Because Marlys and I will be in Dallas for Easter this year, I thought I would write some Easter thoughts this week.  Tomorrow (Saturday) I will be speaking at the 55th Annual Lenten Week Breakfast in my home town.  So I thought I would share those thoughts with you all.  I trust they will be a blessing to you. 

"I noticed that your theme this year concerned the prophetic pictures in the Old Testament that point one to the cross and the resurrection.  If one carefully gathered all of the Old Testament prophecies and put them together as one would do a giant puzzle, one would discover that the Gospel writers merely recorded what God had promised centuries before.  The passion of Christ, His death, and His resurrection were not accidents in history.  They were the fulfillment of a plan God had initiated even before He created this world.

"I would like to have us focus, for the next few moments, upon what I consider one of the most important texts related to the cross that is found in the Old Testament.  No...it is not Isaiah 53, although that is a powerful text and one could spend countless hours in reflecting upon the cross from Isaiah's words.  The text I have chosen appears much earlier in the Old Testament.  In fact, it is the capstone in the life of Israel's first great patriarch...Abraham.

"If you have your Bibles this morning I would invite you to turn to Genesis 22.  Let me refresh your memories as to the background of this great and moving story.  Abram, as he was called then, was 75 years of age when God called him to leave his family and to strike out for a land that God promised He would show him.  And Abram left in obedience.  After arriving in the land of Canaan, God made two incredible promises to him.  First, Abram's descendants would be both as numerous as the stars in the heavens and as many as the dust upon the earth.  Second, those descendants would be the recipients of the land Abram was now traversing.  The only problem - Abram and his wife Sarai were without children.  Throughout many of the earlier chapters in Genesis we observe Abram and Sarai trying to resolve this difficulty...but each time God declared that their efforts would be of no avail.  Finally, when all hope was extinguished, God informed Abraham and Sarah (for He changed their names to represent their new status) that He would bless them with a son...Isaiah - "laughter" in Hebrew.

"So, at the age of 100 Abraham became a father.  What joy and delight little Isaac must have brought into the lives of this aged couple.  I am guessing that Sarah would not let Isaac out of her sight.  Talk about being a protective mother!  And I am confident that, as Isaac grew, Abraham shared with him the promises that God had made years earlier.  The hopes for the fulfillment of those promises now rested upon the shoulders of this young lad.

"That brings us now to this precious text.  We are not sure how old either Abraham or Isaac were at this moment, but Isaac is old enough and strong enough to carry enough wood upon his back for a sacrifice, and he was understanding enough to ask his father some penetrating questions.  My guess...Isaac was probably in his early teens.

"Let's read of God's command (Genesis 22:1-2).  This had to have been a startling command.  Many questions had to go through the mind of Abraham.  "God, do You know what You are doing?  This doesn't make any sense!  I thought the only sacrifices that You honored were of sheep and goats and cattle!"  Yet, as I read the text, I find nowhere mentioned that Abraham was argumentative with God.  In fact, he merely seems to have accepted what God had commanded him.  For the text simply states, "Early the next morning, Abraham got up and saddled his donkey."  Somehow he had to pack provisions for six days...and without Sarah's knowing it.  For, after all, if Sarah knew that he was on a journey to kill her only child...well, Abraham didn't want to think about it.  So, it's best that Sarah not know.

"And so the journey was commenced.  One could only have hoped that God would have given us some of the dialogue shared between Abraham and his son those three days.  For all we know, Isaac enjoyed every moment.  He was on an exciting adventure with his father.  Perhaps, Abraham, seeing the joy in the life of his son, began to ponder how God would keep His promises.  And, suddenly the bells began to sound...the lights went on...he knew the answer.  God would simply raise Isaac from the dead...there was no other option.  God had promised that it was through Isaac that the promises of old would have their fulfillment.  If Abraham truly had to kill his son...then God had to raise him from the dead.  (Read Hebrews 11:17-19).  The thought of killing his son still made him frightened...he wondered if he could go through with it.  But, now there was at least hope that all would be well.

"So, we read in Genesis 22:5 these exciting words: "He said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.  We will worship and then we will come back to you.'"  Abraham was confident that both he and Isaac would return home together.

"As the two of them walked slowly up the sides of Mount Moriah, it was now Isaac's turn to ask a question.  "Father, are we not going to offer a sacrifice?  If that is so, then we have the wood and the fire and the knife to kill the sacrifice.  But, father, where is the sacrifice?"  And Abraham's response if profound in its faith: "Son, God will provide the lamb for the sacrifice."

"Upon reaching the place designated by God, Abraham built an altar.  Soon the wood was laid upon the altar.  Now it came time for the sacrifice to be bound and placed upon the altar.  God's provision of a lamb was no where to be seen.  Then, Abraham began one of the most difficult of conversations with a son that any father could every have.  Imagine for a moment your having that conversation with your son.  How would you explain to him that God has told you to offer him as a sacrifice?  Would you demand it of him?  Would you give him a choice?  Again, the Bible is silent.  But, we know the outcome.  Isaac willingly surrenders himself to the desires of both his father and his father's God.  To me, this is a faith statement on the part of Isaac.  He also dared to trust God.

"The knife is raised and poised to strike the heart of Abraham's only son.  Then God steps in staying the hand of Abraham.  In a nearby thicket, Abraham saw a ram...it had not been there moments before, but was now graciously supplied by God.  Quickly, Abraham and Isaac bound the ram and offered it to God.  What rejoicing there must have been on that return trip to Beersheba.

"Why tell this story this morning?  What relationship exists between this historical event and that which we will be remembering all this next week?  Let me see if I can quickly tie the loose ends.  On a hillside, not far from the slopes of Mount Moriah, on another day many years later, another sacrifice was made ready.  The altar was prepared - really it was just a hole dug into the rocky ground large enough to sustain a wooden pole.  The wood was arranged in the shape of a cross.  All that was needed was a sacrifice.  A young man willingly stepped forward allowing Himself to be bound to that altar.  He had already suffered a punishment that no other human had ever received.  In fact, He was hardly recognizable as being a man.  He was there because that was the wish of His Father.  Only, this time, there was to be no substitute ram.  The knife, lifted high in the hands of the Father, was plunged into the heart of His Son. And Jesus Christ died for each one of us sitting in this room this morning, for each person living within this community. 

"And, what Abraham had come to believe about God's raising Isaac from the dead, became an actuality for Christ.  Three days later...the earth shook, the stone was rolled away, and Jesus arose victorious.  Yes, all the promises are fulfilled in Him.  A few days from now we will say with a joyful enthusiasm:  He is risen...He is risen indeed!

"I close this morning with the words of a great old hymn written by one of the great hymnists of the Church - Isaac Watts.

  When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

  Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ, my God; All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

  See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down; Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

  Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.