Get In The Boat
Marc Jolicoeur · Tidal Church Moncton · July 19, 2026 · Heroes of the Faith series
Marc Jolicoeur looks at Noah in Hebrews 11:7 and the flood story, showing that the ark was God's mercy, received by faith. Just as Noah called people to safety, Jesus is our ark, and His door of grace is open to everyone today.
More from Marc Jolicoeur · The Heroes of the Faith series
Topics: Faith, Grace, Forgiveness
Transcript
[0:00] It's my hope that by the end of this message, you will see a providential connection back to what our brothers just shared about the faithfulness and the faithful presence of the church in Cuba. I don't know. I hope so. I hope you see that. Hi, my name is Marc. This is week two of Heroes of the Faith. If you were here last week, you heard Pastor Jeremy set us off on the course as we're going through Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, I heard this growing up called the Hall of Faith rather than the Hall of Fame, and we're calling it Heroes of the Faith. That's cool. I have today one verse, Hebrews 11:7, that I'm going to share with you. He shared six verses. So he had a lot of heavy lifting.
[0:46] I should be out of here in five minutes. We should be able to really cook through this. And so he set us up by talking about and giving us a definition of faith. He talked about the idea that hope, like I hope that when I get out of here, it's nice and sunny, would be based on hope in something that we have no reason to be assured of. Whereas faith, we talked about it being the substance of or the confidence in something that we have been promised. So the difference between hope and faith is that in both cases, you still don't have the thing, but in one case, you don't have a promise, and the other, you do. And so we're going to be leaning into what it means for God to be giving us promises and for us to have faith in those promises. Liz mentioned this devotional book. Really helpful.
[1:33] I read ahead. Cheater. Spoiler. And I can tell you that the stuff that comes for this week is really helpful in unpacking this story that we're going to look at today. And if you're like, "Ten bucks is just too much, I can't make it happen right now," if you go to tidal.church and just hit the link that looks an awful lot like this, you'll get a free PDF download. We really want everyone to be able to take part in what's going on here this summer. So who's the hero of faith that I'm going to talk about? Noah. I'm talking about Noah. If you're reading through Hebrews 11, it's actually, for the most part, all sequentially, mostly sequentially through the opening pages, actually all of the book of Genesis. So we heard a little bit last week about Abel. We heard a little bit about Enoch. And this week, we're going to get to Noah. And so as promised, here is the one verse.
[2:19] Don't worry, we're going to have some more Scripture. But this is the one verse that I want us to take a look at to open this morning. Hebrews 11:7. I'm reading from the New International Version, NIV, and it says, "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith." This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Lord, would You please take Your Word this morning, breathe into it, and make it life-giving for us all? In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
[3:05] So do you know the story of Noah? Do you know the story? My guess is that most of you do. I don't know if all of you do, so we will get a chance. Don't worry, I'll give you some details. But if you do know the story, if you're thinking, "I wonder what this looks like," it's possible that in your mind you have an image that looks something like this. Maybe something that you've seen at a church nursery or on the cover of a children's storybook Bible about this. There you go. See that? That's cute, right? It's just happy animals just kind of going on a cruise. They're all gathered together. Maybe you know this Sunday school kind of a song, which I didn't sing as a Sunday school person, but I heard it on "The Simpsons" when I was a kid. It says, "God told Noah there's going to be a floody, floody..." Do you know that one? And then it says something like, they gathered together the animals, "In onesies and twosies, twosies," because it's in pairs.
[3:57] And then it's like, "Elephants and kangaroosies, roosies." Do you guys know that? It's great. It's fun. It's cute. It's just like, oh, it's so nice. You get the elephant there. He's like... Or sorry, the giraffe. It's like, "Oh man, good thing there's lots of headroom." You know what I mean? That's why. It's just, aw, it's so fun. I love it. It's cute. It's a cute story. If you have known this story for a while, though, and have grown up as an adult, it's conceivable that you, like me, have had to wrestle with the contents of the story a little bit more and say, like, "Is it cute?" It's actually pretty rough. It's a pretty rough story. And so maybe you felt like it's been difficult to ask questions about it. I hope this morning we'll be able to kind of broach the subject in honesty.
[4:44] But as I said, it's possible that you don't know the story. We don't want to presume that necessarily upon you, so we won't read all of the story, but let me give you kind of the highlights. So Noah enters the scene in Genesis 5, and actually he's the first person, I think anyway, that we kind of get a prophecy about his birth. His father, Lamech, when he's born, he says something to the effect of, "This one will save us from our labor," which is an interesting prophecy for this child when you find out what really does happen in Noah's life. So the flood story itself, which kind of takes up usually what people think about when they think of Noah, is chapters 6 through 8 of Genesis, and then his story goes on a little bit more, chapters 9 and 10, and then really, the Noah story, because of his family, carries on and on, and Noah reoccurs. His name and his story reoccurs throughout the Bible.
[5:37] So the opening of the book, Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the earth. It's good. It's good. It's good. Adam and Eve, they're good. They're good. We hit a bit of a roadblock. Adam and Eve choose to disobey. They choose chaos. They choose their own desires instead of God's order, and then that sets them into what we call a fall. So their kids, Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel. We're falling further. And then within a few generations, people are killing people everywhere. It has gotten to be like the Earth is kind of a bloodbath. It's gotten pretty bad. And it's gotten so bad that when we pick up the story in Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, we read, "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time."
[6:35] Every, only, and all. You could say things have gone from bad to worse to worst. Things had gotten so bad, in fact, that God felt like a clean sweep reset was the best option. The best option. Not a good option, but the best option. Maybe you know what it is to be faced with a variety of bad options and you have to choose the best option. I think that's kind of what God feels like He's in the boat for right now. But God noticed Noah. In verses 8 and 9 of chapter 6 of Genesis, we read, "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
[7:22] Noah was a righteous man who was blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God." There's that word, faith. Noah walked faithfully with God. So God loops Noah in on what's about to happen. And if you remember what Jeremy read for us in the first couple of verses of chapter 11 of Hebrews last week, for Noah to have had a conversation with God, he would have had to have believed that God existed. So when we're talking about faith, we say without faith, no one can please God because they have to believe that God exists to be able to please Him. So obviously, Noah believes in, he has a faith in God's existence. But he doesn't just have a faith in God's existence, he has a faith in God's trustworthiness. He trusts what God asks him to do, and that's good.
[8:18] That's not just good for him, it's good for all y'all. Why? Because what He asks Noah to do is to take a long time and build a big boat. Where did he build this big boat? Well, in the middle of an arid climate that had literally no bodies of water, and what's more, within living memory, not a single record of a raindrop falling from the sky. This is what the story tells us. So let's just say you could sell flood insurance real cheap in this part of the world. They were almost giving it away with every purchase at the local market.
[9:06] So, Noah, I'm imagining decade after decade while He's building this enormous boat, people who are going by are reminding him of how fruitless and foolish this would be. But Noah, he had faith. He had faith in God. And eventually, God's word proved to be true. And so him and his family and a representation of the animal kingdom, they were all saved through the coming cataclysm. And what was that cataclysm? Forty days of desolation brought on by 40 straight days of heavy rainfall, which in effect wiped the area clean.
[9:54] So, not a cute and cuddly kid story. Not with the giraffe. It's pretty heavy stuff. It's a complicated story, but it's a vital part of the Christian story, which I hope you'll see in just a few moments. But I want to, before we go too much further, I just want to ask this one question. Was God being fair? Have you ever wondered in this story if God was being fair? I am going to have the unenviable task for the next few moments of trying to convince you that, yes, I believe the flood was fair. And here's why. If you flip just a few pages back to, again, Genesis 1:1, God creates the heavens and the Earth.
[10:44] When He does that, what we're told is that God separated the waters above from the waters beneath. He separated those waters. And then the waters that were beneath, He brought them together, held them together in a way that created dry land, the kind of dry land that we now occupy. Now, He took chaos and actively brought it into order. Now, what's sometimes overlooked, I think, is that this act of creation was not merely something that was done once, but it was something that continues to be done and is actually being done. So the natural state of things is chaos, but God places things into order.
[11:35] So when the floodwaters meet, we're told that the waters above come crashing in, the waters beneath come crashing up, and pow, chaos resets things. When that happens, you could think of it as a process of uncreation, or you could think of it as God taking His hands back and saying, "If the people that I left in charge as the stewards of creation, if humanity prefers chaos to order, I guess that's what they can have." Sometimes we call these, as parents, natural consequences. This, however, does not mean that it was a happy thing for God, this process of uncreation.
[12:23] The text itself doesn't tell us that He's rubbing His hands together gleefully. In fact, the text tells us He doesn't do this out of anger or angst or wrath, but out of grief and out of regret. Maybe you've heard a parent say this before. Maybe you've been the parent who said it. "I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed." In the end, I would argue that the flood was "fair." But I, for one, am very glad that God is not just a God of justice, but He is also a God of mercy and of grace. Because the ark was merciful. The ark was merciful.
[13:17] God had mercy on Noah, and not only on Noah, but also on Noah's family, and as we heard earlier, sort of the rest of creation. Yes, Noah had faith, and Noah was faithful, but as we're going to find out on the other end of the flood story in chapters 9 and 10, Noah was not perfect. Noah didn't earn a seat in the boat. Noah wasn't there because he was perfect. God had mercy. The ark was mercy. It was mercy accessed by faith. What did Noah need to believe?
[14:04] He needed to believe that there was something to be saved from and that God was the one who could save him. That there was something to be saved from, and that God was the one who could save him. Now, I think this is where we sometimes, maybe even often, go wrong, or at least I did. When we were reading through Hebrews 11:7, and maybe when you're doing that again later on this week, you'll hear this again. It says, "By his faith Noah condemned the world." By Noah's faith, he condemned the world. What on earth does that mean? Now, if you're anything like me, maybe you used to picture when Noah was working on the ark, he had his saw, and he was like, and people would be like, "What are you doing anyway?" "Oh, nothing.
[14:57] There's going to be a flood, a flood." And just kind of kept to himself. Just kind of whistling, kind of humming away, and people are watching him, again, decade after decade. Like, "Why is this guy building this giant boat?" And he's like, "No reason. Nothing to see here." He's keeping this to himself, as it were. The text itself of Genesis doesn't really say either way, but there were traditions that grew up between the time of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and they are reflected in our New Testament, and they speak a little bit differently about this. So if you look at a letter called 2 Peter, this is what it says about Noah. It says that Noah was, this is 2 Peter 2:5, that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
[15:48] A preacher of righteousness. So yes, we know that ultimately, only Noah and his family got on the boat. But here are two things that we don't know. Number one, we don't know how many people might have been invited onto the boat. And number two, we don't know, and check this, we don't know if the flood was inevitable. In other words, if Noah was a preacher of righteousness, we don't know who he tried to convince to repent, tried to convince into safety. And we definitely don't know that if enough people had changed their ways, whether or not God would have stayed His hand and allowed creation to continue.
[16:34] If you think I'm being a little bit too soft, loosey-goosey with the text, I would just encourage you sometime this week, if you've got some extra time, read through a very short book, four chapters. It's the story of Jonah. If you want to hear what it is when God proclaims that the end will come and then allows that to not be the case because people have, in fact, repented. Noah "condemned the world." How did he do that? By showing the world that it was indeed possible not to be perfect, but to repent and to be saved. And those who chose not to were receiving the natural consequences of their choices. The natural consequences of their preference for chaos. God will forgive anyone who truly repents. The doors of the ark were wide open right up until the time that they weren't.
[17:32] So here's the thing. God will bring justice, but because He is so loving, He will also give mercy. There's no flood without an ark. And here is the absolute best news for us today. Our ark is Jesus. Our ark is Jesus. You can clap like you mean it if you want. That's fine. That's good. It's good news. It's good news. God loves creation. He loves humanity. He loves you and me, and He wants to give us mercy through Jesus. When we read through the Genesis Noah story, we are assured that this particular type of uncreation process, the one that we keep referring to with the floodwaters crashing in, that that is actually not going to happen again.
[18:27] If you read through there, you'll see that there's this covenant promise that's offered to us. That's what the whole rainbow in the sky is about, to remind us, "Hey, that's not going to happen again." But as you continue to read through the rest of the Old Testament into the New Testament, it does become clear that something is coming. Jesus Himself, in Matthew chapter 24, is quoted as saying this. Chapter 24 of Matthew, verse 37, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark."
[19:19] A core Christian belief, one that is stated in both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed and obviously throughout the text of the New Testament, is that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. And if that makes you feel a little bit queasy, which to me it has made me feel that way in the past, I need to let you know that that is a good thing. The judgment of Jesus is a good thing. If you stop and think about it, we want judgment. We crave justice. We want someone to put the world to right.
[20:04] Our predicament, where we're stuck, is that we want justice and mercy. We want justice when we've been wronged and mercy when we have wronged. And only Jesus is able to actually hold justice and mercy together. He is the God who is both just and merciful. He has provided a way for us to withstand the coming judgment and a way to weather any and all storms, a way to enjoy everlasting life that begins today in the here and now. And do you want to know what it is? Just got to get on the boat. Just got to hop on the boat.
[20:52] I've mentioned Peter already, but the first recorded Christian sermon that we have is from Acts chapter 2, and it's Peter, that blessed apostle, and this is what he says. He says to the crowd who's gathered, says, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call." Do you hear how wide open that is? You, your children, everybody, all who are far... Come on, come on, come on. Let's get in the boat. With many other words, he warned them, and this is what he says, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." I imagine that's what Noah was saying.
[21:43] "Guys, save yourselves. Get in the boat. Let's go. It's going to happen." We are not promised anything beyond this actual moment. We don't know. Jesus Himself, in that same passage in Matthew, doesn't say when this coming kind of mass judgment will happen. He says He doesn't, in a way that's difficult to understand, He says that He Himself doesn't even know. But I tell you what, you don't need to know when it's going to happen. I was at the hospital yesterday visiting people. Tell you what, whether the mass judgment happens or whether our ticket gets punched, for every day, it's somebody's end of the line.
[22:31] Live as though you have this moment to get on the boat. The ark was made with gopher wood. I don't know what gopher wood is, but it was huge. They have this strange replica of it somewhere in the United States. You can see it. Massive, tons and tons and tons of wood. Eight people. Eight people got on it. The cross, I'm not that strong, but I could lift the cross, at least for a few minutes. Just a single piece of wood. One soul on that cross, and now it is big enough for every single human soul that ever was or ever will be to get on the boat. Guys, the doors today, here and now, are wide open to Jesus.
[23:21] And so in a moment, I'm going to invite you. If you've never gotten on the boat, I'm going to invite you in an opportunity to pray along with me. In fact, even right now, if you want to bow your heads. You can repeat these things out loud. You can say them to yourself. Lord Jesus Christ, like Noah, I now believe that there is something to be saved from and that You're the only one who can save me. I am someone in need of Your salvation. I confess my brokenness, my failure to be perfect, the things that I have done and the things that I have left undone.
[24:08] I accept Your free offer to get on the boat, to receive what Jesus has offered me through the cross, to turn, to repent, and from this day forward, to live as Your child in this life and in the life to come. In Jesus' name. Amen.