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This past Sunday was the most-watched sporting event of the year – the Super Bowl. Each year, something like 100 million viewers tune in to watch the final football game of the NFL season. While it is still a football game like all the rest with a time limit and rules, it has become a national event for many reasons (i.e. halftime show, pregame build-up, betting). Because it has become an event that nearly a third of the country watches, it is also the one time in the entire year where sports fans actually want to sit and watch the commercials rather than flip channels. The day after the Super Bowl, people who analyze the game for a living and know nothing about marketing actually spend time talking about the best and worst of the new commercials!

For this year’s Super Bowl commercials, nearly everyone that I am either friends with or work with had the same reaction that I did – disappointment. This feeling was due to several factors, including inappropriateness, lack of anything memorable, and the types of things advertised. In my opinion, there were just too many companies trying too hard to be too clever. What my friends and I saw were long, drawn-out commercials that viewers ended up spending more time trying to figure out than actually thinking about the product advertised. There were times when I just wanted to stand up and scream at the TV, “Get to the point already!” The goal of these companies is to get you and I to remember whatever it is they’re selling. While I admittedly know very little about marketing, I’d assume the best way to do that is to find a way to be clever in a quick, concise, and to-the-point manner.

My feelings about the commercials got me thinking about the way Christians share the good news of Jesus Christ. Whether you are already a follower of Jesus or you are still not sure you want to put your trust in him, you can probably agree that there are times when you wish the preacher or Christian friend of yours would just get to the point and tell you what you need to know. We are often guilty of making it more complex than it really needs to be. Now, don’t get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy discussing theological topics with anyone and I know there are those out there who want to “know” more before they can believe. But the entire gospel of Christ essentially boils down to the human need for a Savior and Jesus of Nazareth being our needed answer for all that ails us. In paying our penalty on the cross and defeating death by rising on the third day, Jesus Christ is ALL that we need. The Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that he “resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified”. Paul went on to learn much more and become an excellent theologian, but he never lost sight of what matters for salvation and how to explain it in a clear and concise manner.

If you read the title of this post, you’re probably wondering at this point how Noah’s Ark could possibly have anything to do with everything else I’ve been saying. Think about it. As Noah was building this huge structure and telling people that there was going to be a flood, was it some huge mystery how they could be saved from said flood? I mean, you were either going to get on the ark and be saved, or you were going to take your chances that Noah was crazy and go on with your life. There was no middle ground. Once the judgment came in the form of the floodwaters, those who chose not to believe perished. It was that simple. Now, line that up with Jesus’ words in the oft-quoted John 14:6 (emphasis mine). “I am THE way and THE truth and THE life. NO ONE comes to the Father except through me”. Jesus isn’t one of many options, friends. He’s the only way. For those people that lived in Noah’s day, the rising of the waters left them searching for something to save them, while the only thing that could had already come and gone.

God found Noah to be a righteous man, and He told him ahead of time that he was going to destroy all people and the earth by a flood and gave Noah instructions on how to be saved from it (Genesis 6:9-13). What I find interesting is that God told Noah what He was going to do before giving him instructions on what to do next. This shows us that God was going to destroy the earth whether Noah chose to obey Him or not. Hebrews 11:7 says that Noah “in holy fear built an ark to save his family”. You see, what motivated Noah was not his emotional feeling that God loved him but his belief, despite all the wickedness around him, that God was Almighty, that judgment was coming, and that God could take him out if He wanted. Everyone else around him got comfortable in their knowledge and feeling of control, but Noah believed by faith that God was sovereign.

One of the things that God showed me recently about Noah and his ark is that, while Noah built the mechanism that would essentially separate those who were saved from those who would perish, God still did not leave judgment up to Noah. Genesis 7:16 says that, after Noah did as he was commanded and got his family and all the animals on the ark, “the Lord shut him in”. Could you imagine how different it would be for Noah and how different our understanding of God would be if He had allowed Noah to decide when the door gets shut? It would be the equivalent of somebody on this earth today having the power to decide when Christ returns. Do you realize what a burden that would be for a mere human knowing that your choice is the one that determines the ETERNAL fate for all? We must understand that God is God and we are not for many reasons. Only He has the power to condemn for all eternity because only He is holy in nature. This should be an eye-opener for both Christians who attempt to judge and condemn by their words and non-Christians who are still searching for another answer.

There is much more to the story of Noah. It spans five chapters in the Book of Genesis. There is also much more to the story of Jesus Christ. It spans 66 individual books within the Bible. There are parts of each story that are mysterious, but they still come back to a very basic truth that is available for all who are willing to understand. At the time of the first worldwide judgment, you weren’t getting by unless you were on that ark and you weren’t on that ark unless you believed by faith that God was who He said He was and would do what He promised He would do. As we approach the second worldwide judgment that is described in Revelation, you aren’t getting by unless you believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. That option has not exhausted itself yet. The key word there is “yet”. There will come a time when it’s no longer an option, and only those who believed by faith without seeing complete proof will be saved. If you haven’t made that choice yet, please consider what’s at stake and let any of the writers at Worldview Warriors know in the “comments” section of these blogs how we might be able to get in touch with you to discuss it further.