Everything Falls Apart Series

We’re doing a series on God’s Big Story where we are tracing the central storyline of the Bible. The Bible isn’t a mass of unconnected stories. Instead, it is one story. And that is exactly the aim of this series – to see the big picture of the Bible. I want you to see the Bible is a single story. And throughout our time, I want to offer a bird’s eye view, if you will. Throughout the 7 weeks together, it will be my aim to unpack these four sentences carefully.

God made the world.

We rebelled against our ruler.

God reentered the world to redeem us.

And God will remake the world.

So climb on top of the observation deck with me and let’s get a better perspective of the bible before us.

Sermon Preview

Today’s sermon is really a continuation of our message from a week ago. Like last week, we are still in the Garden of Eden. And again, just as a week ago, our two main characters are Adam and his wife, Eve. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 3 and bookmark Romans 16. The New Testament takes the story of Adam and Eve as factual and historical. This is no myth.

Today’s Scripture Passage

25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 2:25-3:13)

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

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. (Genesis 2:25-3:15, 21-24)

The story of what happened in the Garden of Eden is important – powerfully important. And I want to make you aware at the outset, that this is not just the story of the wrongdoings of two people. No, it’s the story of how the first two people’s wrongdoing effects you and me. It promises to explain nothing less than what is wrong in every cancer ward, in every traumatic domestic abuse incident, in all wars, as well as what happens behind the yellow crime scene tapes in every hamlet and village. It’s the story of a hunter who sees a “No Hunting” sign and in an act of rebellion fires at each letter. It’s the story of the young men who mark the sides of railroad cars with graffiti. The hunter and the graffiti artist do their acts of vandalism for no other reason for the sheer pleasure of rebellion. It’s the story of sin’s emergence into human history. Indeed, this is a powerful story.