Sermon notes from Sunday morning 11 June 2017
Hebrews 11 verses 1 - 13
Genesis 5 verses 21 - 24
I want us to turn to the little topic of life changing events, situations that make us think about the way we are living. First of all we looked at Saul of Tarsus as he watched Stephen the first martyr of the Christian church being stoned to death. Saul the great persecutor of the church realised there was something lacking in his life. From that moment he was changed. He became the great apostle Paul. We thought of Moses and how a little fire caused so much sensation. It burned but did not burn away. The voice of God spoke to him from the middle of the bush enough to change Moses` direction. Have we had a life changing experience? Are we going on with God? Enoch was a man who had one event that stands out in his life that changed his family and spiritual life. It was the birth of a child.
First of all notice this family celebration. It came at that point of celebration in his home - verse 21. "Enoch lived 60 and 5 years and begat Methuselah." Maybe that will not be the same in our life time. A relatively young man. In his family home he gets news he is going to have a baby. That has a great effect on him - verse 22 "after he begat Methuselah". It was after this child was born that he began to walk with God. In a dark period came a time of celebration and rejoicing for this young man. Remember the wedding in Canaan of Galilee. Simple things can change lives. A wedding feast changed the life of many. In John chapter 2 we read of a celebration when 2 people came together to exchange marriage vows, when 2 families became one. In the midst of that rejoicing the wine ran out. They came to the Lord. Isn`t it wonderful the Lord was in the centre of that situation. He has brought you to that very point in time. Maybe celebration, sickness in the home, the Lord is in the midst of it. When they ran out of wine his mother came and said "they have no wine." Getting every eye in that place to focus on Jesus so that they could concentrate on his word. Isn`t that the purpose of the preacher, to get every eye and gaze on Christ? He came to seek and to save that which is lost. Get you to that point of need. Everyone gazing on him, wondering what he would do. "Fill the pots with water and he changed them into wine." In the midst of that situation the disciples believed on him. Their lives were changed, see the Lord in such a different light. Here in the midst of this celebration lives were changed. Remember the shepherds as they fed and watched their sheep by night. Remember how the angels came down and told them of another birth. The shepherds left their sheep on the mountain and hurried to that place where the baby was born. They realised everything was exactly as had been told. They went away rejoicing. The shepherds were looking down on that particular day. They were the first to gaze on the Lord. Their lives could never be the same again. The wise men came from the east. The infant was about 2 years of age. They went to their own country another way. Their lives were changed. There is maybe something happening in your life today forward. Here was this young man living in a society that the scholars claim was uneducated. Here was a society with a rising tide of wickedness and evilness spreading across the whole land. Enoch could see it. God comes into the midst of this celebration and gives him a child. In chapter 4 we read of how Cain was responsible for the taking of the life of Abel. Murder is coming into society. Cain turned his back on God. Verse 20 here was the father of such as dwelt in tents. He was beginning to move out of that society. Verse 21 music coming into society, entertainment. This is the society that according to the academics could not read or write. Verse 22 here is culture and technology opening up. Verse 19 Lamech took unto him 2 wives. Total disregard for the law of God. This is the society in which this young man was growing up in. Chapter 6 verse 5 such was the society. Verse 6 "it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him." Verse 3 "my spirit shall not always strive with man." Verse 7 "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth." Society was getting worse and worse. In the midst of this darkness we see a celebration.
A time of consecration. There is a time of thinking and reflection when this child was born into his home. God has blessed this child. Thinking of the reality of this child before him. He is thinking of the revelation of this child before him. There is a reality here. Another little child coming into the world. Knows this child has completely transformed him. When a child comes into the home that home is never the same again. The parents lives are never the same. A reality God has given to us. A responsibility to this child. A great revelation. Reality strikes home as Enoch looked into this child`s eyes. He could see his features. He saw the reality of God before him. This couldn`t have come about by chance. Maybe that is what turned him to God. Is there something in your life telling you to go deeper with God?
There is a responsibility too. The responsibility God would give him to teach him to be an example to do what he could do for him. Enoch would have responsibility to look after this child. That child had a nature cut off from God through sin. He would have to learn about the things of God. Judges 13 verses 2 - 5. The woman rushed home and told her husband. Verse 8 "and teach us what we should do unto the child that shall be born". He went into the presence of God, got down before God, would you let this messenger come again to us, we need to know how we conduct this child, how we will raise him. Not worrying about everything could do for this child nor his education. He was worrying about the responsibility that came into that home, asked the Lord to teach them. He is beginning to consider this. Joshua leading the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. Head of a great multitude of people. It was time to take the people across the river Jordan. He knew he had that responsibility of people on him. Also had the responsibility of his own children "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." He was keeping his eye on the Lord for himself and his family. Maybe that is what Enoch felt.
Consider the revelation. The name of this child born and the meaning of it. Methuselah. He was a child born into the family of Enoch. God said he would destroy the world with a flood. When would it happen? At the death of Methuselah some 900 years later. Imagine that for a moment. Enoch is looking on this child, a revelation from God. Great celebration going on but he knows when this child dies judgement would fall on the earth. He didn`t know Methuselah would live to a ripe old age. He lived in the knowledge that God would judge the world after his son`s death.
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