Proclaim the Prophecy

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be?

What is a funny mistake that you have made recently?

Introduction

A funny mistake that I made recently made me really disappointed in myself. Anybody that knows me knows that I love cinnamon rolls. I eat them for breakfast any chance that I have. I love cinnamon rolls so much, it inspired me to be an artist. Not really, but for a family birthday, we went to Upaint Pottery. If you don't know what that is, it's a pottery place where there is premade pottery, and you select what you would like to paint, and you spend like an hour or so painting this piece of pottery. If you have heard any of the conversations I have had with Alyssa recently, you'll know that I prioritize functionality over aesthetics. So I'm not going to pay this absurd amount of money to paint something that I'll occasionally glance at, I want something that has function and is something that I can use. So I used my love of cinnamon rolls as motivation because I eat a whole can of them, and they barely fit on any of the plates we have at our house. So I decided that I was going to paint a plate, but I wanted this to be my cinnamon roll plate. So I painted six circles on the plate so that the plate would have a distinct spot for each cinnamon roll to go. Here is the finished product and I was really happy with it. Until I got home and was excited to put a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls on it. I preheat the oven, I put my cinnamon rolls on the pan, I make them. I pull them out. Then I grab my handy spatula and one by one with the biggest of smiles on my face pull out a cinnamon roll and put it on the plate. Then that smile quickly turned into a confused look, then immediately turned into horror, as I looked at the plate and saw that all of my circles were filled up, and there were still two cinnamon rolls sitting in the pan just looking at me, completely confused. There are eight cinnamon rolls in a can, and I only made six circles. I fell to my knees and began weeping aloud. Just kidding. It was funny that I had eaten these cinnamon rolls my whole life and when I was going to make a plate specifically for them, I forgot how many there were in a can. It's like a mother forgetting how many children she has.

Transition

It's a simple mistake, but that wasn't exactly sinful, or maybe it was depending on how you look at it. So we are going to take a look at where all of sin originates from today, the fall, Genesis 3.

Scripture

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 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. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Interpretation

This moment changes the course of everything that will happen. From this passage, I want to note how Satan tempts because this lays out a pattern we see repeated throughout scripture. Satan twists God's words; he tries to get us to doubt or have a lack of trust and dependence upon God. That's realistically what all sin is, a lack of trust in God. It is when you want to be like God and rule over your own life. When God commands us to do something or commands not to do something clearly and plainly in scripture and we oppose that command, that's sin. We do it because this works. God is good and will only command us to do things that are good. Satan tries to get us to question the benevolence of the command. God says in Genesis 2:

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 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.”

What does Satan say? Did God really say you can't eat from any tree? He tries to make it sound like the command was way more restricting and free than it ever was. God starts off by telling them how much freedom they have, and the one tree they can't eat, they can't eat because it will kill them, which is a reasonable and loving command. Satan gets you to relook and reexamine the command and question it, and that's when he hoks you into that temptation because when you spend more and more time looking at how visually appealing that sin is, you no longer think of what will happen if you fall into that sin.

Did God really say that you can't love anybody at all? No, but homosexuality and fornication, and lust are sinful. It's not that sinful; it doesn't hurt anybody; it only brings pleasure. Then you question it, and when you start to look into it instead of fleeing from it, you give in.

Did God really say you can't have any emotions at all? No, but we need to be slow to anger and quick to forgive. But this person deserves for you to be angry at them. In fact, they deserve to be hated by you for what they did. Then you start thinking about everything they have done and instead of forgiveness being your reaction hatred seeps and that is incredibly destructive.

Then after you sin, you feel naked. You feel ashamed. You feel unworthy. This sin separates us from each other. That is why they sewed fig leaves together. To hide themselves from each other.

Transition

However, Sin separates us from God as well, which is why they hide themselves when they hear God coming.

Scripture

Genesis 3:8–13 ESV

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Interpretation

God's response to Adam is who told you that you were naked? He lived in perfect intimacy with His wife Eve; he knew only the good that came from marriage. It is when he experiences evil through his and his wife's sin that he feels ashamed. Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree? Then Adam Blames two parties. He says "it was that woman that YOU gave me." Eve, is this true?" The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

I want to ensure we know why it is called the Fall. God establishes an order, God is in authority over everything, man is in authority over the woman and creation, the woman has authority over creation, and creation is to be in authority over no one. But we see a flip in what happens. The serpent deceives the woman, the woman gives the fruit to man, and the man blames God for all of this. The fall happens because the authority that God made the earth to function it was flipped on its head. God's authority was called into question, and now humans are not to dwell with God because of their sins.

Transition

However, the story does not end there. The punishment for sin is death, the punishment for eating of that tree was going to be physical death and spiritual death, so the fact that they didn't die instantly is a means of grace, and what follows next sets in motion all of redemption history.

Scripture

Genesis 3:14–15 ESV

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Conclusion

This is the first ever prophecy, and what a prophecy it is. Telling of the sacrificial death of Jesus, this is a crushing blow to Satan but not a blow that will do no damage. We know that Jesus died on the cross and rose again three days later. He drank all the punishment for sin, all of the stink of death, and all of the wrath of God. This is the greatest accomplishment in the history of the universe. It is all foretold in the first book of scripture. From beginning to end, we will see that the Bible is one story written by many different human authors but only one divine author. It is hard to imagine that between all of these books is hundreds of years because we are holding it all in one book. The more you realize how much time difference there is, the more extraordinary it becomes.

Take Away

That's awesome but what do I want us to take away from this chapter? Well in this chapter the idea of original sin is introduced. From Adam we are born with a sin nature until the Second Adam returns again to claim all who are His. That's Jesus. We see how Satan tempts; we see how damaging sin is; we see how it separates us from others and from God. But what do I want our takeaway to be today?

Proclaim the Prophecy

If you are being tempted or struggling with sin, Jesus has crushed it. You are no longer a slave to sin but a slave to Christ who purchased us at the highest price imaginable. You proclaim that prophecy that has been fulfilled. The sin you are struggling with right now has been crushed and atoned for. It has no power over you. The separation you are feeling from that loved one or friend has been crushed, and whatever sin caused it is nothing compared to the sanctifying work within you. Whatever awful thing you did in the past that has been holding on to you for so many years has been atoned for and is separated from you as far as the East is from the West. Christ has accomplished all of this. The war has been won, and we are the messengers that proclaim that truth to everyone we come in contact with.