Week 2: Tree of Life

Illustration: I want you to take a look at a few pictures of trees.

You can see the Socotra Dragon tree in Yemen. This tree actually produces fruit and it’s resin is a dark red so it is often called the Dragon Blood tree. These are called the Baobabs, in Madagascar. You can see how massive they are, but just have tiny little limbs at the top.

Here is a small forest of Cherry Blossoms. That would be insane to walk through!

Anyone know what this is? It’s a bonsai tree. There are an endless variety of Bonsai trees, but they are the Japanese practice of shaping miniature trees. I grew up with grandparents who had Bonsai trees and Tutu still has the best one I ever grew and took care of!

Here is a Sequoia tree that has it’s own name, the General Sherman. It is often considered the most beautiful tree in the world.

Trees are pretty crazy right? I mean we saw just a few very different, very beautiful trees just now and obviously there are so many more in the world. Trees don’t just look cool though, they really are incredible. Besides the fact that they produce their own seeds that will fall and grow more trees constantly, they also are a huge part of keeping us alive as humans. Like, if all the humans on earth disappeared tomorrow, the trees would keep growing, but if all the trees disappeared tomorrow, humans wouldn’t be able to survive!

This is why trees in cultures all around the world are widely respected, cared for, and some religions even worship trees.

As we are going to see tonight, trees actually have a pretty deep Biblical significance as well.

Did you know that the very first page of the Bible and the very last page have something in common? The first and last stories of the Bible both have the tree of life in them. They have a lot more than that in common but to be clear, if anyone thought the tree of life is only a weird random detail in the garden of Eden, you need to realize it is a symbol all throughout the Bible and it is clearly brought back in the very last chapter of the Book of Revelation. But why? Why would a tree matter so much to the writers of the Bible that pretty much every major person we meet in the Bible has some sort of encounter with God and a tree?

That’s what we’re going to look at together tonight.

Last week we talked about how Jesus came and promised to give us abundant life as our good shepherd. This week we will see that-

Experiencing the life of God is always a choice.

Turn with me to Genesis 2. We will be looking at a few different passages together tonight, and I’ll be referencing even more! But we will start here in the Garden of Eden.

So, God has created everything that exists. Now we’re going to read the retelling of creation in chapter 2 that begins the story of humans in the garden of Eden.

Read Genesis 2:7-10

Genesis 2:7–10 (CSB)

Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he placed the man he had formed. 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.

A river went out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers.

So, we have Eden, a city, and in the city is a garden, and in the center of the Garden is a tree.

And just as a reminder the whole emphasis of the Garden of Eden in the Bible is that it was the one time and place that Humans were actually able to be in the full presence of God! They hadn’t sinned yet, they were able to experience the fullness of life with God, close to Him in his presence.

That’s what the garden was all about, And at the heart of this garden was this tree called the tree of life.

Now, what do we know about this tree. Not much. The only verses that we see describe it more here is actually in chapter 3 after the fall.

Remember, God told them they could eat anything in the Garden, enjoy all of it! But don’t eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. A second tree that was in the garden on the way to the tree of life. So they have everything at their fingertips to enjoy but just need to obey God and not eat of that one tree. Unfortunately, we all know they failed, they disobeyed God, they listened to the lies of the devil and sinned against God. They chose to doubt God’s love for them and go do life their own way.

God tells humans that the result of them disobeying him and sinning is what? Death! Yeah, a losing of the life they have with Him in the garden. Then, God warns them about what life will be like now that they are sinful. And just after those warnings God says this:

Genesis 3:22–24 (CSB)

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.

So, clearly this tree of life was powerful or at least represented something very powerful- the very life of God. Do you see it? He says they will be like us if they go to eat the tree of life.

Now at it’s most basic level we have a picture of a tree that must have had very good fruit that prevented death. Sure, we could say that’s all it is, but it seems like scripture is giving us a much bigger picture here.

Again, the Garden was all about humans and God having life together in creation.Humans were in the full presence of God, they experience the fullness of the Life He designed them for. And at the center of this garden is a magnificent tree radiating with life giving power. This tree is clearly pointing to the life giving presence of God.

The tree of life is a symbol of the life-giving presence of God.

In the garden humans were able to walk and talk with god, they worked the ground and didn’t face any threats, they had more than they needed to eat and drink and enjoy.

This is what the life and blessings of God’s presence look like! And it’s what we were created to experience!

God created us to experience the life and blessings of His presence.

But like we said, sin messed all of that up. We made a choice. Humans chose not to receive and enjoy the life of God alone, but to go and do things their own way, in disobedience to God.

So, the rest of the bible, as you hopefully know, shows us the struggle of humans to experience the life and blessings of God while still being sinful.

And this symbol of the tree of life carries on throughout many of the stories of the Bible.

Remember the theme is simple: A tree, often in a garden and/or on a hill, Humans and God, and a choice!

We can’t look at all of them but let me bring a few different stories to your mind and show you how the tree of life shows up in them. We’re going to go fast ok:

One of the next major characters we meet is a man named Noah- after the story of the ark which we are told over and over again was made from the wood of a gopher tree, so essentially a massive TREE was how Noah, his family and the animals survived this flood, it landed on the mountains of ararat so its on a mountain, and when Noah leaves the ark he sets up an altar to make sacrifices and worship God like a priest would.

Another is Abraham- in Genesis 12 we see God called Abram and his wife to leave their land and go to a place he was calling them to. It says Abram went to the Oak tree of Moreh, near bethel which means house of God, and then went up the mountain to again make an altar and worship God. There God speaks to Him and Abram next wen to to the Oak trees of Mamre and on a mountain again worships God. Multiple times, we see Abram go up mountains near a tree and encounter God.

One of the most famous for Abram- now Abraham- is when we takes his son Isaac up a mountain, God calls him to sacrifice his son. He cuts up a tree and makes his son carry it up the mountain to offer the sacrifice to God. Once up there, Abraham chooses to obey God and sacrifice his son, but God stops him and provides a substitute sacrifice! Again, mountain, tree, God, and a choice.

Jumping ahead, we meet Moses- moses meets God on a hill where a bush, or small tree, is burning but not consumed. God speaks to Moses, calls the ground holy, and invites Moses to obey him and delive israel out of slavery. Later, Moses will meet with God on mount Sinai- almost the same hebrew word used for a bush or tree “S’neh” and here God gives moses the law and invites the Israelites follow His way of Life as His chosen people.

All these stories, humans, mountain, God, trees, choice.

The tree in each of these stories is like an invitation to receive the life and blessing of God. The tree is an invitation to choose the life and blessing of God.

Each one of these stories- people could trust God and follow Hima nd find the life he was promising them, or reject him take off on their own path and live their own way apart form God.

Again, Experiencing the life of God is always a choice.

Let’s look at a few more significant stories:

The design of the tabernacle as directed by God, had a very similar structure and appearance to the Garden of Eden. There was an outer courtyard, and inner tabernacle and at the center was the holy of holies- where God’s presence was experienced. Remember- Eden, Garden, tree, God’s life-giving Presence!

Psalm 1 says the blessed man is like what? A tree planted by streams of water that will bear fruit, bring life!

The prophets, especially Isaiah and Ezekiel used tree imagery to point to Israels future and especially the messiah, Jesus! They referenced the seed of Israel becoming a mighty tree and bearing fruit, and the messiah being the seed of Jesse and that a branch would grow from his roots and bear fruit.

I mean, trees, everywhere right?

And, we have to remember Jesus using tree and garden imagery all throughout his teachings, especially about teh Kingdom of Heaven.

Remember Matthew 13, what is the Kingdom of Heaven Like?

Matthew 13:31–32 (CSB)

He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.”

God’s kingdom is like a tree that grows and provides life for the creatures that come to live in it.

God created us to experience the life and blessings of His presence.

What’s the final picture we see in the Bible?

Revelation 22 is the last chapter of the Bible. If you haven’t studied Revelation is is a vision that God gave the apostle John about the future for the world and the followers of Jesus. But God shows John a vision of a new city. It’s not back to the old garden, it’s stepping into a new city but look whats in the city,

Revelation 22:1–5 (CSB)

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more; people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.

John sees the tree of life there, and it is producing fruit and life for all the nations. He says there’s no longer any curse of sin, those days are gone. God is on the throne in the city and his people are there to worship him. They can see him face to face and the powerful light of his presence fills all of the new creation!

There’s so much in this passage, we won’t get to tonight, but we see when Jesus comes back and makes all things new, we will have the tree of life once again because we will finally be able to be in the presence of God and enjoy his life and blessings forever!

As we see this is the picture of the tree from start to finish in the Bible. The tree is picture of GOd’s presence and an invitation to experience His life and blessing personally.

So, how? How do we choose this life now? We said it’s always a choice right? Well, Jesus tells us in John 15.

John 15:1–5 (CSB)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

Jesus came to be our connection back to the tree. He says he is the vine and we are meant to be the branches-Jesus is our access to the life giving power of God. When we remain connected to him, living in Him and let Him live in and through us, we experience the life and blessing of God here and now each and every day.

Even in the midst of the brokenness and darkness of our world, we can live in the life and blessing of God by remaining in Jesus, being a branch connected to the very tree of Life!

As Jesus said, the only way you are able to do anything or create anything good is in Him! Apart from him, if you refuse to connect yourself to Jesus or cut yourself off from him, you can do nothing! Like the humans cast out of the garden, if we reject Jesus we have NO access to the life-giving presence of God! Like we learned last week- Jesus came so we could have life and life abundant! WE were created to receive His life!

And this isn’t just to keep for ourselves- we are meant to be a part of the life giving tree, producing fruit that leads OTHERS to find life in GOd too! This is why it’s not an option to be a christian who isn’t reaching the lost. If we have been brought back to the tree of life and Jesus is producing fruit in us, that fruit is for OTHERS to enjoy! Other’s should see the life in us and want to experience it for themselves too! We get to invite people to choose to receive the life of God through Jesus! This is what we were designed for: To enjoy and share the Life of God!

Jesus made it possible to experience and share the life of God!

Want to see something crazy?

Look at this: PHOTO

Do you know what this is a picture of?

That is what is inside of your lungs.

Its called the bronchial tree because it obviously looks like an upside down tree!

Those branches, yes that’s the medical term, all help carry oxygen throughout your lungs and that allows you to breathe it in, process it and LIVE!

Look at this side by side- that’s a real scan of one side of someones lungs, upside down. On the right you have a tree, designed by God to take in Carbon dioxide and produce Oxygen for humans to breath in and live off of. And in each of us, he designed an inverted tree system to process that oxygen to give us life and breath back out the carbon dioxide to start the process over again.

This should be a constant reminder to us that we were specifically designed by God to receive HIS Life! Each and every day, we must choose to trust that only GOD gives us good life, so we don’t have to go out trying to take it for ourselves! But simply must seek Jesus, abide in Him and receive the powerful life of His presence daily!

Experiencing the life of God is always a choice, we face little choices every day to either trust God and live in His life, or doubt God and go our own way. We must abide in Jesus and trust Him to give us good, abundant life as He promised.

Bow your heads and close your eyes with me. One final tree of life symbol: The reason Jesus can offer us life is because he ultimately was killed on a tree on a hill. The cross is the ultimate picture of our choice between the two trees. The tree of Life and the tree of death- sin. Jesus, like the story of Abraham and Isaac, carried his tree up the hill at Golgotha, humans chose to kill the very son of God who came to offer them life. And like a seed falls from a tree, is buried in the ground, and brings forth new life, Jesus died, was buried and rose from the dead on the third day. And because he conquered our sin and the curse of sin which is death, he offers us that same life to anyone who will come to Him and choose life.

If you are here today and you’ve been choosing to figure out life your own way, choosing life apart from Jesus- do you see what you’re missing? God loved you so much he sent his son Jesus to die for you, to pay for your sin, and to make a way for you to come back to him and find life- real life- true life, abundant life with God!

If you will turn from your sins and follow Jesus tonight you will be forgiven of your sins, made right with God and given His life forever! Is there anyone who needs to be saved tonight and receive this life?

For the rest of us I think the best response to the tree of life is realizing that every day we face that same choice. Will we trust God to give us life and abide in Him? Or, will we doubt God and go our own way.

Ask God to show you any way you’ve been choosing your own way, the way of death instead of His life.

Ask God to show you any way you can abide in Jesus more fully.

Ask God to help you see those around you who need to experience the life of God.

And Ask God to use you to be a branch that invites them to come receive the life of God!

As we close in a moment let’s worship God and sing out in response to this message.

Let’s pray.

One of the ways we can abide together this year is thorugh our life groups. The next 8 weeks are designed to help you grow in your abiding relationship with Jesus. Sign up for one before you go!