Advent: The Story Unravels

Last Week:

Advent series

We often jump into the middle of the story during Christmastime

This year we are taking a step back to see the whole story of God from the beginning

Last week opened up to the first couple of pages of the Bible to see how it started

God is a good king

What is the original intent for humanity?

Covenant Partnership with God

Like any good story, there is a conflict that needs resolution

Today we are going to see what went wrong:

Scripture Reading:

Genesis 2:9 (CSB)

The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:15–17 (CSB)

The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:25 (CSB)

Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

Genesis 3:1–7 (CSB)

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”

“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:8–11 (CSB)

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And he said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

Genesis 3:11–13 (CSB)

Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”

So the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”

And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:14–19 (CSB)

So the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,

you are cursed more than any livestock

and more than any wild animal.

You will move on your belly

and eat dust all the days of your life.

I will put hostility between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring.

He will strike your head,

and you will strike his heel.

He said to the woman:

I will intensify your labor pains;

you will bear children with painful effort.

Your desire will be for your husband,

yet he will rule over you.

And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

The ground is cursed because of you.

You will eat from it by means of painful labor

all the days of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow

until you return to the ground,

since you were taken from it.

For you are dust,

and you will return to dust.”

Genesis 3:20–24 (CSB)

The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.

The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

Pray

Introduction:

I know this is a story a lot of us are familiar with, and because of that we can tend to write this story off

We know that the world is is messed up place

This is where all of that began

I think just like the creation story we can ask so many questions that the story doesn’t address and miss the main point

What are some questions you might have?

Who is the serpent? Where did he come from?

How can the serpent speak?

Why did God curse the serpent to move on his belly all the days of his life if that's what snakes already do?

How long were Adam and Eve in the garden?

What would’ve happened if the didn’t eat from the tree?

And I have a lot of these same questions!

But the point of this story is not to answer these questions

The point is to show us what went wrong

Genesis 1-2 open up with God creating a world that is very good

We live in a world today that is broken

What happened?

So today we are going to look at:

The Fall

The Curse

The Glimmer of Hope

The Fall

At the core of the fall is the fruit of a tree

What is the tree?

The Bible doesn’t answer many questions we might have about it

This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

What went wrong here was that humans began to define good and evil on their own

God is the one righteous powerful king over creation and we see here that humanity begins to reject the rule and reign of God

God said this is bad, don’t do this.

Humanity said, “it’s not that bad...”

Adam and Eve defined good and evil not by what God had to say, but in their own terms

Genesis 3:6 (CSB)

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

You see, last week we were introduced to the story of God

In an overflow of love he created humanity to partner with him

Then humanity came and decided to make the story about ourselves

“I don’t want to be a part of God’s story, I want my own story”

I want to be like God

I want to define good and evil on my own terms

This is what happened with the first humans

And the same thing has been happening for thousands of years

And the same is true for you and me

We all try and play the role of God

We get to define what is right and wrong

Things God says are sinful we can justify

We make the story of the universe about us

Have you ever heard the saying:

“The world doesn’t revolve around you!”

This is why at the core of sin is pride and selfishness

Orbit - We are meant to revolve around God

What would happen if each planet refused to orbit the sun?

Crash!

We want to be the final judge but

We make terrible judgments

We don’t know everything

We don’t know the whole story

Us being at the center of the story is always at the detriment of others

We excuse our sin

We objectify others

We think that what we do is always right

And we are all competing

Each person is building their own kingdom

Each person is the center of their own story

And it clashes with every other person

Which leads to sin, disappointment, and brokenness

This is the result of the fall

The Story of God has now become the story of Adam and the story of Eve

The Story of Me

This is an apologetic on the truth of the Christian worldview

The Curse

Curse

What does it mean to curse?

To bless someone is to put that person under God’s protection, enjoying God’s favor.

To curse is to remove from God’s protection and favor.

God had his protection and favor over all of creation

Humanity was given REAL authority

It wasn’t just a gesture

Because Humanity was given REAL authority, a rebellion against God affects all of creation

God is not casting a spell (curse) on the ground

He is declaring the reality of the removal of his protection and favor

Genesis 3:14 (CSB)

So the Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,

you are cursed more than any livestock

Genesis 3:17 (CSB)

And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:

The ground is cursed because of you.

Because humanity had abused the freedom given to them, God’s blessing and protection is removed from the Earth

Humanity wants to run the show

Adam and Eve wanted to define good and evil

He cannot sit by and bless evil (even if we think that it is good)

Blessing dessert to your body

This is the result

On the Earth:

The fall didn’t just effect humanity and our sinful psychology

It effects the Earth we live on

Look around:

Disease

Strife between animals

Genetic mutations

We aren’t just fallen people

We are living on a fallen earth

Paul writes this in Romans 9:

Romans 8:19–23 (CSB)

For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the first-fruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Not only is the Earth affected, but there is a curse on the serpent

He promises his downfall

This is the primary antagonist of the Bible

Revelation 12:9 (CSB)

So the great dragon was thrown out—the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world.

This serpent will be defeated

He will not have the final word

But notice there is only a curse on the serpent and on the ground

Not on humanity

The Glimmer of Hope

God doesn’t leave humanity in the dust

He doesn’t say ‘oops well I have to wipe them out and start all over’

He created Adam and Eve in love

He is committed to loving them

He will not stop until they are saved from their own mistakes

So God says to the snake:

Genesis 3:15 (CSB)

I will put hostility between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring.

He will strike your head,

and you will strike his heel.

And this is the main story of the whole Bible

The seed of the snake vs the seed of the woman

Do you ever wonder why there are so many genealogies in the Bible?

Why the gospels start with genealogies?

Well talk about this more next week but the Bible moves from generation to generation showing God’s faithful love

Conclusion

Again it can be easy to read this like a history book just acknowledging that these events happened in the past...

But we cannot miss our own sin while looking at Adam’s sin

But Genesis 3 will not help us with our searching for causes. It does not tell us where evil comes from. It will not allow us to pin everything on some external cause. The snake simply faces us with the question of our own responsibility, and the response we make to the word of God.

The problem of what has gone wrong with God’s story runs through the heart of every one of us

Because of sin things aren’t like they are supposed to be

The Times once sent out an inquiry to famous authors, asking the question, “What’s wrong with the world today?” and Chesterton responded simply,

“Dear Sir, I am. Yours, G.K. Chesterton.”

Guys I want you to see, this is the joy that Christmas brings

From generation to generation we have seen brokenness, sin, and destruction

And Jesus comes to free us from the dominion of sin

We sing all sorts of songs at Christmastime about the birth of our savior

But often we don’t sit with and meditate on what we are saved from.

Or even if we do, we might think of humanity as a whole, but not us as individuals

That you are broken

You have defined good and evil on your own

You have started to write your own story

And you have brought destruction, pain, and suffering to yourself and those around you (whether you know it or not)

But I want you to know that God has not cursed you

Just like Adam and Eve, God has created you out of the overflow of his love

He hasn’t given up on you or cursed you

He has vowed to destroy the serpent once and for all

And he has come beside us to protect and guide us

Genesis 3:21 (CSB)

The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them

Even though we reject God, He refuses to go away

He will not leave us on our own

He continues to love and bless and call humanity into relationship with him

This is the larger story that we celebrate at Christmastime

A savior has been born to crush the head of the serpent

God has become a man and entered into the story to save his people

He entered into the pain, suffering, and brokenness out of a deep love for his people

Even though humanity (you and I included) reject God

He will not stop at anything until we are restored to Him

This is the beautiful story of the gospel