Genesis 22.9-19


The focus of today’s sermon is one sentence of our text. ‘And your offspring
shall possess the gate of his enemies…’ It is a bit of Scripture that has
intrigued me in the past, and it came up again recently. Thus, this sermon.
And while there are many perspectives that I might take on this sentence, I’
ll be dealing with it in terms of the question of expectations.

Let me begin by explaining some things about the text. Here is Abraham. He’s
just been put to the test by God, and he has passed the test. So, there is a
reward. God promises to bless this saint. One of the things that He promises
Abraham is that his offspring will possess the gate of his enemies. That was
meaningful to Abraham, but I’m not sure that it is to us. What we have here
is the language of battle. When nations would fight, the weaker would, at
times, take refuge behind the walls of a fortified city. The goal of the
attacker would, then, be to overwhelm the defenders within the city,
sometimes by starving them, sometimes by attack. The sign that the attacker
had succeeded was that he possessed the gate of his enemy. He had attained
access to the city through its gate, and the city had become his. Possessing
the gate was a symbol of complete conquest. So, the assumption of the
promise was that there was to be conflict for Abraham’s offspring and that
this offspring would be victorious.

When was this promise fulfilled? When did God keep His word given here? You
might think of the time when Joshua conquered the Promised Land. Time after
time Israel ‘possessed the gate’ of their enemies. Israel conquered. But you
need to remember that all of the Bible is, ultimately, about Jesus. Somehow
this promise to Abraham tells us something about Jesus and the Gospel. The
Apostle Paul helps out here. He wrote to the Galatians that the offspring
that God mentioned in the promise is Jesus. And so, according to this
promise, Jesus and the Gospel are linked to conflict and to victory. Jesus,
Himself, points to this. Listen. ‘And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.’ [Matthew 16:18] Jesus understands all about the gates of the enemy and
the promise that He will possess them. The promise to Abraham is about Jesus
and the Gospel.

Now, let me pull this together a bit. What all this means is that we, Jesus’
Church, are in the midst of conflict. We are in battle. Our enemy is Satan
and death and all that goes with that. There are two armies in the field,
and only one will be victorious. It is the promise of God that Jesus and
those with Him, us, will possess the gates of His enemy. Jesus will conquer.

Now, here’s the question that I’ve been working up to, the question about
expectations that I mentioned earlier. I’m going to ask you how you feel
about something – not about what you think. Here we are, Faith Reformed
Church. Some of you have been here for a good while. I’m working on
twenty-something years. When it comes to our church, do you feel that you
are on your way to victory? Do you feel that we are in the process of
conquest? I’m not asking what you think. What do you feel? I’m not asking
for the ‘correct’ theological answer. I want to know where you really are.
Here’s my guess. Some of you have no expectations. You have no feelings
about any of this. By that I mean, you haven’t really considered it all that
much. So, there are no expectations. It’s just something that you haven’t
thought about. Then others of you – I’m still dealing with things on an
emotional level – expect that things will continue on pretty much in the way
that they have. There has been improvement in our church. If you were to
graph it, it would be a gentle slope upward over the years. That’s what you
expect for the future. Generally, things will be pretty much the same as
they are. We’ll do the same sorts of things each week that we’re doing now.
There’ll be some progress. We’ll know some more things about the Bible. The
kids will get married and have their own kids, and the same basic process
will continue into the next generation.

Now, here’s the problem. That doesn’t sound like conquest. Possessing the
gates of hell doesn’t fit into that picture. The Gospel talks about conflict
and conquest, overcoming the gates of hell, and I think that I can say that
we are expecting nothing close to that. I think that it’s fair to say that
there is a major disconnect when it comes to us and the promise of our text.

Now, I want to be very clear here. I am not saying that you have rejected
Jesus’ plan and promise. Absolutely not. It’s more like we simply haven’t
really given it much thought. The promise has been there all this while, but
we’ve not really noticed it. This is important because rejecting Jesus’ plan
for our church would be rebellion. That is a high-handed sin that Jesus will
crush at the right time. But that is not you. I have found over the years
that once you understand what the Scriptures teach you really do want to
embrace it. There are always exceptions to the rule, but I can say that you
really want to be faithful disciples. And I think that that applies here as
well. Now, it needs to be said that our low expectations of the future do
reflect unbelief. But, to quote the Apostle, it was done in ignorance. So,
this is how I look at it. Jesus has known all along that we haven’t been
getting this part of the Gospel. Because He is so patient and loving, He’s
overlooked our sin while He’s been teaching us other things. But now He is
saying that it’s time for us to deal with this part of the Gospel. This is
the next step for us, the next chapter for our congregation. And I am
confident that you will respond well to what He is saying at this point.

It’s at this point that we need to ask a question. We understand that Jesus
and the Gospel is about conquest, that He intends to use us to possess the
gate of His enemies. But what does that look like? It’s easy to understand
Joshua conquering his enemies, the Canaanites. What does it mean for Jesus
to conquer His enemies? It means the kingdom spreading. It means the Gospel
advancing. It means changed lives. Listen to this description of the church.
‘And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to
the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and
many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who
believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling
their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as
any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking
bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous
hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord
added to their number day by day those who were being saved.’ [Acts 2:42-47]
Now, don’t focus on the details just yet. Note the tone. The Spirit was at
work in the midst of these folk, and they knew it. Here, there was an air of
expectation. You can easily imagine the saints waking each day wondering,
‘What is Jesus going to do today?’ It was anything but an attitude of
‘same-old, same-old’. There was a passionate devotion to the things of the
Gospel and an obvious response of praise to Jesus. There was awe at what the
Spirit was doing. And people were getting converted. This is a picture of
what conquest looks like. This is our mission.

The only question at this point is this. What do we have to do to conquer
like that? I hope that you can see that what I have been talking about is
something that only the Spirit can do. Mere human efforts to here will
result in pride and then in despair, if not utter failure. And so, what we
have to do begins with prayer. Jesus taught us how to pray. He said to pray,
‘Thy kingdom come’. That’s asking that the kingdom be established on this
earth, that the Gospel spread throughout, that Jesus would possess the gate
of His enemies. Can you pray that with faith? Can you pray that believing
that God can do it? That He will do it? Can Jesus bring more of His kingdom
to Erie? Can He bring more of His kingdom to Faith Reformed Church? I
believe that He can on both counts. So, we need to pray that He does exactly
that – not as some empty prayer that expects nothing but as a prayer that
believes the promise of our text and looks for its fulfillment in us.

Tied to that is something else to pray about, and this comes from a recent
sermon. You need to pray that Jesus would guide you to seek first the
kingdom. You need to pray that He would make all the changes that are
necessary so that you can do this well. And that will mean changes in your
priorities, your hopes, plans and dreams, your willingness to suffer for
righteousness’ sake. Jesus conquers by means of His church. Once you pray
that you would be changed so that you might do better at seeking the
kingdom, then you are ready to apply something from another recent sermon.
That’s when you’re ready to pray what Isaiah prayed. ‘Here am I. Send me.’
Remember how I told you that in saying that to Jesus Isaiah signed a blank
check. That’s what each of us needs to do for the sake of the kingdom, for
the sake of Jesus possessing the gate of His enemy. This applies to all of
us, but is would make a particular application to you teens. As you consider
your future, you need to give first place to all that I’ve said this
morning, especially this last point.

All of you need to remember that your life is not yours to do with as you
wish. You gave all of that up once you became a Christian. Jesus calls you
to follow Him so that He might conquer using us. Answer His call and expect
Him to use you to do great things.