Brand New: Man
Notes
Transcript
Introduction: The Complexity of Man
Introduction: The Complexity of Man
As we turn our attention to man, I was taken back this week by how unbelievably complex mankind really is...
We are capable of unbelievable GOOD and simultaneously we are capable of unbelievable BAD.
As I’ve watched the Olympics this week, I’ve seen unbelievable good.
Last night I watched a group of women run the full length of a football field in under 10 seconds.
I watched a man swim 29 laps in an Olympic-size pool the length of 15 football fields and still have enough energy to swim the last 50 meters of the race in 27 seconds.
I also watched this week as men and women both Christian and non-Christian who have told me that we should support police, mock police because they didn’t come down on the right side of the political wall.
This week, I’ve heard stories of men demanding women abort their children because they aren’t ready to be fathers.
This week, I’ve heard stories of mothers who have lost their sons to gun violence in our city and I’ve heard their voice shake and quiver as they try to wrestle with the loss.
In other words, I’ve seen the GOOD that we are capable of and I’ve seen the BAD of our brokenness.
Man is truly complex because in one sense we are unbelievably special and capable of so many great acts and exploits and yet we are also unbelievably sinful and capable of really sad and broken acts.
Today we want to peel back the layers on that complexity because in that complexity we truly begin to understand why we so desperately need a Savior.
How It Started
How It Started
Man Was Created In His Image and Likeness...
Man Was Created In His Image and Likeness...
The first thing we hear about man in the story of Creation is that they were given the glorious distinction of being created in God’s image and likeness.
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.
Both man and woman, He created in His glorious image. What exactly should we take that to mean?
It means that out of all the creatures roaming the earth, we are most like Him.
Now please be careful with my words, I did not say we are Him nor did I say that we are equal with Him in any way. I said out of all of the creations in His created order we are most like Him.
God possesses what are known as communicable and incommunicable attributes.
The incommunicable attributes are those that God alone possesses: His OMNISCIENCE (knowing everything) and His OMNIPRESENCE (He is everywhere).
We will never have a point of reference for those attributes. We’ll never know what it feels like to know everything or be everywhere. Only God will.
However, God does also have communicable attributes and being made in His image and likeness means we are able to carry those attributes in real and concrete ways.
The Late Great Theologian Louis Berkhof separated those communicable attributes into three groups:
intellectual attributes: knowledge and wisdom - We carry the ability to reason, think, and make informed decisions in a way that NO OTHER CREATED BEING is CAPABLE OF
moral attributes: goodness, love, grace, mercy, longsuffering, veracity (including faithfulness), holiness, righteousness - We carry the ability to consider matters of morality and weigh them rightly. We can sense righteousness, justice and injustice, and right and wrong
volitional attributes: the sovereign will of God and the sovereign power of God - MORE CONTROL OF OUR ACTIONS than any other being on the earth.
Without man, there are no trains, there are no skyscrapers, there is no internet, there is no FB or Twitter…
Without man, there is no Sistine Chapel nor is there a Marvel’s Avengers
Without man, there is no Mozart’s Requiem nor is there a Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
Without man, there is no sweet potato pie. Neither is there a chicken sandwich war between every single restaurant in American that Chick-Fil-A STILL wins hands down!
All of this exists as a result of God creating us in His image and likeness...
Can you imagine a pack of dogs in a writers room banging out the scripts for the Avenger Movies?
Can you imagine a clowder of cats in the kitchen whipping up a 5 star seven course meal?
Can you imagine a school of fish coming together to draft the U.S. Constitution
Of course not…that’s what it means for man to be created in the image and likeness...
Which leads me nicely to my second point…BECAUSE we were created in His image we were given a special mandated...
Man Was Created To Have Dominion over Creation...
Man Was Created To Have Dominion over Creation...
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.”
As image bearers, humanity was given the mandate and designed to RULE and SUBDUE the rest of creation...
To be its caretakers: To tend to it…plant, water, and reap
To fill the earth with image bearers and to work and cultivate the earth in order to fill every corner with beauty, fruitfulness, and goodness.
And to do so with a smile on our faces and joy in our hearts.
You see all of this in the 2nd chapter of Genesis...
Verse 15 Adam is placed in the garden to work it and keep it.
Verse 19 God brings all the animals to Adam for Him to name them.
Verse 18 God says it is not good that man should be alone and in Verse 21 He creates a suitable partner to come alongside in aid in establish order, beauty, fruitfulness, and goodness in the world while developing community, intimacy, and connection.
This was mankind’s design and mankind’s calling.
This is what separates man from all the other creations in the world.
It’s this that the Psalmist has in mind in Psalm 139 Verse 13-14 when he declares:
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
This is what makes mankind special, but here is the question for us this morning...
What happened?
Genesis 3...
How It Going
How It Going
1 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.”
What’s amazing about this story is not just what they went after but what they left behind in order to go after what they went after...
Remember what God has given them…A LIFE FREE OF SUFFERING, FREE OF PAIN. A LIFE OF DOMINION AND REIGN OVER ALL OF CREATION, A LIFE FILLED WITH OPPORTUNITIES TO CREATE AND CULTIVATE BEAUTY, FRUITFULNESS, and GOODNESS in the WORLD.
They had everything but one thing...
This tree…not don’t get lost in the details about the tree because the story is about far more than the tree.
What the tree represents is authority and submission.
In other words, God gave them everything He possibly could give them and yet there was one more thing that they wanted.
AUTONOMY from Him! They wanted to be their OWN GOD! You see it as clear as day in verses 4-6
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.” 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.
The one thing they didn’t need was the one thing they had to have. And that one thing cost them everything...
APPLICATION: I can’t even begin to describe how often this story plays out in the human story. Give us everything and we’ll still fight for this one thing: To rule and reign as we see fit. Give us everything and we’ll still ask for the throne.
Give us community, Give us family, Give us provision, Give us the privilege to be loved and we’ll throw it away for the crown.
We want to rule as our own god...
As you survey your own life, can you find places that God has given you more than enough and yet you’re willing to throw it away because you want the ability to do things your way? If you can’t you’re probably not looking hard enough because that is the human experience!
ILLUSTRATION:
INFANT: Have you ever watched an infant with a room full of toys be totally unbothered until another kid shows up in the room and starts playing with a toy. It can a be a toy that wasn’t even on that first kids mind. Wasn’t even on his radar but now all of sudden he just HAS TO HAVE IT! That’s an inheritance from Adam...
TEENAGER: Have you ever watched a teenager no matter how much rope you’re given. No matter how much freedom and latitude their given…continue to reach and stretch for more? That’s an inheritance from Adam
ADULT: Have you ever watched an adult with practically everything still step on somebody to have one more thing than they had before? They have a great job and yet they’ll lie, cheat, and steal to get the next big job. They have a great life and yet they’ll squander it in search of another life, even one that they can’t see DOESN’T EXISTS? You ever been that adult? That is an inheritance from Adam.
With literally everything in their grip, they opened their hand and let it all slip out in order to reach for one more thing. God’s THRONE. The ability to be my own god.
Watch what happens...
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. 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. 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.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Death Begins
Death Begins
Notice what happens…THEY IMMEDIATELY BEGIN TO DIE AS GOD PROMISED THEY WOULD in Chapter 2 verse 17...
Now upon first look, you may read and say well they didn’t actually die, but if you do that then you miss the very concept of death.
DEATH is reality that takes place over time…
DEATH includes the entry of pain into this world,
DEATH includes the entry of struggle into this world
DEATH includes the entry of suffering into this world
DEATH includes the entry of dying into this world
My father had a saying that he started sharing with me in my early adult years and in his middle age adult years.
“Son, I’m now living everyday and dying every day.”
It’s a sober reality, a truth we don’t want to hear but it is inescapable.
ILLUSTRATION: If you’ve ever watched a great NBA or NFL football player than you’ve witnessed what I’m talking about. There was a period of time where Michael Jordan played as a player who was becoming the greatest basketball player that ever lived and there was a period of time that he played as the greatest basketball player that ever lived.
However, because of Adam’s inheritance, Michael Jordan could never continue to play at the level of the greatest basketball player that ever lived.
Of course, Michael Jordan is still alive but his body started to die! And I’m not just hating on Jordan. That’s Lebron, that’s Peyton Manning, that’s Tom Brady, that’s some of you…that’s ME.
WE CALL IT GETTING OLD! The increasing inability of our cellular and molecular structures ability to reproduce itself.
It is part of the inheritance of DEATH. The inheritance we received from the first ADAM.
And why did we receive it because Adam and Eve sinned.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The payout for transgression against God is DEATH and not just the temporal natural version of death but the permanent eternal spiritual version of death.
When we make decisions to turn away from God, to a sort of self-governance. WE ARE CHOOSING DEATH…This is what Adam and Eve chose. And this is what we choose when we follow them...
Two reasons why death is the result of our forsaking of God…We see both of these reasons in Genesis and in Romans
1st Reason Sin Cause Death: SIN EARNS GOD’s WRATH
1st Reason Sin Cause Death: SIN EARNS GOD’s WRATH
Genesis 3 shows that God brings Judgment upon Adam and Eve because of their sin…The question is it that serious?
ILLUSTRATION: My moment of childhood theft...
Returning it with no penalty...
I was super young...
The candy wasn’t that much...
I didn’t stick anybody up…no armed robbery moment
The weight of judgment should be a reflection of the weight of the crime...
Let me give you one more example...
ILLUSTRATION: What do you think would happen if after service when you met me in the parking lot, beat me up, and took my wallet...
Let me change the equation slightly...
What do you think would happen if after service when you met me in the parking lot, beat me up, and took my wallet...
Which brings me to the point of God pouring out wrath?
In order to understand the weight of judgment you have to understand the weight of the crime?
If you rebel against me, a fallible man, a fallible sinner, maybe the punishment is not that significant...
but if you
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
2nd Reason Sin Cause Death: SIN CREATES SEPARATION
2nd Reason Sin Cause Death: SIN CREATES SEPARATION
Adam and Eve faced God’s Judgment in the Garden but they faced his judgement in a particular way for trying to embark on a life where God played 2nd fiddle to their desires, passions, and wants. What was that?
Separation
24 He drove out the man, and 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.
They wanted to live a life free of God’s OVERSIGHT, but instead they were given a life FREE of God’s PRESENCE...
Sin separates us from God...
Sin separates us from God...
2 but your iniquities 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 don’t understand the significance of separation from God because we don’t quite understand all the ways in which God is holding everything together even in sinful world.
Whatever TRUE PEACE we know in this world, we know because God is present.
Whatever TRUE HOPE we know in this world, we know because God is present.
Whatever TRUE LOVE we know in this world, we know because God is present.
Whatever TRUE BEAUTY we know in this world, we know because God is present.
But what happens when he removes his hand...
ILLUSTRATION: When light leaves the room, what happens to the room...
When God leaves a place what happens to the place...
Hell is the full manifestation and realization of that separation...
Hell is an everlasting ruin, a decay, crumbling, retreating into yourself, a loss of all rationality and joy, a plunging into misery. But, it’s a self-plunging. It’s a gnawing and an ache, but it’s oriented inward, downward into the abyss.
It is, in one sense, the opposite of heaven. Heaven is this ever-increasing, further up, further into joy, into God, into life. Hell is the opposite of that. It’s an everlasting movement away from God.
26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’
You can’t leave the source of life to find life.
IN GOD IS LIFE...
OUTSIDE OF GOD IS DEATH...
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,