Where It All Went Wrong: A Sermon For The First Sunday In Lent

Where it all went Wrong

Genesis 2:15–17 NKJV

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 3:1–7 NKJV

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

We now come to the First Sunday in Lent, a forty day period of spiritual reflection and repentance. Traditionally, the season of Lent begins with the imposition of ashes on what is called Ash Wednesday. These ashes come from the burning of last years palms from Palm Sunday, which is the end of the season of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week in which we remember that Jesus came into Jerusalem with great accolades from the crowd who believed Jesus was the promised Messiah-King who would overthrow the Romans and set up a new Israeli Kingdom. He did come to establish a new Israel, but not in the way they had imagined. He would be rejected by the leaders of Israel and then the people. He was crucified, dead, and buried. The entire drama ends with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

I mentioned that Lent is a season of reflection. The 40 days of Lent also remind us of a 40 day period at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in which he endured great temptation from Satan in the desert. This was a period of preparation for His public ministry. So, we can see Lent as a time of preparation for us to fulfill our ministry as Jesus’ disciples, remembering that the Christian life requires patience and endurance. We are called to carry our own crosses and follow Him.

I also mentioned that Lent is a time of repentance. In one aspect, our honest self-evaluation leads us to the conclusion that we are all sinners. This is a contradiction to who we are as Christians, but nevertheless, we find that we have not been obedient either as individuals or a church. We do reflect upon what things we have done right, but it is also necessary to repent of our failures as well with he intention of better service to the LORD in the future. This is a hopeful reflection because we remember that Jesus died for our sins and has promised to perfect us. Repentance comes from a Greek term, “metanoia” which has the idea of transforming one’s thinking to line up to the Christian worldview rather than that of the worlds.

In this morning’s sermon, we are going to reflect on where it went wrong and its implications. We know from the beginning of the Bible that God created us in His image and placed us in the palace garden of Eden where He communed with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Of all God’s creations, He was most pleased with His creation of man.

Since we were created perfect, what went wrong? Why are we sinners in need of God’s grace? Why did Christ have to come? Why do we have all this misery and wars? Why do we grow old and die? These things make us cry out: “Is there any hope?” Come back tonight and find out (“Where it all went Right”).

In Genesis 2:15-17, we learn that the LORD called Adam and Eve to tend the Garden. Their wages was that they could eat of all the delectable fruit on the trees, except one, the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” There was also a tree of life which Adam and Eve were unaware of (Genesis 3:22). So long as they obeyed this solitary commandment, all would be well. There would have been no need for them to partake the tree of life as they would not have known death. God solemnly warned them of the consequences of disobedience. If they ate from this tree, they would surely die. They might not have fully understood what “death” was, but it was certainly unpleasant and to be avoided. God spoke this command, so it carried all legal authority.