Creation & The Fall
Sermon Notes
Intro:
Hey everybody my name’s Louis, I’m the lead teaching pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to be with you, great to gather with you through our online community. Today we’re continuing our teaching series called Starting Point, which is all about Reasons For Faith, Not Skepticism. So far we’ve discussed reasons for faith in the existence of God, and for faith in trusting the bible’s true. Well today we’re starting a 4 wk overview of the bible’s story, and we’ll be focusing specifically on the question why does God allow suffering and evil to exist? If God’s all good and all powerful, then why’s He allow suffering and evil to exist? I mean there’s crimes, wars, famines, diseases, death. There’s tears shed over depression, loneliness, infertility, losing jobs, losing people we love to cancer or viruses like COVID 19. Even the earth’s spewing some messed up things like tsunamis and hurricanes killing thousands. Why does it have to be this way? Why are things so messed up? Why does God allow suffering and evil to exist?
It’s a question many of us have wrestled with before, including C.S. Lewis. After his wife died of cancer Lewis states, “I can’t understand why God is always there when things are going well, telling you what he expects of you. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside...There’s no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once...Why is God so present a commander in time of prosperity, and so very absent a help, in time of trouble?” Lewis said this after he was already a Christian! His faith is eventually strengthened, but he articulates what many of us have felt before in times of suffering. It’s abandoned, confused, wondering why God’s allowing us to suffer like this, and that’s what we’ll be talking about today. So let’s turn to Genesis 3:1-13 and get into it. Title of today’s message is The Story Part 1: Creation and The Fall. Here’s the big idea: Our world is broken, but God’s working in our broken world...Our world is broken, but God’s still working in our broken world...I highly recommend you join a small group this week, because messages like this can often create more questions than answers. Our groups are a great place to ask such questions, and can also help us through times of suffering. We’ll put a link in the chat box for you later.
Context:
Here’s your context. In Genesis 1 it says God created the heavens and the earth, and every time God created something He said it was good. The only exception to that is when God created people. After God created people, after He created Adam and Eve, Genesis 1:31 says, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” So it isn’t just good, it’s very good, meaning it's paradise. No suffering, no disease, no death, it’s paradise. So what happened? What went wrong? How’d things go from good, to very good, to bad? Let’s find out.
The Word:
Genesis 3:1-13 states, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’ 2 And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ 4 But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” Okay so the serpent is Satan, and notice he’s trying to get Eve to doubt. He’s speaking seeds of doubt in her ears saying, “Did God actually say? Did God really say?” He’s trying to get both Adam and Eve to doubt God, and the way he’s tempting them is intriguing. He isn’t trying to get them to doubt God’s existence, because He knows they walked with God, so they know God exists! That isn’t the doubt he’s after, instead he wants them to doubt God’s love, to doubt God’s goodness for their lives. It’s exactly what happens to us. We’ll sometimes doubt God’s love and goodness for our lives, especially in times of suffering. But underneath all this is really a choice to trust God, or trust ourselves as god. Satan says you’ll be like God, meaning it’s really about a choice to either trust God, or trust ourselves as god.
Vs. 6, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” They digested the doubt of Satan, and gave birth to human sin. Instead trusting God, they trusted themselves as god, and this is when paradise was ruined. This is when things went from being very good, to being very bad. It isn’t when God created the world, it’s when human sin entered our world. There wasn’t any suffering before sin, but now that there’s sin, there’s suffering. Listen to what happens next.
Vs. 7, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.” Notice their sin causes suffering in their relationship with each other, it causes them to want to hide from each other and cover up. They were in perfect harmony with each other, but now they’re trying to hide from each other.
Vs. 8, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Now they’re hiding form God. First they hide from each other, but now they’re hiding from God. I love how practical the Christian message is, because this is exactly how life works. I mean sin always leads to separation in our relationships, it always leads to a disruption in the harmony of our relationships. It happens in our marriages, our families, our friendships, in every relationship we have including our relationship with God. We’re highly relational beings, which is evident by how crazy we’re going with social distancing. We want this social distancing gap to behind us already! We to get back to hanging with our friends, playing sports, going to the gym, some of you just want a haircut again!...We’re tired of wearing N95’s, treating people like the plague, and are ready for some double arm hugs again. I’m a one arm hugger but this things slowly converting me into a double arm hugger!...Introverts might be able to hold out longer, but even they’re getting tired of scrolling their social media, books, and Houseparty apps. It’s because we’re highly relational beings, and whenever there’s a social distancing gap, a separation in our relationships we feel it. In a similar way our sin creates separation in our relationships with God and each other, and we feel it. We feel it just like Adam and Eve are feeling it.
Vs. 9, “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ 10 And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ 11 He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ 12 The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’” God’s giving them a chance to repent of their sins, and they’re blaming others for their sins. God isn’t asking where they are and what they’ve done as if He doesn’t know. He knows exactly where they are and what they’ve done, because He’s God! He’s giving them a chance to come out of hiding and repent of their sins. But all they’re doing is blaming others for their sin which leads to more suffering. In vs 13-24 their sin leads to pains in life, pains in marriage, pains in work, even pains in creation. In vs 17 it says cursed is the ground because of their sin, meaning even creation is affected by sin. Creation used to be in harmony with us, but now we have to labor for food, find shelter from hurricanes, and get buried in the very dust we were created from. Creation used to be our friend, but now it’s decaying with us. Now we age, we get sick, we die, and this is what Genesis 3 teaches us. Genesis 1-2 teaches us things were very good when we trusted God, but Genesis 3 teaches us things turned very bad when we chose to trust ourselves as god. Since that day sin’s played a destructive role in all our lives, and it’s a problem none of us are immune to. So let me address 3 questions when it comes to the origins of sin and suffering.
#1 Why should we have to suffer for Adam and Eve’s sin? = We didn’t eat the fruit, so why should we have to suffer for their sin? It’s because we echo their decision to reject God too. We’re a part of the destruction too. Every time we lash out in rage, degrade others, hoard money, turn a blind eye to suffering in our world, we’re contributing to the destruction of our world too. It’s hypocritical for us to blame Adam and Eve when we’re a part of the destruction too. But the even greater hypocrisy is when we want to blame the very God we’ve chosen not to trust. We live most our lives with the illusion we’re in control, often leading us to ignore God until something bad happens, then we blame God for it. We want control, but we’ll blame God if things spiral out of control. We want control, but not responsibility for the sins that’re destroying our lives and world. We’d much rather cast blame like Adam and Eve, then admit responsibility.
#2 Why would God allow suffering and evil to exist? = That’s the question everybody wants to know, and it’s the question a lot of skeptics use against the existence of God. But they usually ask it with a very low view of God. For example recently learned there’s roughly 10 billion trillion stars in the universe, and each star puts out about the same amount of energy as a trillion atom bombs...every second! Now if our universe is that massively powerful, imagine how much more massively powerful the God who created it is. But we don’t usually think of God with a big view like that, instead we tend to shrink God down to a slightly bigger version of ourselves. This is especially true when it comes to God’s intelligence and perspective on life. We might say He’s powerful enough to create the universe, but we view His intelligence and perspective on life as if He’s barely smarter than a 5th grader...My point is if you believe God’s power is massive enough to create the universe, don’t you think His intelligence is massive enough to have good reasons for allowing suffering to exist?...If you believe God’s massive enough to blame for suffering, then it means God’s massive enough to have good reasons for allowing suffering...
Look an infinite God can have infinite reasons for allowing suffering to exist, even if you can’t see 1. For example suffering can help us learn compassion and empathy. You can’t learn compassion and empathy until you suffer situations where you need compassion and empathy. Suffering at a funeral can helps us sober up, reset our priorities, teach us to cherish life more. Suffering can also help us grow in our faith and dependency on God. You can’t grow in faith and dependency on God, if you’re never in situations that require you to have faith and dependency on God. Even atheist evolutionists believe there’s a reason for suffering, it’s to help the human species evolve. In the words of Tim Keller, “Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God would allow something to happen, doesn’t mean there can’t be one.”
#3 What’s God doing about it? = I mean it’s highly probable that an infinite God would have at least 1 good reason for allowing suffering to exist, but that doesn’t comfort us! We want to know what God’s doing about it? And there’s 5 major worldviews when it comes to God’s involvement in creation. Now as I share these ask yourself which one gives you the most hope? Which one gives you the most hope, as you live in a world of suffering and evil?
#1 Materialism = This is the atheist view, and it’s that the material world is all we have. God isn’t involved in creation, because God doesn’t exist. So the only purpose for your suffering, is to help human beings evolve into a stronger species for future survival.
#2 Pantheism = This is a view a lot of eastern religions like Buddhism have. It’s that God and creation are one, meaning the entire universe and everything in it is God. So suffering and evil is God, or is a part of God, which makes God not entirely good. It also means since the universe changes, God changes too, and so do His promises.
#3 Dualism = This is a view most New Age religions have. It’s the Yin and Yang, or The Force in Star Wars. It’s that God and creation are separate from each other, but there’s an eternal conflict between God and evil. Will God win the conflict? Will God win the battle against evil? We don’t know, because neither’s sovereign over the other.
#4 Deism = This is the view that God’s above creation. He’s far greater than creation, but isn’t actively involved in His creation. He’s basically a great watchmaker who created, wound up the clock, and is letting it all play out until judgement day.
Do any of these give you hope?...Do any of these give you hope in a world of suffering
and evil?...Here’s one I believe can give you hope. It’s the 5th one, it’s the Christian message of God’s Transcendence and Immanence. The bible teaches that God’s transcendent, meaning He’s far greater than creation, He’s set apart from creation. But it also teaches He’s very immanent, He’s very involved in His creation. We see this being played out in Genesis 1-3. We see God’s transcendence in creating the world and His immanence in being actively involved in the world. What we should marvel over is how much God’s actively involved in the lives of Adam and Eve.
Ch 1 = God created humanity and said it was very good.
Ch 2 = God graciously warned them about sin, suffering, and death.
Ch 3 = Things go from very good to very bad, when they didn’t trust God.
vs 8 = God doesn’t abandon them in their sin, He shows up to care for them in their sin.
vs 9-13 = God gives them chances to repent, but they blame instead of repent.
vs. 14-24 = Since God’s holy He doesn’t ignore their sin. Instead He allows them to feel
the consequences of sin, while assuring them of His love and a future hope.
vs 21 is where He assures them of His love by covering them up with clothes.
vs 15 is where He assures them of a future hope that things won’t always be this way,
because Jesus is coming to restore all things. Vs 15 says, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel,” meaning Satan will strike Jesus’ heel on the cross. But the cross and resurrection will be a fatal blow to Satan’s head and his plans.
We’re barely 3 chapters into the bible’s story and already we’re seeing God actively involved in His creation! He loves His creation and He loves you! He wants a friendship with you! In vs 8 it says God was walking in the garden, the word walking is a Hebrew expression for relationship, for friendship. They walked away from God in sin, but God was walking toward them in friendship. Sin is us walking away from the God who wants to have a friendship with us...Sin is us walking away from God, but grace is God walking toward us...Jesus is our God who walked toward us...He walked toward us, went to the cross for us, and did it to offer us grace and friendship. When we walk in relationship with him our sins are forgiven, and he starts to reverse the curse of sin in our hearts that’s destroying our lives and relationships. He doesn’t force us to change, he leads our hearts to change. Some people want a world without suffering, but what they’re asking is for God to force our hearts to change. They’re asking God to take away all human freedom, choice, and responsibility. It’s like we want freedom, we want to be in control, we want to be our own gods, but then again we don’t. We can’t make up our minds! But with Jesus we have a God who’s sovereignly in control of this world, while giving us free will and responsibility in the world, as he offers his grace and friendship to the world. He doesn’t force us to change, he lovingly leads our hearts to change, as we walk in friendship with him.
The Big Idea:
So the big idea is that our world is broken, but God’s still working in our broken world... And if your suffering, what you need isn’t a theological answer, it’s hope. What we all need is hope...The Christian message is that Jesus came to give us that hope, and his resurrection proves he really can reverse the curse of sin and death. So even though you don’t know the exact reason you suffer in life, you can know Jesus who came to suffer for your life. You can walk in friendship with him by believing he died for your sins on the cross, then one day you’ll rise in joy with him, exhaling your final breath of sin and death. If you walk in friendship with Jesus you won’t know exactly what your suffering means, but you’ll know exactly what your suffering doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean he’s abandoning you in your sin and suffering. Instead he loves you, cares for you, and has a joyful future plan for you. If he didn’t, then why would he have died for you?