The Gospel According to . . . Hollywood?
The Bible
Scripture: Genesis 3:1-24
Today is Father’s Day, and as a way of honoring our fathers, I thought we should all just take a few moments to reflect on all the things we’ve learned from our dads. Okay? I think that was plenty of time, don’t you?
No, seriously, we’ve all learned a lot from Dad,
so let’s reflect on it by listing:
The Top 10 Things You Learned from Your Father:
10. When he was your age, kids had to walk six miles to school in the snow and rain . . . uphill both ways.
9. If he had acted like you, his father would have knocked him into the middle of next week
8. When he was your age, kids had to make their own fun
7. You weren’t born in a barn
6. When he was your age, he had to work for what he got
5. You don’t wanna make Dad stop the car
4. “Because I said so” is a reason that makes perfect sense to an adult
3. You’d better stop crying or he’ll give you a reason to cry (like you didn’t already have one)
2. You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached
And the #1 thing you learned from your father . . .
1. Money doesn’t grow on trees!
We learned a lot from our dads. . .
Some of us more than others. . .
And some of us more than we wanted to.
Thirteen years ago,
Robert Fulghum claimed:
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
Some of us might say
All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Dad.
I know that’s what my kids would say.
But even though my father is here this morning,
I can’t really claim that.
But I think he’d be prouder to here the claim
I’m about to make:
All I Really Need to Know I Learned from the Bible.
Now, you may be suspicious about that.
After all, the Bible didn’t teach me how to read,
it didn’t teach me how to write,
it didn’t teach me how to make coffee . . .
And believe me,
those things are pretty important in my life.
But I’m talking about THE BIG QUESTIONS,
the really important things,
the kind of questions
British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, talked about when he wrote:
"We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from?"
(A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, 1988, p. 171).
THAT is what the Bible does.
That’s amazing enough, but you know what else?
Let me tell you how amazing the Bible is.
Let me tell you just one reason I believe it to be
God’s Word.
The Bible answers those questions--
and MORE--
in the first three chapters!
It does it in the first 2,000 words!
Part of the miracle of the Bible
is that in just the first three chapters of Genesis
it answers a score of questions like,
“Is there a God?”
The Bible says,
In the beginning, God. . . (Genesis 1:1, NIV).
It answers,
“Why is there something rather than nothing?”
The Bible says,
In the beginning, God created. . . (Genesis 1:1, NIV).
It answers,
“Who am I and how did I get here?”
The Bible says,
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27, NIV).
But we’re not going to focus on those questions this morning; instead, I hope to show you how the Bible answers the BIG questions:
“Why do I do the things I do?”
and
“What can be done about it?”
Good morning. My name is Bob Hostetler,
and I want to welcome you all
to Cobblestone Community Church,
a group of people whose mission is
to love people
into life-changing encounters with God.
And this morning,
we’re beginning a new series of messages called,
“The Gospel According to . . . Hollywood?”
Each of the 7 messages in this series
is going to feature a clip or two from
a Hollywood movie,
only we’re going to ask more from these movies
than what we’ve come to expect from Hollywood.
We’re going to take a few minutes each week to discuss what the Bible teaches,
how Hollywood treats it,
and how you can learn from it
to improve your life.
And what better place to start than with the movie, The Bible?
Now, this movie was intended to be the first
in a series of films
which would have covered
the Old and New Testament
from beginning to end . . .
BUT, one by one the other directors dropped out,
leaving only this movie,
directed by John Huston.
And we’re going to enjoy together a 41/2 minute clip
that begins when Adam, as we call the first man,
wakes up and discovers his wife’s missing!
And try not to be perturbed because the images get a little dark; they’re meant to be that way, I think to suggest the mystery of the primeval garden.
So, let’s roll the tape. . . .
VIDEO CLIP (4.5 minutes)
Now, there’s a lot I could say about that brief scene. . . .
There were some things I think Hollywood got wrong,
and some things I think Hollywood got right.
For example,
I don’t think the serpent and Eve and Adam
really talked like robots
the way they did in that clip.
I also think there was much more going on
in Eve’s temptation
than the clip portrays,
as we might see in a minute
when we look at the Bible.
BUT, Hollywood did get a couple things right:
the fruit Eve and Adam ate
was clearly not an apple,
which is true to the Bible,
which refers only to the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
not to an apple, the fruit of an apple tree. . .
AND, the serpent’s first words to Eve
and her response to the serpent
were straight out of the King James Bible.
But the thing I want to focus on this morning
not so much from that scene outta the movies
but from the scene out of the Bible
on which it was based
is what the Bible teaches us,
right out of the chute, so to speak,
about why we do the things we do,
and what’s to be done about it.
So, let me ask you, if you would,
to turn to the book of Genesis in the Bible --
the first book of the whole Bible,
and we’re gonna read from chapter 3
--if you’re using one of the Bibles we’ve provided for you on the floor under every third chair or so throughout the auditeria, you’ll find it on page #2--
And, by the way,
if you need a Bible,
take one of those home with you,
no charge,
no catch,
no questions asked,
no salesman will call.
That’s why we don’t even
stamp the name of the church on ‘em,
because we want people to take ‘em home
and make ‘em their own.
So, the first thing I wanna point out to you is that the account of Eve and Adam’s sin is that . . .
1. It defines sin
Remember in the video clip
when Eve offered the fruit to Adam
and he said, “It is disobedience?”
Well, the Bible
doesn’t make things quite so neat and clean.
But if you look at Genesis 2:16-17, you’ll see that it says,
The LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17, NIV).
And then if you look at chapter 3, it says this:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’"
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it (Genesis 3:1-7, NIV).
Thus, right from the start,
from the word “go,”
the Bible shows us that sin
is when we
• Disbelieve what God has said, and
• Disobey what God has commanded.
It’s really that simple.
Sin is when God says “A” and I say “B.”
Sin is when God gives this and I choose that.
Sin is when God points “here” and I go “there.”
In fact, that’s how the Bible answers the question, How do you explain human nature?
The Bible teaches that
God created us to be His image-bearers,
which distinguishes us from all the rest of creation. But when Adam and Eve chose to disobey, their fall into sin distorted and marred the sacred Image.
The fact that we’re created in God’s image explains the noble, creative, positive things we can do;
the fact that we are sinners who love to disobey God’s reasonable and generous requirements explains why we often do wicked, destructive, negative, just-plain-bad things.
2. It depicts the consequences of sin
There are many, but this passage points out at least six consequences to sin.
First, your sin will bring . . .
A. Guilt.
Genesis 3:7 says,
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked (Genesis 3:7a, NIV).
They got what they thought they wanted.
Remember, the serpent said,
“when you eat of it your eyes will be opened,”
which was the true part of his typical half-truth.
But when they got what they thought they wanted, they didn’t like what they saw.
We were created to love and obey God,
but when we sin,
we settle for less than we were created to be.
So, of course, we feel guilty. . . because we are.
Second, your sin will bring . . .
B. Shame.
Look at the rest of verse 7:
so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves (Genesis 3:7b, NIV).
Guilt is what you feel about what you’ve done.
Shame is what you feel about who you are.
Genesis 2:25 made a point of saying,
The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame (Genesis 2:25, NIV).
There was no reason for them to feel shame . . .
until they sinned.
Third, your sin will bring . . .
C. Alienation.
Look at verse 8.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God . . . (Genesis 3:8, NIV).
There’s a lot of cool stuff going on in that verse,
but I have time only to point out that sin brings about a separation between you and God.
Isaiah 59:2 says,
Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden [His] face from you (Isaiah 59:2, NASB).
You’ve felt it, just like I have;
it’s not news to any of us.
It’s a spiritual death,
like God warned Adam and Eve about,
a separation from the life
that is found only in a relationship with God.
Fourth, your sin will bring . . .
D. Fear.
Look at verses 9-10:
But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid" (Genesis 3:9-10, NIV).
Now, of course, God knows everything;
he doesn’t ask questions for his information,
but for ours.
God is inviting Adam to confess his sin,
and maybe prompting the realization
that sin not only separated Adam from God,
it had made him afraid of God and his judgment.
Oh, how that must have broken God’s heart.
What parent here wants your kid
to run from you when you enter a room?
But that’s what sin does to us.
Fifth, your sin will bring . . .
E. Division.
Look at verses 11-12:
And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?"
The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (Genesis 3:11-12, NIV).
Adam took it like a man. He blamed his wife.
No more “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.”
No, now it’s, “It ain’t my fault, God; it’s hers. And remember, you’re the one who gave her to me in the first place.”
Somebody said, “To err is human;
to blame it on somebody else is even more human.”
And finally, your sin will bring . . .
F. Pain.
We don’t have to read them,
but if you look over verses 16-20, you’ll see
that sin resulted in pain for everyone concerned. . .
And it’s no different today.
Your sin will bring pain . . .
And not only for you, but for others.
It may not seem fair that Adam’s and Eve’s sins
bring pain on everyone who comes after them,
but so do your sins . . . and mine.
My time is running out,
but I wanna point out one more thing about this incredible passage from the Bible, and that is . . .
3. It decrees the cure for sin
When God cursed the serpent, he promised,
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel (Genesis 3:15, NIV).
Did you know that’s the first messianic prophecy
in the Bible?
Most scholars believe the “he,” the offspring of Eve
mentioned in that verse is Jesus.
Not only that,
but look with me at one more verse that’s often overlooked when we talk about Adam and Eve’s sin.
Verse 21 says,
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Genesis 3:21, NIV).
God covered
their guilt and shame with “garments of skin.”
But here’s a question:
where’d he get the skins?
Something had to die to cover their guilt & shame.
Sound familiar?
Something innocent died
so the guilty could live.
That’s what Jesus did for you, and for me.
He shed His blood to cover our sins.
In a sense, Genesis 3 gives us the first Gospel message:
There are great and horrible consequences to sin. But God is so loving that he himself
provides a remedy for sin.
Today, I urge you
not only to recognize the high price of your sin, but also to recognize God’s remedy.
Come clean today.
Acknowledge your sin,
turn from it and turn to Jesus Christ.
He shed his blood for you
so that you can be forgiven now
and live this life and the life to come
in the joy and wonder of His presence and power.
I urge you to do it right now, right this moment,
by silently praying this prayer along with me:
“Jesus, I admit that I’ve done wrong things
and fallen short of your standard.
I ask for your forgiveness.
I believe that you died for me,
and that your sacrifice paid the price of my sins.
I now invite you to come into my heart
and take control of my life.
I want to trust you and follow you from now on,
with your help, in Jesus’ name, amen.”
If you prayed that prayer,
or if you’re already a Christ-follower,
I urge you to apply this message
