5 Sermon Illustrations on Salvation History

When the last battle was fought, the final obstacle demolished, and the land promised was now land possessed, Joshua called together all the tribes of Israel. Standing upon the foreign ground of freedom, he spoke to all the people. “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants... Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out. ... You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time'” (Joshua 24:2-3,5,7b).

Goethe once penned, “What you have as heritage, take now as task; for thus you will make it your own.” Having fought hard to possess the land God had promised, the Israelites now stand before Joshua looking forward at life as God promised. And they are given instruction in the form of history. The vast majority of the people listening were not present amongst their ancestors in Egypt. As the Red Sea was parted and the Egyptians swallowed by sea, they were not standing on dry ground watching with their own eyes as it all happened. And yet the impact of history, the commanded retelling of the story makes it possible to say it as such: With your own eyes you have seen almost a millennium of landless slavery redeemed by God's promise, at God's hands.

Moving through Israel's history into days the crowd would remember first hand, the LORD continues through Joshua, “'Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands. ... You did not do it with your own sword and bow. I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant'“ (24:11,13).

His words now tell of current events and familiar scenery and warn against forgetting it was God who brought them there. He reminds the battle-weary Israelites that what happened at the crossing of the Red Sea with Moses is as imperative to their story as the crossing of the Jordan with Joshua. That God is in their history is assurance of his plans to give them a hope and a future.

To remember that Jehovah saves me this day, in this dark valley, in this trying situation, is to remember the story in its entirety. God saved his people from Egypt; from his hand came each victory across the Jordan. By his presence a nation was led into the Promised Land — and by the blood of his Beloved the curse of sin and death was stopped.

In his book "Life Together," Dietrich Bonhoeffer states emphatically, “It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to his Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today. ... I find no salvation in my life history but only in the history of Jesus Christ.” As he led the anti-Nazi Confessing Church, Bonhoeffer was moved by the presence of God in the history of Israel, the promise of God in his crucified Son, such that he chose to serve Him even unto his death in a concentration camp.

At the conclusion of God's word to his people that day Joshua declared, “[C]hoose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (24:15). Out of the covenant of God with the people of Israel comes a history that instructs our own, a savior born and wounded for my sin. With Isaiah I hear his plea, “Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (49:9-10).

God's people were led into the Promised Land with a leader whose very name confesses “Jehovah saves.” It is not coincidental that the same word marks the name Jesus, who offered his life that we might be fully led into the promises of God.

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Copyright © 2004 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

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Another version, from August 16, 2006:

The last battle had been fought, the final obstacle demolished; the land that was once promised was now land possessed. Joshua called together all the tribes of Israel and standing upon the foreign ground of freedom he announced to all the people: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods. But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants.... Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out.... You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the desert for a long time’” (Joshua 24:2-3,5,7b).

Goethe once penned, “What you have as heritage, take now as task; for thus you will make it your own.” Having fought hard to possess the land God had promised, the Israelites now stood before Joshua looking forward to the LIFE God had promised. On this momentous day, they were given instruction from God in the form of history. The vast majority of the people listening had not personally lived through the miraculous events in Egypt. As the Red Sea was parted and the Egyptians swallowed by sea, they were not standing on dry ground watching with their own eyes as it all happened. And yet, the impact of this history and the continual (and commanded) retelling of the story made it possible for the LORD to say it as such: WITH YOUR OWN EYES you have seen almost a millennium of landless slavery redeemed by God’s promise, transformed at God’s own hands.

God continued to speak through Joshua, moving from Israel’s early history into days the crowd would remember first hand: “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands.... You did not do it with your own sword and bow. I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant’” (24:11,13).

His words told of current events and familiar scenery, while warning against forgetting it was God who brought them there. God reminded the battle-weary Israelites that what happened at the crossing of the Red Sea with Moses was as imperative to their story as the crossing of the Jordan with Joshua. God’s hand throughout their history was to be God’s assurance of his plans to give them a hope and a future.

To remember that Jehovah saves me this day, in this dark valley, in this trying situation, is to remember the story of God in its entirety. God saved his people from Egypt; from his hand came each victory across the Jordan. By his presence a nation was led into the Promised Land; by the blood of his beloved the curse of sin and death was stopped. Today God saves because yesterday God saved.

In his book LIFE TOGETHER, Dietrich Bonhoeffer states emphatically, “It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to his Son Jesus Christ, than to seek what God intends for us today.... I find no salvation in my life history but only in the history of Jesus Christ.” As Bonhoeffer led the anti-Nazi Confessing Church, he was moved by the presence of God in the history of Israel, the promise of God in his crucified Son, such that he chose to believe in God’s salvation even unto death in a concentration camp.

At the conclusion of God’s word to his people on that day of promise, Joshua declared, “[C]hoose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (24:15). Out of the covenant of God with the people of Israel comes a history that instructs my own, a savior born and wounded for my sin. With Isaiah I hear God’s plea, “Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (46:9-10).

God’s people were led into the Promised Land with a leader whose very name confesses “Jehovah saves.” It is not coincidental that the same word marks the name Jesus, who offered his life that we might be fully led into the promises of God.

________

Copyright © 2006 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

The day after Christmas is an appropriate time to consider how the birth of Christ is often assigned a secondary place in Christian theology.

The birth of Jesus, or Christmas, as it is known today, has been considered – especially by some preachers and teachers of Christianity – as less important than the resurrection of Jesus, also known as Easter. The motivations are two-fold. First, we do not know the exact day of birth of Jesus. Second, according to these leaders, it is the resurrection that gives Christianity its essence and meaning. Without resurrection there is no salvation – that is, forgiveness of sins, grace and a renewed and eternal life.

It is a mistake, in my opinion, to classify God’s economy of salvation in terms of the importance of its events or phases. The entirety of God’s plan is important. To say that Jesus’ death and resurrection is more important than Jesus’ birth reveals our failure to understand that the three major events in God’s plan for humanity – the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus – are equally important.

The birth of Jesus is not less important than the rest of his mission; it is foundational to his mission. God could have chosen to save humanity in a different way, without a death and a resurrection. God is sovereign, so who are we to exclude that possibility? However, God chose the plan which is revealed to us in the Bible, and no part in this plan is less important than the rest.

Jesus birth has a unique theological and practical meaning for each of us:

● First, by choosing to enter human history, God’s Son chose, for our sake, to become one of us.

● Second, God chose to be born on earth to us and for us. Jesus is God’s good news, God’s special grace of salvation to us and for our salvation.

● Third, the birth of Jesus teaches us that his way is the humble way, that he identifies with the less popular and applauded people of society, that we should seek him with a humble heart and that we should relate to others for their sake – not forgetting that God was born for our sake, to us and for us – and altruistically.

By choosing to enter human history, Jesus sacralizes history and gives it an entirely new purpose and dimension. History becomes a sacred history to those who see it though God’s perspective; it is not just a series of random, meaningless events. People are transformed by God and understand history with a new perspective and vision, which is both temporal (related to this world) and heavenly (related to the eternal world). There are meaningless events in history, of course, but they are not a part of sacred history. Sacred history is only that which is seen and lived through God’s will and vision: love, justice, peace and unity. People live the sacred history inasmuch as they relate themselves and the world to God. The rest is an ambiguous state, an amalgam of sacred and profane.

Moreover, Jesus entered human history, to be one of us and for our sake, to restore the relationship between humanity and God that Adam and Eve had lost through disobedience. At Christmas we are reminded that God, in the person of God’s Son, restores the original relationship between humankind and God for our sake. It is the beginning of a new creation and a new world. God becomes one of us. God not only experiences what it means to be human – to be hungry, to suffer, to love, to want – but also teaches us the way of God, the way of love, justice, peace and unity. Moreover, as one of us, God meets us in our troubles and darkest days, reminding us not to despair; there is still hope and light.

Jesus was born to us and for us. Jesus was born into a time of terrible oppression and suffering for the Jews who had been under the domination of the Roman Empire. In addition, their religious identity had been threatened by the religious syncretism of the Roman Empire. In the middle of such a tragic reality, the angel brought good news of great joy, which was Jesus, the Savior, the long-awaited and prophesied Messiah.

As was true 2,000 years ago, the birth of Jesus brings today the good news of the gift of the Savior. But this salvation does not mean a sudden social and political change, a complete state of joy here on earth for us, as most of Jesus’ contemporaries had expected. Instead, he asks us all to repent, to change, to love one another and to live like brothers and sisters in unity as the true way to approximate God’s Kingdom on earth. By following Jesus’ teachings of love, justice, peace and unity, we can achieve both temporal and eternal happiness and salvation (rather than erroneously expecting to achieve these through our own self-centered initiatives and power). Such a way of life allows us to speak authentically of God-with-us.

Those who want to find Jesus must humble themselves. Before we find Jesus in a manger, we are told that an angel brought the good news to shepherds – a poor and widely despised class of people – rather than to the aristocrats and leaders of that time. While important in social, political and economic standing, the wealthy and powerful were (and still are) reluctant to accept the good news (and the change it implies) brought to them by a person socially inferior to them. In contrast, poor people are often eager to listen and open to change.

Second, we find Jesus in a humble manger, not in a socially respectable place. We find him here because “there was no place for them in the inn.” The young couple and their soon-to-be-born child did not “deserve” a room in the inn because they had arrived later than others and/or were considered less significant than others. But, there is always more space. The fact that there was “no place” for them in respectable society was a matter of the world’s choice, not of an objective reality.

The truth is that we most often find and receive Jesus among shepherds, among poor and ordinary people, because others are too busy to pay attention to him and his message. We find him in humble places, because only those who humble themselves are open to receive Jesus, the displaced child. We can receive Jesus only in humility, by walking with society’s displaced and marginalized, by washing the feet of those who are our sisters and brothers and by loving each other altruistically.

We speak of knowing the risen Christ, but we cannot know the risen Christ without knowing the humble man of Nazareth. The risen Christ, who is spiritual and beyond our power of understanding, must be approached with a deep humility and awe, not with the confidence of our reason and intelligence. History has shown us that human reason fails to understand Jesus fully. Jesus can be known only in the humility of heart, thought and deeds.

The birth of Christ is the first and most important lesson of humility, because God was born in utter simplicity to us, for us and for our sake.