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Call to worship: Hebrews 10:1-7

Text: Genesis 8:1-22

Summary:

In the belly of the Ark, raging storm without and perishable stores within, God remembered faithful Noah and his ecosystem. Divine remembrance leads to a calming of the storm. Day by day, the waters abate, the land drys, and Noah draws the nearer to salvation completed. As the Ark rests on dry ground, it's successfully completed its purpose. Those who believed have been spared the justice of God. Not a drop remains to touch them. God calls Noah then to go out and begin again what He commissioned Adam to do. God's purpose goes beyond Noah. He's after a humanity that reflects His glory to the world. Accordingly, Noah worships the Lord by building an altar upon which he offers clean sacrifices that are pleasing and moving aroma to God's own heart. It's figural of the sacrifice God will make, the Sacrifice that satisfies God's justice, cleanses the human heart, and certifies a new creation that will never come to an end.

Main idea(s):

God never forgets, but always remembers His people, bringing them, through Jesus, to rest in/as a new creation, free from wrath, and on worshipful, Christ-diffusing mission.

Sermon Outline:

1. The God of the flood remembers Noah. (8:1a)
2. The God Who remembers acts for and through Noah. (8:1b-19)
3. Noah worships the God Who so remembered him. (8:20-22)

Prepare

Discussion Questions:

1. Read Genesis 8:1-22.
2. 'But God remembered Noah, etc.' Returning to the place we left off in the Genesis story, where is Noah, etc.? What's happening around them? What's their current state of existence? How does God's remembrance of Noah at this time serve as a comfort to 'all God's Noahs'?
3. What does God's remembrance 'look like,' v. 1bff (and following)? With the waters subsiding and the earth drying, what in fact, though perhaps underneath the surface, is coming to an end? What news does this signal concerning those not in the Ark? What for those within the safety of it?
4. What, if any, significance might there be in that God waited until the earth was completely dry to command Noah, etc. to go out? What's the commission that He gives to Noah? Have we heard that commission before in Genesis? Where so? And why would it be repeated here? What does it mean about God's desire and purpose with the humanity?
5. What problem still exists for humanity? Where does that problem exist? Was the flood a success? In what way does it direct us ahead to the blood of Jesus? Is this creation intended to exist forever? Will 'all things' ever be made new and imperishable? What form does the worship of Noah take in v. 20? How does this prefigure the sacrifice of Christ and serve as exemplary for true spiritual worship? What reasons does Noah have to worship?