“A New Journey with a New Love”

Scripture: Mark 11:1-11

Today is Palm Sunday – the day when we celebrate Jesus’ glorious entry into Jerusalem. It would be the beginning of an unforgettable week – for many people, and in many different ways! Jesus’ teaching would take on a poignancy unlike anything before. The Lord had never been one to be politically correct, never one to pull his punches, never one to make everyone feel good about themselves.
But during this coming week, his words would become even sharper and more cutting – there was little time left, and even his disciples would have to stand in his “line of fire”. Why would these last few days have to center on such difficult and painful correction, and not simply on the life that the people could find by faith in him? Why would he stir up the ire of the authorities, instead of showing love to them? We may never know, except that the truth, God’s Truth, must never be compromised, never be avoided, and that would always be Jesus’ stand, too.

Read Mark 11:1-3

Jesus and his followers were approaching Jerusalem from the East. The Mount of Olives was across the Kidron Valley, and the view that they would have of the city would be marvelous. But why would he desire to ride a young colt, instead of his normal mode of foot travel? It would be a great departure from his norm.
But this new way would have a deeper significance for the people of Israel. It would be a sign of royal victory. Victorious kings would normally ride a mighty war horse, but as they approached their home city after conquering their enemy in battle, they would transfer to a donkey, or other young colt, as a sign of humble victory. But even with this intent at heart, the change in steed would tend to focus prideful attention on the king. The time for power would have passed, and now was a time to celebrate victory and honor for the conquering hero. And the people would grasp this significance without hesitation.

But why, and why now? Jesus knew very well what awaited him in Jerusalem – he had even told his disciples exactly what would be coming his way, but even after all these years, they still didn’t understand. (e.g. Luke 18:31-34) And why did he ride these last few miles in a sign of victory? After all, he was going to be executed as a common criminal, wasn’t he?

Read Mark 11:4-8

Covering the colt and the road with coats and cloaks and branches was a sign of honor being offered to the victorious King. If only they had known that the victory that Jesus was about to gain for them would be in a spiritual sense, and not through war. Messiah was supposed to be a warrior king who would overthrow the oppressors of Israel, not one whose victory would be over the spiritual forces of evil! The people wanted him to conquer Rome, not the sin in their hearts. Jesus knew of their misconception and faint heartedness, and in Luke 19:41-44, we read that he wept for the fate of the city and for the people’s lack of faith.

For three and a half years, the Lord had done all that he could to show the people the better way. He had healed their broken bodies, he had freed them from demonic possession, he had fed them, and taught them, and revealed the truth of the prophets, and still, they couldn’t pull it all together. They had experienced the divine authority that was in him, and yet, it just wouldn’t register.

For the people, this was just another grand entrance of a conquering hero, and one more opportunity to hope for freedom. If they had only understood the fullness of this promise! If only!

Read Mark 11:9-11

As Jesus approaches the Eastern, or Golden Gate of the Temple, the people would be singing his praises. His disciples would have thoroughly enjoyed this, and would think that as his disciples, that they, too, were begin honored. It was an uplifting experience for them, as all too often, tensions between the followers and the Jewish and Roman authorities all but eliminated any sense of glory for them.
But this time was different. The very praises would speak to the expectations that abounded.

“Hosanna” was a call for salvation, but it was being offered up in the secular sense, and not necessarily in the spiritual one. It would resonate with the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9-17. “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! … See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The prophecy then goes on to proclaim the victory that will bring a peace to the nation, to the extent that the weapons of war will no longer be necessary.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” – tells us that salvation will only come from Almighty God. Psalm 118:25-26 “O Lord, save us; … Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. …” It had been in the hearts and minds of Israel since the time of King David.

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” For Israel, King David’s reign was a time of glory for the nation. They were victorious, they were respected, they were honored, and the coming of Messiah would be a sign of the reestablishment of kingdom under a descendent of the great David.

“Hosanna in the highest!” They saw the impending time not only as a time of freedom, but as one that would bring God’s glory into their lives – it wouldn’t just be a time of freedom – it would be the very best time that they had ever known!

The people had an inkling of who Jesus was, but how far they were from the fullness of his truth. And we can get caught up in less than the fullness of Jesus, too. We want suffering to be a thing of the past, we want prejudice and discrimination to fade from our lives, we want to be freed from the oppression and mistrust of this life, and we want it to come without any need for struggle on our part. We want glory without the effort that it will always require. We want freedom without the need for conflict. We want salvation without sacrifice. And unfortunately, it just doesn’t happen that way!

Rejoice in the glory that awaits us, but don’t get so caught up in the celebration, that we lose sight of the steps that take us there. The Church has been waiting 2,000 years for the final victory to take place, and it isn’t here yet! And while we wait, there is suffering, and struggle, and mistakes, and sinfulness, and pain, and oppression, but the true Church continues to grow, and the false prophets and false teachers continue to come and go. Glory is coming closer, with every step that we take, and every day that we live, and every expression of faith that we offer.
Palm Sunday is not just a celebration of a coming victory – it is a call to faithfulness, regardless of how long it takes that victory to fully emerge, and it is also about how much anguish the Church must endure while we wait. “Hosanna” can no longer be a plea for salvation - it must be our claim of salvation.

But this journey, this time of waiting, should never be seen as a burden on our lives. It is the opportunity to celebrate Jesus’ glorious presence in our lives, continuously! It is the time when we can carry on with the Lord’s ministry to the lost and hurting of the world. It is the time within each moment of every day, of every life, that we can introduce the Lord Jesus Christ, the Promised One of God, the Anointed One of heaven, to one person who doesn’t yet know who Jesus really is, and then to another, and still one more.

“Hosanna in the Highest” - hosanna from the Highest. That is the Church’s promise, the Church’s hope, the Church’s call, the Church’s message, for all the world, for all time.

“A New Time with a New Teaching”

Scripture: John 12:20-33

While Jesus’ teaching was never easy to understand, and even more difficult to follow, some of it was very pleasant to hear. Words like “For God so loved the world …” (John 3:16-17), “Blessed are the poor in spirit …”, (Matthew 5:3-12), and that the many healings he brought about were due to faith, and not by our good works (eg. Mark 6:1-6). But most of his teaching was so obscure that they created more questions than they answered! Words like (“… you honor me with your lips but your hearts are far from me.” (Mark 7:5-7), “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:13-22), and “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.” (John 6:52-59).
Why did Jesus have to make it so hard? If he had just been a little clearer, his disciples, and we, wouldn’t have to struggle so much, or study so hard, or experience all that anxiety and conflict over his words. But then, maybe that is the reason – that the Lord wants us to get close to him, to depend on him for understanding, and that to allow us to do it all on our own is not what he knows will be best for us.

So let’s see if his words for us today are straight forward, or if they are cloaked in mystery.

Read John 12:20-26

The word about Jesus was beginning to spread throughout the region. In the few verses preceding this passage, we read that the Pharisee’s worse nightmare was beginning to come true –they were seeing that “… the whole world has gone after him!” (John 12:17-19). Even non-Jews were seeking him out to hear more of what he was saying. These Greeks had certainly heard of Israel’s Jehovah God, and they had also heard of Jesus. They were now open to learn of how the two may be connected, and what it might mean for their lives.
And it appears that the arrival of these Greek worshipers is the sign that Jesus’ “hour” is now at hand. His offer of salvation to the entire world is evidenced by both the Pharisee’s observation that the entire world is coming to him, as well as by the hunger of these Greek seekers of Truth.

This passage is the beginning of Jesus’ final week of life among us, and his teaching will become the hardest of his entire ministry. The first thing that the Lord teaches these seekers is that “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He tells them, first, that he is about to be glorified, and then continues to say that the glory will come through his death. These must have been strange words, to say the least. These Greek men had never known a God who could die, much less be glorified by that death. Their experience with Jesus is off to a rousing, if not baffling, start!

But it didn’t end there – he offers an explanation of the glorification with an agricultural image. All who were gathered there would have understood the planting analogy. They knew that you planted a few seeds so you could grow and harvest many seeds, and these would then be used to make flour for food. But would they make the connection between the “single seed” and Jesus life, and that when he was placed in the earth, that his death would produce many seeds?
But why would the Lord Jesus have to die in order to be glorified? Why couldn’t he just produce many followers simply by his teaching and example, instead of having to die and be buried in the ground? The truth is, even though it may not be apparent in this exchange, that his death would not just be an execution, but would be a divine and holy sacrifice, made on behalf of all the people of earth. He would submit to the condemnation of humanity, so that he could break the power that sin has over our lives. For God, there was no other way. Humanity had broken God’s covenant, and since the Lord made the covenant in the first place, only he could make it right again - he must pay the blood penalty if the people were to have a chance at eternal life.

And the teaching continued. If you love your life, you’ll lose it, and if you hate your life, you’ll keep it. On the surface, this, too, doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it is part of the bedrock of Christian faith. Of course, Jesus is actually referring to both our physical lives and our spiritual ones, and his point is that if we are satisfied with our earthly existence, and want nothing more than that, then that is what we will have – we will have the finite life, but lose out on the eternal one. But he tells us that the converse is also true – that if we long to have the better life, the one he has promised to all who believe in him, then he will see to it that we do. To love this life puts us at odds with all that Jesus stands for, and to hate this life is equivalent to giving our life to him.
This, too, might have confused the Greeks, as they, as well as the Jews, believed that eternal life depended on how well you lived your life in this time. Jesus would have us know just the opposite, that these two lives – the physical one and the spiritual one – will always be at odds with each other, and that they are mutually exclusive – you can’t have them both.

The last teaching involves our service, and probably made a little more sense to the men. Obviously, a servant must always do as the master commands, and when the master goes to another place, the servant, in order to serve, must go with him. But for the Lord, this command takes on a deeper and richer meaning. Jesus is the ultimate servant himself, and acts as our example of what it means to be a servant. He washed his followers’ feet, as an act of humility; he would put the greater good of humanity above his personal comfort; he would surrender his life in this place so that others might live with him in eternity. We are not only called to follow Jesus through this life and into death, we are also offered the promise of following Jesus through his death to share in his glory beyond death. And we are also told that God will grant honor to all who follow.

Read John 12:27-29

After he has raised up the truth of the hour that is at hand, Jesus offers a prayer. He offers up the fact that he is struggling with what is coming to him, but just as sure as he is that great suffering is his lot, he is equally sure that it cannot be avoided – that this is the reason that he came to earth in the first place. And not only is he resigned to the fact of his suffering and death, he offers it all up to the glory of the Father! He willingly offers up his physical life and comfort as his expression and commitment to his great love for God.

And the Father affirms Jesus’ prayer by saying that glory has already settled on this precious life, and will do so again in the very near future. Remember that even though Jesus offers glory to the Father, and the Father emphasizes that he has glorified it already, Jesus and the Father are one, and when one is glorified, the other is, too.
This is also one more example of Servanthood on the part of Jesus, which we, too, must imitate. We must never strive to gain glory for ourselves, but always to bring glory to God. It’s never about us – it is always about the Lord.
And God’s voice is heard by all who were present. The references to thunder and the voices of angels tells us that the Greeks, as well as Jesus’ disciples, recognized the sound as God’s voice. While Moses was on Mount Sinai meeting with God to receive the 10 Commandments, the people heard thunder. (Exodus 19:18-19) Job makes reference to the thunder that comes from God’s voice (Job 37:1-5) Isaiah (29:6), Ezekiel (1:22-25) and Revelation (14:1-3) each refer to God’s thundering words. The people had heard God’s voice and recognized that the Lord was speaking to Jesus, but they missed the connection between the Almighty of heaven and the Son of Glory who stood before them.
I expect that this, too, might not be unexpected. Personally, if I heard the thundering voice of God speaking, I would probably be so awed by the moment, that I might miss the full significance of the message, too!

Read John 12:30-33

And Jesus brings the teaching back to the significance and purpose of his impending suffering and death. Satan will be judged immediately, but his condemnation, his sentence, will be deferred until the day when Jesus returns to complete the Judgment. But this ultimate act of Servanthood is not only judgment against the prince of darkness, but of all who follow in his ways. And their sentence will also be postponed until Judgment day arrives.
But this is not a definitive judgment – when Jesus is lifted up at Calvary, the entire world will be invited to come to his side, to be his disciples, to know the new life that he would soon inherit. Remember Israel’s experience with the vipers in the desert? Many people died from their bites, but God orders Moses to fashion a bronze replica of the snakes, and fasten it to a pole. He proclaims that whoever looked upon it would be healed and would live. (Numbers 21:4-9)
Jesus would be the One who was despised and feared by the world, but through his crucifixion, anyone who will come and look upon him with their whole heart will be healed and granted new life.

Jesus made a connection to all that the prophets had ever said about him, including the fact that he would be Savior of the entire world, and not just for Israel. The crowd still wouldn’t grasp the fullness of his words, but the stage had been set. He would be the Seed that would be planted to produce many more seeds; he would be the perfect example of a servant’s heart that all would be invited to emulate; he would be the death that destroyed our death, and the life that restored eternal life for us; he would heal any and all who in their impending death, would come to him for a new way and a new life.
He had spoken of his death before, he had taught about the form of that agonizing death, he had even spoken of the new life that he and his servants would experience, but now he was putting it all together in a new way. It was always assumed that Messiah’s coming would only be for Israel, but Jesus now corrects that misconception by including the Greeks – the gentiles – all who would come to him in faith. Jesus would be the death of death, he would be the life for new life, he will be Redeemer and Savior for all the world, and the only requirement on our part would be to believe in him and what he has done for us.
Praise the Lord for his great love for all of humanity and for his commitment to serve us to the extreme. It truly is a new day and a new way. Hallelujah!

“A New Life from a New Gift”

There was no message last week due to my illness. Feeling better now.

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10

Is this life our only true reality? Christians would generally say “No.” But even for those who believe that it is, they still hope that it isn’t! “Reality” shows have become very popular on TV, and have been for a number of years, but quite honestly, they offer little hope, and even less reality!

About 15 years ago, while I was still employed at New York State Electric and Gas, I was having lunch with some folks from the office, and the subject turned to a popular “reality” show that had aired the previous night. Practically the entire table, except for me, had seen it, and the conversation began to center on the exploits of 1 or 2 of the show’s participants.
As the debate slackened, and a couple of people looked toward me, almost asking what my opinions were, I commented “I’m not into voyeurism.” One woman turned and replied “Oh no – they had all their clothes on last night!”
She missed my point – that not only didn’t the show have anything whatsoever to do with “reality”, it was more of an invitation to the viewing audience to peer into the foibles and problems and deceitfulness – the story line - of the show’s characters than it was to examine the quality of their relationships.

This life is full of our own foibles and problems and deceptions, and while they should actually remain within our own life, some think that they have the right to know all about them, and that we shouldn’t try to hide them! The misuse of Face book, Twitter, and other social media are stark evidence of that!

Laura Schlessinger writes:
It is not a matter of whether life dealt you a good or bad hand with ''realities'' that are rich or rocky in soil. ''It is the choices you make in your reactions to deal with them that determine the quality of your life. Most of the time you don't get to select your challenges [that is, your realities]; sometimes your challenges are the direct consequences of previous choosing. You may not even like any of the available options. However, you never lose the freedom and responsibility to choose and then honor that choice.

''When these choices are determined by virtue and values, you bring purpose, meaning and integrity to your life.''
--The ending to Laura Schlessinger's book How Could You Do That?!: The Abdication of Character, Courage and Conscience (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 268.

Personally, “reality shows” have little value and even less virtue. (And I expect to receive more than a few rebuttals on that statement!)

Read Ephesians 2:1-3

Even though sin is truly a reality of life, it isn’t something that we should cling to! Paul reminds the Church that sin is equated to death, and that we all have lived in that void of gracelessness. There are no exceptions! Romans 3:21-26 tells us that we ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us – John, and Peter, and Paul, and Timothy and you and me – ALL of us! Not one perfect soul in all of history – except for Jesus, of course.

And in our sinful condemnation, it is Satan who rules our lives – not because he forces us, but because we give ourselves to him. And Paul says that every time we seek to gratify our sinful cravings, we are acknowledging his authority once again.
And there is little we can do about it. What if we simply begin doing good things to counteract the effects of our sin? It won’t work! Could we begin thinking good thoughts to balance the bad ones out? Doesn’t help either. The only hope that we have is to look to the Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit to refocus our lives. It is only by our surrender to Christ and his will that we can be welcomed into his holy and righteous nature.

Read Ephesians 2:4-7

Made alive in Christ, even while we were dead in our sin, because of the love that God has for each and every individual throughout the ages. I don’t know about you, but I sure am glad that God’s love doesn’t get tired of us and our shenanigans! Have you ever thought about that? The Lord never tires of rescuing us from the messes that we create! And folks still think that they can put the Lord into a self-defined, very short and very narrow box, and that this is all they need of God. Unfortunately for them, human understanding doesn’t go very far when it comes to describing God’s mercy and passion for humanity. 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 – “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” No matter how weak and foolish we try to make God out to be, his power and understanding is still far beyond anything we might have!

Paul continues by telling us that we have not only been raised up, but that we have been seated with Christ. And where is Jesus sitting? At the Father’s right hand! Romans 8:12-17 tells us that we are not only children of God, but that we are his “joint heirs with Christ.” In Jewish law, the eldest son – the first born (in this case Jesus!) - would receive a double portion of his father’s inheritance, but now we hear that we will be joint heirs with Christ. Jesus is the first born of salvation, and all others come to the Father because of him, but Paul says that we will receive as much grace and glory as Christ will! Jesus will always be the Name above all names, but we will become equal partners with him in eternity!
God’s grace trumps every ounce of goodness and reason that all of humanity together could possibly muster. Can you think of a better reason for glorifying the name of Jesus? He saves us from wrath so that we can receive a part of the inheritance that is rightly and completely his.
Where would we ever find that kind of love in human nature?

Read Ephesians 2:8-10

We have been saved by grace through faith – a precious gift of God’s to the people of earth – and there is nothing that any of us can do that can match the power of that gift. We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, we can’t conceive of it, and we have an impossible task in trying to describe it. All we can do is accept it.

The renowned theologian Frederick Buechner wrote:
Grace is something you can never get but only be given. The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you [that] I created the universes. I love you.
There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.
--Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 33-34.

Saved by grace through faith, and not by works so no one can boast. Have you ever known someone who just loved to talk about their own salvation? That’s boasting! What we need to do is to talk about God’s grace, and how it is there, just waiting, for the other person to reach out in the name of Jesus and receive it for their own life. That is a part of what “sharing the love of Christ” is all about.
And these are part of the “good works” that Paul tells us about in verse 10. We don’t have to make them up, we don’t have to figure them out, we don’t have to give them purpose and definition – God has already completely prepared them for us in advance, and again, all we have to do is reach out and accept them.
And just in case anyone thinks that if one more person comes to Christ that it will diminish their own share of glory, remember that ALL who are in Christ are “joint heirs” with him in eternity. The grace of God is infinite and limitless!

When my brother and I were in college, I remember the time that we were talking about “infinity” at supper one evening (college kids just love to expound on their new learnings in front of their parents and younger siblings!). In the course of our conversation, Mom made the comment that she just couldn’t imagine anything that had no end. But as we talked a little more, she also admitted that she had just as much difficulty in imaging space having an abrupt end to it.
Grace is like that. We can’t imagine its infinite quality, but neither should we imagine that it can be limited. We have to understand that it just IS!

Grace – Mercy – Salvation – God’s infinite love – Christ’s infinite passion – we don’t have to understand any of it. As Buechner wrote, we only have to reach out and accept it, and when we do, the condemnation of our sin is history. Ancient Israel didn’t have Jesus, so their only recourse to sin was the Law of Moses and the Love of God. Of course, the law was inadequate to achieve salvation for their lives – it would simply be their feeble attempt at “good works”. And they never did get a good grasp on what the love of God was all about! But it was always with them, just the same. The Lord’s grace and mercy is all they had going for them, and that is our situation, too.

A new life that brings us to that joint inheritance with Christ is strictly a gift. It’s Christmas and Easter and the Fourth of July all wrapped up in one beautiful present. The Babe of Bethlehem, the Sacrificial Lamb of God, and Freedom from sin and death – a glorious gift that is beyond our wildest imagination. That’s what Jesus is for each and every one of us.

Share that glorious gift with the world around you. They need it just as badly as we do!

“A New Name for a New Life”

Scripture: Genesis 17:1-8; 15-16

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” This is one of the well-known lines from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. You’ll remember that the families of these two star-crossed lovers had been at odds with each other for years. But at this moment in the play, Juliet is telling her Romeo that his family name, as far as she is concerned, is meaningless, and that while she has little love for his family, she is deeply in love with him.
For Juliet, it wasn’t the importance of the Montegue family name that attracted her, it was the man Romeo. But names can have significance, just the same. Take my name as an example. I was named William after my mother’s brother who died very early in his life. My middle name, Charles, is after two close friends of my parents who lived in Berkshire, and one of them fought in the Battle of the Bulge. And I know that some of you have been named after relatives or close friends as a sign of respect and honor.

And for most folks, their name is with them for life. Most never change their name, except in the case of movie stars and basketball players, that is! Our name becomes an identity in legal matters, as well as in social settings, and that’s not a bad thing. But in today’s text, we see 2 name changes that, in and of themselves, have great significance. And the change doesn’t come because the people want a change, but rather because God is bringing about a major change in their lives through a new covenant.

Read Genesis 17:1-2

The covenant that already exists is being confirmed. In Genesis 15:7-21, we read of God’s word for Abram regarding the future of his descendants, and a covenant given that promises a land for his people to live on forever. It would extend from the “river of Egypt (the Nile) to the great river Euphrates (the site of Babylon)”. That’s a much greater area than Israel now occupies, but it is theirs, just the same. And the Lord pronounces this promise as he passes through a sacrifice that Abram has laid out on the earth. Yahweh is claiming the blood sacrifice as a sign that if the covenant is ever broken, by either party, that he, and he alone, will pay the blood price. And that is something for all of us to consider!

And now in this covenant, the promise regarding the land has already been given, but God enlarges the promise. Normally, once a covenant is made, it is never changed, but in this instance, the Lord is adding even more blessings to the relationship. Why would he do that? Wouldn’t the gift of land that extended from Egypt to Babylon be enough? And when we read of this gift in Genesis 15, we discover that it includes land that is already possessed by 10 other nations!
Today, we might see this as “empire building”, and certainly that it would be considered as treading on other nations’ sovereignty! Why would God do this? Because all that is created is his to do with as he sees fit. And why would he have the people Israel overthrow these other nations? Because he knows that these others will never serve him.

There’s a lesson here for each of us, too. We like to think of our homes and property and possessions as ours to do with as we please. But do you get the message that the Lord is giving to Abram? Nothing in this world is ours – it is only on loan to us to use to God’s glory! And if we don’t serve him, and follow his lead in this life, there will be no “next life” in store for us.

Read Genesis 17:3-8

So here are the details of the expanded covenant for Abram.
First, as a reminder to the man, the Lord changes his name from Abram, which means “exalted father”, to Abraham, “father of many”. Just as the rainbow is set in the sky to remind God of his covenant every time it rains, Abraham will be reminded of this new covenant every time his name is spoken. But Abraham is 99 years old, and he has yet to have a legitimate heir by his wife. Remember that his only offspring so far is by the maid. He must have been wondering about this aspect of the promise! But more on that later.
Second, not only are thousands of square miles to be given to his family, but his family will be so large that they will represent many nations! Nations in that day weren’t as large as they are today, but the family of God has continued to grow, and I’ve heard that today, there isn’t a single nation in all the world where the word of God hasn’t been heard and accepted by someone.
Third, the covenant isn’t established just for Abraham – it is given for all of his descendants. When the Lord makes a promise, it is eternal. It begins when the word is given, and it will only end when the covenant has been fulfilled.
Fourth, Yahweh will not only be Abraham’s God, but the God of all who come after him. This is an important part of the promise – remember from last week that once a covenant is given, it can never be taken back. And from Genesis 15, we learn that even if the people break the covenant, the Lord has placed the penalty of the blood sacrifice on himself. The covenant will be for all who come after, the divine relationship will be for all who come after, and nothing can ever turn the Lord away from the word he has given.

Read Genesis 17:15-16

Now we, and Abraham, discover that his wife is also included in the covenant. Her name Sarai is changed to Sarah. In doing some research, I don’t find much information on what these two names mean, except that they both may mean “princess”. So why does God give the woman a new name if the meaning doesn’t change much? Very possibly for the same reason that Abraham received the name – as a reminder that something in their life has changed drastically, and they are never to forget it.

And if we were to continue in the text that follows, we read that the couple is more than a little skeptical regarding their chances to actually see this promise play out! They doubt the Lord’s sanity, because Abraham is nearly 100 years old, and Sarah is already 90! Who in their right minds would ever think that people as advanced in years as these two could ever conceive and have a son? In Luke 18:27, Jesus gives us the answer when he tells his followers “What is impossible for men is possible for God.” Not only did Abraham and Sarah struggle with that concept, but people throughout the ages have continued to doubt that God can do things that we can’t even imagine! We want to keep him in a “box” – we want him to function within our context, and not his.
And yet, the Lord proves his way over and over.

So “What’s in a name?” It depends on who is giving it. If it is us or our parents, it can only have a limited meaning. But when the Lord gives us a name, and more importantly a new name, it will mean everything! Abraham’s new name meant that he had received a new chance in life. Jesus would call James and John “The Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:13-19), and that name brings a whole new set of images to mind! When Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter (Matthew 16:13-20), it signified that his statement would be the “bedrock” of faith. When Saul’s name changed to Paul, it may have only been a single letter that was new, but his life would be forever changed for the good.

And before you begin to think that since your name hasn’t change since your birth, I want to remind you that when you came to Jesus Christ, and claimed him as your Lord and Savior, that it was then that you gained the new name of “Christian” – a name that will also be yours for all time.

When the Lord grants us a new name, it means that we have received a new start on a new way of life, and that we must never look back. The old is past, and the new is forever before us! And because of those times when we have broken the Lord’s covenant, he has already paid the blood sacrifice through Jesus at Calvary.

Praise God for the covenant that he has made for us in the mighty name of Jesus!