Get In The Boat
Marc Jolicoeur · Tidal Church Shediac · August 23, 2026 · Heroes of the Faith series
Marc Jolicoeur looks at Noah and the flood from Hebrews 11:7 and Genesis. The flood was fair, but the ark was mercy, and Jesus is our ark. God holds justice and mercy together, and all we need to do is get in the boat.
More from Marc Jolicoeur · The Heroes of the Faith series
Topics: Faith, Grace, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] Oh my goodness. Well, I'm already a little bit lost in wonder. It's been a good morning. It's been a good morning for me. I woke up, it wasn't a good morning. I look outside, it's like, today's not a good day. But you know what? I got here, it's a good day. I don't know if anybody can resonate. It's been a good day so far. So I'm glad to be with you. My name is Mark. I'm one of the pastors here at Tidal Church. I've had a chance to meet a lot of you, but not all of you. And so, hi again, Mark. Nice to see you. So, we're in the middle of this series, and we just had this kind of bumper for Heroes of the Faith. It's all from Hebrews chapter 11. Growing up, it's funny, I had kind of a Bible quiz out in the little atrium area earlier, and two people were able to tell me who I was preaching on this morning, just based on the verse from Hebrews chapter 11.
[0:47] And so, somebody has been doing their study. That's great. Hebrews chapter 11, Hall of Faith, sometimes called. That's this idea that people, throughout the entirety of the scripture, mostly, actually entirely, the Old Testament, they were witnesses to what God was doing all along, and they did that by faith. And so, in week one, if you were back here, this is like the first week of July. I think people can remember that part of that. We kind of defined faith, and so faith, like there's this difference between hope and faith. I hope it's going to stop raining later on today, but I don't have faith in that because my weather app says that it probably won't. If, however, I had received word, some sort of promise, some indication that it might stop raining later, and then I believed that promise before it actually occurred, that would be faith.
[1:42] We have faith in something that we have received a promise from. And so, the people that we're hearing from through Hebrews chapter 11, they had a promise, they had a word from God, and though they hadn't yet seen it, they believed it, and they were reckoned as righteous because they had faith. And so, the verse that I'm going to be reading from this morning is Hebrews 11.7. And so, if you've been following along with the devotional book, which is actually pretty great if you guys don't have this devotional booklet, you can actually download a free version of it at title.church. You just hit the link that looks a lot like this. Here are the Peers of Faith, and it's a free devotional. The devotionals for this week, which would be kind of week two in that, are really fantastic. And we're going to be talking about, anybody, it's a four-letter name, starts with N.
[2:32] Noah? There you go. Noah, that's right, it's Noah. Okay, good. So, here's the verse, Hebrews 11, verse seven, I'm reading from the new international version, N-I-V. It goes like this. 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. Let me pray. Lord, we invite you into this space this morning. Holy Spirit, would you please breathe on us, breathe on your word this morning, and allow it to come to life.
[3:18] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, so, do you know the story of Noah's ark? Raise your hands if you know the story of Noah's ark. Okay, all right. So, there are, I'm gonna say the overwhelming majority of people have heard it before, but you know what, not everybody, so don't worry, we will give you a little bit of a Spark Notes, Reader's Digest version of it. But for those of you who do know it, you're probably already kind of smiling a little bit because it's Noah's ark. It's cute. It's a fun story. Maybe you're thinking of something that looks an awful lot like this image that I'm going to put up on the screen here. Isn't that cute? So good. I love the fact that there are a lot of windows in the giraffes. Thanks be to God, the giraffes didn't have to get jammed in there. It's nice, right? There was a good design. It's very cute, very cuddly. You've seen stuff like this on storybook Bibles, maybe you've seen them on like nurseries at church or elsewhere.
[4:10] Maybe you even heard a song. There's a song that goes like, God told Noah, there's gonna be a floody, floody. You heard that song before? I see, I see, I see it wrote as a single, but see, I actually didn't know the song growing up, but it was referenced on The Simpsons, and so I heard it actually from The Simpsons, and so how terrible is that, right? So I got animals and onesies and twosies, twosies, right? And then it's like elephants and kangaroosies, roosies, children. So it's a very, it's, we love this, we love to make fun. It's funny. The story of Noah's ark is fun and cute. If, however, you maybe grew up hearing it as a child and then one day decided to, I don't know, read it for yourself or watch a Darren Aronofsky movie about it, you might be like, whoa, this is actually pretty heavy. I didn't realize, in fact, maybe how heavy it was, and so we'll hopefully have some space this morning to be able to wrestle with it a little bit because it's not a cute and cuddly story.
[5:03] It's an important, it's an important story though. So again, I don't want to give you, let's take too much more time to read the whole story, but just so you know, it's kind of, we meet Noah at the end of Genesis chapter five, so pretty early, like first couple pages of the book. It's actually interesting, he's one of the first people, maybe the first person, who has kind of something like a prophecy about who he is. His father Lamech says he's going to be, depending upon what you read, something like he's going to be the one that's going to save us from our labors, which is an interesting thing once you know the rest of the story. So we kind of meet him at the end of chapter five, and then the most of what we think about for Noah is the Noah's flood story, which is Genesis chapters six through eight, and then post flood we have nine and ten, those are the chapters, which again Noah features in, and then he kind of falls off the narrative, although technically his grandchildren and great grandchildren etc. continue to people, the Old Testament, and he pops up throughout the Old Testament a little bit in terms of like references, and also in the New Testament as we'll see.
[6:06] But the kernel, the kernel of the story, the flood story itself, goes a little bit like this. If you know Genesis chapter one, God creates, that happens on the earth, he makes things, and then he makes people, and then people make mistakes. That's kind of how this goes, people and then mistakes. So right away we're making mistakes pretty fast, and we call that the fall. So people fall, Adam and Eve, the first people, they fall and make mistakes. And then Adam and Eve have kids, Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel, that's bad, they fall again, or just kind of we're tumbling down here. And then within the first couple chapters, things go from bad to worse to like worst. It's like everyone is killed, everyone, it is a bloodbath. Again, not a cute and cuddly kind of a story. So we pick it up in Genesis chapter six, verse five, what we see is the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth.
[7:01] Listen to this, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Every only in all, like that's pretty, it's pretty bad, things have gotten quite bad. Things have gotten so bad that God feels like God seems to understand the only way forward is a reset. And nowhere does he say, and this is a good thing, now I'm glad that we're going to be wiping the earth clean. In some respects, you could perceive what's happening now as God choosing what could be the best option amongst a bunch of bad options. Has anybody ever had a number of bad options in front of them and been like, I guess I'll buy that car.
[7:49] This happens, right? Sometimes it's not always like perfect choice and everything else. Sometimes it's just like a bunch of crap and you need to choose what's going to be next. But God noticed Noah, so Genesis chapter six, verses eight and nine, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully, there's the word, faithfully with God. So God looped Noah in on his plan. And this is something to remember from, again, the kind of set of week that we had back in July, and if you haven't checked it out, I think these videos are available online or able to listen to. For Noah to have had a conversation with God, he would have, of course, had to have believed that God existed.
[8:41] So there's a degree and a kernel of faith that Noah has. And not just believe that God existed, but believe that God is trustworthy, right? Because he had to believe what Noah was, or rather, what he was going to be asked by God. And it's very important that he did believe that. Very good for you and I, they did, because what he was going to be asked to do was something wild. He was going to be asked to take a very, very long time and build a very, very big boat, right? That's the boat. I don't think that was to scale. I mean, I think this boat, the one that you saw there, I think the boat was a lot bigger. I think it's a lot bigger than that. It is an enormous boat. And where was he asked to build this boat, you ask?
[9:27] Where? In an arid climate that had literally no bodies of water, and that the story tells us, within living memory had never once seen a drop of rainfall from the sky. This is where Noah was asked to build the boat. So you could sell flood insurance real cheap in this place, okay? And they were given it away at the local market with every sale. It was very, it was very, it was not likely. And so it was actually insane what he was doing. He was spending a lot of time doing this. And I'm sure that, you know, week in, week out, decade in and decade out, the people who noticed Noah building this boat were kind to frequently remind him that there was no purpose in him doing this. But Noah had, what did he have?
[10:17] He had faith. Noah had faith. And because of that faith, when God's word proved true, he and his family and a representation of the variety of the earth's animal population, they all survived. What did they survive? They survived the utter desolation that was brought on by 40 straight days of just torrential downfall of rain, which in effect reset the population of the area. So as I said, not exactly a cute and cuddly story, but it's a rather vital story, if not also a rather complicated story for us in the Christian faith. And I hope that we'll see by the end of this time that it is vital indeed. But first, I do want to ask a question.
[11:03] And I want to try to answer that question. And that question is this, was God being fair in the flood? Was God being FAIR fair in the flood? And I'm going to contend that what this gentleman said is correct, even though it's frankly, for me, sometimes difficult to get there. I will argue that in fact, the flood was FAIR. Now, I already mentioned Genesis chapter one in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If we were to flip there and take a look at it, we would see that when God, quote, created dry land, what he did was he separated the waters above from the waters beneath.
[11:49] And then the waters were really if he gathered them together and doing so, he created, he made a space for the dry land by taking what was essentially chaos and separating chaos from chaos, he created order. Creation, as we know it, is God taking things that are chaotic and putting them into order. Now, what is sometimes I think overlooked in this is that, number one, God continues his work of creation today, but creation then is ongoing and active. So in other words, to the degree that God continues to keep things in order rather than chaos, this is creation.
[12:37] So when the waters of the flood meet together, they're described as the waters above coming crashing down and the waters beneath coming crashing up. And when they meet together, what we could understand this as is actually a process of uncreation. Or you could say that it's God pulling his hands back. If humans, who we were supposed to be the stewards of creation, if we prefer chaos to creation, then you could say it's your will be done on earth as it is in your hearts. It's God essentially giving us the desires of our heart. Or maybe as a parent you've heard the idea of natural consequences.
[13:25] This is what happens when you do this. Now, what I think is important to understand is that this doesn't mean that God was happy with this process about creation. This is again where I sometimes think we get lost. The text tells us that God didn't make this decision out of anger or out of glee, but out of grief and out of regret. In other words, not to keep kind of hammering home these kind of parental illusions, but you've either said it or you've heard it. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. So in the end, I would argue that the flood was fair because it was the natural consequence of what we as humans and as image bearers had been choosing up until that point.
[14:15] But I, for one, am very grateful that though the flood was fair, I can thank God that he is not just a God of justice, but he is also a God of mercy. And so what we find is that the ark was merciful. The flood may have been fair, but the ark was merciful. God had mercy on Noah, and not only on Noah, but also on Noah's family, as well as through them, the rest of creation. Yes, Noah had faith and he was faithful, but this doesn't mean that he was perfect. We actually find this out on the other end of the flood story. And he didn't, quote, earn a place on that boat. The ark itself was mercy.
[15:03] It was mercy that was accessed by faith. So you have to ask yourself, what did Noah need to be able to be on that boat? One, he needed to believe that there was something to be saved from. And number two, he had to believe that God was the only one who could do it. And that stands true for us today. We have to believe that there's something to be saved from, and that God is the only one who could do it. Now, if we can put Hebrews 11.7 up there one more time. I know it's not the next slide, but Jeremy's a fast one. There's a part here that says, by Noah's faith, he condemned the world. By Noah's faith, he condemned the world.
[15:48] And if you're anything like me, you might read that and wonder, what does it really mean that Noah's faith condemned the world? I have had this picture sometimes, I think it's erroneous, but I had these pictures of how Noah was building the ark. And so he's sitting there with a saw. He's going through, it's go for wood. So he's humming that song. And someone comes up and says, hey, Noah, what are you doing? And Noah's like, nothing, nothing to see here. I'm definitely not building a boat, right? As though he was kind of like doing his best to like keep a low profile, just kind of going about, you know, God's asked me to do this crazy thing, but I'm not intending to share that with my ancient Near Eastern neighbors, right? I'm just going to keep this, keep this to myself, yada, yada, like that he was kind of kept his head down and that it was like a secret.
[16:36] Like, hey, don't worry about it. It's just going to be for me and my family. And that makes it kind of difficult to think like, well, you know, did other people even have a chance? Well, though that the text of the Genesis doesn't say this, there were traditions that grew up around the time of the New Testament and they are actually captured in the New Testament themselves that give us a window into how people actually might have experienced what was going on. So at second Peter chapter two, verse five, it says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. It says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. So here's what we know. We know that ultimately only Noah and his family got on that boat. But here are at least two things that we don't know. One, we don't know how many people might have been invited to and could have squeezed onto that boat. Number two, we don't know ultimately whether or not the flood was inevitable. We don't know whether or not the flood was inevitable.
[17:36] What do I mean by that? I mean, it was certainly declared that it was going to happen. But what if people had actually taken God's word, turned from their ways and walked towards him? Could he have relented from this punishment? If you think I'm being loosey goosey with the text, I would encourage you to read four chapters of very small but great book called Jonah, wherein God declares that judgment will come, people turn, and then judgment does not come. So we don't know ultimately what God wanted to have happen during this time. What we know is what happened. And when Noah, quote, condemned the world by showing that it was indeed possible to repent and to be saved. So it's not as though he condemned the world by saying, see you later suckers.
[18:24] He condemned the world by actually showing them that there was a way for them to have accessed the faith and access the mercy that Jesus through God was offering. God will forgive anyone who truly repents. The doors of the ark were wide open until the moment where they weren't. God will bring justice. But because he is so loving, he will also give mercy. For us, there is no flood without an ark. And the good news is that our ark is Jesus. Our ark is Jesus. God loves creation.
[19:10] He loves humanity. He loves you. He loves me. And he wants to give us mercy through Jesus Christ, our ark. And when you read through the Genesis Noah story, we are assured that this particular type of uncreation process is not going to happen again. This is again good news for us out here today. Now localized flooding, this still happens. But this idea of a clean sweet by rain, that is not going to happen again. That is what that beautiful rainbow in the sky is intended to remind us of, that this will not happen again. But as the story goes on, it becomes clear that something else will happen, right? Jesus himself is quoted as saying, As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
[20:00] For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. A core Christian belief that is stated in both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed and throughout the text of the New Testament, is that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. There is another kind of judgment that is coming. And by the way, that is really good news. Now there have been times in my life where I have thought and contemplated about this coming judgment, have not experienced it as good news. But I just want to say, the idea that Jesus is coming to set things right is good news, full stop. We need judgment.
[20:54] We crave it all the time. Every show you watch, every book you read, every news story that you listen to, you're always hoping that there will be some kind of judgment and some kind of justice. The conundrum, the problem that we find ourselves in, is that we want justice when we've been wronged and mercy when we're the ones who have done the wronging. This is the challenge that we find ourselves in. But thanks be to God, He is the only one who is able to hold both judgment and mercy together. He has provided a way through every storm. He has given us an ark. And that ark is Jesus and the good news is all we need to do is get in the boat.
[21:44] All you got to do is just get in the boat. I mentioned the apostle Peter earlier. He is the one who wrote that letter. He is the one who, I guess for lack of better words, maybe he's the first recorded Christian preacher other than Jesus, the first recorded Christian preacher in the footsteps of Jesus. And in Acts chapter two, we have a sermon. This is right after they're filled with the Holy Spirit, right after Jesus had not in about a hundred days or so after Jesus had gone and ascended. And what we have is we have this message that he has for people. It says, Peter said, 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. Listen, 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. So earlier it was like every only none, right?
[22:40] But this is all, all, all, like it's wide open. All you need to do is get in the boat. Now I have no idea how much wood it actually would have taken to have created Noah's ark. It would have been tons and tons and tons of wood. I mean, like, you know, like truck to trailer loads worth of wood. And it held eight human beings. The cross of Jesus Christ could be carried through this room this morning by the average person in decent health. It held one person and it is wide enough, big enough, and strong enough for every human soul that has ever been and that ever will be. Our ark is Jesus Christ.
[23:36] In a few minutes this morning, we're going to be taking communion together. But before we do that, I want to do two things. One, I want to give an opportunity for people who have understood maybe for the first time that they, they do want to be found in Jesus Christ. They want to, they want to get in the boat. They want to accept the mercy that Christ is offering them. And then also I want to make it clear that as we, if we were to read another passage here, again, in the letter of Peter, it would, it would clarify that there is a, there's a, a typology. There is an image of going through the waters in the flood, in the ark, and, and baptism. That baptism is a way that we become saved kind of whole members of the local church.
[24:24] And so I know that this church here, like this campus, we've just experienced some baptisms a few weeks ago and then a few weeks before that. I tell you what, we're happy to always offer the opportunity for people if they'd like to experience the, what it, what it means to go through the waters of baptism. So if you want to find out a little bit more about that, you can go to title.church and you can click the link that says baptism and you fill out an interest form there and we would be very, very happy to be able to follow up. Or you can talk to Arnelle or myself or Nathan when you see him. Just if today's the day for you to realize that you don't really want to go through those waters alone, but you do want to go through those waters with Jesus, it would be an amazing opportunity for me to do that. But that is only one part of it. The first thing that we do, I often say that, you know, our church doesn't make people Christians by baptizing them.
[25:11] We baptize Christians. And so if this morning you find, hey, I think I understand that Jesus is my way into salvation, my way into life. I'd love to just provide for you an opportunity to pray along with me, even as the ushers are getting ready to move into position and I'll invite the worship team forward here as well. So yeah, just maybe if you want to close your eyes with me, you can say these words out loud or you can say them to yourself under your breath, saying them to Christ. But Lord, I understand now that I need to be saved and that you are the only one who can save me. I understand, Lord, that I need to be saved and that you, O Lord, are the only one who can save me. I confess that I am not a perfect person, that I have made mistakes and that you, O Lord, have offered me a way through the cross, through Christ, to be united to you.
[26:10] Lord, please forgive me of my sins, come into my life and help me to come in more fully to your own life through the cross, through the ark that is Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.