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Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration
Sermon for September 5, 2021 Pastor Chris Sicks Today we are beginning a sermon series about marriage. My wise wife suggested that before we look directly at what God's Word says about marriage, that maybe I could preach about the big picture of God's Story. So that's what we are going to do today. The Bible is one big book, telling one big story in four chapters. The first chapter of God's Story is creation. In the beginning, God made everything from nothing. And everything he made was very good. In the garden there was plenty of food. People lived in peace with God. There was also peace between husband and wife—the first two people in creation. But very quickly, evil entered the world. In English we call this second chapter the Fall. The first human sin was rebellion against God the King. Rebels fight against the King, and they fight with each other. That's why rebels cannot stay in the kingdom of peace in the garden that God had made. The story would have a sad ending, but God had a good plan. The third chapter is called redemption, or salvation. God the Father sent God the Son to earth to be born as a human being and live a perfect life. He suffered the punishment of a rebel, so that rebels like us could become sons and daughters. Redemption gives us new life and hope for a better future. But we are not in the garden anymore. We life our new lives in this old, broken world. Until the Restoration. While we live in this broken world, we look ahead with hope to Chapter 4 in God's Story. One day Jesus will come back and bring us to heaven. In heaven there will be no more sin, no more tears, no more rebellion. We will live together with God in peace and joy forever in the new heaven and new earth. Those are the four chapters in the story. We learn about the first two chapters in the Old Testament. Then the New Testament begins with the birth of Jesus Christ. The New Testament tells us about chapters three and four. Together, the Bible is a story about a rescue plan that God has been working on throughout his Big Story. For today's sermon, I want to take you quickly through all four chapters of God's Big Story. We are going to look at a lot of scripture. Because God is the author of the story. He can tell the story better than I can, from his own word. Before we begin would you pray with me? Holy Spirit, please open our hearts and minds to Jesus the Living Word. Father, we want to be obedient, joyful, and productive sons and daughters. Please use your word, by the power of the Spirit, to make us more like Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.
Chapter 1: Creation
God's big story begins in a garden and ends in a city. Today we live in the middle, between the garden and the city. To understand our lives today, we need to go back to the beginning. To the garden that God made. Genesis 1:1– 3 (^1) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
(^2) The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (^3) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. We see in these verses that God made everything in the heavens and on the earth. We also see that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in Creation. God the Spirit is there. God the Father speaks. God the Son is the living Word that is spoken. After making the making the light on the first day, God separates heaven and earth. He makes the sky, and the sea, and the dry land. Then God fills each of those places with the right kind of creature. Birds for the sky. Fish for the sea. Plants and animals for the land. It's a good plan. It's a beautiful creation. Next, God makes human beings to enjoy his creation. Genesis 1:26– 27 (^26) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (^27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God made us like him in many ways. We aren't equal with God, of course. But we are his representatives on earth. We are like living statues that remind the world who is the true Creator and King. When God made us, he made two different kinds of human beings. He divided different aspects of his image between the man and the woman. Men and women are equal in dignity and value. Genesis 1:2 8 – 31 (^28) And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”^29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.^30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.^31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Because God made us in his image, he shares some of his qualities with us. God is king, but he allows people to have dominion over the earth. Adam and Eve have responsibility to take care of the garden and to use the animals for good purposes. God also allows us to share in his creativity. God made two people, and then blesses them with the ability to make more people. We see in verse 29 that the plants have seeds so they can reproduce. The plants can make more plants to fill the earth. God also put that same power in the man and the woman. But the man and woman do not reproduce like the plants and the animals. Human reproduction is tied to relationship. God made the world in love. God had a good, open, loving relationship with Adam and Eve. And when the man and woman came together in love, they
After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, all of their relationships were damaged. These rebels wanted to be king and queen, so their relationship with God the true king was damaged. God had given them the power to rule over the earth, but now they experience conflict with the earth. Work becomes difficult. Disease and disasters threaten their safety and lives. Sin also damaged the relationships between Adam and Eve, and their children. One of their sons will murder his own brother. We see in the New Testament book of Romans a terrible picture of how human sin corrupts our lives. Romans 1:28– 32 (^28) And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.^29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, (^30) slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, (^31) foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. (^32) Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. That's the bad news. Anyone who is awake and aware today knows that brokenness is everywhere. It affects everyone. All the suffering we see in the world today is the result of the rebellion against God that Paul describes in Romans chapter 1. When creatures break their relationship with their Creator, everything and everyone are broken. Who can end all this suffering? Who can fix all this brokenness? Only the true God who exists in unbroken relationship with himself. Three perfect persons, united in one perfect community we call the Trinity. They had a plan from the beginning, to make sure that God's Story will have a happy ending. Let's look at the third chapter.
Chapter 3: Redemption
Matthew 3:13- 16 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Here again we see all three members of the Trinity at work. They were there at creation. And now they are working together to bring redemption. Redemption comes from the word redeem. Redeem means to buy back, or to fix what is broken. That was the mission of Jesus. God the Father is "well pleased" with Jesus the Son in verse 17. Let's look at why the Father is pleased. Matthew 4:1- 4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.^2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Here we see another character from the first chapter of the Story. Satan returns with lies and temptations. He wants more rebels to join his cause. If he can get God the Son to join him, then Satan will have lots of power. But Satan cannot influence Jesus. Jesus responds to Satan's temptations with the Word of God. Jesus is not vulnerable to Satan's lies because he is in a secure, unbroken, perfect relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Together, the three persons of the Trinity had a plan to fix what was broken. To redeem us from sin and death. But to do it, Jesus the Son would have to die a rebel's death so we could receive eternal life. 1 Peter 3: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, Because Jesus lived a perfect life, his sacrifice was sufficient to pay the penalty for all our sin. He suffered once for our sins. The righteous Savior died for unrighteous rebels like you and me. He was put to death so we can be made alive. Romans 8:1– 2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.^2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Satan continues to whisper lies to us. He wants us to feel condemned, to believe that our relationship with God is broken. But like Jesus, we can be strengthened by the Word of God in verses like this. If you have trusted in Jesus for forgiveness, and believe that his death was sufficient payment for your sin, then you are set free. That's the Good News! Do you believe it? Do you understand what these verses are saying? Look at the freedom God promises to everyone who believes in Jesus and calls him King: Colossians 1:13- 14 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Redemption. That's chapter three. God buys his people back from the slavery of our own sin. He rescues rebels like us from the darkness of our own kingdoms. Now we live as citizens of the kingdom of the Son. Our relationship with God is now restored. It is healthy like it was back in the garden in Chapter One. 2 Corinthians 5:17– 21 (^17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.^18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;^19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.^20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.^21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Do you see the word creation there in verse 17? The same power that God used to breathe life into Adam is the power that gives new life to us. Our souls are born again when we are reconciled to God through Jesus. But the world is still broken. We now live between the garden and the city. Our relationship with God is fixed, but our relationships with nature and other people remain broken. We fight with each other. We experience war and crime and disease and natural disasters.
