Happy New Year! It has been quite a busy week. We took a whirlwind trip to NJ to visit family and then a full schedule of activities when we got back. We ushered in the New Year yesterday by gathering together for worship. What a wonderful gift we have this year (2006) in that there is an extra Lord’s Day in which God’s people can worship together. Let’s use it for His Glory.
Yesterday’s message was from Genesis 2:8-15 and the title was “Heaven on Earth”. As we think about the New Year and new beginnings there will be much hope and many resolutions made. But these resolutions tend not to last past the month. As Christians we have a great hope – Heaven. This hope is assured. And if there was ever a glimpse of Heaven on Earth it was the Garden of Eden. So as we consider Eden, let your hearts be kindled for Heaven.
The Garden of Eden was a special place. It was special because God Himself “planted” it. It was special because it was the most beautiful place with all the delightful and delicious fruit trees imaginable. The Garden of Eden was special because in it God placed the special creature that He had formed, Man. The Garden was the place where God spoke to Man, fellowshipped with him and where man was able to dwell in God’s presence without fear or shame. After the Fall, God placed two cherubim with flaming swords to guard the entrance to the Garden – no man ever again would enter into this beautiful and wonderful place. We do not know where Eden was located (God through Moses only gives us a general idea), but we do know that it was indeed a beautiful place, a special place and a place where God revealed His goodness.
In the Garden of Eden, God provided for Man with every tree that was ‘pleasing to the sight and good for food’. These were provided for Man’s sustenance as good gifts from a good God. But God also planted within the Garden two special trees. The first, The Tree of Life, was a symbol and reminder to Adam that God is the giver of Life and all good things. Adam was able to eat from the Tree of Life and each time he did, he would be reminded of God’s providential care and goodness toward him. The Tree of Life was not the source of Adam’s life – God was. But when Adam fell into sin – the cherubim were placed outside the entrance to the Garden to specifically keep Man from the Tree of Life.
The second special tree was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam already knew about goodness – God had revealed it to him and he had experienced it. Adam knew (2:16,17) that there was a good choice and an evil choice as the fruit from this tree was off limits. But Adam had not yet experienced evil and its deadly consequences. Whereas the Tree of Life symbolized God’s goodness; the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil symbolized God’s holiness and His Moral Law. When Adam sinned – he plunged himself and all his descendants after him into an intimate knowledge of evil.
So, the Garden of Eden had plenty of beautiful trees – displaying God’s goodness, there were the two special trees and there was work (2:15). Work was a part of God’s plan – it was not a curse of the Fall. God wanted Man to work, cultivate and keep the garden to the glory of God. Only after the Fall, did work become toil and drudgery. God gave each one of us gifts that we are to use for His glory – we are to enjoy Him and glorify Him as we go about our work. Make this a New Year’s Resolution: to work and use your gifts God has given for His glory in 2006 more so than you may have done in 2005.
Delightful food, goodness, gratifying work, and a beautiful place to live and have intimate fellowship with God – what happened to it all? It is all gone. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and they were banished from the Garden, banished from God’s presence … until ... Jesus Christ came to redeem His people and all of creation. By Christ’s suffering and death on the Cross; by His securing the victory by rising from the dead on the third day; He has brought reconciliation and peace between God and Man. But with Christ comes a greater place, a more special place, a much more beautiful place, incomparable even to Eden, a place that will not pass away – Heaven.
John paints a beautiful picture of Heaven in Revelation 21 (vs. 2, 11, 19, 21, 23). There is even a river and The Tree of Life is there (Rev. 22:1-2). Like Eden there will be renewed but everlasting fellowship with God (Rev. 21:3-4). And like Eden there will be work in which we will glorify God and enjoy Him (Rev. 22:3-4). This most beautiful and glorious Heaven that we hope for is ours to grasp hold of and enjoy; but only if we enter through the appointed gate. Eden is gone and the cherubim that were guarding the way are gone and in their place – at the gate of the new Paradise – is the One who said “I am the gate, if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved”(John 10:9). The Lord Jesus Christ who brought reconciliation between God and sinners, He is the gate that we must pass through in order to enter this beautiful heavenly Garden and the glorious presence of God. We come to Christ by greatly humbling ourselves, confessing our sin and unworthiness before Him and trusting in Him alone for our salvation. Friends, if you make any resolutions this day, by the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, make the one that will last and give you entrance to this new and glorious future. Those that have ears to hear, let them hear, to the glory of Christ alone.
In conclusion we sang Psalm 16 (selection B in the Book of Psalms for Singing). In this Psalm David paints a glorious hopeful picture of Heaven: “Preserve me, O God, for in You do I trust. My soul to the LORD has said, “You are my Lord. No goodness have I beyond You …My lot You maintain, and the lines fell to me In pleasant lands; I have a good heritage … In Your glorious presence is fullness of joy. Your right hand holds pleasures for me evermore”.
Serve the Lord with gladness this New Year. Serve Him in your work and with your gifts giving glory to Him in all things; keeping the hope of Heaven in your sights. Happy New Year.
Steve
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