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.
II. EACH FACED TEMPTATION IN A GARDEN
A. THE 1ST ADAM - IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
1. The First Adam was placed in a Garden. He and Eve were told they could eat of any of the trees in the Garden, except one; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. It shouldn’t have been hard to avoid one tree and its fruit. But human nature always wants what it can’t have.
2. So Adam & Eve listened to the voice of Satan instead of the voice of God and did the ONE THING God told them not to do.
3. The “Adam’s Apple” is the cartilage surrounding the vocal cords, which, in adult males is large and causes them to have deep voices. Wikipedia tells us the origin of the term: so that a piece of the forbidden fruit (apple) got stuck in Adam’s throat as a judgment for his sin and has been visible ever since!
4. It wasn’t so much the fruit, as the willful disobedience to God, that released the terrible consequences of sickness and death on Adam, Eve, and their descendants forever. The weakness to sin has infected all our lives.
B. LAST ADAM - IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
1. But the Last Adam, Jesus, came and led a sinless life. He was born of the Virgin Mary and half His genetic code was supplied by the Holy Spirit. He was and is the Son of God.
2. Jesus was without sin (5X the Bible says so: 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 2:22-24; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; Rom. 5:18-19). So when Jesus died on the cross, He was able to take on the sins of others as their substitute.
3. Just before Jesus was arrested and crucified, He spent the night in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. For several hours He was tempted by Satan to abandon His mission of saving the world. At one point He asked God, that if it was possible, to be spared the ordeal of crucifixion. But He followed it up with the submissive conclusion, “But NOT my will, but Your will be done.”
4. His prayers to persevere became so intense that the Bible says “His sweat became as great drops of blood falling to the ground” Luke 22:44. In the end, He chose to obey His Father and suffer the terrible ordeal of the Cross and taste death for every other human.
5. As Paul says, “For [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” 2 Cor. 5:21.
6. So the Garden of Gethsemane was the opposite of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was the place of temptation, compromise, sin, and death to all. The Garden of Gethsemane, on the other hand, was the place of temptation, resistance, victory over sin, and life from the dead to all!
III. 2 DIFFERENT OUTCOMES
A. IN CHRIST, WE’RE OVERCOMERS, OVER SIN & THE DEVIL
1. Paul says, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body... you used to be slaves to sin.... You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness" Rom. 6:12, 17-18.
2. The apostle John goes a step further and says, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God" 1 John 3:9.
3. We have a new nature. We don’t have to sin any more. We will be tempted, but temptation is not sin. If we do sin, we should confess our sins (1 John 1:9-10). We are BORN DELIVERED!
4. Not only are we NOT under the devil’s power any longer, now HE’S UNDER US IN CHRIST! Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you” Luke 10:18-19. He’s under my feet!
5. We’re to put on the whole Armor of God and take up the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and go into battle and defeat our former oppressors. Our new job is to set other captives free.
6. WE HAVE the nature of winners; but you still must PLAY TO WIN! Paul tells us to go into "strict training" 1 Cor. 9:25. “No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper (Isa. 54:17)! “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
B. HOW DOES THIS CHANGE OCCUR?
1. No power of psychology could change you
2. “ insight “ science “ “ “
3. No dogma of any religion could make a difference
4. The best efforts of morals couldn’t “ “ “
5. No human decision/ No joining a church club/ no change of mind/ turning over a new leaf could ever change your status as under the dominion of darkness!
6. For real change to come, it must come from a power outside us and superior to us! And that’s what God does; “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” Ezek. 36:27.
C. RE-BREATHING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. Peter described it as “…times of refreshing [that] come from the presence of the Lord” Acts 3:19.
2. The Greek word “refreshing” used in Acts 3:19 is "anapsukseus," which literally means "a recovery of breath." This word is only found once in the Bible, here. This is obviously similar to the “renewing of the Holy Spirit” Paul talked about in Titus 3:5.
3. God “breathed” into Adam & he became a living soul. Later Adam’s spirit was cut off from God (died) because of sin. So it’s necessary for God to renew His presence to us, and that’s why Jesus “breathed on” His disciples after He rose again, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” John 20:22.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: PLANNED FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD
1. Westminster Abbey was four hundred and fifty years old when the caretakers noticed that the oak timbers holding up the roof were nearly at the end of their useful life. Parliament worried at how they would ever find timbers of that size at any cost.
2. Then the superintendent of the building received a telephone call from the head of the Royal Forest Rangers, out in the counties. He was wondering if they were ready for his trees yet? He had been expecting a call for the last decade and decided to see if the oak trees planted when Westminster was built (450 years earlier), were ready for use!
3. The planners were amazed. The necessary trees had been in possession of the government from the very day when the building was complete so many centuries before. And so, the trees were cut, milled and the Abbey roof restored like new again. I have often wondered if they planted a new set of trees for the 25th Century?
4. In a like manner, our amazing God provided a sprout from the root of Jesse 1,000s of years before the New Covenant Church needed redemption. He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world!” All you need is to ASK!
B. THE CALL
1. Have you been made a new creation through Christ? Just being religious won’t help you; you must be born again. Would you like to do that? Let’s invite Jesus to come in and recreate you. Prayer.
2. How many of you want to get victory over some temptation? We’ll be glad to pray with you and believe for the Spirit of Christ to break the assignment of the enemy in your life. Prayer
[Section I. drew on Tim Tennent’s “Thirty Questions: A Short Catechism of the Christian Faith”]
