The episode unravels the details of God’s unwavering plans, culturally rich backdrops, and miraculous promises that form the bedrock of Christian faith. Through richly detailed exegesis, Bob Enyart explores how God’s direction in the Old Testament narrative consistently pointed toward the future resurrection of Christ. Listeners are guided through the pivotal moments in Abram’s journey, his transformation to Abraham, and his miraculous fatherhood of Isaac against all odds, setting the stage for understanding the profound nature of divine promises and how historical roots illuminate modern faith.
Greetings to the brightest audience in the country and welcome to Bob Enyart Live. Today we are getting into a sermon that my pastor gave at Agape Kingdom Fellowship. This is his series on evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Such an important topic. Our entire faith rests on the resurrection of Jesus. And if that is not true, then all of Christianity is not true. And we rest our faith in that soul fact that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. And so it’s important to know why we believe that, because if that’s not true, everything else is not true. And so we’re going to get into part one of this today. Hey, may God bless you guys. Let’s jump right into it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, good morning, AKF. Super excited to begin a new sermon series. We are about to embark on what I think is going to be an incredible journey together. This will be a four-part series and will make the most sense once we are finished with all four parts. So if you are confused or wondering, What point I’m trying to make along the way, just hang in there until the end. I promise, it will make perfect sense once we are done. The title of this series is Mount Moriah, Compelling Evidence for the Resurrection. Now our journey is going to begin thousands of years ago in a far off land. Let’s travel back in time to ancient Mesopotamia. Now Mesopotamia is composed of two Greek words. The first is Mesa, which means between. And the second, Potomos, which means rivers. So the land between rivers. And of course, the rivers would be the Tigris and the Euphrates. Now there was a city. in northern Mesopotamia called Haran. And in order to understand where this city was located, we are going to look at a map. I cannot emphasize enough how much learning geography has helped me understand the events in the Bible so much better. So here, we are looking at a map of modern day Israel, Syria, and Turkey. And what do you know? There is a city called Haran, same name, just one additional R, located right near the Turkey-Syria border today on the Turkey side. Coincidence? No, this is not a coincidence. This is the site of the ancient city of Haran. Now, in this city, Haran, lived a man. His name was Abram. He is better known as Abraham today. But at this point in the story, his name had not yet been changed by God. So as Abram and his wife Sarai, her name had also not yet been changed by God, they dwelt in Haran, and as they dwelt there, God called Abram. Let’s read about it in Genesis chapter 12, and starting with the first verse. Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now I’m going to be a broken record throughout this series because it’s vitally important. What we are reading here, the book of Genesis, was written long before Jesus was born. This is not something that could have been changed or modified after the time of Jesus. Everything that we will read today was written long before Jesus existed on this earth. So God intervenes in Abram’s life and he tells him to leave his family and move out of this Mesopotamian city, Haran. And he’s to move where? To a specific land which God has picked. and to which God will show him. This is important. God is directing here. You see, God has chosen himself where he wants Abram and Sarai to go in order to make him into a great nation and in order to bless him. Now, I’m going to suggest that this location that God wanted Abram to move to is not arbitrary. I’m going to suggest that God’s direction, specific direction to Abram here, is directly tied to the resurrection of Jesus. What does this mean? This means God is already not only working out a plan of salvation for mankind, but he is also giving mankind compelling evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the process. We will come back to this, but notice that God’s promise to make him a great nation means that Abram and Sarai will have children. They do not yet have any children. Continuing with verse 4 of Genesis 12, we read this. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people whom they had acquired in Haran and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. So let’s look at another map to see the general route Abram and Sarai traveled to get from Haran to the land of Canaan. As you can see, they traveled southwest and ended up in Canaan, which is modern-day Israel. So God, God himself, relocates Abram and Sarai and relocates them from Haran to Canaan. And so Abram here is simply doing what God asks him to do. He obeys. Now much time passes and Abram is frustrated. He’s understandably frustrated that he and Sarai still do not have any children. After all, he moved his family away to a different land under the pretense that God was going to make him a great nation. Let’s read in Genesis chapter 15, starting with the first verse. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Here God is reassuring Abram that he will have a son. Not only will he have a son, but this son will be from his own body. Once again, God is orchestrating these events. Very important theme. God is orchestrating the events. This is going to be very important to remember throughout this entire series on Mount Moriah. Now, Abram and Sarai do not have the ability on their own to create a child. That’s clear. But God is in control here. Now after 10 more years, these 10 years are in the land of Canaan, Abram and Sarai were still childless. And so what do they do? They become impatient, which I think we can all understand and relate to. So what do they do? They take matters into their own hands. God has been orchestrating everything, now they decide to take matters into their own hands. Let’s read what they did in Genesis chapter 16, starting with verse 1. Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, see now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid. Perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan. So he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Please take note. God had nothing to do with this. This is now Abram and Sarai acting of their own accord. And as we see here and later, this was not part of God’s plan for Abram. Abram now has a son, but this is not the son that God had in mind for him. And sadly, the son and wife, this son and wife of Abram’s, are now going to be treated horribly because of this situation. So Hagar, Abram’s new wife, gives birth to Ishmael, and Abram is 86 years old at the time of his birth. Not a spring chicken anymore. So let’s fast forward another 13 years. Abram is now 99 years old. Once again, God appears to Abram and acts in his life. There’s a theme here. This time, God changes Abram’s name to Abraham. We read this in Genesis chapter 17, starting with verse 3. Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, And then after instituting circumcision in this chapter, God changes Sarai’s name as well to Sarah. Verses 15 and 16 in Genesis 17 say, Then God said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and also give you a son by her. Then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples shall be from her. Two important things here. God is unilaterally changing their names. As has been the theme here, God is controlling and directing their lives. Leave your family alone. move to this land you will have a child from your own body here’s your new name they have no say in all of this right god is directing and then god tells abraham here that sarah will give him a son sarah say what At this point, Abraham thinks Ishmael is the heir by which he will be the father of many nations, but not so. You see, Ishmael was not part of God’s plan. So what does Abraham think of this, this new information? How does Abraham react to God telling him that it’s Sarah who will have his son? Let’s continue in verse 17. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? And shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child? And Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. This was laughable to Abraham. Why? Because it’s impossible in his mind for people this old to have a child. And guess what? It was impossible for men. But with God, all things are possible. And God again shows how he is orchestrating events in their lives in his response to Abraham, starting in verse 19. Then God said, No, Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, And you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget 12 princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year. Then he finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham. Notice what God has done here. He has determined the name of their son, that he shall be called Isaac. And he has determined the time that Isaac will be conceived and the time that Isaac will be born. What is God up to here? Why is God so involved in all of these details in the lives of Abraham and Sarah? where they move to, where they live, when they have a child. I’m going to give you a hint. God wanted the conception of Isaac to be a miraculous conception. God did not want it to be something natural or like it was with Hagar. It was important that it happened when they were both beyond the age of childbearing. Fast forward to Genesis 21, and we have the birth of Isaac. Starting in verse 1, we read, “…and the Lord visited Sarah as he had said…” And the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah born to him, Isaac.” Notice the emphasis put onto God here in the verses we just read. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said. The Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken at the set time which God had spoken. And then the emphasis at the end. Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sarah born to him. Not Hagar, Sarah. And he was named Isaac. Who came up with that name? God. As God had told them to. Many years pass. We don’t know how many exactly. But Isaac is probably a teenager, possibly older. And we get to Genesis chapter 22. This is a story we are all very familiar with. The climactic event in the life of Abraham. Let’s read through this chapter very carefully, starting with the first verse. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, And he said, here I am. Then he said, take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. There is a lot in these two verses. There’s a lot. First, God again is calling the shots. God is in complete control here as to what is going on. One day, God just appears to Abraham and tells him where he needs to travel to and what he needs to do there. This has been a common theme throughout the story of Abraham and his life in Genesis. Next, God refers to Isaac as Abraham’s only son. This is not Abraham’s only son. This is not even Abraham’s only circumcised son. Why God said this will become clear when we finish the series. Next, God tells Abraham to go to the land, in Hebrew, Moriah, to go to the land of Moriah. We are about to read that this is a three-day journey, again, all by God’s design. And finally, Abraham is to sacrifice Isaac on a specific mountain when he gets there. A mountain God will show him. Not only is God directing this entire story, but now God is commanding child sacrifice. Does this sound like the God of the Bible? What were God’s feelings toward child sacrifice in Scripture? This story should have us all very puzzled. Why does God call Isaac Abraham’s only son, and why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice him? Continuing with verse 3. So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you. So they journey three days, again, not arbitrary, but all part of God’s meticulous plan. And they arrive at this very specific mountain that God himself has picked out in the land of Moriah. At this point, Abraham and Isaac will make the final trek alone. Verse 6. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two of them went together. In what must have been a heartbreaking request, Abraham has Isaac carry the wood, which he knew would be used for Isaac’s own death. He has Isaac carry this wood. Up now.
SPEAKER 01 :
Stop the tape. Stop the tape. Hey, we are out of time here on today’s broadcast. If you want the entire thing, you can get that by going to nyart.shop and signing up for the Bob Enyart sermons. That has all of Bob Enyart’s sermons, all of my sermons, and all of Pastor Will’s sermons. You do not want to miss that. Again, nyart.shop. Hey, may God bless you guys.
The episode unravels the details of God’s unwavering plans, culturally rich backdrops, and miraculous promises that form the bedrock of Christian faith. Through richly detailed exegesis, Bob Enyart explores how God’s direction in the Old Testament narrative consistently pointed toward the future resurrection of Christ. Listeners are guided through the pivotal moments in Abram’s journey, his transformation to Abraham, and his miraculous fatherhood of Isaac against all odds, setting the stage for understanding the profound nature of divine promises and how historical roots illuminate modern faith.
