Romans 4:18-25 (NIV)  

¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  ¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  ²² This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”  ²³ The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Genesis 21:1-7 (NIV)

¹ Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.  ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.  ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.  ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.  ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶ Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”  ⁷ And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?  Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

The Old Testament is sacred Scripture that promotes the coming of Jesus.  The Old Testament prepares people to meet Jesus.

The Old Testament people have the same questions we do: who are we, what are we doing, what does God want from us?

With this context, let’s look at stories in the Old Testament that are pointing to a messiah named Jesus.  And how we fit into the salvation story.

People are searching for something in life.  Christians have the sacred Scripture of the Old Testament, to guide us towards the coming of Jesus and learn through stories of people in the Old Testament in how to live on this earth.

The story today is about Abraham and Sarah having a child at 100 years old and 90 years old, and that child was called Isaac, which means ‘laughter’.

Genesis 12:2  I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

In this story there will be 3 types of laughter:

1)      Laughter that is scoffing of unbelief, bitterness, and losing hope

2)      Laughing as a form of self-defense – news is so great, afraid to believe

3)      Laughter of wonder, love, joy and grace, a fairy tale becomes real, God is the King of the universe, brings hope into our lives.

The scoffing laughter of unbelief, loss of hope.  Why hadn’t God given them a child decades before?

Abraham and Sarah had lost hope of a child, they had lost hope in God’s power, why hadn’t He showed up sooner?

The Gospel message is that there is someone who has broken through the barrier of this frustrating world, to eternity with God.

Hope makes you vulnerable, and means you lose control.  Some people know that if the Scripture is true about Jesus, they will lose control of their life.  Because God does really matter.

Laughter can be a form of self-defense; the good news is so great they are afraid to leave.

Genesis 18:12  So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my Lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

When God comes to Abraham and asks him to take Isaac to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him, God is helping Abraham see that the gift (Isaac) has become the center of attention instead of God, the giver of the gift.

The type of laughter becomes a theological issue.  The first type of laughter is we are afraid to hope is anything, his specific laughter we have put our hope in the gift rather than the giver.

Both sorts of laughter allow us to be in control, while avoiding giving us hope and control to God.

God tested Abraham to make sure he got it.  (Worship God the giver, not the gift.  Exalt the giver not the gift.)

The third type of laughter is needed by us because of the grace and joy that is present.

Sarah’s sin is that she has lost wonder in this world.  Sarah had lost her wonder because of the years yearning for a child, lost hope in a child and lost the hope in a powerful God.

G. K. Chesterton wrote fairy tales, that he developed that aspect to induce wonder.  1) Something is wrong in the story.  2) There is a nod to a world beyond this world, a world of great power and mysteries.  3) A heroic key that allows those powers and deep mysteries into an impossible situation and story resolve favorably.  The right are saved and the bad parish.

C. S. Lewis uses a fairy tale that becomes real, the Gospel.  And all other fairy tales take their cues from the Gospel story.

In the Gospel we are told there is a great God; and there is the impossible situation of our sin, but the heroic key is this Son of Promise.  This Son, Jesus, is exactly who Isaac points to.  The true Isaac (Jesus).

The true Isaac was born without a father’s participation, his mother was told, “Nothing is too hard or too wonderful for God.”

There is a laughing joy that comes with love.  I suspect Jesus was laughing with joy all through His time with His father in eternity.

I hope you can have a sense of humor about how much God loves you; He knows your failures and loves you anyway.

God loves you and delights in you despite all of your stuff, we are able and free to laugh because our sins have been taken away and have been replaced with hope, joy and much laughter.  These are weighty things this week.  If you have questions, let’s get together and sort through them. God bless.