the lord observed
the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined
was consistently and totally evil. Everything they thought or imagined was consistently
and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth.
It broke his heart.
Every thought, every imagination, all of it was evil.
The world, again, was drunk on evil.
It was so evil that the God of the universe was heartbroken over it.
He was sorry he had made them.
That's an insane amount of wickedness and evil, isn't it?
A level of wickedness that, again, we can't fully grasp.
Now, you might see verse 6 and think, wait, what?
How can God regret anything?
Can God regret a decision he's made?
Can God change his mind?
The answer is no.
No, God doesn't change his mind.
But the word regret or sorry is the Hebrew word nakam.
Nakam.
And nakam literally means to breathe deeply.
Breathe deeply a groan of sorrow.
And you can sort of hear it in the Hebrew word, nakam.
Nekam is less about someone changing their mind and more about a deep feeling of grief.
For example, you might regret an argument you've had in a relationship,
but you probably don't regret that you have that relationship.
That's Nekam.
You see the difference?
The reason that such words like this are used to describe God
is to bridge the gap between an infinite God and our finite minds.
Biblical writers, they often use language like this,
It's like God is saying God has hands.
God doesn't have hands.
I mean, Jesus has hands, but God the Father doesn't have hands.
But it kind of bridges the gap and helps us picture what God is feeling,
what God is like.
It helps us understand him.
And that's true with how the Bible describes his emotions as well.
When Scripture says God regretted,
it's not saying God suddenly realized he made a mistake.
It's saying God is not cold and detached, far off from this world.
saying he has feelings just like we do he is feeling just like we do and here he feels the
weight of what has gone wrong in the world one commentator writes this god's response of grief
over the making of humanity is not remorse in the sense of sorrow over mistaken creation
our verse shows that god's pain has its source in the perversion of human sin
the making of man is not the error it is what man has made himself
god does not wish he hadn't made us but he's deeply grieved over how we've made ourselves such a mess
he has to bring judgment upon us because god will judge evil but such judgment always breaks his heart
but i mean praise god that he does judge evil
the flood story tells us there's a there's a limit there's a limit to how much evil
god will tolerate before it goes punished and even so you may be still be asking god how could
you how could you how could you do this how could you destroy humanity well here's the answer we
have a god who loves us enough to judge evil we have a god who loves us enough to judge evil and
a god who will not let evil go unjudged in this life or in eternity the flood story doesn't sound
like a love story to us does it but if god loves us and he has to deal with the wickedness in the
world doesn't he and if god loves us and he has to do something about the evil that is feels ever
present in our lives and we hate evil too we want it judged we want it gone we love stories again
where evil is judged where salvation comes through judgment if you're honest if you're anything like
me you love when evil is crushed not just judged we love that in stories and movies and literature
not because we love acts of violence but because we hate evil we hate it
and some stories force us to admit that salvation doesn't come
because violence is good salvation comes because evil has reached a point to where it cannot be healed
it's not because we love violence in these stories it's it's that we love that evil
is crushed because it cannot be redeemed and this is where genesis 6 is leading us
it's about gazing up upon god's mighty and not about gazing upon god's mighty and terrifying
power it's about the reality that evil has reached a point of no return no return cannot be healed
and so knowing that you might ask another why question god why haven't you done this more
if evil can't go on unpunished if evil must be dealt with why haven't you done this more again
we're all on board with god ridding the evil of the world
but how does he do that with also without also getting rid of you and me
how does god get rid of the evil in the world without also getting rid of you and me
It's a tough question.
God, why haven't I done this more?
But also kind of thank you
we haven't done this more
because I might be in that.
So why hasn't he?
We'll answer that question straight away.
It's because we have a God
who loves us enough to offer us grace.
God will judge wickedness and evil,
but we also have a God
who loves us enough to offer grace.
It might not feel like grace
when we read the story.
But God doesn't just toss us all in the dumpster.
Aren't you glad you decided to come to church today
for this cheerful story?
God loves us enough to offer us grace.
But friends, the wickedness and judgment in the world
are not the focus here in Genesis 6.
The ark is not the focus.
The floodwaters and whether they were local or global
is not the focus.
How all this actually worked out, that's not the focus.
When we read about the flood, we must understand it's not about judgment, but about grace.
Now, scholar John Selhammer says the main purpose of the story of the flood
is not to show why God sent a flood.
That's not the main purpose.
The main purpose is to show why God saved Noah.
The purpose of the flood is not, the purpose of the story is not to show why God sent a flood,
but to show why God saved Noah.
So why is God saving Noah?
Why is God saving Noah and his family?
I mean, doesn't he regret the world that he made?
Doesn't he regret he made mankind?
Isn't he sorrowful and grieving over the state of the world?
If this is so, then why Noah?
Why Noah's family?
What's so special about Noah and his family?
Well, wouldn't you know it again?
The text answers us.
Genesis 6, 8, and 9.
noah however found favor with the lord noah was righteous a righteous man blameless among his
contemporaries noah walked with god does that sound familiar adam and eve walked with god
noah walked with god in two weeks someone else will walk with god as well favor righteousness
they're blameless no one did not abandon his lord and corrupt his lord's ways like
generations past and generations current had done
the author of genesis is setting a pattern here that those who walk with god are in good hands
even in chapter 5 the drumbeat of death takes takes a beat to recognize enoch so enoch's
life lasted 365 years enoch walk with god and then he was not because god took him
can you imagine walking with god so intimately that you don't even experience death
adam and eve had experienced the goodness of god when they walked with god enoch experienced
god's goodness when he walked with god noah is experiencing the goodness of god because he's
righteous he's blameless he's not perfect but he's walking with god again john sellhammer says the
picture of noah that emerges from the flood story thus becomes a model of the kind of life that
finds grace in the sight of god a model of the kind of life that finds grace in the sight of
of god it's a picture of simple obedience to god's commands and trust in his provision
why is god rescuing noah because god rescues those who walk with him and do not corrupt his ways
god rescues those who walk with him and do not corrupt his waves even in a world drunk on evil
there's at least one who is righteous humans are failing but there is one who is righteous
blameless, and walking with God, and God sets out to destroy humanity, but he makes a covenant
with Noah. Verse 17, understand that I am bringing a flood, floodwaters on the earth to destroy
every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish,
but I will establish my covenant with you. You will enter the ark with your sons, your wife,
and your sons' wives.
So what does Noah do?
Well, remember, Noah's righteous.
Noah's blameless.
And Noah's walking with God.
Therefore, he obeys God and builds the ark.
I mean, what a wild thing to do in his day, I bet.
The rain comes and the flood covers the land.
Everything not in the ark dies.
Then the water recedes.
And just as God called Adam out of the dust,
God calls Noah out of the ark
and his family with him
and all the creatures that were with him.
And notice the ties here.
One thing as we're walking through this series
with God from Genesis to Revelation,
notice the themes and the threads
between here, Genesis 1 and this verse in Genesis 9,
these verses in Genesis 9.
Keep in mind creation.
Keep in mind the creation account as we read this.
God blessed Noah and his sons
and said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth the fear and terror of you will
be in every living creature on earth every bird of the sky every creature that crawls on the ground
and all the fish of the sea they are placed under your authority every creature that lives and moves
will be food for you as i gave the green plants i have given you everything however you must not eat
Sound familiar?
You must not eat a meat with its lifeblood in it,
but you be fruitful and multiply.
Spread out over the earth and multiply on it.
Here we're seeing a new creation.
A new Adam.
A new Eve.
A new Eden.
No one actually plants here.
It's almost as if God is recreating and making a new humanity.
and then for the first time in the bible in explicit words god makes a promise god makes a
covenant now covenants are something we're going to see a lot of in the biblical story
as we journey through the bible this year in the ancient near east covenants were relational
commitments relational commitments kings made covenants with people uh tribes formed covenants
one another friends bound themselves by a covenant even marriages marriage was understood as a
covenant a covenant was a chosen relationship often between parties that were not related
and bound them together bound them with promises with obligations and with loyalty
in other words a covenant was a way of saying we belong to each other now and the bible takes that
idea and fills it with an infinite God and infinite grace. At its simplest, a covenant expresses
God's desire to enter into relationship with his creation.
Here's a definition for you to write down. A covenant is a chosen relationship where God
binds himself to his people by promise, even when they fail. A chosen relationship where God binds
himself to his people by promise, even when they fail. And that's why the covenant refrain echoes
all throughout scripture. You're going to hear it again and again. I will be your God and you will be
my people. The book of covenants always involve commitments, faithfulness, and responsibility,
but they are ultimately grounded, not in human reliability, because we fail, but in God's
faithfulness. And as humans fail, as covenant partners, God remains true to his covenant.
God keeps his promises.
God is faithful to us.
And the promise God makes us in our passage this morning
is that he will destroy,
he will never destroy the earth with a flood ever again.
Here it is in chapter nine, verse 11.
I established my covenant with you.
And God said, this is a sign of the covenant
I'm making between me and you
and every living creature with you.
A covenant for all future generations.
I have placed my bow in the clouds.
And it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Between me and the earth.
I will remember my covenant between me and you when the bow appears in the clouds.
The bow will be in the clouds and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant between God and all the living creatures on earth.
God said to Noah, this is a sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every
creature on earth. God will deal with evil in this world, but he promises to limit his judgment. He
promises to restrain himself, and the symbol is a bow. Now, of course, we know that symbol is a
rainbow. A rainbow. It's clear. That's what God's talking about. But it's the same word for a bow
as in a bow and arrow.
Like a warrior at home from battle
ready for peace
who hangs up the bow on the mantle.
God hangs up his bow
in the sky for all to see.
God lays down his weapon against us
asking for peace
or somewhat of a truce.
And he's saying,
it's as if he's saying,
my beloved creation made in my image,
let's not wage war any longer.
And a bow and arrow in the sky
is no longer pointed at earth but it's pointed at god pointed up it's pointed at himself
god is saying the weapons are now pointed at me i'll take the arrows myself
i will take the punishment personally before i destroy the world again that's grace isn't it
we have a god who points the arrows of judgment at himself rather than at us and if perhaps one
of the most beautiful examples of biblical foreshadowing looking ahead in the story
who ultimately takes the arrows for our judgment for our rebellion jesus
behold the man upon the cross
it's my sin on his shoulders
it's my guilt that put him there and it puts him there until my guilt is done away with
it's god taking the arrows literally piercing him jesus on the cross pierced for our rebellion
the bow points at him he takes the flood of judgment that we deserve and he offers us in
return a restart a fresh start a new kind of humanity centered on jesus in god's new kingdom
because spoiler alert noah doesn't quite make it that far out of the ark before he sends again
It doesn't take but a couple of verses before descendants start messing up.
But God is faithful to his promises amidst that human failure.
We all long for justice.
We all long for God to take care of evil, but we also know we are part of the problem.
And so how does God destroy evil without destroying us?
Well, he takes the arrows.
He hangs himself on a cross for our sins.
He receives judgment that we deserve, and in its place, he offers us grace.
God removes evil and offers grace, and only he can do both.
And we see glimpses of it here and there, but most clearly on the cross.
Which leads to the final question we should all have when reading the flood story.
God, how do I get into the ark?
How do I get into the ark?
How do I receive this grace and salvation
when I know I'm a part of the problem?
There are two dangers when we read this story.
Either we assume we're Noah,
you know that we're good enough,
or we recognize that evil lives in us.
It's in our hearts.
We're worried that we're going to be the ones drowning,
banging on the ark doors.
God, how do I get into the ark?
but look again at the example of noah you're not noah but also no wasn't perfect
what sets him apart is that he walked with god not that he did that perfectly but he just walked with
god it was he was the only one in the world doing this he was singled out among his contemporaries
And so, God's favor, his grace rested upon Noah.
And it's from that favor and grace, from God, that Noah enters the ark.
And had those people outside the ark walked with God,
took those 120 years to repent and turn to God, they'd be on the ark as well.
Walking with God, a pattern we're going to see over and over and over again.
Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden.
so did Noah. In two weeks, so will Abraham and others. This is the pattern from Genesis to
Revelation. It's why we titled our series With God. God wants us to walk with him,
spend time with him, become like him so we can be with him. God, how do I get on the ark?
Well, here's the answer. Walk with God away from evil and towards grace.
The glorious thing is that we have a God who will do this with us.
We have a God who walks with us away from evil and towards grace.
He even came down in the person of Jesus to model this.
What evil in life do you need to run from?
What areas of sin and selfishness and destruction and disordered desires do you need to repent of?
Because friends, judgment is coming.
Doomsday is coming, and God will not let evil rule his earth.
Run from evil before it's too late.
Don't be the ones banging on the ark door, dying to get in.
But also, don't just run away from the ark door.
Don't run to your own self-righteousness.
Don't run to your own self-will.
Don't run to your own self-improvement plan.
Run to grace and forgiveness that is found in Jesus.
Run to the only God who can do both, who can remove your evil and offer you grace.
Who can remove your evil, the never-ending flood of wickedness that might seem to be ever at your door,
and offer you never-ending flooding grace for your soul.
And next time you see a rainbow, may you hear his voice speaking to you again.
May it be a constant reminder, because it is.
It's in the sky for a reason, a reminder of God's undying love for you, unending love for you.
May you hear from the sky, peace, my child, I've hung up my bow.
End your wickedness, walk with me.
And even when you fail, keep walking with me because I'm faithful.
And for those who are with me, I will take the arrows of judgment into myself.
Hear God saying when you see the rainbow, my friends, get in the boat.
Amen?
Let's pray.
God, thank you that you are a God who hates wickedness and evil and you judge it.
And you will do so thoroughly in the end.
You will crush and have crushed sin, death, and the devil.
And I pray that you do that in our lives now.
And I'm thankful that, God, you're a God of grace as well.
who's offering us a path to walk with you.
And I pray that us here today
would take that path up.
We would be with you.
We'd walk with you.
That we would get on the ark just like Noah.
In Jesus' name, amen.