Sean C. Capparuccia

13 September 2026

Sermon XII in the Genesis series

 Genesis 8:1-22; Psalm 128; I Peter 3:18-22; Luke 18:15-17

What an exciting day when the Church of God acquires a new covenant member!  I admit that even before Josie was born I was looking forward to this day because in my mind, one of the most beautiful and fulfilling things a pastor can do is baptize someone. You can keep your meetings (unless there’s food, of course) but this is what it’s all about! And even though any time is good for a baptism, the timing worked out just so that it fell right during these passages in the Genesis passages on the Flood, which is itself a type of our baptism. And in reading this passage what really stood out to me is right there in the first verse, “But God remembered Noah.”

There are some sentences in Scripture that are so simple that we can almost read right past them. We see them, we understand the words, and we just keep going. But every once in a while, you come across a sentence that is simple enough for a child to understand and yet deep enough for a theologian to write hundreds of pages about. Genesis 8:1 is one of those sentences: “But God remembered Noah.”

Now, we have to be careful with the word “remembered.” Does it mean that God had literally forgotten Noah? That maybe God got so distracted by all the havoc He was wreaking on the earth, with all the rain and fountains of the deep, with the continents moving around, separating and crashing into each other and causing mountains to shoot up into the sky? Did He get so exciting by all this awesomeness that He suddenly looked down in the middle of ocean and say, “Oh My Self, there’s Noah. I left him and his family floating around in that boat!” No, no, no…. that’s not what happened. God doesn’t forget His people. And He didn’t forget Noah.

Covenants

In Scripture, when God “remembers” someone, it means that He turns His covenant attention toward that person and acts on His promise. We hear the term “covenant” in church but we don’t always know what it means. The basic definition is that a covenant “refers to an act of God in freely establishing a mutually binding relationship with humankind.”[1] These covenants can be conditional or unconditional. In a conditional covenant, God bestows blessing when the people obey the terms. In an unconditional covenant, God bestows His blessings regardless of man’s obedience to the terms of the covenant. In Scripture there are seven covenants that we see: the Edenic, Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and the New Covenant. Obviously, we are talking about the Noahic covenant today, but we are also talking about the New Covenant to which all the other covenants in the Bible point.

So, a covenant is a promise and God remembered Noah because He had made a promise to Noah. Remember now that Noah didn’t survive the Flood because he had figured out the best way to stay alive; He was surviving because God, in His mercy, provided a means of salvation and had promised to preserve him. And that is important because Genesis 8 is not simply a story about Noah – it is a story about God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises.

Genesis 6 told us that “the wickedness of man was great on the earth” and that every intent, or imagination, of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (6:5).

The Flood was God’s judgment upon a world that had become thoroughly corrupted by sin. But in the midst of judgment, God provided salvation. We’ve been seeing this thing build over the last several weeks, haven’t we? Now in Genesis 8 we see the great turning point: “But God remembered Noah.”

Receding Waters – Re-creation

Verse 1 continues: “And God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.”  Does anything strike you there?  Do you remember the word for “wind” from Genesis 1? “In the beginning, the earth was covered with waters, and the Spirit—or ruach—of God moved over the face of the waters” The word is ruach: wind, breath, spirit – depending on the context.

Now, after the judgment of the Flood, God’s ruach moves over the waters again, and the waters begin to recede. So whether or not Moses intended for us to see this parallel, the theological picture is unmistakable: God is bringing order out of judgment and preparing the earth for a new beginning. The Flood is was a destroying calamity, for sure, but it wasn’t merely about destruction; it is also about re-creation.  Sometimes, things have to be destroyed before they can be re-created. You can’t just keep adding on to something.

I think we see this in our government. Most of our governmental institutions – all those three-letter organizations – have just been added to and added to until the amalgamation is just a mass of policies that do nothing but cost the taxpayers. You can’t just keep throwing money at them; we need to be willing to destroy them and then rebuild it the way it ought to be built. Perhaps, too, there are things in your own life that you have just kept “feeding” and it’s not doing you any good. You need to be willing to destroy it, cut it out, eviscerate it, and then rebuild on a sure foundation.  

The pre-Flood world – the antediluvian world – has been judged, and Noah is going to literally step out into a new world that has, in a very real sense, been washed clean. That is why the way in which we interpret the Flood narrative in the Bible has ramifications for the rest of our understanding of Scripture.

John Morris, in his classic work, The Genesis Flood, emphasized that we should take seriously the biblical description of the Flood as a real, catastrophic, worldwide judgment rather than reducing it to a local flood or merely a religious symbol, or a myth that isn’t necessarily true. And as we have already stated, it is difficult to make this into a little regional rainstorm. The fountains of the great deep are broken open! The windows of heaven are opened! The waters prevail upon the earth! Every high mountain under heaven is covered!  And eventually the waters recede.

And of course we cannot settle every geological question from the pulpit, but there is something important here for the Church: we should never be embarrassed by the biblical account simply because modern people find it difficult to believe.  Our Christian faith begins with the conviction that God created the world – We believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. And if God created the world, then He is perfectly capable of judging it. And if God is capable of judging it, He is certainly capable of delivering Noah, and anyone else He should desire, from judgment.

And the God who brought Noah through judgment is the same God who brought Christ through death. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. Same God; He doesn’t change. (Lest anyone should assert that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament.)

God Shut Him In—and God Brought Him Out

You remember in chapter 7 verse 16, that the Lord shut the door of the ark. Noah did not save himself; God shut him in. And now Genesis 8 tells us that God brought him out. Let us not neglect to see the symmetry here:

Noah’s salvation begins and ends with the grace of God. Now, Noah certainly had faith. Hebrews 11:7 tells us that “by faith Noah prepared the ark.” But Noah’s faith did not create the ark. God did. Noah’s faith did not stop the Flood. God did. Noah’s faith did not control the waters. God did. Noah’s faith was simply the obedient response to the word and promise of God.

And that, Beloved Church, is a profound Christian principle:

Faith does not save us because faith is powerful. Faith saves because its object is powerful. I mean how powerful is a mustard seed? And yet the Lord said, “If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be plucked up by the root, and planted in the sea’; and it will obey you” (Luke 17:6).

It isn’t the faith itself, it is the object of that faith. Noah trusted God. And God was faithful.

Noah Waited

There is another detail in Genesis 8 that we sometimes overlook, Noah waits. The rain stopped, and the waters slowly began to go down, but Noah waits. The ark comes to rest upon the mountains of Ararat [in Turkey], but Noah waits. He then sent out the raven; then the dove. When the dove eventually returned with an olive leaf, proving that there was habitable land, Noah waited some more. And then verse 14 says that “the earth was dry.”

But even then Noah doesn’t simply kick open the door and say, “Well, boys, glad that’s over!”  He waits for God to speak. Then, finally, God says: “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.”

That is faith.

Sometimes faith means building an ark.

Sometimes faith means getting into the ark.

And sometimes faith means waiting inside the ark until God says it is time to come out.

There are seasons when God’s people, led by His Spirit, have to wait. We don’t like it very much at all, do we? We’ve gotten so used to Amazon Prime getting our new gadget to our doorstep in two days that after day three we start wondering what went wrong.

But Noah waited; and while Noah waited, the Spirit of God was working. The waters were receding; the earth was being prepared; and God was keeping His promise.

And Then Noah Worshiped

Now look at what happens when Noah finally comes out. This is important, don’t miss this: verse 20, “And Noah built an altar unto the Lord.” That is the first thing Noah does after leaving the ark. He doesn’t say, “Let’s build a house,” or “Let’s get the garden planted.” He doesn’t say, “Let’s go explore and  see what survived.” No, he builds an altar and He worships. I think that tells us something about what it means to be saved by grace.  When you understand that God has brought you through judgment, your first response ought to be worship. Noah knew that he had not saved himself. He understood that he had been carried through the waters by the mercy of God. And so he worshipped.

And that brings us naturally to our Psalm this morning where we read, “Blessed is every one who fears the Lord; who walks in His ways” (128:1). And then the Psalm moves into our very household: “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house: your children like olive plants around your table” (128:3).

Think about this now, this connection between salvation and family. Noah didn’t enter the ark alone; God saved Noah and his household.  And when Noah comes out, he worships God with his household.

The biblical picture of faith is never merely, “It’s just me and Jesus, and everybody else can mind their own business.” Oh, we’ve heard that a lot, but it just isn’t so. God is concerned with marriages; with households; with children; with generations. He is a covenanting God and He works through covenant.

And that is particularly important for us today because we celebrated a baptism. There is a powerful connection.

The Ark and Baptism

The New Testament itself tells us to connect these things. Peter writes in 1 Peter 3 about Noah and the Flood, and then says: “And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you…” Peter is not teaching here that water magically saves somebody, just like the bread and wine in our other sacrament do not magically turn into physical body and blood. It is figurative; it corresponds, as he says.  Peter immediately explains that baptism is not merely the washing of dirt from the body, but involves an appeal or pledge toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The water itself is not the Savior; Jesus is.

The ark was not made out of magical wood; the water did not possess saving power. Noah was saved because God provided a means of deliverance and Noah trusted the promise of God.

Listen, baptism points us to that same great reality. We come to the baptismal font (or bowl) today recognizing that this water does not work like some kind of religious detergent. We don’t pour water over the baby thinking she’s got a guaranteed ticket to heaven. Rather, baptism is a sign and means of God’s gracious covenant, pointing us away from ourselves and toward Christ.

God says, in effect, “This child belongs among My people. This child is to be raised in the knowledge of My Word. This child is to be surrounded by the prayers, teaching, worship, and example of the church.” And that is why baptism is not merely a private family event. It is a church event wherein the church is making a promise too.

We are saying that we will not leave this child to figure out Christianity on all her own.  We were talking about this the other day, a Christian parent doesn’t tell their child, “Hey, you just need to see what makes sense to you when you’re old enough. Just find your own way.”  No! Because a Christian parent knows there’ sonly one way and they know that way! 

We will teach her Scripture.

  We will pray for her.

    We will bring her to worship.

      We will show her what repentance looks like.

        We will show her what forgiveness looks like.

          We will show her what Christian marriage looks like.

            We will show her what it means to love one’s neighbor.

And above all, we will point her again and again to Jesus Christ.

Because children don’t merely need information about Christianity, They need to see Christianity lived out. They need fathers and mothers who pray. They need grandparents and families who worship. They need a church that takes holiness seriously. They need Christians who can say, not merely with their lips but with their lives: “Follow me as I follow Christ.” I think some think Paul was a bit arrogant to say, “Be imitators of me!” He was not being arrogant; he was simply stating truth. In so far as you are following Christ, people ought to imitate you.

A Church That Builds Arks

And perhaps there is one more lesson here for us at Trinity: Noah built an ark because God told him to. And that ark became a place of refuge in the midst of judgment.

Now, the church isn’t Noah’s ark, and this pastor certainly isn’t Noah. But the church ought to be a place where people encounter the truth about the coming judgment of God and the greater salvation found in Jesus Christ.

We live in a culture that desperately needs to hear both messages.

It needs to hear that sin is real; It needs to hear that judgment is real; It needs to hear that holiness matters.

But it also needs to hear that grace is real; that mercy is real; that forgiveness is real; and salvation is found in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the temptation for a small church is to think that we have to become impressive before we can become useful. We need more people. We need more money. Bigger this and nicer that.

Listen, Noah had an ark, and God had a plan. The power wasn’t in Noah’s resources but in God’s promise. And maybe that is something we need to remember.

We don’t have to be a big church to be a faithful church. We don’t have to have everything figured out to be obedient. We simply have to be faithful to what God has given us.

Preach the Word.

  Make disciples.

    Spread scriptural holiness.

      Love our neighbors.

        Raise our children in the faith.

          Open our doors to people who need Christ.

And simply trust God with the results.

“God Remembered Noah”

And so we come back to that opening sentence: “But God remembered Noah.”

When Noah was floating in the darkness, God remembered him.

When Noah was waiting for the waters to recede, God remembered him.

When Noah couldn’t see what God was doing, God remembered him.

When Noah was patiently, or maybe impatiently, waiting on that smelly stinky no doubt mildewy ark and didn’t know how much longer he would have to wait, God remembered him.

And when the time came, God brought Noah out. That is the promise we can cling to as Christians. God does not and has not forgotten His people. Christ has not forgotten His church. And God has certainly not forgotten this child whom we bring before Him today.

We don’t bring Josie Kay before God because we believe He needs to be reminded that this child exists, rather, we are reminded of God’s covenant with us, and we remember our own baptism. Martin Luther said, “When you wash your face, remember your baptism.” He said, every time you touch water, you can remember that your sins are washed away by God’s word.  In other words, never forget that God has covenanted to never forget you. Even when you feel that He has turned His face away from you, your baptism is a reminder to you that He has not, nor can He.

The baptism we celebrate is ultimately not a testimony to how good we are at raising children; it is a testimony to how gracious God is. Our God is a faithful God and He will see every one of His children through to the end. If we can’t rest in that, Beloved, we can’t rest in anything at all.

And as this child grows, our prayer should be that one day the sign of baptism will be joined by a personal faith—that she will truly come to know the Christ to whom these waters point; that she will repent of her sins, trust in Him, walk in holiness, and persevere in faith.

Because the real question is not simply, “Has this child been baptized?” The greater question is: Will she come to know and love Jesus Christ, her only hope?

And that is not something the water can accomplish by itself.

That is the work of the Holy Spirit; it is the work of the Word.  And it is the work of obedience of the parents, the grandparents, godly friends. And it is the work of the church!

So today we baptize. Today we promise and we pray. And today we remember what Genesis 8 teaches us: God remembers His people. The waters recede, the door opens, the people come out, and the first thing they do is worship.

Beloved in Christ, may that be true of us.

And may we do our part in raising this child in such a way that, by God’s grace, her whole life becomes an answer to the prayer of Noah:

“Lord, I remember You because You have remembered me.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In Luther’s Small Catechism, the teaching on the Sacrament of Holy Baptism is broken down into four distinct, concise questions and answers.

1. What is Baptism?

Luther states that baptism is not merely plain water. Rather, it is “the water comprehended in God’s command and connected with God’s Word.” He points to Jesus’ command in Matthew 28:19 to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

2. What benefits does Baptism give?

This section contains his most famous summary of baptismal grace. Luther writes that baptism:

-Works forgiveness of sins

-Rescues from death and the devil

-Gives eternal salvation to all who believe God’s promises

3. How can water do such great things?

Luther clarifies that physical water has no spiritual power on its own. It is “the Word of God in and with the water” combined with a trusting faith in that Word. Without God’s Word, the water is just water, but with the Word, it becomes a “grace-filled water of life.”

4. What does such baptizing with water signify?

This ties directly back to your first question about daily remembrance. Luther explains that baptism means the “Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die,” and that a “new man should daily emerge and arise” to live before God in purity forever.

---

[1] Stanley J. Grenz, et al., “covenant” in Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999).