Sermon Tone Analysis

I love a good movie or a TV show… I just do.

I’m a bit of a movie buff.

Pretty much any genre is ok for me… not a huge chick flick kind of guy… but I’ll even occasionally watch one of those with Beck.

But probably, my favorite thing about movies, or a TV show, or really, storytelling in general is when they throw in a plot twist that you never saw coming.

You know what I’m talking about?

Perhaps the first time I ever remember watching a movie that had a major plot twist… I was just a kid… and I was watched this for the first time…

*PLAY VIDEO*

Do you remember watching The Empire Strikes Back the very first time?

Do you remember the moment when you heard those 5 words?

Do you remember the shock and awe that those 5 words brought?

Those 5 words that completely changed the trajectory of the movie.

No, I am your father.

Two weeks ago, we began a series called Align… and the idea behind this series is to step back, and take a big picture look at the story of the Bible… and to make sure our beliefs and lives are positionally aligned to that big picture.

Two weeks ago, we began by talking about creation… last week, we talked about the fall.

This morning is the plot twist.

In Star Wars, 5 words changed the trajectory of the film series.

Today, we’re going to see 5 words that changed everything in the story of the Bible.

If you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, turn with me to Genesis chapter 3. We’re going to begin this morning by recapping the last two weeks and seeing how these 5 words are peppered throughout the story.

Genesis 1, God creates, He orders, He organizes, His fills all of creation in such a way that mankind can flourish.

And in creation we see that we are to flourish in 3 different areas.

We are to flourish in our relationship with God.

We are not only physical creatures, but we are unique in creation in that we are spiritual creatures as well.

We are to flourish in our relationships with one another.

The other day, I was in the car with Jude, and he pointed out a huge flock of black birds.

They were flying around together in a pattern, zooming this way and that.

And I took that opportunity to explain the Biblical truth that God designed His church to do the same thing.

That God intends for us to do life together.

That’s harder for some of us who are naturally shy, or naturally more private people… but that is God’s intention for us!

And we are to flourish in our relationship to creation.

We are to take care of the earth and subdue it.

We are to work and do our part in society.

That’s basically the Genesis 1 & 2 story.

But it doesn’t go so well… does it.

We’re designed for these relationships, but in Genesis 3, something happens… we talked about this last week.

The fall happens… Mankind breaks the covenant that God makes with them.

Here’s this beautiful creation… roam free… do what you like… except for one thing… don’t eat the fruit from that tree.

The serpent comes along though and says… God only said that because He doesn’t want you to be like Him… Being able to decide for yourself what’s good and evil.

And so, Adam & Eve disobey God.

Their covenant is broken.

And the fall pervades throughout all of creation and all of humanity, impacting every relationship that God created us for.

But today is about those 5 words that changed everything… right?

We see a foreshadowing of those 5 words in Genesis 3. Right after the fall, God is pronouncing the curse upon Adam, Eve, & the serpent.

Look at these 5 words in Genesis 3, verse 15… This is the curse upon the serpent…

Those 5 words foreshadow the 5 words to come.

We already see that redemption is in the works.

Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden… cut off from the tree of life.

Evil continues to pervade throughout humanity.

Cain kills Abel, Lamech commits murder and dares God to do anything about it… Evil just continues to spread until we get to chapter 6 where God says…

All of humanity has just become totally wicked, so I’m going to start over.

He sends the flood… and as we saw in week 1, Through His Spirit, God resets creation in chapter 8. God, then, makes an amazing commitment… I will never again wipe everything out with a flood and reset it.

Of course, the fall continues to pervade… Chapter 11, They build a tower to become their own Gods.

If you look at chapter 11, literally what they say is… We don’t want to do what God wants, so we’ll build a tower to reach the heavens and become our own gods.

Just like in the garden of Eden… We want to decide for ourselves what is good and evil.

We continue to see that mankind will always break the covenant of works.

Mankind will never be able to uphold our end of a covenant with God.

We just can’t.

We are totally depraved.

That was the point of last week.

Then we come to chapter 12.

In chapter 12, God makes a new covenant… a covenant with Abraham.

But this time, the covenant doesn’t depend on Abraham at all.

The Abrahamic covenant is an unconditional covenant.

Meaning, God is binding himself to the covenant, regardless of what man does.

We’re going to see 5 more words in this covenant… they’re still not our main 5 words… but again, they are more foreshadowing.

Look at Genesis chapter 12…

And I will bless you.

The covenant of works that we see in Genesis 1 was… Do this and you will live.

Well, since mankind is totally depraved, and could never ever keep that covenant… what is the result?

Misery… Punishment… Death.

This covenant that God makes with Abraham has no stipulation on Abraham.

It’s just simply… I am pouring my favor out upon you because that’s my will.

I will bless you… so that, the world may be blessed through you.

And so, God does exactly what He promises… He gives Abraham a land… He makes him into this great nation, the nation of Israel, for the purpose of blessing the world.

But these people that God has entered into this covenant relationship with still have this sin problem… They’re still totally depraved.

In fact, by the end of Exodus, Moses, who is the representative of Israel, cannot enter the presence of God at all.

Because God is holy, He cannot have fellowship with sin.

So God takes the tribe of Levi… one of the ancestors of Abraham… the Levites… and makes them into priests, to oversee sacrifices to God for the people.

This is outlined for us in the book of Leviticus.

There were at least 5 main types of offerings in the sacrificial system… All meaning and representing different things.

We’ll just talk about 2 of them very quickly.

The first half of Leviticus 5 teaches about the Sin Offering.

When a person came to an understanding that they were guilty of sin, they were to bring an unblemished animal to be sacrificed.

This sacrifice would be led outside the camp, because since it was a sacrifice for sin, sin had no place in the camp… so it would led out of the camp, it would symbolically die in the place of the people, and the blood and the fat placed on the wood altar.

This animal became an atonement for sin.

Atonement is word that means… it covered their sin.

The second half of Leviticus 5 teaches us about the Guilt Offering… or the Trespass Offering.

This offering was a way of saying… Listen, we’re not aware of how we have trespassed against you God, but we understand that we are a sinful people, so for any unintentional sins that we have committed, we ask for your forgiveness.

And again, an animal symbolically dies in their place, and becomes an atonement for their sin.

And so, God establishes this system of sacrifices… and by the end of the book of Leviticus… Getting into the next book of the Bible, the book of Numbers… Numbers 1:1 tells us that…

These animals that die in the place of the people… it works.

Moses can now enter the presence of God again.

Because of the atonement for sin, the people are considered pure and right with God.

That is… Until they sin again.

And then, guess what happens… another animal must die.

As you could imagine, you really would’ve had to gotten used to the sight of blood if you lived during this time.

And this is how Israel lived for hundreds and thousands of years.

The trajectory of history is this.

God created, ordered, and organized all creation so that our relationship with Him, each other, and creation would flourish.

But we mess it up… we won’t and we can’t maintain the level of purity and holiness that is required to be in the presence of God.

But God provides a way to be considered pure and holy temporarily by the shedding of the blood of another that is innocent.