01/22/12
The Great Loss
If you’re just joining us, we are spending all of 2012 going through the Bible...from cover to cover...Genesis to Revelation.
Now, as I’ve said for the last couple of weeks, and I’ll continue to remind us, the Bible is a single story, not a set of disconnected stories, with each carrying a moral to show us how to live... It’s Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings...not Aesop’s Fables. And the grand narrative of the Bible begins with a personal God, who created the world good...how humanity then fractured that goodness by their sin (today)...and the rest of the story tells us how God is redeeming and restoring, or putting His creation back together through Jesus Christ.
Genesis three and four describe what is wrong with the human condition...
Illustration: (Brooks: News) It’s been a year ago or so now, when my son, Brooks, who is eight, turned to me while we’re watching the news and asked this question... ‘Why is the news all about killing and death?’ And, of course...there’s more to the news than that, but even a seven year old can pick up on the fact that this life is not what it was meant to be...
We know that something is wrong; that in spite of all of the good in the world...there is war, and racism and greed and malnutrition and injustice...and pain and suffering...
So...what happened? If you remember, last week we talked about the goodness...the perfection...the beauty...the harmony of God’s creation. And the creation account concludes here...
“Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.” (Genesis 2:25 – not promoting nudist colonies)
The writer of Genesis is saying something profound. Nakedness implies openness and transparency; there is nothing to hide or run from for Adam and Eve...
Yet...this morning, can any of us honestly say about ourselves? There is nothing from which I hide... If all of my thoughts, motives, or actions, past present and future choices were projected on a big screen for the world to see...I’m good... No.
Why is that? We understand that in spite of our best attempts, we are we not as consistently good or generous or loving or kind as we would like to be... Why?
For centuries, we have been trying to explain this wrongness...
Some have said... ‘Well, what we need is time. Sooner or later the human species will fix itself. We’re pre-determined by our biology...genetically predisposed to this behavior, and with time, that will correct itself.
Others say... ‘Well, what we need is to create the right environment...the right blend of education or government or intellectual advancement.
“Can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, that it will achieve unity and peace, and that our children will live in a world made more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of achievement? What man has done, the little triumphs of his present state...form but the prelude to the things that man has yet to do.” (H.G. Wells, A Short History of the World (1937))
“The cold-blooded massacres of the defenseless, the return of deliberate and organized torture, mental torment, and fear to a world from which such things had seemed well nigh banished – has come near to breaking my spirit altogether... ‘Homo Sapiens’ as he has been pleased to call himself, is played out.
(H.G. Wells, A Mind at the End of Its Tether (1946))
The Bible says that the problem doesn’t originate out there...in society. Nor does it originate internally in some kind of genetic predisposition...
The Bible says that the problem lies in the human heart...
Go with me to Genesis chapter three, verse 1...
“The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, ‘Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1)
Have you ever read this and asked yourself... ‘What’s with the tree?’ Why does God say to Adam earlier; “Eat from any of the trees...they exist for your delight. But don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you’ll die.”
Why doesn’t God give us a more in-depth explanation about the tree? Commentators will agree that this is the whole point.
God says to Adam and Eve... “I want you to trust me. Everything I’ve given you is good...can you trust me on this? Can you show me that you love me by obeying me?”
This is the first lesson on worship that we come across...
To worship is to give affection and position to whatever it is that we esteem most. To worship something or someone is to magnify...or praise...or stand in awe of that thing...
In Romans 12...in view of all that God has done (his goodness, mercy)...give your lives to him. This is the way to worship).
The trees in the garden represent God’s goodness and generosity toward Adam and Eve... And God is simply saying to them... ‘Do you want to be all that I’ve created you to be...godly...wise...discerning, joyful? Then trust me...obey me.’
When you understand this, the serpent in the story isn’t nearly as confusing...because notice what the serpent says...
“Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (3:1)
Satan is sowing seeds of doubt and distrust in their minds...
“If God was really as good as he said he was...would he really keep this from you? Of course not...”
The same lie seeps into our hearts and minds, that somehow God is not good or worthy of our affection or allegiance.
At the heart of sin is our own heart asking the question, ‘Can I really trust that God has my best interest here?’
Maybe he’s not right about truth...truth is circumstantial.
Maybe he’s not right when he calls me to give generously of my resources to my neighbor...my church...to clothe and feed the poor...after all, it’s my money.
Perhaps sex outside of marriage is ok...who is God to instruct me on this anyway? That’s so passé...
Maybe I don’t need to be engaged in meaningful community... I can walk this journey alone...
You see...we’ve demoted him. With these statements...there’s no awe or worship in our hearts...
In the New York Times, there was an article about the busses in London that have slogans written on them...one of which is...
“There’s probably no god...now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
The serpent’s lie is that God is going to make your life miserable...to kill your joy.
Isn’t that what we believe when we sin? My way is the better way...the higher way...the way that leads to joy...
Illustration (Car Seats) – (Elise’s Birthday – hard to believe she’s five...) I remember strapping each of my children into their car seats for the first time (Jarin). One or two of our children were simply opposed to car seats in general. They could be having the best day, and the moment that we put them into their seat...pure madness ensued. And there were times that we wanted to be like, ‘just get out of the seat and roam,’ that would be easier. But we didn’t, why? Because there is freedom in being restrained. There’s risk and danger if you don’t obey, right?
There is freedom in God’s sovereignty... He created us...and he established the world...and he knows how it works and what is best.
He’s God and we’re not...
What you believe about God will ultimately determine whether you’ll trust and worship him...or ignore and defy him with your life.
(Continue)
The conversation between Eve and the serpent continues.
“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, the woman replied. It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.” (3:2-3)
“What is wrong with knowing good and evil?”
(Cancer) To know something isn’t to ‘know about’ something... To know is to personally experience... It’s like the difference between a person who has cancer, and the doctors who treat the cancer. A doctor can understand cancer as a disease...know about it, and how to address its symptoms better than a cancer patient. But only a cancer patient truly knows cancer...its effects on the whole person.
To have the knowledge of good and evil is to have the ability to pronounce what is good and what is evil. God created, and pronounced, ‘it is good.’ God is sovereign...he can do that.
Eve pronounces her own good and evil by claiming independence from God. “I don’t need you to tell me what is good and what is evil, God...I can determine that.”
Adam and Eve will ultimately claim independence from God by eating the fruit...
The moment that you or I reject God as the ultimate source of goodness in our lives, we’re turn to some other fruit. When you stop trusting God, and you demote him...you’ll begin to exalt something or someone else...this is sin...
Sin isn’t so much this desire we have for bad things (fundamentalist view of sin). Sin is really an over-desire for good things...
We’ll ask... “Well, what’s so bad about being in love?”
“What’s so bad about success, or making money?”
The answer...of course...is nothing. God created hard work, success, beauty, money, romance, and sex...
It’s not good things that are bad. Rather, it’s when we build our identities...our value...our significance on these things...and we say of them, ‘Once I have that thing...or that person...then I’ll be somebody.’ That’s what the Bible calls idolatry.
You see...when you love something as greater than God Himself, that thing...whatever it is...will crush you.
This is what happens...isn’t it...
Genesis 3:6-9 (The twist...)
Did you catch that? Adam and Eve were finally convinced that the tastiness of the fruit and the wisdom it offered them was worth more than God himself...
And notice...that the result of their claim to independence is not pleasure and fulfillment...but shame and guilt.
(Results of sin...)
Now...we don’t have time today to go into all of the devastating implications of Adam and Eve’s choice to walk outside of the loving, protective sovereignty of God...but let me share just a few.
In the next few moments, you will find that every single one of their relationships is destroyed by sin...
Relationship with God
God comes walking into the garden in the cool of the evening...
In Scripture, to walk with someone is an idiom that implied a close relationship.
Africa – walk and talk with a friend...hold hands (closeness)
God comes into the garden this seeking friendship and relationship, but Adam and Eve run...they hide.
Sin is running from God and that relationship for which we were designed...
“(Adam replied), I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” (3:10)
Adam and Eve’s recognition of their own nakedness implies that they have a sense of guilt and shame...a lack of ease with their self.
If you were to have a healthy marriage with your spouse for ten years...vibrant...whole...joy-filled...but one of you made a decision to compromise your covenant with one another for another person...all of a sudden, that relationship would be broken, and you could no longer look your spouse in the eye... That’s the image here.
Sin won’t allow us to walk alongside of a holy, perfect, infinite God, peacefully.
Not only do they experience a break in their relationship with God...but also with one another...
Look at the text. How do both Adam and Eve respond when God questions them? Adam says... ‘It was the woman you gave me...she gave me the fruit.’ And Eve says, ‘It was the serpent.’
Illustration – When Beth and I argue...oftentimes my gut reaction is to defend...it’s to deflect the blame...to go into self-protection mode at her expense...that’s sin.
When sin enters your heart, it causes you to avoid responsibility for your actions...to justify yourself, even if that means throwing someone else under the bus.
And so...sin leads to the undoing of our relationships...to a competitive spirit among one another...to an unwillingness to accept responsibility...to a tendency to point fingers at others...
Finally...sin leads to a disruption of God’s good creation itself...
In verses 14-19, God shows the serpent, Adam and Eve the consequences for their choices...
Where God called man and woman to be fruitful and multiply...one of the greatest gifts to woman being the ability to give birth...now that process is disrupted, and pain replaces pure pleasure. A reminder of the fracturing of God’s creation....
Where man and woman were created for one another...woman literally being carved from his side...side by side...now, they will experience conflict...a desire to control and rule over one another.
Then to Adam...who was called to work the soil and enjoy the fruits of his labor...he’ll still work...but instead of fruit, he’ll harvest thorns. Every spring will be a reminder that things are not as though they once were.
Finally...verse 19...
“By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
(Genesis 3:19)
(We age, get sick, die...)
“My life is dominated by dirt...at this end of the house there’s dirt, dirt in the house, on the plates, dirt...one end to the other there is dirt. After all these years, after struggling my whole life, what do I get? 6 feet of dirt.”
(Herna Bombeck )
That’s the result of sin...everything turns to dirt...it all unravels...
What is God going to do about it?
You see it here in Genesis three...and you’ll see it through the remainder of Scripture, in fact...this is the theme of the rest of Scripture, God repairing and restoring the brokenness.
Notice that God seeks them out...he doesn’t smash them. He goes to them and asks, ‘Where are you, what have you done?’
God is seeking honesty and repentance...giving them an opportunity to tell the truth.
This is an intervention... God is saying to them, ‘admit it...say it...own it...take responsibility for your sin. God is seeking them in love instead of telling them what they’ve done wrong.
Furthermore, he clothes them...protecting them...
Finally, in the text itself, there are clues that point to what God will do...
“Then the Lord God said to the serpent; Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (3:15)
Many believe that this is the very first announcement of the gospel...the good news of what God will do through Jesus Christ.
(Image – serpent crawling into a family gathering...)
The prophet Isaiah...
Isaiah 53:4-6
Jesus takes the strike of God...absorbing our wrath through his own suffering and death so that we can be brought into the embrace of God.
Jesus becomes naked...to clothe our nakedness...so that we might stand fully clothed before God in the righteousness of Christ.
God loved us even when we were his enemies...and because of Jesus Christ we are able to be called sons and daughters of God.
It’s the beauty of God...shining through the darkest places of the narrative...
(Pray)
