Garden of Eden

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

The Bible, reading the Bible, I wanna submit to you this morning, reading the Bible is a lot like time travel. Reading the Bible is a lot like time travel, which I know is a weird way to say it, but it might be helpful. I know that none of you have traveled through time exactly, except slowly, like me, like the rest of us. But when you're watching a movie and you're talking about time travel, you have to know where you are, but you also have to know when you are. So if you are in America in the 1700s versus being in America in the 1200s, those are two different places. Same America, might even be the same Burleson, but it's two totally different places because of the when. We call this context. Context is what helps you know when and where you are, and when you're reading scripture, it's really important to have context. We know about context just from everyday life.

If you show up for a pool party, student ministry, you're having a pool party Wednesday, shout out. If you show up to that pool party in a tuxedo, you might look nice, but you're in the wrong context. That's not where you're, and if you show up to an awards banquet in a swimsuit, then you also, maybe you missed the memo. You're not matching up, okay? And so if you're reading, for example, if you're reading about Abraham, just to show you what I mean, and you insist as you read Abraham in the beginning of Genesis 12 or so, and you insist on Abraham having all of these modern sensibilities, right? Him being able to just kind of exist in our context. Then you're gonna read about the fact that he had a wife and like a concubine-ish, and he had a child by the concubine, whenever his wife couldn't give him a child. When you read that, you're gonna be like, whoa.

Why is Abraham doing that? And you're really gonna get tripped up on that because you're expecting Abraham to behave like a 21st century Western person, man, right? And what you're doing is you're throwing your modern context on an ancient, Near Eastern Mesopotamian culture about 6,000 years ago, okay? That's what you're doing. You're forgetting when you are, right? That's a pretty drastic example, but it's to show you that sometimes

things that are happening in a culture aren't gonna, they're gonna grind your gears if you're always expecting it to be in a modern context, right? So today, what we're going to do, we are gonna time travel, and we're gonna do this all summer with what we're calling the Bible World Tour, okay? There's many locations in the Bible, but we don't just have to know where, we also have to know when. If we go to Egypt now and expect it to be the same Egypt in scripture, we're gonna be confused, okay? We're gonna show up to a pool party in a tuxedo, okay, and let's not do that. Let's read the Bible for when it is and for where it is. In the first place that we're going to do that, as we gain context for these, the first location we're gonna hit is Eden, the Garden of Eden this morning. We're gonna be in Genesis two and three. If you have your Bibles, literally just open them.

And we're like in the very second and third chapter of the entire Bible. We're also gonna have the verses up here on the screen, and so it's gonna be easy to follow along. Famously, Eden is where Adam and Eve literally lost paradise. And so as we read in Genesis two and three, we're gonna find out how. Like I said, it's a very familiar story, but there's a lot more there. And so let's grab the context, let's look at it, let's kind of understand what's happening there and then what in the world does that have to do with us? What does this ancient Near Eastern context have to do with us in modern times, living in Burleson, just living life out here? We're gonna start in Genesis chapter two, verses eight and nine is where we're gonna pick it up.

It says, and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground the Lord God had made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So God is planting a garden in the middle of Eden. Now we think of a garden and we think of like this, whatever, eight by two thing in the backyard. It's not exactly what's going on here. The garden was probably pretty expansive. You might even need to think about rolling hills. So we think about maybe a farm being a couple of acres. This might have even been bigger than that. We don't really know, but it was enough to keep two perfect people busy for a really long time. Okay, so we're not talking like your backyard in Burleson with your garden.

So just understand it's a lot to kind of keep up. And then in skip down to verse 15, Genesis 2:15, it says the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Okay, so we see Adam's purpose right here. We see Adam, he's gonna oversee Eden's growth. He's going to create culture here, right? He's going to gonna farm it, gonna improve upon it, gonna build things, he's gonna just expand on it. Okay, that's part of what Adam was put in the garden to do.

Skip a couple more verses in verse 18. It says then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Okay, and this, we haven't done this, but if you've been reading from Genesis 1:1 up to this point, there has been a string of goods. God did this and it was good. God made this and it was good. And this right here in 18, we see it was not good. Okay, it's not good, and that's a big deal. And so this is Adam's lack of community. He can't be alone. Okay, we worship a God who is three and one, who is community, right? He's in community with himself. And so whenever he sees Adam and Adam is alone, he says it's not good. And so he creates E for Adam. And here's Adam's response in verse 23, which I think is really funny. Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman

because she has been taken or was taken out of man. In the Hebrew, that is the word for man is ish. And the word for woman is isha, ish and isha. So you have isha taken from the ish, right? So you kind of see, it almost works the same in English with man and woe man, almost the same. It's not quite the same, but that word plays there. And that's what's going on. So just get the picture, right? Let it be broadly painted for you. This is paradise. This is everything. This is meaningful work. This is beautiful, beautiful landscape nature. This is complete authority given to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, to work this ground, to do, this is paradise. This is everything that you could want. This is community. This is husband and wife together. This is them doing what they're created to do, which is what we call worship, right? So they're worshiping as they're working.

They are together in community. They have this unfiltered relationship with the Lord and everything is as it should be and it is paradise. When we think about paradise, we are thinking about Eden. That's exactly where it is. Something interesting pops up in verse 24 and it just kind of follows the narrative so you kind of miss it if you're not looking for it. Verse 224, it says, therefore, and the therefore, anytime you have a therefore, you gotta see what it's, therefore, okay, good. You'll get that next time, you didn't get it that time. You always gotta see what the therefore is therefore. So if you're saying therefore, it's alluding to something that's already happened. This, therefore, is alluding to the fact that Adam and Eve have become husband and wife, right? It says, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

So you might have seen this already but this verse really kind of hits a nail on the head. It proves what we're talking about that the actions of what we see in Genesis 1 and 2 are not just plot points in some made up story. The action and sequence of what we see in Genesis 1 and 2, it's not just some true myth, okay? It's not something that just is supposed to inspire us. It's actually more than all that. It displays what the Bible calls and what we call created order. It displays the created order. In other words, in Eden, we don't just see paradise happen. In Eden, we see the imprint or the pattern for human flourishing, right? And so it's not just Adam and Eve that are in Eden. It's all of us, right?

And so as Adam and Eve are blessed, as they experience good things, that's us too, right? And as Adam receives Eve, so we receive our spouses, right? And we become one flesh. By the way, the idea of becoming one flesh is back to how they were kind of created because woman was taken from man and so when they come back together, it is kind of this, we're recreating Eden.

Does that make sense? This is, when we talk about paradise, we're talking about this. The same way that Adam and Eve are receiving everything, there's one more thing that they receive. They receive limits, verses 16 and 17. I skipped over it before. Genesis 2, 16 and 17. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden. Now remember, at this point, this is rolling hills. This isn't like five trees they can eat from and two they can't. This is every other tree in the garden.

17, but of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil, excuse me, of the tree, sorry, I was saying two, I meant one, sorry, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. All right, as descendants of Adam and Eve, we need to understand that we are made for paradise. You and I, we are made for paradise. It's why we like vacations, okay? It's why we enjoy beauty. And it's not just for vacations, right, but that we long for truly, we long for more than a vacation, don't we? We long for more than retirement, don't we? We long for a place to flourish and a place to find fulfillment, to know, to be able to lay our head on our pillows at night and know I'm doing everything I should do. I'm at peace with my creator. I'm doing everything that I'm being asked of and I enjoy it to the full, I'm overflowing with joy.

All of that is what we find in Eden. And so with what happens next, we find ourselves there too. Look at chapter three, verse one. It says, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He, the serpent, said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? So temptation is coming. Look at the question. It says, did God actually say? And that implies maybe you misheard. That implies maybe you should doubt.

Did God really say that? Is that what he meant when he said it? You see the full intentions in verses four and five. So skip down to four and five. It says, but the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So here's the lie. Look at it. Right here, God is holding out on you. God's got good things he doesn't wanna share with you. He wants them for himself.

God is playing you for a fool and you're buying it. You cannot trust him for everything that you need. God does not really love you. He doesn't really wanna sacrifice for you. So you gotta take care of things yourself. I know that's more than what's up there. I get that, but it's all in there. And we've all, all bought that lie several times a day for our entire lives with little things and big things. We do it all the time. We take things into our own hands.

God doesn't really love you. You need to take care of yourself. And we learned that lesson over and over again as people that we trust fail us. People that are supposed to be over us. People are supposed to take care of us. When they fail us, that's the lesson that we learn. This is the lie. Look at the next verse. Genesis 3:6 it says, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. My first question as I read those verses is, hang on, where's Adam? Was he there the whole time? Was he not saying anything? Why don't we just hear about him? And also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate. Adam's just hanging out while a serpent is talking to his wife.

And so, so we see that sin takes on two forms here. We see this, there's this grasping for control, right? They're believing the lie. They are mistrusting God. But we also see in Adam an abdication of leadership. He's supposed to be kind of, like one flesh with his wife. He's supposed to be kind of there. They're supposed to protect each other. They're supposed to have each other's back. He doesn't. He doesn't say anything. He lets the whole thing unfold. And he just sits back and watches it happen. He's supposed to be leading.

And he's not. So what happens, verse seven, Genesis 3:7 says, then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. This is really interesting. There's a lot here, but all sin, all sin in any form is going to result in fear, guilt, and shame. You have all three here? Fear, guilt, and shame. It is the great reversal of what you see at the end of chapter two. 225 says that Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed. It says they were naked and not ashamed. And here they are naked and afraid. Okay. It's a great reversal.

What's interesting is that their eyes were indeed opened. Because it says, it says right there at the beginning of seven, then the eyes of both were opened. Meaning that they were blinded to something before. In other words, they didn't know good and evil before that and they do now, but they can't handle it. Because they're not God. And this is the big lie, right? The big lie is not that sin won't be fun in the moment. The big lie is that it will be worth it in the end. When the serpent told Eve, hey, you're gonna be like God, you're going to know good and evil.

Satan was actually telling, the serpent was actually telling Eve the truth. When she ate of the fruit, her eyes were going to be open. She was going to be like God. She was going to know good and evil. All that was true. Satan didn't have to sugar coat any of that. That's all true. But he withheld the worst part, is that that knowledge will kill you. That knowledge will ruin everything. And he tried to obscure that with doubt. He tried to obscure that by saying, did God really say you wouldn't die? Did he mean that? And what, just with a few questions, what the enemy was able to do with Eve and Adam,

was to say, hey, the consequences of what you're gonna do are being overblown, because somebody's hiding something, somebody's holding out on you. So go ahead and take it, because it's yours and you should have it. Who cares about the consequences? You deserve it. Go take it. And she did. And then he did. This is a history that we repeat. This is a history that you and I repeat all the time. We are given a litany of good things, of good gifts.

And I don't mean 40 foot yachts and houses on a hill. I mean just life, families, community, a church. We're given so many good gifts. Friends that we appreciate. Work that we sometimes don't hate. Like we're given a lot of really good things. And we believe, we believe that we can do those things better than whatever God's plan is for those things. And we know the truth, and we know what God wants from us, we know how he wants us to live, but then it's really easy for us to say, well, did God really mean that? Did he really? Is that how it's supposed to be? Is it true? Is it just antiquated? Is it just people in the ancient Near Eastern culture, you know, just being in their culture? Can I just dismiss this part of the Bible if I don't like it? And what we do, however we do it, we put ourselves on the throne.

We say, I know better. We say, another part of the Old Testament in Judges that talks about people did what was right in their own eyes, right? That's us. We repeat that. We do what's right in our own mind. We put ourselves on the throne. We judge what's right and wrong. We know what's good for us. We've been around the block before. We've seen this rodeo. We know how it ends, and we're gonna play the game. And we're gonna do it our way, and we're not gonna apologize to anybody. And however we cover that up, sometimes we cover that with some kind of justification like, well, you know what I've been taking advantage of before, and it's not gonna happen right now. I'm gonna do things exactly like I wanna do them, and nobody's gonna tell me different. Only God can judge me. The entirety of human history bears this out. It's not just you. It's not just me. It's not just kids today, right?

It's not, sorry. I know it feels like kids today sometimes. It's not. It's been happening when you were a kid. Had it long before you and I got here. This is the entirety of human history. First Corinthians 15 says, in Adam, we all die. Romans 5, 12 says, said, said, came in the world through Adam, and death reigned. Death reigned. I recently have come back from England, like I talked about before. And we came upon a really interesting problem there in England, okay? And it centered around how we were gonna share the gospel with kids, right? How are we gonna share the gospel with kids? So in England, a team of teenagers and some adults who are helping those teenagers, we went into public schools, and in England, the church and the state are together, so they have religious education in public schools, okay? So it's different than us. It's fine. Anyway, we can share the gospel in schools,

and nobody's flipping out like they do in America. Okay, so we're sharing the gospel in schools. Well, part of the touchy part about that is, okay, so how do you share the gospel with kids, which is particular, right? You're gonna try to share the gospel with kids in a way that kids can understand, but also, how are we gonna share the gospel in British culture? So how do we navigate both of those, and share the gospel in a way that's honoring to the church that we're representing, and then how they wanna share the gospel, how they're gonna follow up with the kids, et cetera. So there's a lot to kinda navigate. But here's what we got. Here's what we were told early, and this is not heavy criticism. It's just to say it was kind of an oversight. But essentially, what we were told early was, okay, don't say hell, don't say sin, don't say punishment.

Don't say hell, don't say sin, don't say punishment. You're like, okay. And I get that, man. I get that they wanna show particular care for the children. I understand that. I understand kinda where they're coming from. However, it really left us in a lurch, because all we had were don'ts. All we had was a way to not talk about the problem. And again, it sounds like I'm being really critical. I'm not, I'm just pointing it out to show you something. Because it left us asking the question, and actually, our host did answer this question for us. How do we frame the problem of sin?

How do we frame the thing that we all feel, the thing that we all do, the thing that if you're gonna talk to it about kids, like the thing that makes you sad, that makes other people sad, the things that you get in trouble for, the bad things that you do. Like, how are we framing that problem for kids in this culture in a way that makes sense to them? Because it's crucial. It's actually very crucial how you frame the problem, because however you frame the problem, it's going to inform the solution. Problems inform solutions. Problems inform solutions. And so in England, if you present the problem as, well, you've done some bad things, or you're not living up to your potential, or you need a little bit of help on your spiritual journey to live your best life, then the solution, listen, the solution is going to be, hey, just read this book. There's this spiritual program that you can follow.

Hey, here's some ways to exert more willpower over your life. Hey, here's a better perspective. Here's how to see and cope with these things. Look, and all those things are fine and can be helpful, but they are not the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're not. It's not the same. It's not the same. In fact, if all your problem is, if all your problem is is that you have a stubbed toe, you don't need to go to the ER. You definitely aren't in danger of going to the morgue. Okay? That'd have to be a pretty bad stubbed toe. Like with bubonic plague in it or something. I mean, it'd be crazy, subbed toe. But just, if it's just a subbed toe, you're not going to the ER. The problem informs the solution, you see. And so what's your problem? What's my problem? Because my problem's not so bad that I don't need the gospel. And my problem's that I'm doing okay, but that Jesus just helps me a little bit,

or Jesus helps me live a little bit better, then I don't need the gospel. The gospel's overkill. That's too much. You're overthinking it. You don't need all that. But what if it were worse? What if the problem were much worse than a stubbed toe? Here's what Eden helps us understand. Eden helps us see that our problem is systemic. Our problem is in our DNA. You and I could not get out of the problem of sin ever.

No matter how hard we tried, no matter how much we subject ourselves to whatever behavior modification, no matter how we cope, no matter what medicine we take, no matter, you and I are going to be subject to sin for the rest of our lives. You can even see it in the verses that follow. We won't read them, but they're there. Verses eight through 13 is just a series of blame. God is looking around saying, what happened? He's calling them all out. God knows exactly what happened, by the way. It's a question to see what, okay. So he's saying, what happened? Wanting an answer, what does Adam do?

Eve's fault. What does Eve do? Serpent's fault. Why are we surprised by that? It's blame. It's sin. It's more sin, right? It all makes sense now. All that's in, nobody's taking responsibility. Nobody's saying, you know what? You know what, God, it's my fault. I did this, it's my fault. Why doesn't that happen? It's because Adam and Eve in that moment are incapable. Incapable, hear me? Incapable, they are unable. They lack the ability and the power to take responsibility for that. Why? Because they are dead in sin. We don't look at Adam and Eve and go, look, maybe you should just have more moral character. Maybe you should stand up and take responsibility for it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This isn't about willpower. This isn't about, they are dead inside and they are unable and do not have the power to actually take responsibility for that. It's not an excuse. It's not, because they still sinned, right?

But it is the very real results. I counsel people all the time that are headlong into sin. And if my counsel to them is, look, just try a little harder. You can work yourself out of the pit. That doesn't do them any good at all. Because that assumes that they're doing just fine. They just need a little help. And that's not what the gospel gives us. What Adam and Eve unleashed on humanity, it destroys everybody from the inside out and we can only just watch it happen. It is a fate so cruel, so punishing, that creation itself groans against it. It is worse than any kind of slow death scene you've seen in any movie. It's worse, it's worse than that. It's worse than any myth you can cook up as torture. Okay, this isn't just Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill only to have it fall down again. Look, we're all there. We're all rolling boulders up hills. And if you think any different, you're delusional.

You and I, outside of Jesus Christ, are in torture. It doesn't always feel like it. Sometimes we can distract ourselves from it. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But Vegas always haunts. Never goes away. We're still rolling it uphill. This is the devastating news. This devastating news helps you and I grasp the gospel of Jesus Christ in a significant way. It helps us understand that Jesus takes selfish, rebellious enemies that are bound for hell and torture and futility and makes us into his children and gives us a life that we could never reach on our own, ever, gives us things that we don't deserve. Colossians 1:21 says that we are alienated from God, that we are hostile in mind, that we are doing evil deeds the same way that Adam and Eve were just pointing at other people and not taking responsibility. They were unable. They didn't have the ability. That was us, Colossians 1:21 tells us.

We were doing evil deeds. We couldn't do anything else. If somebody's lost, if somebody does not know the Lord Jesus Christ and doesn't have the power, the resurrection power in them, why are we expecting them to behave? Why are we expecting them to act like Christians somehow? We should not. We shouldn't. Their behavior should move us toward love, not scorn. June is a very big month for the gay community. Very big month. It's also a big month for us. It's gonna be a month of scorn.

You're gonna see people, boy, you're gonna see people spit on things. You're gonna hear diatribes. You're gonna hear rants. You're gonna hear all that. You are in spades. One side or the other, actually. People defending or people condemning or whatever. You're gonna hear it. What does the gospel say about that? The gospel says that a person's worst problem is sin. The thing that will cure everybody every time is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not any social program, not, you know, if kids these days would just listen, not any of that. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at that, I get it, right? If somebody is battling an alcohol addiction, it's not just, well, just believe the gospel. That's not what I'm saying, right? There's ways to apply the gospel specifically. Counseling, walking with people, right? I'm not saying we just abandon people and just be like, gospel, bye.

That's not, so please don't hear that. But it is patient, loving, responding in the gospel. It is loving people exactly where they are, just like God loved us. Just like he loves us. Not just past tense, but present tense. So cute, what are you gonna do, man? Adorable, yes, sir. Okay. Sometimes, man, just the cuteness just overwhelms. Okay. Let's talk about sin and death, okay.

We gotta collect ourselves. We got work to do. Titus 116, right? Titus 116 is describing people, and I think it could describe people in Burleson, in particular, it just says they profess to know God, but they deny him with their deeds, right? There's plenty of people like that, man. And look, don't be so used to just hurling insults at the church or at hypocrites. Look, you don't really hear me talking a lot about churches that I have, or they're not really churches.

Spiritual things that people are doing that I have a low opinion of, okay. I don't really feel like that's a great use of my time to be preaching about that, but also, I need to be very clear with you. I am concerned about everybody in Burleson understanding, seeing the gospel of Jesus Christ demonstrated in love and faithfulness, and also in a prophetic word, right? We should not be afraid to tell people that we're all sinners. We are, indeed, we are sinners. No sin is worse than another sin. Some sins are harder on societies than others, right? I get it, but all sin is reprehensible to the Lord God in heaven. Your gluttony and somebody's homosexual sex are the same. Your calloused indifference and their, I don't know,

misogyny, it's the same. What does the gospel do, then? The gospel rescues us from that. The gospel gives us a hope and a future, and the gospel says to us, you can't earn this. You need rescue. And let me tell you, friends, nobody hears about that rescue. We've all been rescued. I've been rescued. I was a terrible sinner living a double life trying to lie my way out of everything, and the Lord God called me and said, look, stop, it's stupid. Your whole life's gonna crumble. Follow me, I'll make you a truth teller. That's my story. And you know what, He's still working on me. He's still working on you. For some of you, that journey is just really early. There's some things that you have to set right. There's some things that you need to declare. There's some things that you need help taking steps on. You cannot do that on your own. Let me just encourage you, you cannot do that on your own.

You need help doing that, and you need a safe place where you know people aren't gonna try to take advantage of you. I know that I'm talking with my mouth full here, but this is a safe place. These people love the Lord. If I was preaching something different than the gospel, most of the people in here would kick me out of my behind. I mean, they'd love me, but maybe you can't do that here.

We preach the truth. And we need help believing it, all of us do. What I wanna do instead of singing at the end, what I wanna do is just pray. And as I pray, I'm just gonna move back there, and it's fine, I'm gonna sound the same, but I'm just gonna be back there. After I say amen, we're gonna be dismissed. I'm gonna ask you guys to stand as we pray in a minute. But as we do that, man, I just want you to, I want you to know that if you need to help, you need help taking that step, that's why I'm gonna be back there where those couches and chairs are. That's why we're there, that's why we give a time to respond, because we can't do this on our own. Our situation is not that we're doing okay spiritually, and then Jesus just helps us a little bit. Our situation is that we were spiritually dead and in the ground, and we needed to be resurrected back to life. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's what we believe. Let's stand and let's pray together. Lord, you know all things, you know hearts, you know our, you know the ways that we lie to ourselves, you know the ways that we lie to other people, you know the ways that we get confused, the ways that we don't wanna do what you ask us to do, the way that we rebel. Lord, you find us in that, and you aren't gasping in disbelief or anything like that, you're not surprised, you're not, you just, like a father teaching a child how to walk, you just pick us up, and you just help us to take another step. Lord, pick us up.

Help us to see you and walk in, walk in obedience to you, to walk toward you. Give us the power, the strength, the ability, the desire to do that. And it's your name that we pray, amen. You guys are dismissed.