Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

The classic Christmas carol “O Holy Night,” has the memorable line: “A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices."

What was it about the birth of Jesus that creates not just hope, but the excitement around the hope, for a weary world?

This four-week series will look at how, in God, the promises of Christ have come true.

While the word hope is not in the Scriptures of this series, the theme of hope is present.

The Greek word for hope is elpis, which means an “expectation of good.”

Thayer’s Greek Lexicon states that in the Christian sense it is “joyful and confident expectation.”

But today there doesn't seem to be much hope.

The economy in shambles, the homeless problem exploding, opiode addictions skyrocketing, political & cultural divisiveness, crime and violence setting records, unstable & aggressive foreign powers, new viruses and diseases, wars, children being trafficked, our country on the edge, and a world in turmoil, all seem to have our world about to spin off its axis.

We live on a planet of disorder.

This world of ours is an ugly sore of destruction, disease, depravity, and death.

Storms rage and the corpses of children lie in the street.

Butchers like Putin rage, and the death toll is in the tens of millions.

Disease marches across the bodies and minds of young and old alike, leaving an ugly trail of sores, screams and twisted limbs.

Depravity reigns and human bodies are exposed, children are abused, old people are killed for a few dollars and our land is a jungle of fear.

And the question of every one who has walked the halls of a hospital or a jail or a nursing home or an asylum or watched a loved one die in needless agony is—why?

Why is this beautiful world blighted with sorrow and shame and cruelty?

The answer to these questions is so simple that it is often overlooked.

We live in a sad, evil, sick world because we are members of a fallen race.

Then Adam and Eve rebelled against God and took their stand with Satan, they plunged the whole human race into the pollution and the consequences of their sin.

The world has been looking for answers & hope for a long time.

What its been looking for has been promised for a long time.

Bible Passage

Genesis 3:1-24 (ESV - English Standard Version)

Scripture Explanation

This may seem like a strange place from which to preach a Christmas sermon.

Yet, here in the midst of man’s greatest tragedy, is the revelation of man’s greatest hope.

For it is in this tale of sin, judgment, and death that we meet the message of the saving Gospel and the Person of the Lamb of God for the first time.

The Book of Genesis is, in order, the first of the inspired writings.

It informs us that the world had a beginning, and is the product of a wise and powerful agent, and not the effect of blind chance.

The first chapter furnishes us with a most divine and beautiful account of the creation, in the order of six days work.

We learn that the heavens and the earth were made out of nothing.

There was darkness and nothingness, until the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters, and brought it into a beautiful form and order.

The second chapter treats of the happiness of man in his state of innocence.

The Lord God allotted him a habitation in the most fertile and delightful spot of ground in all the globe, called Eden.

The Lord brought before Adam every beast of the field, and fowl of the air, that he might give names unto them, and provided a proper help-meet for him, one that was bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh; which two being joined together by the Lord himself, spent their happy hours in the homemade by Creator.

But then, The third chapter introduces a strange and sudden catastrophe of things, and opens a dark scene of wickedness and ruin.

V 1-8

Things had been going perfectly, literally.

Then the Evil One shows up & says, “Yea, has God said, You should not eat of every tree of the garden?”

Sin had its beginning with a question mark, the questioning of God’s word.

The woman repeated the word of the Lord: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither should you touch it, lest you die.”

Then followed the first lie.

“And the serpent said unto the woman, You surely will not die.”

Eve finds herself confronted by a serpent controlled by Satan.

This serpent tells her that God is holding out on her and Adam.

He tells Eve that God does not want them eating of the fruit because God knows that when they eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they will be like him.

Eve succumbs to the temptation of the devil and eats of the fruit.

Adam also falls for the lie and eats as well.

In an instant, everything changes!

This is the Original sin.

It is the fall of humanity.

This is where human beings become slaves to sin.

They recognize their sin & hid in fear of the Lord.

V 9-14

Someone has said that the saddest sentence God ever uttered is this, “Adam, where are you?”

One of Adam's first experiences after his sin is Fear.

Fear is the distressing emotion that arises when a perceived danger or threat is present.

What danger or threat is he perceiving?

Sin warps the mind.

They are no longer innocent and pure, but they have become sinners; they have become fallen beings.

Immediately, they are aware that everything has changed.

They become ashamed because of their naked condition and seek to cover themselves with fig leaves.

In the midst of this tragedy, God comes into the Garden to fellowship with Adam and Eve.

He calls out to them because they have hidden themselves from them.

It’s the epitome of foolishness to hide from God’s presence in the midst of the trees in God’s own garden.

Adam, who was to be the keeper of the garden, to protect the garden, now thinks he needs protection from the Creator by hiding in the garden.

He hides among the trees of the garden.

Trees given for his joy now hide his sadness.

Then the blame game begins.

Adam blames Eve and God, while Eve blames the serpent.

God immediately pronounces judgment upon the serpent.

V 15

But right in the middle of this tragedy, there is a flicker of hope.

Verse 15 shines out of this darkness like a great beacon, illuminating the amazing grace of God.

This verse has been called the “Protevangelium.”

That is a Latin word that means “First Gospel.”

Here, in seed form, is the Gospel of salvation through the grace of God.

Here, for the first time, we see a glimpse of the Lamb of God Who will later give Himself on Calvary’s cross to redeem a lost and dying world.

This is the earliest promise of the coming Messiah, His suffering, and His ultimate triumph over the Evil One.

This precious verse gives us the very first promise in the Word of God regarding the coming Lamb.

V 16-24

The fall brought upon humanity an inability not to sin and a corruption of all human actions and capacities along with alienation from God, suffering in this life, death itself, and the pain of hell forever.

The fall had devastating effects upon humanity, enslaving our wills to sin, tainting every action, disordering our capacities, and subjecting us to ignorance as well as to suffering, death, and the threat and fear of eternal judgment.

To the woman God said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.

Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

And to Adam he said, “Because you sinned, the ground is cursed because of you."

Notice it was the ground not Adam cursed.

The fall resulted in a curse upon creation, that it would not be subservient to human needs and demands, and that it would be subject to disaster and destruction, groaning for its own redemption.

Along with the disordering of humanity, the fall also resulted in the frustration of the created order itself and its falling into disorder.

Strikingly, the first curse upon man after his fall is not a curse upon him but upon “the ground,” the natural world itself.

The natural world was made for man, but because of man’s sin, the creation itself became a disordered and self-destructive realm, resistant to human demands, and a source of danger to human beings.

Scripture makes clear that the disorder resident in creation is a result of man’s fall.

The creation narrative and the description of the garden of Eden show an environment for man in which everything is subservient to him and lends itself to his sustenance and use.

All of it is good, and he may eat of almost every tree of the garden.

The animals are subject to his naming and ruling.

And now it is cursed because of him & has turned against him.

They saw first hand just how much their sin really cost.

They finally understood that the wages of sin is death.

All the world was broken because of their sin.