2 Adams, 2 Gardens, 2 Outcomes

2 ADAMS, 2 GARDENS,

2 OUTCOMES

1 Cor. 15:45-47

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: ONE STEP CLOSER TO...

1. I once read about a rabbi sitting next to an atheist on an airplane. Every few minutes, one of the rabbi’s children or grandchildren would inquire about his needs for food, drink, or comfort. The atheist commented, “The respect your children and grandchildren show you is wonderful. Mine don’t show me that respect.”

2. The rabbi responded, “Think about it. To my children and grandchildren, I am one step closer in a chain of tradition to the time when God spoke to the whole Jewish people on Mount Sinai. To your children and grandchildren, you are one step closer to being an ape.”

[Laura Schlessinger, The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God’s Laws in Everyday Life, p. 133]

B. SERMON SERIES: “OPERATION”

We’re on our 2nd message of the “Operation” series (pic on bulletin & sign outside church), a game where kids try to fix the patient, “Cavity Sam.” Last week we discussed how the broken are experts at mending others. Today we’re talking about fixing Sam’s Adam’s Apple.

C. TEXT & TITLE

1 Cor. 15:45 So it is written: “The FIRST MAN ADAM became a living being”; the LAST ADAM, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The FIRST MAN was of the dust of the earth; the SECOND MAN is of heaven.”

Romans 5:14; “Adam…is a pattern of the One to come.”

2. The title of this message is “2 Adams, 2 Gardens, 2 Outcomes.”

I. EACH ADAM IS FOUNDER OF A NEW HUMAN RACE

A. REALITY OF ADAM & EVE

1. We all know the propaganda, how that billions of years ago some primordial ooze miraculously transformed into a worm, then a fish, then an amphibian, etc., and eventually into a man. Of course, this myth can’t be replicated in a laboratory and there’s no fossil evidence to back it up. Computer programs trying to simulate it have broken down. And the complexity of the human brain, the eye, and the DNA code, which contains a 3.1 billion letter instruction manual, all defy natural, chance formation.

2. The Evolution myth sounds a lot like the story of the Princess who kissed the frog and it turned into a Prince – except this fairytale is for adults!

3. But studies on human DNA have found one thing – that all women are descended from one woman, and all men from one man [“Mitochondrial DNA and Human Evolution,” Jan. 1987, Nature; Time, 1-26-87; Newsweek, “The Search for Adam and Eve” (Tierney, et al., 1988)].

4. And what do you think scientists named this first couple? Surprise, surprise – “Adam & Eve!” It sounds like they’ve been reading the Bible!

5. The Bible affirms that all humans are descended from Adam & Eve (Gen. 3:20; Acts 17:26), and that when they sinned against God, the judgment that fell on them, was passed down to all their descendants (Rom. 5:17a,18a,19a).

6. The sin nature enslaved the whole human race and there was no escape from its power. All became condemned as sinners. How could the human race be saved?

B. THE SECOND ADAM, FOUNDER OF A SECOND HUMAN RACE

1. The only way was to bring another Adam into the world who was without sin and who could once again have the choice to obey or disobey, but this time get it right.

2. In other words, there had to be a way to go back and rewrite that first chapter of the human story recorded in Genesis chapter three on the Fall of Man.

3. And that’s what Jesus did; He lived a human life without sin, and then, as the Son of God, died on the cross as God’s sacrifice for the sins of the world

4. Adam and Christ are similar to each other because each heads up a segment of the human race spiritually; one of death and the other of life. COMPARISON:

5. THE FIRST ADAM THE LAST ADAM

Of Dust Began in Weakness, Natural

A Perishable Body Tempted but Didn’t Sin

A Natural Body Died for others, Raised Imperishable

Tempted, Fell into Sin Possesses a Powerful, Spiritual Body

Weakness to Sin Spread to All Billions made Righteous without their Effort

Death & Condemnation on All All are Justified & Glorified in Him

C. JESUS HEADS UP THE OVERCOMING HUMAN RACE

1. Christ is the founder of a second, new human race. All who have faith in Him are His offspring (Isa. 53:10; Gal. 3:26). Listen to Paul’s comparison; "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22, 45).

2. As Adam was the head of the fallen race, so Christ is the Head of a new, redeemed & regenerated race of humans Rom. 5:12-19). He is our federal head, and we are “in Christ” – historically, eschatologically, and pneumatically.