Sermon 6 23 24

Overview

Washed in Eight: A New Day from the Ark to the Empty Tomb

The story of Noah in Genesis 8 is rich with detail—an enormous vessel (300 x 50 x 30 cubits, roughly 450 feet long with a deck area equivalent to twelve tennis courts), waters that gradually receded, and an ark that came to rest in a remarkable location. The mountains of Ararat sit roughly equidistant from the extremities of Asia, Africa, and Europe—the perfect launching point for Noah's family to obey God's command to "be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth." Where Babel scattered humanity in judgment, God here providentially places his people for blessing.

Scripture often uses numbers to teach. Noah waited 40 days before opening the window Genesis 8:6, and 40 in Scripture frequently marks a season of testing or waiting—Israel's 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus' 40 days of temptation. The number seven, by contrast, signals completeness and perfection: seven days of the week, the sevenfold Spirit sent to the seven churches in Revelation. Noah's careful sending of the raven and then the dove Genesis 8:7-12 shows him patiently gathering data—the raven flying to and fro among carcasses, the more discriminating dove eventually returning with a freshly plucked olive leaf, evidence that the waters had truly subsided.

But the number that anchors the whole account is eight. On the eighth day, the dove did not return. And when God called Noah out of the ark Genesis 8:16, eight people stepped onto dry ground—Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives. In Scripture, eight points to a new day, a new beginning. This is why ancient churches and baptismal fonts have often been built with eight sides.

We do not deserve eight. Our words, thoughts, deeds, and the good we have left undone all testify against us. Yet John 20 tells us that "early on the first day of the week," Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty. Add seven to the previous week, and resurrection morning falls on the eighth day—the new day of life won through Christ. Beloved, we are washed in eight. In the waters of baptism, in the forgiveness of sins, in the sovereignty and providence of God that meets us each morning, we live in the newness Jesus has secured. So if someone asks how you're doing, you might answer "eight." Numerically ten is larger, but you cannot get better than living in the new day that is ours through Jesus Christ.

Transcript

Do you open your Bible's please for a time in God's Word to the 8th chapter of the book 3s

of Genesis, if you're using a Puedition of Holy Scripture, you'll find that page 6 in the Old 9s

Testament, the 8th chapter of the book of Genesis. 15s

1908, a boy and his uncle were doing some hiking in the mountain ranges of our rut. 20s

And according to the account, they said that they came across a very, very large ship. 30s

The boy recounts that he walked on top of the room and they were convinced that they had discovered 39s

Noah's ark. 51s

That occasion, 15 expeditions to check out their story and not one of the searches turned up the art. 54s

On another occasion, aerial pictures were taken and it certainly looked like there were the remnants 69s

of a very large ship. It looked like the ark. But upon closer examination, it was just a rock 77s

formation. Looking for Noah's ark. 89s

That sounds like a Sunday drive to me, huh? So let's pop in the station wagon, 98s

all free go and today we're headed to Eastern Turkey. 105s

Spoiler alert, we are not going to discover remnants of the ark. 111s

But we will discover a number. We'll discover a number. 119s

We know the background of the ark. God was disgusted with the sin of humankind. Then God decided 131s

to bring judgment with regard to sin. He was going to wipe out all of humankind, save Noah and his 140s

family and two by two of the creatures. A great flood was going to come and the ark would rest up 147s

on top of the waters until the flood waters would receive. 155s

Now since we're focusing on numbers this morning, here's a few numbers. 163s

The Bible tells us that the ark was 300 by 50 by 30 cubits, 169s

300 by 50 by 30 cubits. Now a cubit is if you raise your arm and you go from your elbow to your fingers, 176s

that's a that's a cubit. So that means that to translate that into feet, the ark was, 185s

according to what scripture tells us, the ark was 450 feet in length. It was 75 feet wide. It was 193s

50 feet high. The depth of it was 33,750 square feet. To put that into perspective, if you take 204s

12 tennis courts and you lay them side by side, there you've got the surface area of the ark. This is 221s

a large vessel, isn't it? But please, chapter 8, verse 1. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals 231s

and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark and God made a wind blow over the earth and 243s

the water subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed. The rain 251s

from the heavens was restrained and the waters gradually receded from the earth. At the end of 150 days, 259s

the water had abated and in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came 270s

to rest on the mountains of error at. The waters continued to obey until the tenth month 276s

in the tenth month on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appear. 285s

Okay, here's the more numbers. Where the ark came to rest? 296s

It is exactly equal distance from the extremities of Asia, Africa and Europe. 303s

It is the perfect place for the ark to come to rest. Is remember what did God tell Noah? 315s

He told Noah and his family, be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Now, as we studied when we 323s

studied the tower of Babel, they had a problem with the scatter in portion there and didn't they. 330s

But God landed the ark in the perfect spot, the perfect spot. 335s

For them to scatter and fill the earth. More numbers. Let's look at verse 6. 342s

At the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the 356s

oven. And it went two and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 362s

Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 371s

But the dove found no place to set its foot and it returned to him in the ark. 377s

For the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. 385s

So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 389s

And Noah is a smart man. Noah's collecting data here. He sends out the Raven. 400s

Notice the Raven doesn't return to him. So that tells Noah that indeed the water 410s

has gone down to a point and that the Raven can find food. 418s

Remember the scripture says that the Raven was going to and fro. 426s

Going to and fro, carcass to, carcass. But the Raven never comes back. 430s

The dove comes back. What is? 437s

The dove is much more discriminant in terms of what it eats and where it lands. 441s

And if the dove would find food, that would mean that Noah and his family would find edible food. 455s

So the Raven, okay, Raven is telling that the waters have gone down a little bit. 466s

The Raven can find food but the dove, there's no place here for the dove to land. 471s

There's no place for the dove to find food. We go on. First ten. He waited another seven days. 478s

And again he went out from the dove and again he sent out the dove from the ark. 490s

And the dove came back to him in the evening and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf. 496s

So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 504s

All of trees never grew in high elevations. That gives Noah another data point. 513s

That tells him now that the waters have receded to where the dove brings back the olive leaf. 522s

Another data point. Now notice the numbers here that have been shared. 533s

Verse six at the end of 40 days. Go down to verse 10. He waited another seven days. 542s

And again he sent out the dove from the ark. 552s

Those numbers continually pop up in Scripture. If you notice 40 in seven. 559s

40 in Scripture is so often associated with times of trial times of waiting times of probation. 568s

How many years did God's people wander in the wilderness after they were freed from Egypt? 580s

It was how many? It was 40. How many days was Jesus tempted? It was 40. 586s

So so often in Scripture when you see 40 it's that number that's symbolizing its 594s

pointing to a time of trial, a time of testing, a time of waiting. Then you get to the number seven. 601s

Seven is a number of perfection. So often in Scripture that number symbolizes perfection. 610s

How many days in the in the week? Seven days. God perfectly ordained that there would be 621s

seven days in the week. It symbolizes that complete this when you go over to revelation. 629s

And it talks about the Holy Spirit and it describes the Spirit as in terms of being the 637s

sevenfold Spirit being sent to the seven congregations. That's just a pochalactic language to say 642s

the fullness, the completeness of the Holy Spirit was given to the fullness and the completeness 650s

of the church. So we see here some numbers here. 40 and seven. 658s

But as we drive around today, there's another number, another number, 671s

a pozel for the children has different shapes so they can learn it. 686s

There's the circle, there's the triangle, there's the rectangle on and on and goes about nine 695s

shapes for so on the puzzle. That's when I was glorious puzzles where there's only one place 703s

where it's obvious that it goes, the teachers, the shapes. And on the puzzle is the octagon. 712s

In all of its eight sightedness, you've noticed that sometimes churches, particularly ancient churches, 724s

were built with eight sides to it. Oftentimes the baptismal font has eight sides to it. 740s

Look at verse 12. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove and it did not return to him any more. 755s

So on the eight day, the dove never returned. And how many people got off the arc? 771s

Look at verse 16. God said to Noah, go out of the arc, you and your wife and your sons and your sons 786s

wives with you. How many sons did Noah and his wife have? So, two plus two plus two plus Noah and his wife. 796s

Why? Why how many stepped off the arc? It was. It was eight. Eight. 810s

In Scripture, will oftentimes symbolize the new day, the new day. 827s

The dove doesn't come back on the eighth day, it's the new day. 840s

And all eight of them step off the arc into the new day. It's that it's that glorious number 846s

eight. Oftentimes symbolizing the new. 858s

Yeah. We don't deserve the number eight. Do we? 866s

We don't deserve it. 879s

If you tell us of all of our sinfulness, we don't deserve the the new day that eight points to 883s

the new. It's all of those words. We've said we don't deserve eight. 892s

It's all of the thoughts that we have. We don't deserve eight. 903s

It's all of the things we've done. We don't deserve eight. It's all the things that we've left 911s

on and on. We just don't deserve eight. 916s

But notice. In John the 20th chapter, it says, 927s

early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw 936s

that the stone had been removed from the tomb. Jesus wasn't in the tomb. The tomb was empty. 943s

Jesus had risen from the dead. And the scripture says early on the first day of the week. 953s

So when you and the previous week and all that had happened on that week, when you add the seven 961s

to the tomb, why the tomb is empty on what day? The eighth day. The eighth day. 970s

Of the newness brought about through Christ. 985s

Beloved, we are washed in eighth. We're washed in eighth. We are washed in the victory 995s

that has been won through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has borne all of those thoughts and words and 1004s

deeds and what we've done and what we should have done but we didn't do. He's borne all of that 1015s

we can't calculate the number of all of that. He's borne the very condition of our sin on the cross. 1020s

He shed His blood and won for us for given us. We've been reckoned unto God through the Lord 1028s

Jesus Christ. And we're washed in the newness of the day and the waters of baptism. We're 1037s

washed in eighth, aren't we? We're washed in eighth. We're washed in the newness of the day of the 1047s

forgiveness of sins that is ours through Christ. It's the newness of the day of life. He 1056s

turnedle for us that extends into all of eternity. It is the newness of the day that our lives have 1065s

claimed in the waters of baptism. And every day now is new. It is the newness of today 1072s

where we experience once again and we'll experience for however many days the Lord blesses us 1082s

with this side of heaven. The newness of His sovereignty and His providence. It's the new day. 1088s

It's a... it's a... 1104s

Well, we didn't discover the art today, did we? 1117s

But what we did discover is a number 1124s

if someone were to ask you, one to ten. How are you doing? One to ten. How are you doing? 1132s

You know, I think we should say eight. Eight. Yes, ten is numerically larger than eight, but you can't 1144s

get better than eight. Can you? You cannot get better than living in the new day that is ours 1156s

through Jesus Christ. You can't get better. No matter what else is going on in your life, 1165s

we can still say, I'm an eight. 1178s

I'm an eight. 1186s

One to ten. I'm an eight. 1193s

How about you? 1202s