Let's turn to our sermon text for this morning, which is Genesis chapter 21 verses 1 through 21. And this is on page 15 of your pew Bibles. Let's stand out of reverence for God's word as you're able. The Lord visited Sarah, as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham, a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his own age. And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham laughing. So she said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. For through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring. So Abraham rose early in the morning. He took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water and the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot. For she said, let me not look on the death of this child. And as she said opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, what troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up, lift the boy, hold him fast with your hand, for I will make of him into a great nation. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Amen. You may be seated. What's in a laugh? A lot. A lot is in a laugh, in the act of laughter. Laughter can bring us together, it can tear us apart. Depends what kind of laugh, right? Some of our favorite moments. are full of laughter, laughter around the dinner table. And when dad's trying to put salt on the mashed potatoes and the lid falls off and all the salt fills the mashed potatoes and then he can't get the salt away from the mashed potatoes because it all looks the same. And, you know, everyone's just roaring with laughter around the dinner table. But some of our darkest moments are full of laughter, the laughter of cruelty. No one likes to be laughed at. not when they're the brunt of the joke, and not when it's meant to tear them down. And some of you can remember very vividly times when you were laughed at, when you were mocked. We see in our text two kinds of laughter, the laughter of joy and the laughter of mockery, or as I'll call it, holy laughter and profane laughter. two very different kinds of laughter. And we need to look at these because God, God is summoning us this morning to a holy laughter in the Lord. And I am not talking about the kind of laughter that happens at some churches, which is chaotic and spontaneous. And I know that Pastor Jackson was talking this morning about posture and acts of worship. I do not think that what is known as holy laughter as practice in some churches is, It's summoned in Scripture, but I'm talking about a kind of holy laughter that is this, a joy in the Lord, a hilarious hope in the joy of your salvation. That's what God calls you to today, to laugh with the people of God, to enjoy the communion of the saints. And so we need to see, first of all, holy laughter, and then we need to see profane laughter, and then I wanna really push you and say, what is your laughter? Notice the holy laughter in this text comes from none other than Sarah. Sarah, 90 years old. I want you to picture Sarah. There she is at 90. Her frame is frailer than it used to be, her skin more wrinkled than it was when she was a young woman journeying in Egypt, but she holds in her hands a newborn baby with smooth skin. There he is. And you can picture as she holds Isaac, someone comes up and would ask, who is this? Is this your great grandson? And she laughs. No, this is my boy. It is unbelievable, isn't it? It's crazy that someone who is so far past the time in which they would naturally have a child is holding in their arms the child of promise. It can only be from God. It can only be Him. working through the laws of nature, which he has set up, overcoming those barriers so that the barren woman might have a son, her only son, her firstborn son, Isaac. And there's a few things that make this so very funny. The first is this. that just a year before, God told her that this very thing would happen. But at that time, Sarah laughed in unbelief because she thought God was joking. Remember this? It wasn't a laugh out loud. It was a laugh in her heart, a laugh of skepticism. And she said, she heard God telling Abraham, you're gonna have a son. Sarah's gonna have a son this time next year. And she laughed inside and said, no way. What kind of joke is this? Doesn't he see me? Doesn't he know my age? Well, guess who gets the last laugh? God. Because God meant it. He meant that she was really going to have a boy of her own. And here he is in her arms. And guess what God told Abraham and Sarah to name this boy? Isaac, which means what? Laughter. This is God's last laugh, his final laugh over the whole scene, sneaking its way through the boy's name. So anytime Sarah would say, this is my son, Isaac. What is she saying? This is my son. Ha ha ha. God gets the last laugh. Sarah's laughter reminds us of something really important, that the Bible's story is a comedy instead of a tragedy. Now I want you to think about that genre, the genre of a comedy and how it contrasts with a tragedy. And none other than William Shakespeare would be the master of these things, these genres in his plays. You think of a tragedy. What is a tragedy? It comes from Greek plays, and in a tragedy, Things go from decent to bad to worse to what? To horrible. Until you're saying, let's just end this thing. Time for the play to be over. Close the curtains. We've had enough misery. And what a tragedy does is it leans in and looks at the horrors of life in an unbelieving world, a life that is scorched by sin, a life that is touched by the fall, where things fall apart, where relationships break, where death seeks to steal and stain everything that is good. And tragedy leans in and says, isn't sin awful? Isn't death scary? Isn't this world fallen and broken? And the answer is, yes, it is. We see this in plays of Shakespeare's like Macbeth. You can think of some of the depressing movies you've watched and they're probably a tragedy. But then you have this other genre, and it's comedy. And what happens in a comedy? I'm not talking just about the slapstick humor that you might watch when you think of comedy. I'm thinking about another genre. I'm thinking of Midsummer's Night Dream, where things start off chaotic and disrupted, but slowly but surely, they start to come together and piece together so that you start off with something awful and messed up, but you end up with what? Happily ever after. and there's laughter, and there's joy, and the curtains close with feasting, and everything is right in the world. Which of those genres best describes the Bible? Well, you could note that the Bible starts with a tragedy, doesn't it? It starts with a garden that is turned into a grave. by Adam Sin, a garden that is disrupted and the beautiful fellowship with God is disrupted and turns into a grave where there is death and joy is stolen and salvation is hopeless at that point until God plants the seeds of a comedy. in which the grave is reverted back into a garden. By whom? By none other than the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole arc of the Bible. After the fall is God piecing together what is broken, doing it in the proper time and in his perfect way, so that at the very end, in the book of Revelation, what do you see? The feast of the marriage supper of the Lamb, where every tear is wiped away, and there is, as it were, laughter of God's people around the table saying, oh, so, What were we worried about? This is so good. This is happily ever after. The tragedy of Adam turned the garden into a grave. But the wonderful comedy of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, turned the grave back into a garden. And you and I are participants in this divine comedy of salvation. Sarah says, look in our passage, she says, God has born laughter in me. Everyone who looks on me will laugh. And what she's basically doing is saying, look, people are going to laugh with me. Others will experience this joy. Do you know the joyful laughter which comes to those who trust in God's word? Do you know that joy that springs up when you see God do what you thought was impossible, and you thought the door was closed on this, and you thought that salvation was never to be found, and then here comes God. And he turns your life from a tragedy into a comedy. And even through tears, and even through death, and even through disease, You can, as it were, laugh and say, but God will have the last laugh, but there's hope beyond the grave, but there is salvation for me. When we experience the surprising joy of the gospel, we ought to join in Sarah's laughter, Sarah's joy. And this reminds me, if I were to find a song that underscores this. It's my favorite hymn, And Can It Be. That song feels to me like a big, joyful laugh. Think of some of the words. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who caused his shame, for me who Him to death pursued, and then it just erupts with this joyful laughter, amazing love, how can it be? That this my God should die for me. Can it really be that God would rescue us from our sinful selves? Could He really save the world by dying on a cross? Yes, and that's what's so, Surprising, but surprisingly wonderful about the gospel that God's grace comes to undeserving sinners in such a wonderful and, yes, in a funny way. The way in which we'd never expect. It's even greater than God causing the 90-year-old woman to have a child. Because when we thought, when we knew the door was closed on us saving ourselves from our sins, when death had done its worse, When all hope is lost, at that very moment, and at just the right time, God sent his son to die for us. And I've always thought, someone pointed this out to me last week, if you look at that end scene of the book of Revelation, chapter 20, chapter 21, when God comes with all of his army to subdue the evil one, guess who's coming with him? Us, those who spurned him, those who laughed and mocked him, those who sinned against him. And in the hilarity of the gospel, he takes those who sputtered him and he calls them to be his army that marches in on the evil one and stomps on him. I think one of the immediate takeaways from this One of the immediate results of the laughability of the gospel is that we of all people ought to be able to enjoy a good laugh and a good time. Christians should be known for appropriate laughter, but joyful and mirthful laughter. And I don't want you to be afraid. I don't want you to think that to take the gospel seriously means that you always just have to be stoic and you can never laugh. I think there's some Christians who have thought that. They can't laugh out loud and they have to keep the straight face all the time. Don't you realize that there are times, times where you just should laugh, especially when a baby's born and you're celebrating together and you're laughing with your family or at a wedding feast. These are the times where we ought to laugh and there are times that punctuate our lives where laughter is good and well. Christians should not be known as the frozen chosen. but as laughing lambs. Holy laughter, as it were. But there is another kind of laughter in this text, and it's the profane laughter, the unholy laughter, which comes from Ishmael, son of the slave woman. He also laughs at this feast that Abraham's put together to celebrate the birth and the growth of his son. Now, this time Ishmael's about 14 years old. But when he laughs, it's apparent that he isn't laughing with Sarah. He's laughing at her. I wonder what his laughter said. I don't know for sure, but maybe it was something like this. Look at these fools cackling over a baby. Look at this old woman, look at this little child. Don't they see this looks ridiculous? And he mocks them with his laughter. Ishmael scoffs when he sees God's promise fulfilled and he does not celebrate with the holy family. In fact, if we heard this in Galatians chapter four, verse 29, Paul says that Ishmael persecuted Isaac. Now you say, well, wait, when did he persecute him? Did he poke him with a stick? Did he throw rocks at him? No. He persecuted him with a sound, the sound of laughter, the sound of mockery. And this should put to rest the old adage that sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me. No, words can hurt. You know what else can? A laugh. a laugh and mockery, a divisive and a derisive laugh. This scornful laughter is a form of persecuting the people of God. And so we must see that this is the way that the unbelieving world responds to the gospel. It mocks faith. It refuses to rejoice in God's good news. This is the ultimate party pooper, right? You've got the party. You've got the great feast. Abraham's pulled out all the stops. Come in, come in. Celebrate my son. He's born and he survived all these days. Let's worship God together. Let's celebrate. And here's Ishmael and he's in the corner. What does Sarah say? Get him out of here. Send him away. You think that's really harsh, isn't it? Not if you understand that at its deepest level, Sarah's response to Ishmael is the response of one who is casting out unbelief and mockery against God's promises. Ishmael was kicked out of the party for making a mockery of God's miracle. And here's what you need to understand. This is hard, but it's true. So all who refuse to rejoice in the gospel will be sent away from the marriage supper of the Lamb and into outer darkness. This is the point of Jesus in Matthew 8, verse 12. Why do people go into the darkness? Why do they go to weeping and gnashing of teeth? Why are they kicked out of the party? Why are they kicked out of heaven? Why are they sent to a hell? Well, it's because it's a hell of their own making. Because they would rather mock God, because they would rather laugh at Him, because they would choose darkness over light, because they would rather sit in a corner than celebrate with God's people at the party. This is the mockery of unbelief and perhaps you've even seen this in your own life. You've seen people who would rather laugh at you in your faith than join in the joyful laughter of the good news of the gospel. I know that many of you have been scoffed at and mocked because you believe in Jesus. And unbelief says this, do you seriously think a man could rise from the dead? Do you really think that you're going to go to heaven wherever that is? Do you really think that there's a God? And you know what the Bible says? That the God of heaven laughs at that laughter. That's what the Psalms say. The God of heaven sits in judgment over that laughter. He laughs at it. and he sends it packing. He banishes that laughter out of heaven while the people of God are comfortable and warm and cozy and so joyful around the marriage supper of the lamb. Now this leads us to a final question. What about your laughter? Are you laughing with the child or laughing at him? And at this point, I think you know that I'm not talking about Isaac. I'm talking about the child of promise. For Isaac pointed forward to another son born in impossible to man circumstances, born to a virgin. Born in the fullness of time, when sin was so strong and darkness had done its worst, and the people of God said, how long? Is this ever gonna happen? And what did God say? Yes, now. And he sent his son. What does Isaiah chapter nine, verse six say to us? To us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. A child of birth, a child of celebration, a child of victory, a child of joy. This child is Jesus. What will you do with him? Will you laugh at him? In mockery? Will you sit around and say, well, I'll be here, but I don't know about this laughter thing. That's almost worse. It's almost worse to be at a party and just to sit there like, hmm, what are all these people up to? Or will you with joy embrace your salvation and laugh with the people of God. And by that, what do I mean? I mean that you would experience and know the joy of salvation, that you would sit at the marriage supper of the Lamb, that you would participate in that feast even now and say, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Amazing love, how can it be that this my God should die for me, that he would send his son for me, that he would save me from my sins. Yes, I will party. Yes, I will laugh. Yes, I will celebrate. What we make of this Son of God will determine whether we are laughing or weeping for all eternity. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, There are times when the joy of our salvation is hidden from us, it feels dim, and we do not feel like laughing. We do not even feel like celebrating in our hearts. Lord, When we feel this way, when skepticism rears its head, when doubt, when the seed of doubt is spreading, we pray that you would cut this off, that you would interrupt our hearts, that you would shine the joy of our salvation loud and clear into our lives so that we would know Jesus, so that we would celebrate his coming and we would long for his second coming when that laughter will grow all the more louder and beautiful, for you will wipe away every tear from our eyes. and there will be nothing but joy and celebration at the marriage supper of the Lamb. We long for this, Lord. Help us to embrace it now in anticipation of Christ's coming. We pray this in His name, amen.