READ Gen 17:15-19; 18:1-15; 21:1-7

Martin Luther once said, “You have as much laughter as you have faith.” He’s saying laughter is a sign of faith, but how can that be? Abraham’s story shows us that laughter is not only an important theme in his story but in its relationship to faith in God. Each passage considers a different kind of laughter that arrives at the laughter of faith. Remember that the name Isaac also means “he laughs.” For us to reach the laughter of faith we often must first pass through the others as Abraham and Sarah did.

1. The Laughter of Disbelief

When the Lord tells Abraham that his wife will bear a son in her old age, he falls facedown and laughs (17:17). How could a couple in their 90s possibly bear a child? His laughter is a kind of disbelief but not necessarily a mark of irreverence or hard-hearted doubt. Why? Abraham’s laugh is not a sign he doesn’t get the promise, the word of God; it’s a sign he does get it. That is why God was gentle with his disbelief. Consider how shocking it is that God chooses impossible situations to display his glory. If you haven’t laughed at the promise of God, then have you ever really heard it? If we haven’t laughed at the gospel and all it promises, we likely haven’t truly understood it!

2. The Laughter of Disappointment

Sarah’s laugh is different than Abraham’s because she puts up more of a wall between herself and God. For many years, the deepest longing of her heart was to have a child. Perhaps that was now just a faint hope from the past? If Abraham had diminished hope in this possibility, she had undoubtedly lost hope. God questions Sarah’s laugh (18:13) because he notices something cynical underneath. God questions us because he wants us to express ourselves honestly in our disappointment and remember that nothing is impossible for Him! Though Sarah denied it, the Lord called her out. Though our disappointments can put up a wall over time between us and hope, God answers our laughter of disappointment by reminding us - “Is anything impossible for Him”? Even if we put up a wall, he is still there behind it.

3. The Laughter of Faith

The Lord came to Sarah just as He had promised and kept his word to her and Abraham. Lest they should ever forget their laughter, He told them to name their son Isaac, which means “he laughs.” Sarah even proclaims her laughter and the fact that others will laugh with her (21:6). She knows that no one could ever look at their story without laughing about the Lord’s impossible, wonderful, and marvelous grace! She realized she and Abraham (and all who hear their story) will never be able to look at Isaac and say, “Look what we did. We did it. Our story is a story about our obedience, ability, and resources.” No! It’s a story where they only brought their helplessness, barrenness, and deadness, and God, in his grace, brought birth to the barren, power to the weak, and life from the dead. They would laugh every time they said his name and say, “Look only God could do that! Can you believe it?”

Here is the lesson about faith - Faith, saving and sanctifying faith, is trust in God to do the impossible. To remove every ounce of trust that we can earn, win, or achieve the blessing of his favor, his forgiveness, and his Fatherly love and accept it all as a gift we don’t deserve.

Once we see the depth of our need, our sin - we laugh at any notion that we can earn God’s approval! Once we see the depth of his grace in Jesus Christ - we laugh in wonder that what is too good to be true is, in fact, true! To receive all the promises of God, we simply trust. This is why the apostle Paul tells us (Rom.4:11ff; Galatians 3:7, 29), to become a Christian is to become a child/heir of Abraham, ie an Isaac - a he/she laughs.

QUESTIONS

What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?
What does it mean to laugh in disbelief at something? (ie as in “They stared at the Taj Mahal in disbelief”). How is Abraham’s laugh a laugh of disbelief?
It was said in the sermon, “If you haven’t laughed in disbelief at the gospel (that it’s too good to be true), you probably don’t get it”. Discuss whether you agree with this and whether you have ever responded to God’s promise by saying inside: “Haha! Yeah right… it’s just too good to be true!”.
Hint: Why doesn’t anyone laugh in disbelief at a religion that says, “Be good and you’ll get the eternal reward”, “Obey and God will bless you”, “Be devoted and God will be devoted to you”.
How can our laughter be a sign of a wall of doubt or cynicism between a person and God like Sarah’s? Have you experienced this? What does God’s interaction with Sarah tell us about how God reacts to laughter of disappointment?
How does Isaac’s name (“he laughs”) reinforce the message of the gospel that the promise is not earned but received by faith? How might it be healthy for us to laugh at our attempts to earn God’s blessing, love and approval? How might it be healthy for us to laugh at God’s ridiculous and unrelenting grace given to us in Jesus? (this is the “it’s too good to be true but it’s true kind of laugh)
Which of these applications is most important to you right now:

The more we grow as Christians, the more we laugh.
We don’t need to take ourselves too seriously.
When our laughter wanes, it’s usually a sign that we are living like “it’s up to us”.
Spend time sharing and praying the truth of the gospel into areas of disbelief and disappointment.