Joy, Hope and Freedom Through Jesus
Three Key Takeaways
Two ways to live: self-achievement versus God's promise. Hagar and Ishmael embody human effort—what we can accomplish through our strength and initiative—reflecting law, slavery, and anxiety. Sarah and Isaac embody God's achievement—His supernatural fulfillment of promise—reflecting grace, freedom, and joy. These two stories serve as clear contrasts between these key ideas.
The gospel brings joy, hope, and freedom that we can't manufacture ourselves. Joy comes from receiving what God has done, not from achieving what we think we should do. Hope flows from God's promises, not our performance. Freedom means we can display weakness without shame, because God's strength is made perfect in our weakness.
We constantly need reminding to stay in gospel freedom. Paul warns believers not to get sucked back into a yoke of slavery, trying to achieve through our own efforts. We need constant reminders—through singing, preaching, communion—that Christ has set us free. Our hearts need to align again and again with what God has done in Jesus.
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Joy, Hope and Freedom Through Jesus
Over the last couple of months, we have explored Abraham’s life and faith. At 75, God called him to leave behind his land, family, and clan, without revealing the destination. God promised him a land, a nation, and that the world would be blessed through his descendants. It was a remarkable journey.
Last week, we looked at how it had been something like 24 years. Abraham's wife was infertile. They were unable to have children. So this promise that they'd have a whole nation come from them, and through their descendants bless all the nations of the world, was a big promise—especially if you're 75 and haven't had any kids yet.
They spent 24 years waiting for God’s promise, but nothing happened. Last week, we saw Abraham and Sarah try to fulfill the promise themselves by giving Sarah’s servant to Abraham as a wife, hoping for a child. Their plan failed. We witnessed God’s kindness to Hagar and her son Ishmael—how God provided for, protected, and promised to bless them. But ultimately, this was Abraham and Sarah taking matters into their own hands.
This week, the story continues as we finally reach the moment when Sarah actually gives birth.
God Reaffirms His Promise
We’re looking at three passages from chapters 17, 18, and 21, as God repeatedly reaffirms His promise.
In chapter 17, God says to Abraham: "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name." (Though the meaning of the change is unclear, it shows God is at work in her life.)
"I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations. Kings of peoples shall come from her."
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?"
And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!" In other words, "I've got this new wife, Hagar. We've had a baby. It's actually real. Can't you just bless that baby instead?"
God said, "No, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.”
God Speaks to Sarah
A few verses later, God speaks directly to Sarah as well. Three figures appear at Abraham's tent. Two of them turn out to be angels. The third is some representation of God Himself speaking.
They said to him, "Where is Sarah, your wife?" And he said, "She is in the tent."
The Lord said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son."
Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.
So Sarah laughed to herself. She said, "After I am worn out and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?"
The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you. About this time next year, Sarah shall have a son."
But Sarah denied it, saying, "I did not laugh," for she was afraid.
He said, "No, you did laugh." It's like a conversation with a child: "I didn't do that." "Yes, you did. I watched you."
The Birth of Isaac
A year later, God turns up again. "The Lord visited Sarah as he had said. The Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac."
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
And Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me." And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
It took a while to get here. But Sarah's finally had a son.
Two Stories, Two Ways of Living
We've got these two stories in a few chapters of Scripture. Abraham and Sarah, relying on their own strength and ideas, tried to fulfill God's promise by taking Hagar as a wife. This did result in a child, but it did not fulfill God's promise.
That whole story represents basically human effort. It represents what we can do ourselves—our contribution to God's plans, self-achievement.
Then we contrast it with Sarah and Isaac. Abraham's wife, Sarah, has a promise from God that she will supernaturally bear a child, even though she's beyond childbearing age. She has not been able to have a child for the last 70 years or so. It has not happened. But God said it would, and then God kept His word. She has a child who was born.
That story of Sarah giving birth to Isaac represents not self-achievement, but God's achievement—God's promise and the fulfillment of what He said.
The Apostle Paul's Interpretation
In Galatians 4, the Apostle Paul uses these two stories as an allegory. He contrasts Hagar and Ishmael with Sarah and Isaac. He says these two women represent two covenants.
Hagar represents the covenant from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery—the law and human effort. It's about trying to achieve righteousness through our own works.
Sarah represents the Jerusalem above. The covenant of grace, God's promise, is that we receive righteousness through faith.
Paul is basically saying there are two ways to live. One is the way of law, of slavery, of human effort. The other is the way of grace, of freedom, of receiving God's promise.
What This Means: Joy, Hope, and Freedom
If we take these two stories and contrast them, what do they teach us about these two ways of living?
JOY
In the story of Hagar and Ishmael, there's anxiety. Sarah's anxious because she can't have a baby. She comes up with this plan. Hagar gets pregnant. Then there's contempt—Hagar looks with contempt on Sarah. Then there's anger—Sarah gets angry with Abraham. Then there's harshness—Sarah treats Hagar harshly.
It's a mess of anxiety, contempt, anger, and harshness.
But over here in the story of Sarah and Isaac, there's laughter. Sarah laughs. God makes laughter for her. Everyone who hears will laugh at her.
In the Hagar and Ishmael story, there is anxiety because everything rests on human achievement and effort. In the Sarah and Isaac story, there is joy because everything rests on what God has done. The sharp contrast is that one is driven by our efforts and fear of not measuring up, while the other is marked by trust and delight in God's ability to fulfill His promise.
The gospel brings us joy—not the joy we manufacture by achieving things, but the joy that comes from receiving what God has done for us.
HOPE
In the story of Hagar and Ishmael, there's despair. Sarah can't have a child. She's running out of time. She comes up with this desperate plan. It doesn't work the way she hoped.
But in the story of Sarah and Isaac, there's hope. God makes a promise. He keeps the promise. Even when it seems impossible, God does what He said He would do.
The gospel gives us hope—not hope based on our ability to achieve, but hope grounded in God's promises. In contrast to the hopelessness of relying on our performance, there is hope found in God's faithfulness.
FREEDOM
In the story of Hagar and Ishmael, there's slavery. Paul explicitly says Hagar represents slavery. It's the slavery of trying to achieve, of human effort, of being under the law.
In this way of living, every weakness must be hidden. Achievements define worth, and comparison with others rules the mindset. The focus is on outperforming others to avoid being seen as weak or failing.
But in the story of Sarah and Isaac, there's freedom. Paul says Sarah represents freedom. It's the freedom of receiving, of grace, of being under promise.
In contrast, in the story of Sarah and Isaac, freedom means weakness can be shown without fear, because it's about God's strength and promises, not personal accomplishment. Weakness, instead of being a liability, highlights God's grace even more. The more your weakness is visible, the greater the celebration of God's grace and power.
You failed, but God succeeded. You were weak, but God was strong. There's the freedom of humility.
You can see it in Hagar. Last week, we saw that when Hagar got pregnant, immediately, the next verse describes how she looked with contempt on her mistress. That is the culture of self-achievement. "You couldn't do it, but I could. I'll look down on you then." Or for Sarah, "I couldn't do it, but you could, in which case I feel insecure."
That is the culture we live in all the time. If someone achieves more than we do, we feel insecure. If we achieve more than they do, we feel proud. Those are your options.
But over here, there's a completely different culture. All of us are weak. All of us have failed. All of us receive God's grace. So we're not looking at each other thinking "I'm better than you." Of course I'm not. "You're better than me?" It doesn't matter. You probably are. I don't care. Just means I've received more grace from God. "Oh, that's not true, we're all receiving grace from God."
It just changes everything. We get to live in the freedom of that.
Don't Get Sucked Back In
In Galatians 4, when Paul puts these two examples (Hagar and Ishmael, and Sarah and Isaac) before the Galatian Christians, he says, "You need to be careful because you're supposed to be children of the free woman. You're supposed to live in the freedom of the gospel. But be careful you don't get sucked into this way of working, of trying to achieve and do what's right and fulfill God's law yourself."
Then the very next verse, Galatians 5:1, he says: "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."
You've been rescued out of that, and you've been put into a place of freedom. Don't let yourself be sucked back in.
However much we have moments where we rejoice and celebrate and enjoy the goodness of God's grace, we find ourselves accidentally, inadvertently being sucked back into a pattern of thinking and a way of living that is basically trying to achieve, whether through the way we live or our behaviour, or through success in ministry, or whatever it might be. We get sucked back in.
Again and again, we need to not allow ourselves to come under the burden of what Paul calls a yoke of slavery. Living that way is oppressive.
THE WHOLE BIBLE NARRATIVE
You can see this is part of the whole Bible narrative. Sarah has this child of promise, Isaac. It's miraculous, given that she's 90. She's been promised a child. It's impossible, but she has one.
There's another story like that in the Bible. Mary, who is a virgin, also gets an angel appearing to her announcing, "You're going to have a child." She has this child of promise.
Isaac is supposed to be a picture. Through Isaac, all these descendants will come. But ultimately, Isaac's most important descendant is Christ Himself, the child of promise. He's the one through whom, ultimately, all the nations of the world are going to be blessed.
At Redemption
We're learning to live in the freedom Christ has given us—not the slavery of self-achievement, but the joy of receiving God's grace.
We constantly need reminding. Our hearts drift back to measuring, comparing, and trying to prove ourselves. That's why we gather each week to sing truths that align our hearts with the gospel, to hear preaching that points us back to what Christ has done, and to take communion as an act of faith—remembering the dramatic exchange that took place at the cross.
We don't come with the laughter of cynicism, but with the laughter of faith. God said He would do this, and He has. It's amazing that people like us have found our way into God's kingdom. That's the joy, hope, and freedom we have through Jesus—not because of what we've achieved, but because of what He's accomplished for us.
