Ark of salvation.

How do you choose to communicate? What is your communication style? We communicate with our posture, with visual cues such as hand movements, facial expressions and even the inflections of our voice.

Imagine trying to communicate a message from the Bible in an age when a vast majority of people could not read. It seems that this was at least one reason why stained glass windows appeared in the cathedrals of Europe. They communicated a message to those who could not read or write; in reality they communicated a message to everyone who took the time to gaze on their beauty.

Stained glass windows are the impetus for this summer series that we are beginning on Sunday June 6, 2021. We will be looking at various symbols (the Ark, Cross and Shield, Beehive, Scales, Fish, etc.) which have been used in the church for centuries as a way of communicating God’s love for his broken and hurting children. 

Our first window (stained glass image) is “The Ark.” The ark of Genesis 6 is often called Noah’s ark. God sent a worldwide flood to erase all the wickedness that had built over the previous centuries from Creation (Genesis 1) to the time of Noah approximately 1700 years after Creation. In those 17 centuries, mankind had developed and mastered the art of sinful expression. God pinpoints both the outward actions of mankind, both men and women: “the wickedness of man (humans) was great!” But God also refers to the basis of this wickedness: the heart. Genesis 6:5 states, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

It’s one thing to have some bent and twisted actions or words. But it is even more serious and detrimental to have a broken heart (“the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” Genesis 6:5). This shows that there was no possibility for turning things around without God intervening and equipping a real heart change.

God’s holy and perfect action was to destroy all living creatures and mankind. “So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7). 

God, in his holy and perfect justice, must destroy wickedness. Mankind would now be wiped out because of human impurity displaying itself in incredibly vile and ruthless ways. AND God would wipe out humanity because God is perfect and just: humans were about to received the due punishment for their sinful actions and sinfilled hearts. This is what all of humanity deserves -  God-followers and non God-followers. We all deserve to be eradicated.

But God is not just a just God; he is also a loving God. He desires to save mankind from himself. He desires to remove humanity from the path and the trajectory that its sinful heart has forged. He wants to be close to his creation. His love draws it close. But if God gets close to these broken and errant beings, God’s holiness will destroy them.

So God must forge a solution. “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). God had a means of saving humanity: the Ark. Anyone who trusted this mercy would be saved. Sadly, only eight individuals were willing to embark on this journey of salvation. Only eight wanted God’s solution. This is the historical record of why there is so much sedimentary rock all over the earth. The Flood caused this destruction which was a direct result of men and women’s wickedness swirled into God’s perfect justice.

Today we also have God’s perfect testimony that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We are in the same predicament. Is there an ark to save us? The same loving God provides a way out of the destruction that will come to all wickedness and evil intent. The way out of the impending doom is to turn to Christ Jesus in humble acceptance of our sinfulness and receive his cleansing flood of forgiveness. The Cross of Christ cleanses us from all impurity. We still have a salvation means or method: the Cross is our New Testament “Ark.” All who turn to Jesus will be rescued from the deserved judgment that awaits our sinfulness and our wicked hearts. 

Jesus took all the punishment that should be ours. Everyone who trusts in him will be saved just like Noah and his wife, Noah’s three sons and their wives were saved by the Ark. May God bless us as we search out this saving truth found in Jesus!