Genesis 18:1-15 The Gospel Visit
The Text
Genesis 18:1–15
1 The LORD appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day.2 He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, bowed to the ground,
3 and said, “My lord, if I have found favor with you, please do not go on past your servant.
4 Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.
5 I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. Later, you can continue on.” “Yes,” they replied, “do as you have said.”
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.”
7 Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender, choice calf. He gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it.
8 Then Abraham took curds and milk, as well as the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree.
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he answered.
10 The LORD said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
11 Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
12 So she laughed to herself: “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I have delight?”
13 But the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’
14 Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.”
15 Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid. But he replied, “No, you did laugh.”
Our God
Acts 17:22-29 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it — he is Lord of heaven and earth — does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
His Gospel
Acts 17:30-31 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Our Response
Some will call it stupid, ignorant, impossible, foolish
Acts 17:32a When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him,
9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he answered.
10 The LORD said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
11 Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
Some will want to hear more -- that is to entertain you but never take the gospel preached to heart
Acts 17:32b-33 but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” So Paul left their presence.
12 So she laughed to herself: “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I have delight?”
13 But the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’
14 Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she wilhave a son.”
15 Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid. But he replied, “No, you did laugh.”
But some will believe
Acts 17:34 However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
10 The LORD said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
Matthew 1:18-25 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.
But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
See, the virgin will become pregnant
and give birth to a son,
and they will name him Immanuel,
which is translated “God is with us.”
When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.
John 3:16-17 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
You want to enter into the kingdom of God?
You must be born again. (John 3:3)
If you believe that Jesus is the Christ and you love the Father
guess what
you have been born again
you are in the kingdom of God
you will live forever
because you are his
and he is your God forever