Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction to Study Series

From cover to cover, the Bible is telling one consistent story.

The storyline of the Bible is about God’s unfolding plan of creation to new creation.

It is the story about how the Creator is rescuing his creation through the Christ.

As the mission statement of the great team at The Bible Project states: “The Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus.”

* One Unified Story

Unfortunately, many people view the Bible as an old religious book that is meant to reform our behavior through rituals and rule keeping.

But in the words of Ray Lubeck:

* The Use of Types

“Following the Bible is not about reforming our behaviors by strict rule keeping.

Rather, it is an invitation to our imagination, offering to us whole new ways of seeing and being in the world in the ways that God describes it.

God does not liberate us in Christ by giving us more and different laws, but by enabling us to look at literally everything from a different perspective, with a new reference point for reality.”

(Read the Bible book)

To put that another way, the Bible is offering us a new worldview and a new way of life by inviting us to participate in the epic story that it is telling.

It is so much more than embracing a new religion or lifestyle.

* The Purpose of this Series

* Introduction to this Study (Adam)

The Bible traces an unfolding drama that is taking place through real historical events with real-life human characters playing real roles.

However, because of these characters and events, many people end up reading the Bible as a collection of stories that give us moral lessons or heroes to emulate.

Think of the way that many children’s Bibles portray the story of Samson as if he is some sort of ancient Superman and the story of David as if he’s the brave little boy that’s not afraid of the big bad giant.

We individualize these stories and isolate them instead of realizing that these stories and their characters are all part of a greater underlying story that is the epic story of the Christ.

And so that is the motivation behind this five-part study series that we’ve entitled, “The Christ: Foreshadowed and Fulfilled.”

In this study, we are going to look at five different different figures from the Old Testament narrative and see how their stories foreshadow what would eventually be fulfilled in the Christ of the New Testament.

* Starting at the Beginning

Our purpose in this study is not to give you an exhaustive account of how all the different stories in the Bible point to the one main story.

We’ll leave that up to you to explore and discover on your own.

But our goal is to give you a deeper appreciation for the Bible as a whole and a fresh new perspective that leads you to join in and actually participate in what God is doing and has been doing since the beginning of human history.

Introduction to Study One

And so with all that being said, we will begin this study by starting at the beginning and looking at the first human figure that we encounter in the Bible whose name comes directly from the Hebrew word for humankind, Adam.

On the very first page of the Bible, we read this about humanity and what God had in mind for this first human named Adam:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,

27  So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

male and female he created them.

And God blessed them.

And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

(Genesis 1:26-28)

If we are going to truly understand the story of the Christ then we need a clear understanding concerning the story of creation.

To better know Christ, we need a better understanding of the man named Adam.

The two are intimately connected and cannot be separated.

God had a specific idea in mind when he created humanity and a specific role that humanity was intended to fulfill.

We learn about this role in the story of Adam.

In this story, we learn that God desires for human beings to rule over his creation — caring about its protection and cultivating its potential — and to do so in a relationship of trusting obedience towards him.

To put it more simply, God’s plan for his creation was that it would be run by obedient human beings.

And so to explain what we mean by this and why it’s important, we’re going to look at the story of Adam, how that story helps us understand Jesus and how all this ought to shape our lives as Christians today.

* Why we need to hear this?

FCF

The Story of Adam

As we look at the story of Adam, we’re goi

* What we’re going to see? Big Idea

Made in the image of God: Rule & Relationship

*Who was Adam?*

The Test of Trust

*Made in the Image of God*

The Promise: The Seed of the Woman

* & 2

* He is made for intimate, reciprocal relationship with God, designed for relationship with his created others and born to the divine and creative vocation of earth-care and earth-filling ().

Ryken, L., Wilhoit, J., Longman, T., Duriez, C., Penney, D., & Reid, D. G. (2000).

In [Dictionary of biblical imagery](https://ref.ly/logosres/dbibimg?ref=Page.p+9&off=3655&ctx=of+child+to+parent.+~He+is+made+for+intim)

(electronic ed., p. 9).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

* While Genesis clearly speaks of Adam’s “rule” over the creation, it is a theme set in the context of dependence.

Ryken, L., Wilhoit, J., Longman, T., Duriez, C., Penney, D., & Reid, D. G. (2000).

In [Dictionary of biblical imagery](https://ref.ly/logosres/dbibimg?ref=Page.p+9&off=4806&ctx=tire+created+order.%0a~While+Genesis+clearl)

(electronic ed., p. 9).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Jesus: The Second Adam

The Seed of the Woman: Luke’s Genealogy: Beloved Son

The Test

The Promise Fulfilled: Christ Embraced the Path of Suffering

* Adam is given the role of being a special representative or mediator between the Creator and the creation.

Man is made as the image of God which means that “man’s nature and role are unique in creation.”

(Clowey, 21)

* “The fact that man shares organic, bodily life with all the animate creation qualifies him to represent that creation before God.” (Clowney, 21) And so Adam is given the role to serve as the mediator between the Creator and the creation.

Remade in the Image of God

* Adam also is given the role of ruling over the Creator’s creation.

Us: New Humanity

*The Test Failed* — Trusting Obedience Towards God

* Adam is placed in the garden sanctuary where he is given freedom to cultivate and carry the creation forward.

His freedom is given one limitation.

In this limitation, his trusting obedience to the Lord of Creation was being tested.

Rule & Relationship: Royal Priesthood

* He was the acting representative of the human race.

* “By obedience under testing, his righteousness would pass beyond its original innocence.

He would know the difference between good and evil by choosing the good.

He would be confirmed as the righteous son of God, free to eat of the tree of life forever.”

(CL, 23)

* Test 1: Distrust: “Did God actually say you can’t eat the fruit of your own garden?”

* Test 2: Doubt: “Surely a good God wouldn’t let you die.”

* Test 3: Desire: “God is holding out on you.

There’s something greater available.

Instead of ruling on behalf of God, you can become like God and act on your own authority.”

* Disobedience led to disorder.

No matter how hard they would try human beings would not be able to restore their unity with God and with one another nor would they be able to escape the fear, guilt and shame that would plague their heart.

Adam and Eve resorted to excuses and blame-shifting.