Transcript Sermon Notes

Part 8: “GRACE TO THE BARREN”
Verse 24: This example is to be taken
figuratively
-Paul uses the rhetoric device of
“allegory” to set up the theological point
Paul uses a real historical example; we’ll
revisit this story from Genesis
We will use a chart to help us study and
learn what this passage is all about.
God calls Abraham to go to Canaan; promises many descendants
(Gen 12:1-9). Sarah is barren.
Sarah becomes impatient, Abraham should marry Hagar (Gen 16:1-3)
Hagar is pregnant = Sarah is jealous. Things get difficult and Sarah
throws Hagar out. God intervenes; Ishmael born (Gen 16:4-16)
Sarah miraculously conceives and Isaac is born (Gen 21:1-18)
Hagar and Ishmael have to go. Abraham sends them away because
the Lord says so (Gen 21)
realities
spiritual
OLD COVENANT
NEW COVENANT
Hagar (slave woman)
Sarah (free woman)
Fertile
Barren
Ishmael born in a regular way
Isaac born in a miraculous way (the
promise)
Law
Grace
Earthly Jerusalem (in bondage)
Heavenly Jerusalem (free)
Bears children into slavery
Children of the promise
FLESH = SINNERS
SPIRIT = spiritual
rebirth, children
in of God in Christ
“THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS FOR the drug addicts, the
divorced, the HIV positive, the herpes-ridden, the hopeless, for the
outcasts that have been created by the church, and for the outcasts
of our society. The Kingdom of God is for the brain damaged, the
incurably ill, for the barren, for the pregnant too many times, and
the pregnant at the wrong time. The kingdom is for the overemployed, the underemployed, the unemployable, and the
unemployed. The kingdom is for the swindled, the shoved aside, the
left aside, the replaced, the incompetent, and the stupid. It is for the
emotionally starved and the emotionally dead. The Kingdom of God
is for the bigoted, the murderers, the child molesters, the brutals,
the drug lords, the terrorists, the perverted, the raging alcoholics,
over consumers, the incredibly ugly, the dumb, the ignorant, the
starving, the filled, and the filthy rich.
The Kingdom of God is for everyone and the Kingdom of God is for
me.”
-Josh Kellam
The spiritual and theological point:
If the barren Sarahs of the world can
have a future, anyone can.
persecuted
It is the same now