SS - The Gospel of Trees
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro
Intro
Icebreaker - what is your favorite movie soundtrack? / Theme?
Personally, I love working out to movie soundtracks
Today, we are trying to answer What does the Garden of Eden have to do with us?
Illustration: Think of the Garden like a theme to your favorite movie. It plays at the beginning, but it also replays throughout the movie at its biggest moments?
Today, I want us to see how the Bible is one big story from Genesis to Revelation.
(recommend) “God’s Big Picture”
And the Garden of Eden is essential, because we see the the same notes from the garden, replay out throughout the Bible.
One way to see how this all connects is looking at “the Gospel of Trees”
Trees in the Garden of Eden
Trees in the Garden of Eden
28 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.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
What did God give Adam and Eve according to these verses?
29 - Every plant yielding seed
29 - Every tree with seed in its fruit
30 - every green plant for food
30 - Every beast and bird (maybe they didn’t eat yet, but they still had dominion over it)
What word do you see pop up with every one of these? (EVERY)
Point: God was not Stingy!
He gave them everything, except one thing...
The Two Trees (Genesis 2:8-15, esp. v. 9, 16-17)
The Two Trees (Genesis 2:8-15, esp. v. 9, 16-17)
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
What Trees do we see here? (Life / Knowledge of good and evil)
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Here we see a river, and Moses, as he writes the book of Genesis, is giving us some geography to try to pinpoint where Eden was (still don’t know exactly where it is, because the names of those places have changed)
Our best bet, is somewhere around modern-day Iraq
And God gives them a command in vs. 15-16
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 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.”
Notice the word “every” pops up again.
Of course, if you know the story, the Serpent tempts Adam and Eve, and they eat the fruit, and sin enters the earth for the first time.
This has drastic consequences...
Consequence of Sin (Genesis 3:22-24)
Consequence of Sin (Genesis 3:22-24)
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
What is Adam unable to do because of sin? (Eat from the Tree of Life)
Why would restrict him from doing this? Could this actually be merciful of God?
Eating the fruit would have caused him to live in his fallen, sinful condition, FOREVER!
That....is Hell.
To eat and live forever in a sinful state, would be eternal judgement!
So remember what we said about themes…soundtracks...
A recurring theme for the rest of the Bible is...
How can we get back to the Garden of Eden?
How can Sin and Satan be defeated?
Will we ever get to eat from the Tree of Life?
Another Question / Theme - (Read Gen 3:14-15)
Big Question - Who will this offspring be?
(Cain killed Abel, then God gave them Seth out of grace)
Why the Bible is full of Geneaologies
Death is not natural
Eternal life was God’s original intention. How do we get eternal life?
We see the Bible answer that in many ways, but we especially see it in the last chapter of the Bible
We need to understand that the hope of the Christian is not just “going to heaven” when you do. But a new heavens and new earth. A new, recreated universe that is perfect, like Eden but better.
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
How is this seen similar to the Garden of Eden? What do you see?
1-2 - a River “water of life”
2 - The tree of life! (for the healing of the nations)
3 - nothing accursed / no sin
What does seeing a new Eden tell us about God’s character?
So we see that the tree of life reappears. But how do we gain access to this tree of life? (Look in Verse 14)
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
We gain access by “washing our robes”?
What does this mean? How may we do it?
This “washing” happens because of another tree somewhere on this timeline. Anyone know what I’m talking about?
The Tree on Calvary (1 Peter 2:24)
The Tree on Calvary (1 Peter 2:24)
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
And this happens by faith alone.
Conclusion
Conclusion
As we talk about identity and purpose, Eden was God’s original intention for the creation.
And even though we ruined it, he is gracious and is working to re-create it, and re-create us.
It was his intention for us to be obedient, and then eventually eat the tree of life, and have eternal life, but we sinned.
He did not want us to stay in that sinful state forever, so he sent Jesus, to wash us with his blood
So that we could be clean, and re-gain access to the Tree of life.
What does the Garden of Eden have to do with us?
It has everything to do with us. It’s where we are from, and its where we are headed. (an even better Eden)
Its a theme that runs throughout the bible, from beginning to end.
In Scripture, we see the End credits have that same triumphant theme that the movie started with in the opening credits.
You and I are in this story. It’s a beautiful story, headed in a beautiful direction, if you have faith in Jesus.