Good News About Heaven

GOOD NEWS OF HEAVEN

DORN RIDGE FEBRUARY 17, 2013

Audio Link to sermon: http://chirb.it/rFfgdK

INTRODUCTION:

1.) The very opening verse of the Word of God begins: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

2.) Over the course of the next two chapters Genesis reveals details of creation, and the complete beauty and perfection of the world which God had created.

A.) Several times after looking at creation, God exclaimed "It is good."

B.) Following the creation of man and woman together in the garden, God exclaimed "It is very good."

C.) Certainly the picture of The Garden of Eden was a sight of beauty, beyond what we can imagine today in this world corrupted by evil and sin.

ca.)The scene was that of a perfect garden.

cb.) Trees were planted in that garden that were pleasing to the eyes, and good for food.

D.) There was a river that flowed from the Garden of Eden, and in the middle of the garden was the tree of Life.

da.) Every aspect of the scene was one of beauty, and of the best of everything, designed in the plan of God Almighty!

db.) In fact, the scene in the Garden of Eden, though perhaps not as nice, is very similar to pictures of Revelation that describe heaven.

dc.) What was in Eden may not compare with the new and final heaven, but for all intense purposes, God had put man into heaven when he created the Garden of Eden.

I. THE ORIGNAL HEAVENLY PARADISE ON EARTH WAS LOST DUE TO SIN.

1.) In all of Eden there was only thing that was considered sinful.

A.) How hard could that have been?

B.) with only one sin, and that nothing of great pain to resist, surely Adam and Eve could have kept from sin.

2.) Though there was only one sin, the reality is that man had to experiment with that one sin.

A.)Tempted by Satan, the first couple, like you and I chose to wander as close to sin as they could get without actually entering into it.

aa.) It was and is like standing at the precipice of the Grand Canyon with the wind behind our backs, and our toes over the edge to see how close we can get without actually falling.

ab.) When man gets that close to sin, he almost always falls into it.

3.) From that one sin, man’s heart was tarnished, causing the entire human race to drift further and further from God, and also further and further away from heaven..

A.) The account of Genesis is staggering when we see man’s progression into sin, and away from God.

aa.) In Gen. 3 Adam and Eve sin.

aaa.) Then they lose fellowship with God, become ashamed of their nakedness with each other, blame each other, blame God,

ab.) Gen. 4 Cain kills his brother Abel.

ac.) Gen. 6 Man’s wickedness becomes such that God limits his days to 120 years on this earth..

Man continues to become so wicked that God wipes all but Noah and his family off the earth in the Great flood.

Throughout the generations, the wickedness of man got even worse.

God again shortened the days of a man`s life, giving him now 70 years.

The law and sacrifice was given to man so that man could understand how wicked he actually is, and eventually point him back to see the need for the Messiah that God would later send.

II. PARADISE AND FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD IS RE-ESTABLISHED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.

1.) After man’s fall, God was preparing for man to come back to God in heavenly fellowship even before man had sinned.

A.) Eden’s sin brought God’s announcement that he was already preparing the way back to God.

aa.) Gen. 3:15

ab.) When sin occurred, God made this Messianic Prophecy, that the Serpent would strike the heel of the Messiah, when Jesus would go to the cross.

aba.) The other side of that is that the Messiah would ultimately crush the Serpent or Satan.

abaa.) This was partially done when Jesus died and rose again from the grave.

abab.) Jesus’ final act of crushing Satan will come when He returns to this world to restore man to his perfect fellowship with God, in heaven.

B.) The rest of the Old Testament Scriptures deals with God’s preparing the world for Jesus Christ who would in turn bring the world back to God.

C.) From the beginning of sin God was preparing man’s way back to God, and ultimately back to the heavenly abode in the presence of God.

2.) When Jesus came into this world the first time God had prepared for his arrival.

A.) Gal. 4:4-5

B.) It was the fullness of time, because God had prepared the world to receive His Son.