"The Fall of Mankind"

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1 ST. BARTHOLOMEW S ANGLICAN PRO_CATHEDRAL IN THE TOWN OF TONAWANDA The Very Rev. Arthur W. Ward, Jr. + Dean Scripture: Genesis 3 "The Fall of Mankind" 2012 ANGLICAN PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY I returned last night from the second Anglican Provincial Assembly held in Ridgcrest, North Carolina. It is hard to believe that it has been three years since the formation of our new Anglican Church in North America. Since that time our church membership has grown, some 200 churches have been planted and several more new dioceses have formed. Archbishop Bob Duncan who was here at St. Bart's back in January of 2009 to confirm and consecrate this church building has lead the way in making missions, evangelism, and discipleship, and church planting the top priorities for our new Anglican Province. Yesterday, in some closing comments, the Archbishop declared that we have moved out of a church that had 18th century governing structures and no missions agency to a 21st church that is mission driven and minded. While much transpired and we heard incredible speakers a couple things I would like to briefly highlight before we break open the Word of God. Do you know the Anglican Church is growing in Cuba? It soon may be one of our newest dioceses. With only nine believers in 2004, there are now 16 churches with 900 members! Bishop Charles Dorrington from Canada is spearheading the oversight of this new growth. He and his wife have visited the island over a dozen times. They been under house arrest at least once, and detained on several of their visits, but every time God has continued to make a way for them to travel throughout the island to visit these new churches. There is a Christian Revolution going on in Cuba. The communists aren t too happy about it but they are afraid of the people. In fact, the nation made Good Friday a national holiday this past April giving everyone a day off! We heard form Baroness Caroline Cox, deputy speaker of the House of Lords from 1985 to 2005 in London and chief executive of HART - Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust. She shared with us the plight and struggle of Christians, and particularly Anglicans in Southern Sudan, Burma, and Nigeria. Her recent book, "The Stones Cry Out" gives firsthand accounts of the persecution and incredible resilience of the church in places around the globe where believers are experiencing persecution. We indeed are sheltered here in the US from the worse that the world has to offer in terms of persecution. And of course, we heard much on the call of the Church to impact our world for Jesus Christ. The Rev. Dr. Ed Stetzer, an expert on church planting, well known author, pastor and research professor for two leading seminaries in the country, spoke on how the local congregation is the engine of discipleship, church planting and community transformation. So what does this mean for us? One thing is clear, while the Church is growing in many place of the world, while God is at work and miracles are happening, the Western World is not becoming more godly or 1

2 Christ like. Would you agree? We have serious problems in our society today - spiritual, moral, economic, social, intellectual, you name it. And these problems are only symptoms of a greater problem. That problem is revealed to us in Genesis 3. Genesis chapter three tells much about the reasons for the human condition. You see the world is in rebellion against God and the things of God. And if there is one chapter that is a must to look at it is Genesis 3. In fact, the first three chapters of Genesis some of the most important chapters in the entire Bible. They answer questions like, Why we are here? What is our purpose? Where did we come from? How did we get here? Why is their suffering and pain? Why is there death? And it is Genesis three that answers the last two questions. In other words, Why is there such discord, division, disease, and death on our planet? So please turn with me to the third chapter of Genesis. WHY SUFFERING AND DEATH? Gen. 3:1a: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made." Who is this serpent? The Bible tells us in Rev. 12:7-9: "And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him." We don't know why Satan chose the disguise of the serpent though it was said to be the most crafty/shrewd animal in the garden. Certainly, the animal would fit the personality of the devil. Of course, with everything in life being new to Adam and Eve, they would not think it strange for an animal to communicate with them. Gen. 3:1b: "And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden? In other words, "Did God really say?" The number one goal of Satan is to get us to doubt God's Word. Nothing has changed! Satan seeks to get man to distrust God's integrity, goodness, and power. And it all starts by questioning the validity and authority of God's Word. Gen. 3:2-: "The woman said to the serpent, From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die. Here, Eve corrects Satan's distortion of what God said but she in turn, adds a little distortion of her own! She leaves off the word, "freely" indicating that she is starting to think that maybe God is limiting her. And she adds the prohibition of not touching the tree which the LORD never said! (c.f. Gen. 2:16-17) She also leaves out the word, "surely" again indicating that she does not grasp the seriousness of the LORD'S command. Gen. 3:4: "The serpent said to the woman, You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 2

3 What began as a deceptive question turns into a bold faced lie. Maybe upon seeing how Eve responds with a watered down understanding of God's command, the devil feels he can push the envelope even further. And so he turns the LORD's words upside down and tells her that she "surely will not die!" At this point, Eve had a choice. But because she was already faltering in her faith in God's Word, as she pondered the devil's contradiction, she began to focus on the tree. God has given us all freedom to choose between following him or disobeying Him. We are free to choose, but we are free not to choose. And once we make the choice, we cannot choose the consequences. The consequences choose for us. Yes, there are temptations but they don t come from God, the Holy One. James 1:13-15: "Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God ; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." And that is what we find as we continue our reading of Genesis 3. Gen. 3:6: "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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate." The tree had a practical appeal (good for food), and aesthetic appeal (delight to the eyes) and a spiritual appeal (make one wise). It became the ultimate example of how temptation works. We first question God's Word - its authority, its trustworthiness, and its goodness. Then we are pulled away by either doing, having, or being something or someone contrary to God's Word and Law. Recall the 1 John 2:16 warning against "the lust of the flesh (doing), the lust of the eyes (having), and the boastful pride of life (being)." Of course, Eve did not want to be alone in her experience. So she shared the fruit with her husband. Some contend that Eve is the primary guilty party but clearly the case can be made that Adam had the greater responsibility for he was the head of the relationship and his responsibility was to protect Eve and intervene. He did neither. He let her be lead in the wrong direction and the consequences were catastrophic. Gen. 3:7: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." Their nakedness, which had not been an issue before, became for them a sign of their being "uncovered" in their sin. They realized they had done wrong and sought to cover it up with fig leaves. Shame had entered the human experience. What once seemed like a "good deal" went down the drain as the "after effect" of what they had done took root in their minds. Gen. 3:8: "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." The reality of shame increases as what used to be a wonderful sound (the LORD God walking in the cool of the day) became a sound of fear. While the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, this was a new fear - a cowering fear of knowing that the sacred trust and honor of your person and the LORD God had been 3

4 violated. Undoubtedly, the One who is walking in the garden is the pre-incarnate Son of God (ie. the Second Person of the Trinity). Gen. 3:9: "Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, Where are you? He said, I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself. What has been apparent from the Adam and Eve's actions now comes to light in Adam's response to the LORD. Notice that Yahweh speaks to Adam first, again highlighting the fact that Adam bears a greater responsibility for what happened. Gen. 3:11-12: "And He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate. Here we have the classic blame game. Adam not only blames Eve but blames God for giving Eve to Adam in the first place! The first step to healing, to restitution, to forgiveness is admitting the guilt of the wrong done and confessing the sin. Adam did neither but "pointed the finger." Gen. 3:13: "Then the LORD God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. While Eve, in turn, blames the serpent, at least she is honest. She admits to being deceived. As a result of their grave disobedience, Yahweh (Jesus Christ, no less!) pronounces the following judgments: Gen. 3:14: "The LORD God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eatall the days of your life; There will be a curse on the animal kingdom and especially on the reptiles - could this be a reference to the demise of the dinosaurs? Gen. 3:15: "And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel. This judgment however is not limited to the animal kingdom. Since Satan took the form of a serpent and was the instigator in this tragedy, he is a "marked" being. There will be enmity between the fallen angels and mankind. And yet here in Genesis 3:15 we have the promise, we have the remedy for sin! The seed of the woman! The phrase "seed of the woman" is only used here in the entire Bible. All other uses are in reference to "the seed of the man." With no seed of the man present, it is clear that the seed of the woman must come from the LORD God, Himself (ie. the Holy Spirit as revealed in Lk. 1:35.) This is the first prophecy of the Bible. It undoubtedly is a reference to the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ. There will now be a battle between good and evil that will reign until the Kingdom of God is established and "paradise" is restored. And most important, Satan will eventually be crushed by this seed of the woman the Lord Jesus Christ. It is why the Apostle John writes in 1 John 2:1-2: And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." The word, propitiation means taking the wrath and judgment that 4

5 someone else deserves. Jesus took our penalty we justly deserve (death) upon himself so that we could have life! And yet there are still consequences and judgment declared by God: Gen. 3:16: To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, in pain you will bring forth children, Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you. Women will experience super intense pain in bearing children and bringing life into the world and men will "rule" over women rather than be the servant leaders they were called to be. Even with such abuse, women will still seek to please men. The Battle of the Sexes begins right here. Gen. 3:17: "Then to Adam He said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it ; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it. All the days of your life." Gen. 3:18: Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; Gen. 3:19: By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return. The ground itself is now even cursed. Rather than freely being able to eat from the trees in the garden, and rather than being able to freely receive from the LORD; hardship, struggle and turmoil will be the experience of mankind in trying to achieve or obtain anything. The good work which God has given man to do now becomes toil and physical death is the new grim reality of the human experience. Gen. 3:20: "Now the man called his wife s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them." Even in the midst of the LORD God's pronouncement of judgment, His mercy and love is being shown. The fig leaves were man's attempt to cover themselves. We can never cover or atone for our sin. Only Yahweh can do that and He does so by making animal skins to clothe Adam and Eve. However, in order to have animal skins, an animal or animals must be killed. Here is the first instance of physical death - the sacrifice of an animal. This "covering" sacrifice highlights both the seriousness of sin - it leads to death as well as the future sacrifice the LORD God would make on our behalf when the Son of God gave His life on the cross for the sins of all mankind - past, present, and future! The fact is God took the risk - the risk of rejection. And even after we rejected Him, He reaches out to us! That is why the Gospel is called Good News. And it is why we are called to let the whole world until our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ returns! In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, AMEN! 5

THE STORY: FINDING OUR PLACE IN GOD S STORY

THE STORY: FINDING OUR PLACE IN GOD S STORY The Fall Delight The more we know God and his plans the more we will trust and love. Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV) The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the