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I've always had a little bit
of a intrigue where it comes to Vincent van Gogh and his paintings. They just seemed really amazing
to me. And I had the privilege of being
able to listen to a discussion with a Vincent van Gogh scholar. And there was some things that
were brought out in that discussion I just thought, I want to bring
them out today because they really remind us of what we're going
to be looking at in Genesis chapter 2. If you were to go to Amsterdam,
you would buy a ticket to the Vincent van Gogh Museum. You
would wait in line for hours. You'd walk into the museum and
the centerpiece, the masterpiece in the middle of the museum is
van Gogh's The Potato Eaters. There it is there. You can't
see it as good as you need to on a screen. You have to see
it in a painting. The unique impressionistic style of Van
Gogh influenced – it was still representational of what he saw,
but his style influenced the art world in a greater way than
he could ever imagine. If you were looking at this painting
in front of it, you would see broad brush strokes rather than
fine, fine lines. You'd see vibrant colours. And if you were to have an overall
view of the over 900 paintings that Van Gogh painted, you would
often see depictions of scenes in the raw reality of life. Van
Gogh had a way of depicting the harsh realities of life using
the medium of art, beauty, colours. lines. He captured the poverty
of people, these are coal miners, a coal mining family, on a diet
of potatoes and he captured that on a canvas with the beauty of
and creativity and masterful use of colour. Colour was a big
deal for him. He was able to portray the ugliness
in a medium of beauty. Even himself, even in his own
life, he was remanded in an asylum for a period of time, painted
over 100 paintings there. I mean, the man was in a bad
way. He cut his own ear off. And he was able to paint the
brilliance of joyful colours of irises in the reality of his
own pain. The beauty of art for Van Gogh
was proof for him that there was a glory beyond this world,
a transcendent God of absolute beauty and glory. Now, when we
use the word transcendent, because I'm going to use that word a
bit this morning, transcendent and imminent. And when we use
the word transcendent, we mean something that is above us. above
us, beyond us. When we use the word imminent,
we're meaning something that is close to us, with us, around
us. So they're kind of two dimensions,
transcendent and imminent. Depicted in artwork like Van
Gogh's, there's often the harsh reality of life in a Genesis
3 world, and yet the beauty in the presentation of it that has
you longing for something beyond it, something transcendent. Actually,
when you walk out into our hallway through to the Fellowship Hall,
you're going to see another painting there that does much the same thing.
When you and I see beauty and creativity right alongside harsh
reality, we long for the beauty and glory, don't we? Because
we understand the harsh reality of this world. We long for the
beauty and glory. We know that this world can't
possibly satisfy our longing, so we search for it. And it becomes
our life search, but the absolute beauty and glory we long for
really is beyond us. It's transcendent. What we want
is for the true and absolute goodness and glorious beauty
to not just be so transcendent, but also imminent. Now, if we
had that unblemished beauty and glory, we'd probably call it
by a particular word, paradise, wouldn't we? Isn't that our identification,
isn't that our definition of paradise? Living in unblemished
glory and beauty and goodness. Yeah. Yeah. We have a longing for it, much
like the longing portrayed in a Van Gogh painting. As we probably
come into Genesis 2 this morning, we're going to engage with unblemished
beauty and glory. something that we don't know
around us today. We're going to look at Eden,
the garden, and we're gonna have this longing for paradise. And this morning, I want you
to know that there is real, there is true hope for it. You can
have real hope of this. And so, let me put this to you
today, that the hope of paradise is made possible in Christ, who
restores transcendent glory in our imminent reality. The hope
of paradise is made possible in Christ, who restores God's
transcendent glory in our imminent reality. Now, I'm hoping to explain
that statement as we progress through Genesis 2, and as we
approach this chapter, it's helpful to know what Moses, the author,
is doing. Moses, after Genesis 1, is actually
taking a step back, and he's giving us much more intimate
detail on the creation of Adam and Eve in the garden that was
made for them. Now, I know we've already seen
something of God's power, His amazing power and glory in Genesis
1, but this morning I'm asking you to notice how personally
and intimately God created us to be His with Him in the garden.
I'm asking you to see God's intimate, personal love and care in creation
of humanity. In these verses, let's start
in verse 4 to 7 as we look at this setting. Genesis 2 verse
4 to 7, these are the generations of the heavens and the earth
when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens, when no bush of the field was yet in
the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up. For the Lord God had not caused
it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. And a mist was going up from
the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then
the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a
living creature. As we come into this description
of this garden first, can we just consider this about us being
created and put into this garden, that we are physically humans,
we are physically and spiritually dependent on God who intimately,
intimately created us. Now as we go through Genesis
we're going to see Moses, actually he's going to break the book
up, in like 10 sections, and those 10 sections are basically
genealogies, and that's where you get this word generations.
It's like lines of descendants. The first one in the beginning
is in Genesis 2 verse 4, and you see these are the generations
of the heavens and the earth. In the word translated as generations,
it's the Hebrew word toledot. It's like a genealogy. In every
other genealogy that you are going to see this word in Genesis,
in the book of Genesis, there's a person named. This is the generation
of and it'll name a person. In chapter 5 we're going to see
the generations of Adam and then Noah and then Shem and then Terah
and then ongoing. They show who the genealogy comes
forth from but We have to ask a question in
this very first one. Who do Adam and Eve come from?
Who do Adam and Eve come forth from? Well, God created humanity. They come from God, who created
them out of the dust of the earth. So this generation is the generation
of the heavens and the earth by which God created human beings
and put them into this garden, created them out of the dust
of the earth. So the big point here is that we are looking at
the first generation of humanity in the creation. There is nothing
before Adam and Eve, no humanity before Adam and Eve. creation
and this whole chapter particularly focuses in on their creation
origin in intimate detail and we're not going to be able to
miss God's personal intimate creation of humanity. Moses also,
it seems, wants us to know that we are considering a world that's
very different to the world that we know, that the world that
the first recipients of Genesis would know, the Israelites in
the wilderness coming toward the promised land, it's a very
different world to what they know. Let me remind you, when
we were in Genesis 1, we spent five or so weeks in there, we
were looking at the consecutive order of creation in God, progressively
creating in readiness for the pinnacle of creation to be placed
into creation, and that was mankind created in God's image. Every
aspect of creation along the way we saw was pristine, wasn't
it? God calling it good. and valuable for life. There
is the heavens and the earth, there is sky and earth, there
is atmosphere, there is sea, there is land, there is light,
stars and moon for navigation and seasons and times and vegetation,
all perfectly prepared for the pinnacle of creation on day six,
humanity. So Moses is referring to that
creation as God is going to create humanity and put Adam and Eve
into this creation. The perfect environment for the
beginning of humanity in fruitful provision. But it's not like
the creation that the Israelites would have experienced in the
wilderness. It's not like the creation that you and I experience
today. And Moses says it in a particular way. He says, when no bush of
the field was yet in the land, no small plant of the field had
yet sprung up. Some people come to Genesis 2
and they look at this and say, hang on, didn't God already make
the plants on day three, right? So why is this here? Is there
a contradiction? And some liberal scholars particularly
try to use that to say these are two separate, different creation
accounts that contradict each other. That is absolute nonsense. We actually get the answer to
this in the actual text. The explanation is very simple,
what God is referring to. Verse 5 tells us there's no bush
of the field, or plant of the field, and he tells us why there
wasn't, because God had not yet caused it to rain on the earth
and there was no man to work the ground. Do you see that?
If you don't read the whole thing, you miss the point here. We're
not talking about all the amazing vegetation already created here. We're talking about agricultural
farming, crops being planted in the field, grown through human
effort and ingenuity. That hadn't happened yet. There
was a time when Adam and Eve had every provision they needed
in the garden, even before the development of crops in a field.
And so the statement is pretty much simply saying this. This
is not the world that you know. Because what we know, all of
us, is we only know working by the sweat of our brow to produce
every bite of food, right? Adam and Eve were created into
a garden of provision, before anything was to be cultivated,
and before there was a need for rain to sustain such crops. And
in fact, God even provided for that. Verse six describes a mist,
or it could be translated spring, of water for this lush, fertile
garden. Imagine already being in that
garden. Do you want to be there yet? Do you want to be there
yet? Now please don't lose focus. because this whole focus in Genesis
2 is God intimately creating humanity. With God still always
as the main character, it's what he's doing. But before we get
to verse 7 in this text, we're reminded that there is this beautiful
and glorious creation, but it cannot be complete without a
caretaker to live and enjoy all that God has provided for his
glory. We do read the words, there was no man to work the
ground. There's something missing. Imagine
a creation full of beauty, full of plants, creatures, all in
God's splendor, and no humanity, no creature with the ability
to exercise care and dominion and fruitfulness in the awareness
and the enjoyment of God who created it in the worship of
Him. So, look carefully at verse 7. Then the Lord God formed the
man of dust from the ground, breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and man became a living creature. Right here
is where we see something of the intimacy with which God creates
humanity. As a creature, God doesn't just
make us or create us, we see this word forms, he forms us
and he uses this word in a wider way with such intimate detail.
God has intimately created his creatures. Now he does form animals
out of the ground too, but we don't get it said in such an
intimate way as this. He forms, molds, and then we
have this statement, he breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life. And so we have this intimate picture, whatever it
means, God fashioning, molding man like a piece of clay, and
we came from the dust of the ground, so it literally was. and giving life in a way not
described for any other creature. They're simply formed and they
live. But mankind receives something
of life directly. Think about this. It's not just
the ability to breathe and have a heartbeat. Some quality and
amazement of life breathed directly by God. Whatever that means. Whatever that means. And I want
to put to you I believe what we are looking at here is the
distinction between humans and animals in the human soul or
spirit, the very life of man given by God. We have life in
a way that they do not have. The Bible consistently talks
about us in terms of not just body, not just creaturely aspects,
but body and soul or spirit. Now if you missed my blog this
week, shameless plug, but it's for a reason. I can't spend time
on that here in the text, so go back, read the blog this week
and where I tried to explain a lot more about the elevated
biblical position of body and soul in humanity, but we are
formed, personally formed by God. with both physical and spiritual
aspects to us. And even this personal forming,
this personal involvement of God, it looks like you could
almost say, well that's just in Genesis 2, that's just in
his moulding and creating and breathing life into Adam and
Eve in the garden, but that's not the way that this is described
in the rest of scripture. I know that's unique in the creation
of the very first human beings, but even the psalmists describe
our own existence knowing that we are a product of even normal
reproductive processes and development in the womb, but even in that,
in all of that, we are intimately formed and given life by God. Listen to Psalm 139 verse 13. For you formed, you, God. Stop here. The first thing we
notice is God formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my
mother's womb. We, even in this room, even through
the normal reproductive process, we are intimate products of God's
doing. Listen, whether any modern philosopher,
psychologist or politician want to admit that or not. Every human is created in the
same personal mould as these first two humans. We are intimately
connected. We're intimately connected as
physical beings to the physical creation because we are physical
creations like all other creatures in that we have physical bodies.
God formed us out of the dust of the earth we see here and
the responsibility we are given as human image bearers of God
is actually within the span. We are contained within the boundaries
of a physical creation. We are not God. We depend upon
our creator as his physical creatures for our physical needs. we're
also connected to God in a way that animals can never be. He breathed, breathed. Whatever God's personal breath
is, I can't explain it, but it's life, it's soulish life, it's
spiritual life, his breath of life, We live in spiritual awareness
as image bearers that there is something more to us. We never
in the Bible hear of animals dying in the scriptures and their
soul departing to be with God. We do of humans. We don't live on instinct. We
live according to living responsibility and life and mind and heart given
to us by God, not just chemical reactions of a body and brain.
We have life reflected in being in God's image, able to live
in his creation in all of its beauty and love and obey God
in a life aware of his glory and beauty and wonder all around
us. Don't skip over the fact that God breathed life into humanity. And let's just realize something.
The entirety of Genesis 2 focuses in on God's relationship with
Adam and soon Eve. their creation, their responsibilities,
their purpose, their roles, all in relationship with their God. given to them by God. This chapter
is God's personal attention and love and care for his image bearers
as the pinnacle of his creation and this personal intimate focus
is seen in different ways. It's seen in the focus of the
text, the personal gift of intimate breathed by God life that we've
talked about but I want to put it to you that we also see it
in the very name of God used in Genesis 2. I want you to notice,
if you remember, in Genesis 1, if you read all the way through
Genesis 1, we see the word for God, which is, we talked about
this word, this Hebrew word, Elohim. It's just translated
in Genesis 1 as God, God created, God, Elohim. Now in Genesis 2,
we see an addition, there's an intimate focus on God's relationship
with humanity, and look at what Moses does in Genesis 2, he adds
in God's personal name known to his people, Israel, the first
recipients of this book of Genesis. And he adds in this word, Lord. Do you see it there? Not just
God, but Lord God. That word Lord in our Bibles
is translated from the Hebrew word Yahweh, the I am. That would be an absolute standout
to the original readers. It should be a standout to us.
This is the name of the God who has covenant relationship with
us. They know this so intimately.
It's not some unnamed God, the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, the
one true God of Israel, the personal God in covenant relationship
with his people, is the one who intimately made, with great care
and love, humanity. Wow. Wow. Okay, so before we
move on, let's consider this for us. Not only was God in all his glory
a transcendent God who creates, But look at this, He is personally,
intimately creating in His creation, putting His breath in us. Can
I just ask this, because we're a church that likes getting as
deep as we can into the richness of the depth of Scripture and
having wonderful talks about theological concepts. Can we
always please remind ourselves that God is not a theological
concept? Can we always please do that?
Even in the importance of getting as rich as we can, as deep as
we can into the text of Scripture, can we please, please remind
ourselves of it's not just God's transcendent
untouchability in the theological concepts of Scripture. Yes, He
is beyond us, He is above us, only God is God, but we are created
to love God. We're created to know him, to
trust him, to obey him, to live with him, enjoy him. And that's
why all through the scriptures we get these personal aspects
of the way that we cry out to God and talk to God. Read the
Psalms, so personal. You hear the yearning of humans
who understand that God is not simply transcendent, but he is
in his beautiful forgiveness and reconciliation with him through
sacrifice, through Christ, he's imminent. And so you have people
crying out, hear me God, incline your ear to me, bless me, heal
me, help me, thank you. Be praised, your love endures
forever. Your praise in this world all
around us should be proclaimed throughout all of the earth. Now imagine, that earth. filled with the glory of God
in perfect condition. Imagine the Genesis 1 and 2 world.
Imagine it for a moment. That's what the next verses describe
further. I want to put this to you. Paradise, it's not just about
the physical aspects of it. Paradise is the enjoyment of
God's beauty and glory and goodness as we serve him in enjoying his
provision and in his presence. Provision and presence. Let me
read verses eight to 15. The Lord God planted a garden
in Eden in the east, and there he put man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord
God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight
and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst
of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a
river flowed out of Eden. to water the garden and there
it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the
Pishon. It is the one that flowed around
the whole land of Havilla where there is gold and the gold of
that land is good, bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name
of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flowed around
the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is
the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river
is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man, put
him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. This text, particularly that
first verse in verse 8, is actually where we get and use the word
paradise. Paradise in the Greek version
of the Old Testament, garden, the word is paradise, so it does
mean paradise. The word for Eden here also comes
from a Hebrew word that many scholars believe comes from the
word that means delicacy or joy. So we're getting a description
straight off of this paradise of delicacy and joy. And look
closely at the describing words in the text. Every tree is pleasant. Do you see that word pleasant?
Pleasant, beautiful. to the sight. Beautiful and good
in provision, good for food. Everything beautiful and full
of provision for humanity to enjoy with the amazing senses
that God has given us, particularly sight and taste we get here,
right? And then in verse 10, he talks specifically about two
specific trees in this garden, the tree of life, the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. We're going to talk more about
those next week, wait for next week. I'll talk a little about
it today, but they're there and there's a river to water the
garden that expands then into four rivers going every direction.
There's oars and jewels in sparkling beauty and future usefulness
for humanity. And in verse 15, it shows everything
there is there for man's use. He is to work and keep it. It's
for usefulness. It's for man's use to discover
and develop and care for and even protect. And all of the
glorious, unblemished beauty and goodness intimately present.
And God is personally and intimately putting man in there where he
is with it. and intimately present with his
creation of humanity in this incredible garden. When God put
Adam into the garden, he put him in an environment where Adam
could use the beautiful and good creation to serve God. And there
was a tree in the middle, the tree of life, would remind Adam
that he is dependent on God for life. This tree reminds me there's
God who's going to give me life. God is my source of life. There's
a tree of the knowledge of good and evil that reminds us that
Adam was to obey and love God. He's to relationally love God
and live for God in that garden. And so Adam was put in paradise
with responsibility to God in caretaking everything around
him, everything he saw, everything he would do, everything he would
enjoy was on the basis of his intimate relationship with God
who provides and sustains all things. I want you to sit back
and just imagine that for a moment. Imagine the wonder, imagine the
beauty, imagine the enjoyment of that. Now I want to put a
concept to you. We're going to finish on this
concept this morning, not just a concept, a reality. When we
think about how wonderful that Genesis 2 picture is, here's
the truth. I don't think you see a lot of
it around you. We see snippets of beauty, don't we? We see snippets
of goodness. God's provision in everything.
But not like Adam and Eve saw it. Not in the unblemished glory
and wonder of Genesis 2. We don't see that world around
us today, only glimpses. In some respects, like Van Gogh,
where we have a constant longing for it. A constant longing. So I want to put this to you.
that sin has made separation from God's transcendent beauty
and goodness. But Christ has fulfilled our
longing. And that's where I want to go in our last time together
here now. You see, instead of depending
on God in the provision of the tree of life, Adam and Eve disbelieved
God in their disobedience with the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. And every week, For the last few weeks, I hope
you've noticed something. We've seen the same thread, haven't
we? God's original intention, God's original glory and wonder
in what he has done, whether it's image bearing, rest, dominion,
whatever it is, mankind's sin, God's redemptive thread through
Jesus to restore that in his creation. That's what we've seen
every week for the last number of weeks. So we're gonna do that
again today. It's no different. And I wanna
look specifically at the last verse of Genesis 3 today as we
think about this. Look at the result of Adam and
Eve's sin in the garden, Genesis 3, 24. He drove out the man. And at the east of the garden,
at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim. and a flaming sword that turned
every way to guard the way to the tree of life." Cherubim,
God's guarding angelic beings, were guarding the way to the
tree of life and the Garden of Eden. absolute separation from the
transcendent beauty and goodness of God. Now, the reality is today
you would say, well where is that? Today there's no place
in the world where we're going to find cherubim guarding the
east entrance to the garden for us to go back in. Why? Well,
we're going to get there but since that time there's been
a great flood It's the whole topography of the earth has been
rearranged, the garden, the rivers, the entrance, the tree of life,
it's all gone, everything. Humanity has been separated from
the transcendent beauty and goodness of God ever since Genesis 3.
That's exactly the way that the prophet Isaiah explains sin. Isaiah 59 verse 1 and 2, just
listen to how he explains it. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dulled that it cannot
hear, but your iniquities, your sin, have made a separation between
you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he does not hear. We have completely in reliance
of God. We're in total reliance of God
to do something about this because we can't. We can't go back into
that garden. It's gone. We can't do anything
to get right with God and come back into his presence. It's
not there. And let me suggest that the original readers of
Genesis knew something about this. because they were given
plans to the tabernacle and to the temple that depicted this
in every way in which they were built. And I want us to finish
by seeing this this morning. The temple and tabernacle were
built in a way that they showed, because of your sin, you can't
come in, but I'm making a way for you to come back. Now you
might ask, how? How is that just even in the
way that the tabernacle and temple is built? Well, look for starters
at some of the features of the temple. I'm just gonna look at
one to start with. Exodus chapter 26, verse one. This is the directions
on building the tabernacle. And as part of these directions,
we hear this. Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with 10 curtains
of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns.
You shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.
Guarding, particularly the Holy of Holies, because of your sin,
you can't come in. Curtains with guarding cherubim
covered the innermost part of the building known as the Holy
of Holies, where God's dwelling presence was. You can't go in
there saying, do not come in here. Nobody was allowed to go
into that place that typified God's dwelling presence with
his people. But there was a way that God would give them to come
back to him. The Israelites knew that once
per year, just once per year, after making careful sacrifice
for themselves, the high priest could take the blood of sacrifice
behind that curtain, sprinkling it on the mercy seat. You see,
through a substitutionary sacrifice, taken behind the curtain, sprinkling
on the mercy seat, Through that substitutionary sacrifice, there
was again a way that God, through that substitution, that punishment
on someone else for our sin, would bring us back into the
dwelling presence of God in his transcendent beauty and goodness. It could only be a picture of
that happening because they had to do it over and over and over
and over again. Always a picture. There's a promise
coming. There's a promise coming. There's
a promise coming. Because of your sin, you can't
go in. But there's a promise coming. Trust in the promise. the Tabernacle and Temple, there
was this picture of the hope of return to an imminent enjoyment
of God's transcendent beauty. But even there, in the way that
it was depicted, it was a picture of that in Israel. They did have
something of God's presence with them. In fact, the picture of
God dwelling with his people in the Temple is garden-like. It's like, hey, here's a picture
of the promise of a new Eden yet to come. I wanted to show
you where we see some of that. Here's one place that we see
it. There's a place in the Old Testament while Israel is going
through the wilderness where a prophet, a prophet of a false
god was attempting to curse them. And God would not allow that
prophet to do that. In fact, the Israelites in the
wilderness were camped as they approached the promised land,
and God stopped that prophet, Balaam, from doing, from cursing
them, and he caused him to actually pronounce blessing instead of
curse. And so as he looked at the camp
of Israel, camped around the tabernacle of God, with God dwelling
in their centre, he described God's people, with their God,
being a picture of a garden. Listen to it, Numbers chapter
24, verse 5 to 7, from the mouth of a pagan prophet. How lovely
are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel, like palm
groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like
aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. Water shall flow from his buckets,
and his seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher
than Agog, and his kingdom shall be exalted." That's just a snippet,
there's more. There's something Edenic-like
in God's people, camped around the dwelling place of their God,
dwelling with their God. They were a living, breathing
pitcher of hope and a return to Eden. because of what that
temple is about, what God was doing through it. The temple
itself represented so many aspects that were actually described
in the Garden of Eden, in the temple itself. If you were to
read all of the descriptions of the temple, and you can go
and read that around Exodus 26, you'd find that its entrance,
the entrance to the temple, was in the east. It was elevated,
the temple, on a mountain. like Eden was, because rivers
flowed from it. Rivers don't flow uphill, folks.
It had candlesticks in it, like trees. The priest's garments
had pomegranates woven into them. The priest wore a breastplate
filled with beautiful gems. Ezekiel, Joel, and Zechariah
all had visions that God gave them of the ultimate temple,
and their visions of the ultimate temple had rivers flowing out
of it. And the duties of the priest, the duties of the priest
around the tabernacle and temple, they were described with two
words. The only other time in the Bible that you see these
two words together. Adam was to work and keep the garden,
and the priests were to work and keep the temple. Could otherwise
be translated as serve and protect. The temple itself, was a constant
reminder of God's promise that he was making provision through
a substitutionary sacrifice for us to again return into his forgiveness
for our sin and enjoy the transcendent beauty and goodness of God in
imminent reality. Where is that fulfilled? What
was it walking to? What is it looking to? Well, coming to fulfilment
of that, we know, don't we? We see it in Jesus, and Jesus
describes it in himself. In John 2, listen to how Jesus
describes it to those who are coming against him. in a discussion
about the temple. In John 2, 19 to 22, Jesus answered
them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it
up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this
temple, they were talking about Herod's temple at the time, and
will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about
the temple of his body. when therefore he was raised,
after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered
that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the
word that Jesus had spoken. They understood what he was really
talking about. Jesus himself was to be the once and for all
sacrifice that would fill all the hope and all the promise
of the temple He is our way back to reconciliation with God and
the enjoyment of His glory. How is that? Well, we know how. It's through His death on the
cross, His payment, His substitutionary sacrifice for sin, and His resurrection
from the dead. We just cannot miss a huge fact
here, okay? What happened when Jesus died
on the cross? What happened? Was there some
type of fulfillment that says, yes, yes, we can now come to
God through Christ rather than this physical temple? Look at
Matthew chapter 27, verse 50 to 51. You remember last week
we talked about Jesus' last words, it is finished, the work is finished,
right? And then look at this, and Jesus
cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit, and
behold, The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth shook. And the
rocks were split. Think about the power of that
event. That's saying to you, listen, there is fulfillment
here. There is powerful fulfillment
that shakes earth and splits rocks. And that fulfilment is
clearly seen in the curtain. No more guarding cherubim. It's
ripped in two. They're not there anymore. Full access. No longer need for
cherubim on the curtains of the temple to remind us that because
of our sin we can't come in, we can't have access to God through
this, through what's happening here, because it's fulfilled
in Jesus. Our access is Him. He is the temple. There is no
longer a need for a priest to sprinkle the blood of an animal
on the mercy seat in the Holy Holies. The once and for all
substitution for our sin has been made. Jesus has fulfilled
the temple as our hope of restoration with God. And in Him is the promise
of a new Eden. In Him is the promise of a new
Eden. What is our way back to paradise? What is our hope of
restoration and access to the unblemished goodness and beauty
of God? Well, here is the way. Jesus said it himself in John
chapter four, verse six. Jesus said to him, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but
through me. He's the way. Jesus is God's transcendent beauty
and goodness made imminent. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is our temple, God's dwelling
presence with us, and the way back to the garden. Well, where
does it all lead? If you have repented of your
sin and you have faith in Christ, if you are in Christ, then here
is where it all leads. Because of Christ, one day, one
day, because he has fulfilled everything, one day he will bring
consummation fulfillment. and we will live in the unblemished
surroundings of the transcendent beauty and goodness of God in
a totally new creation. Let me give you the description
of that from Revelation 22. Then the angel showed me the
river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the
throne of God and of the Lamb. Through the middle of the street
of the city, also, on either side of the river, the tree of
life, with its 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. And by the way, you're going
to notice that there's a tree not in this garden. The tree of the
knowledge of the fruit of evil, knowledge of good and evil, is
not there. Just the tree of life. the leaves of the tree were for
the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything
accursed, but the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and
His servants will worship Him. They will see His face, and His
name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They
will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be
their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Now until that time, that glorious
day for all of eternity afterwards. We're not there yet. But Jesus
has not left us alone. God's dwelling presence is his
spirit within everyone who has faith in Jesus. He dwells in
us. And he dwells in us as a promise
of what is yet to come. Look at the way we read about
this in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13 and 14. In
him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the
promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance
until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. and brothers and sisters, until
we are in that new creation together, we who are in Christ are the
hope of a return to the transcendent beauty and goodness of God. We
are. We have God dwelling in us. Here
is a picture of Eden right in front of my face. Look at what Paul says in Ephesians
chapter two, verse 19 to 22. So then you, this is talking
to the Ephesian church who are in Christ, you are no longer
strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the
saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together
grows into a temple in the Lord. What structure? The church. in Him you also are being built
together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. We're about to go and have fellowship
lunch together, I hope you come. A whole heap of believers in
Jesus, as the temple of the Lord, encouraging each other in Christ,
enjoying his goodness, knowing his forgiveness, living in his
grace and his mercy, holding on to the absolute certainty
of his future hope. We, the church, hear me, wear
a better painting than Van Gogh could have ever realised. We are the picture of the promise
of God in his dwelling presence of transcendent beauty and goodness
in imminent reality. The picture of it, not the consummation
fulfillment of it. We're waiting for that, but we're
saying, hey, here's the promise right here. Come to Jesus with
us. We get to enjoy his beauty, goodness,
and truth right now in Christ in readiness for all of its fullness
when we will all inherit God's future consummation glory. Are you with us? That's the question
this morning, are you with us? And will you be there with us?
Because there's only one way, and it's through Jesus. So let
me leave you with these words that we started with. The hope
of paradise is made possible in Christ, who restores God's
transcendent glory in our imminent reality. Praise God. I hope you live reminding yourself
of that every day. Let's pray.
Our Longing for Eden
Series Genesis - Groundwork of Grace
The hope of paradise is made possible in Christ who restores God's transcendent glory in our immanent reality.
| Sermon ID | 923241113383913 |
| Duration | 47:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Genesis 2:4-15 |
| Language | English |
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