Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This week we are continuing our sermon series Heroes of Faith where we look at those described
in Hebrews chapter 11 as being examples of faith for us to follow.
And this week we're looking at a guy that you've probably heard of.
His name is Noah.
And if you're anything like me, you have lots of questions about Noah and his ark and
what it all means.
So today Rob is going to dive deep into this story with us and show us the true meaning
behind the ark and what Noah's faith has to teach us.
So let's listen in.
Our first reading is from the book of Genesis chapter 6 verses 12 through 19.
God saw how corrupt the earth had become for all the people on earth had corrupted their
ways.
So God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all people for the earth is filled with
violence because of them.
I'm surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
So make yourself an ark of Cypress wood.
Make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
This is how you are to build it.
The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high.
Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof and opening one cubit high all around.
Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.
I'm going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens.
Every creature that has breath of life in it, everything on earth will perish.
But I will establish my covenant with you and you will enter the ark.
You and your sons and your wife and your sons wads with you.
You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive
with you.
Our second reading is from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7.
By faith Noah, being warned by God of things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to
save his family.
By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is keeping
with the faith.
The word of the Lord.
If you were to take a trip to the town of Darwin, Minnesota, you would come across a
very unique museum.
It is a hall of fame unlike any other because it contains within it the world's largest
ball of twine.
They go to great lengths there to make you feel right at home.
That's one amazing museum.
Maybe that's not your things.
If you go over into the UK, they have over there in Leeds, they have another museum,
another great hall of fame.
Only this one is the dog collar hall of fame.
It is filled with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dog collars from famous dogs down
throughout history.
Elsewhere in the UK you can visit the British Lawn Mower Museum.
Let me tell you, this museum, it really mows down the competition.
Yeah, yeah, all right, good.
Or why not take a trip to Yokohama, Japan, where there is the Ramen Hall of Fame.
There they celebrate the great noodle dish, ramen, and I hear it's unforgettable.
But listen, not to be outdone, we here in Canada, we have got our own hall of fame.
It's the Potato Museum, the Potato Hall of Fame in O'Leary, Prince Edward Island.
How many of you have been to the PEI Potato Hall of Fame?
Oh, yes, a couple, a couple.
Yeah, it's worth the road trip for sure.
Grab your buds and go see some spuds at the Potato Museum in Prince Edward Island.
Well, today we are continuing our journey through an amazing hall of fame, an amazing
hall of faith, if you will.
It is a list of characters that is found in one chapter of the Bible, Hebrews chapter
11.
And there in these pages are exhibit after exhibit after exhibit of people, ordinary people,
ordinary people who live their lives with great faith.
And so far, we've looked at a few exhibits of these heroes of faith.
We've seen about Abel's great faith.
And last week we looked at the faith of Enoch.
But today we come to a very special exhibit, and that is the exhibit of Noah.
Noah was a great hero of faith.
Now, if I had to ask you, if I had to ask anybody for that matter to name one or two
Bible stories that they know, I think just about everybody knows the story of Noah and
the ark and the flood.
That story is found in Genesis, but in Hebrews 11, we get just one little verse devoted to
Noah.
And this is what we read.
By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save
his family.
By faith, he condemned the world.
Sounds kind of scary.
And became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
There's a lot in there.
Like I said, you can read Genesis 6, 7, 8, 9, and you can read all of Noah's story there.
But today we're going to just focus in on this one verse.
Now, even though we know the story of Noah and the flood, it doesn't mean that we don't
have some questions about the flood.
Like for example, how could a good God who is loving and forgiving make the decision
to flood the whole earth and kill all of creation?
That is a real, farny one that a lot of people struggle with.
And then there are more technical questions that we have about the story.
But are we to understand that the whole earth was flooded?
Or was this a regional flood?
Or was this just a localized flood in a particular area of the world?
And then what about this ark?
What about the ark?
If this ark really was constructed, shouldn't there be some evidence of that today?
Some archaeologists believe there is.
And so on and so forth.
And then there's other questions.
Like, well, how did Noah even get the animals into the ark?
And how did he get one of each sex, male and female?
Have you ever tried to tell the difference between a male pigeon and a female pigeon?
How do you do that?
There's so many questions.
Perhaps the most thorny of all theological questions, though, is this one.
Why on earth did Noah allow cats on board the ark?
Just think about how the history of humankind could have been so much better if he had just
made the decision to say, no, cats, no, no.
But he blew his chance.
And there we have it.
Right?
So I want to say that it is OK to have all these questions about the story of the flood
and the story of the ark and all that.
Researchers, theologians, people have puzzled over these things for years and years and
years and years.
Actually, maybe when you're in your life groups this week having conversations, it would be
a good chance for you to try to unpack some of these big questions.
But I just want to say this, that when it came to people like Jesus, who references
the ark or Peter, who talks about the ark, their questions and their thoughts about the
ark were not technical questions.
They were not about geology or archaeology or zoology or carpentry or any of that thing.
Those weren't the questions they had when they thought about the flood.
For Jesus, the flood was this symbol, if you will, of what it's going to look like one
day when God brings justice to the world and deals with all the evil empires of the world.
That's kind of how Jesus thought about the flood story.
And Peter, when he thought about the flood story, he was thinking about how the flood
is a lot like Christian baptism and how in baptism we are washed clean and made brand
new.
And in the picture of the ark itself, I don't think people were so concerned about its structure
and its dimensions and all that.
But what they actually saw in the ark was like an early symbol of the temple, this place
where people went for salvation, this place that lifted us up into the presence of God,
lift us up to the heavens.
Right?
So maybe, all I'm saying is maybe, all of our kind of more technical questions, which
are important, will give way to some of these other kinds of questions which Jesus and Peter
and others seemed interested in too.
The longer we sit with the story, the more our questions about the story might change.
Now those questions aside, let's put them aside.
What are we supposed to learn today from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7?
And I want to say there's four things.
And I have actually, as always, provided you with little study notes that try to help you
keep track of them as we zoom through them.
But I want to say that Noah shows us that to live by faith means four things.
It means to listen up.
It means to stand out.
It means to put on.
And it means to climb in.
Listen up, stand out, put on, climb in.
Let's start with this.
Noah shows us that to live by faith means to listen up.
And the reason I say this is that I think it appears that Noah may have been the very
first person who heard the word of God come to them and then chose to obey it.
Right?
And this is why I say that because the writer says that by faith, Noah, when warned about
things not yet seen, in holy fear, he built an ark to save his family.
Or some translations actually say by faith, when Noah was instructed about things not
yet seen.
So somehow, work with me here, somehow God communicated a message to Noah.
He instructed Noah.
And importantly, Noah listened.
Right?
And based on what God said, Noah acted.
And if so, I think that this is the thing that makes Noah different than everyone else
that we've heard about so far in this hall of faith.
And that is, it wasn't just that Noah believed in God, but it was that Noah believed God,
believed what God said.
And he believed it so much that he actually began to construct this ark.
I don't know how the word of God would have come to Noah.
Right?
They didn't have a Bible in those days.
That wasn't how it worked.
What did it sound like?
We don't know.
But we do know that in Noah's world, like in our world, there were many voices.
So much noise.
People telling you how to live and how to behave and what was right and what was wrong.
And yet somehow, Noah was able to tune out that noise and tune in to the voice of God
and allow that to be the thing that dictated his actions.
And he was able to do that so well that ultimately he started building this ocean liner in the
middle of dry land.
And Noah, through doing this, actually teaches us a little something about God's word.
Sometimes when God speaks to us, it's what you might call informative.
And other times, God's word is performative.
Now, what do I mean by that?
Sometimes God's word just gives us information.
Like the Ten Commandments.
Here's some information.
These are instructions for how to live your life.
Or like the construction of the ark.
I wanted this many cubits by this many cubits made of this kind of wood.
That is God's word that comes to us passing on information.
It's informative.
But other times when God speaks, his words actually do something.
They perform something.
They initiate action and they set events in motion.
God's word can actually shape reality just by the speaking of it.
So in Genesis chapter one, when God says, let there be light, he's not giving us information
about light.
He's not describing the wavelength of the light.
He is actually bringing light into existence.
That's his performative word, as theologians say.
And in the same way, when God warned Noah about the coming flood, it wasn't just a friendly
information announcement.
Hey, Noah, I see some clouds on the horizon.
You better get ready for some water.
No, it was a divine proclamation.
His word set events in motion.
It wasn't hypothetical.
His word accomplishes what it declares.
That is what it means for God's word to be performative.
God says that my word, when it goes out, it will not return to me empty.
It always accomplishes that for which I sent it.
God's word does not describe reality.
God's word creates reality.
And that means that when God makes promises to you of forgiveness or when God speaks to
you about transformation or about eternal life, these words are not just describing
ideas to you.
They are creating a reality for you.
The same word that created the universe, the same word that summoned the floodwaters speaks
over your life and speaks into your life, changing you as he speaks it.
So like Noah, we better listen up because faith comes by hearing, the Bible tells us,
and hearing by the word of God.
Can you hear God?
Can you hear what God is saying to you above all the other voices, above all your other
doubts, above all the cultural noise, above all the social media, above your own inner
critic that is going on and on and on?
Can you hear what God is saying to you?
Can you hear what God is saying about you?
Because like Noah, we have got to figure out how to tune in to God's word.
And the easiest way to do that, of course, is by regularly reading these words, the Bible.
The Bible is how God is still speaking to us.
This is his living word coming to us today, transforming us, not just informing us.
And the more time that we spend in God's word, the more clearly we will hear that voice above
all the other noise.
So that's why I say Noah's first lesson to us is that faith begins by listening and we,
like him, need to listen up.
Okay?
That's point number one.
The second point that Noah teaches us is faith is not just about listening up, it's learning
how to stand out.
And normally, we do not like to stand out in a crowd.
We'd like to blend in with the crowd.
As a tall guy, I don't like to stand out.
There's many times I wish that I was a foot and a half shorter and I could just blend
in with everybody.
But in Noah's corrupt and evil generation, he and his faith stood out.
Now how do we know this?
We know this because of this line here.
It says that by his faith, he condemned the world.
Now when you read that, it sounds pretty harsh.
It sounds like what Noah did is he went around wagging his finger at people, pointing and
scolding everyone.
Oh, you are so condemned and you're condemned.
You're definitely condemned and you are so going to get it.
Right?
And believe it or not, there actually is an old tradition that says that Noah was this
fiery preacher of damnation.
Right?
And although it's not in the Bible, a first century Christian leader in Rome wrote these
words.
He said, Noah preached repentance and those who obeyed were preserved alive or Noah preached
a new beginning to the world.
Question, was Noah really a preacher?
I don't think so.
Not really.
Noah shamed people, not by preaching damnation to them, but just by living his life before
them.
Noah didn't have to preach sermons to condemn his world.
His life was a sermon.
It says by faith, he condemned the world.
And you've seen this kind of thing in your own life.
Nobody did something that was remarkable, very kind, very generous action.
They never said a single word to you yet when you saw them do it, you felt, you felt in
some ways condemned, you felt challenged, you felt inspired and they never said a single
word.
I think that's the better way to understand what Noah was doing in his own generation.
Jesus said, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify
your father in heaven.
When people see how you live, that alone speaks volumes.
Now I suppose Noah could have preached and he could have warned and condemned as a fiery,
fiery preacher, but instead what he does is he starts building this ginormous box.
And that's all that the word arc means, by the way, just means box, a big square, rudderless
box, the size of an aircraft carrier.
And you know, if, if that didn't say enough, then I'm not sure what his words would have
added to it.
He built this thing in land, nowhere near water in the middle of Iraq.
So that speaks volumes, it speaks volumes about what God is about to do.
Now don't get me wrong.
I totally think words are important.
After all, here I am.
I'm a preacher.
I'm preaching words to you this morning.
And I don't think you can really preach the gospel without using words at some point.
Paul says, how can they believe in the one whom they've not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
So sharing our faith with others happens both in our actions and in our words.
And I am sure that in Noah's day, when many people saw what he was doing, they asked a
lot of questions and those questions probably led to some pretty amazing conversations.
Peter said, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the
reason.
Why are you doing this?
What is this all about?
Noah, tell us some more.
To give a reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect.
My point is Noah stood out.
Do you?
Noah's life caused people to ask questions.
Does yours?
Noah's faith showed people the difference of a life that has lived in obedience to God
and a life that has lived apart from him.
And in that way, all of us should stick out.
In that way, all of us should condemn the world.
Not by going out to the streets and chanting slogans or waving billboards or yelling into
a megaphone or cornering people on the sidewalk, but our life should stand out in a way that
challenges people and invites them to know more about God and more about Jesus and more
about faith.
So Noah teaches us two things so far, to listen up and to stand out.
Thirdly, though, he also teaches us to put on, to put on.
What do I mean by that?
Noah showed us that to live by faith, you don't have to produce your own righteousness.
Instead, you put on God's righteousness.
You see, the writer of Hebrews says this, and this is admittedly a bit of a complicated
line and we have to unpack it.
It says that by his faith, Noah became an heir of the righteousness that is in keeping
with faith.
That's complicated.
But see, most people operate on the principle that you are made right with God.
You are made righteous with God by somehow earning it.
Most religions work this way, too.
Most religions say you've got to develop some righteousness.
You've got to develop some moral character.
You've got to be a good person.
You've got to do good things.
You've got to be kind and truthful and honest, and you've got to help old ladies across the
street.
And if you do all of that, then you can take your record of righteousness and you can show
it to God.
And God will look at it and be pleased.
And God will say, I like it.
I love you.
I'm going to answer your prayers.
You're included, well done.
I'm going to save you based on the wonderful record that you have shown me.
But Noah, Noah shows us that is not how it works.
You might think that's exactly how it works for Noah.
God, look what I'm doing for you.
God, look at the size of this thing.
Look at all the wood.
Look at all the nails.
Look at all the pitch.
Look at all the trees I've chopped.
This is an enormous piece of work I am doing for you.
God, look at it.
Now will you accept me?
Now have I earned your favor, God?
You would think that's how it works, but it's shockingly not how it worked.
Right?
We are told that what pleased God was not all of Noah's works, but it was Noah's faith.
That's where his righteousness came from.
And the way that we know this, it all trickles down to one word in that sentence, and that
is the word air.
Air.
What is an air?
An air is someone who receives something they didn't earn.
An air is someone who gets rich because of someone else.
I'll give you an example that I heard Tim Keller use once.
Imagine, if you will, there's a very, very ambitious lady who goes to school, studies
for years and years, works really hard, and eventually starts a company.
And that company grows and grows, and she invests more time and energy.
And she's up all night.
She's working all day.
And this company grows, becomes very profitable.
She hires more and more people.
And soon she's amassed quite a fortune.
She becomes the CEO of her own company, and the thousands turn into millions and even
into billions.
And the thing is, she earned every last little bit of it.
But when she dies, she leaves everything to her children, those kids, those yahoos, sitting
back there on the couch, on their iPads, you know, Snapchatting their friends or whatever.
And now they are rich.
And why is that?
Not because anything they did, right?
They're rich because of their relationship to her, right?
And they are heirs now of her fortune, receiving it all, receiving everything as a gift, not
because they worked for it.
That's how it works for Noah.
That's how it works for us too.
By faith, we become children of God.
And as children of God, we become heirs to his fortune.
Romans 8, 17 says, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ.
Everything God has is ours.
Everything Jesus has is also ours, given to us by faith.
Those kids, they didn't earn anything by their own effort.
They are just as wealthy as their mom, though, because of their relationship to her.
And you and I, right, we don't earn any of our own righteousness either, but we're made
righteous by our faith in God, by our relationship with God.
You put on God's righteousness, it's given to you through that relationship.
Now, of course, Noah's faith led him to do all sorts of amazing works for God, building
the ark, all that, of course, and our faith should too.
But that wasn't what made him righteous.
We need to hear that, because some of you here today are working as hard as Noah, tirelessly
trying to build a righteousness of your own, striving to prove ourselves to God or to other
people or even to ourselves, hoping that if we just do enough, then we'll finally feel
worthy and we'll finally earn God's love or earn his acceptance.
God does not ask us to build a life of perfection.
He just asks us to become his children by adoption and become his heirs and to put on
his righteousness instead.
And that leads to our fourth and final point.
So what have we learned so far?
Noah teaches us to listen up, to stand out, to put on, but then really all of that comes
down to this last one.
He teaches us to climb in.
You see, Noah ultimately had to climb in to that ark.
When the floodwaters began to rise in Genesis, the beginning of Genesis chapter seven, we
read that God issues this invitation.
He says, Noah, it's time.
I want you to come into the ark.
The rains are coming down and the ark was this thing that was going to save them.
God had appointed this vehicle to be the thing that would save them.
And it was only by getting in, if they didn't get in, it wouldn't save them.
It was only by getting in that they could find shelter and find survival and find salvation
in the face of judgment.
Right?
I'm sure that many people here today and many people who are maybe watching this message
later on, your life feels like a flood.
Even right now, there's a flood of problems.
There is a storm of struggles that you are facing relentless waves that are crashing
on you, maybe financial stress or maybe relationship problems or maybe the crushing weight of grief
or loss.
And you feel the water.
You feel like you're barely keeping your head above it all.
But I want to let you know that today, Jesus is here and he is calling you into the boat
and he's reaching out his arm and he's ready to lift you up and pull you in and rescue
you.
And that is the truth.
But I want to add that even if you manage somehow to survive all the storms of this
life on your own, there's another flood that's coming and it is a flood you will never be
able to withstand on your own.
And that is what the Bible calls the final judgment.
Final judgment, it sounds super scary, but here's the thing.
One day, God's going to deal with everything in this world that is wrong and he's going
to fix everything in this world that is broken.
He's finally going to deal with the sin.
He's finally going to deal with our sadness once and for all.
But when that day comes, my goodness, who of us is going to be able to stay afloat on
our own?
I mean, I know we've tried to be good people and we've tried to live by the golden rule
due to others as you'd have them do to you.
But let's be honest, we are going to sink like stones.
We have not lived up to that.
We haven't even lived up to the standards that we set for ourselves.
But here's the good news.
Here's the good news.
Jesus has this great ability to walk on water and he lived this perfect life, a life we
could never live.
And then he died this death, a death that we truly deserved.
And as such, you know what Jesus becomes?
Jesus becomes our ark.
And Jesus becomes the one who can save us.
All we need to do is climb in.
I mean, you think about it.
Think about how that ark, how the hole was slammed by waves, but the people inside, they
were dry.
Or think about how all the debris and the rocks battered the sides of the boat, but
the people inside were safe in the same way on the cross.
Jesus's body, his whole, if you will, is beaten and battered and it is broken.
But we are safe in him.
All we got to do is just get into the boat.
And that is actually precisely the language that the Bible used to speak about this.
In Romans 8.1, Paul says, there therefore is no condemnation for those who get into
the boat, for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Guys, whatever storms you're facing right now, Jesus is reaching out to you.
He's tossing you the life ring.
Grab hold of him.
Stop trying to float on your own.
It's impossible.
You'll never be able to do it.
Climb inside and hide yourself in him and you will be safe.
Give your life to Jesus.
Put your life in Jesus.
And I'll tell you this, not even the waves of death will be able to touch you.
In Jesus, we are floated upwards.
We are floated heavenward in the end.
So there you have it.
Noah, what an amazing figure in the great hall of faith.
First he shows us we got to listen up, listen up to God's word, trust God's word and be
ready to act in obedience even when you can't see where it's going.
Second, he challenges us to stand out, to live lives of faith that are so distinct and
hopeful that the world around sees and they see God and they want to seek God for themselves.
And then put on the righteousness of God, not by trying to earn it for yourself, but
by joining God's family and inheriting everything.
And then finally, and lastly, climb in, acknowledge you can't save yourself.
Reach out to Jesus for his help and let him carry us.
He is our ark.
He is our refuge.
He is our way to safety.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.
This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church, Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on January
26th, 2025.