Life In The Garden

Can I just say I love to hear the sounds of children in this room. I'm so serious.

This is a blessing to hear children in a church, and it's a sign of life, and there's no better place for them to be than right here.

And by design, we want families to come here and to worship together, and there's no better place for a child to learn what it means to be a part of the church

and to learn what it means to worship than to be right beside mom or dad or grandpa or grandma and to see them worshiping.

So those little coos and awes don't bother me at all. I love it, and the Lord loves it as well.

If you would, let's turn to Genesis. Open up our Bibles to the book of Genesis this morning.

We're continuing our series in Genesis. If this is your first time joining us with us in a while,

we've been walking through the book of Genesis together, so you've missed a little bit, but not that much

because we're in Genesis chapter 2 this morning. We finished our look at this week of creation,

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

and now we get to see what life was like in the Garden of Eden.

And so our passage this morning is Genesis chapter 2, verses 4 through 17.

Genesis 2:4–17

If you don't have your own Bible with you, that's okay. We provide Bibles in the seat backs,

either behind you or in front of you.

But I would recommend you to have a copy of God's Word open in front of you as we walk through this passage together.

Genesis 2, verses 4 through 17.

Genesis 2:4–17

And when you found it, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word this morning.

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created,

in the day that the Lord God made the earth into 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 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.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east,

and there he put the 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,

and 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 Havilah, where there is gold.

And the gold of that land is good.

Bidellium and onyx stone are there.

The name of the second river is the Gihon.

It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.

And 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 and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,

You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Father, we thank you and we praise you for your word.

And we ask now as we sit under it, God, would you teach us and draw us to Christ?

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

For a brief season early on in our marriage before having kids,

I developed a nightly routine where whatever else I was doing,

whatever I had done during that day,

seven o'clock came and I stopped whatever it was I had to do.

I would find my way to the couch and I would turn on the television

and I would watch Wheel of Fortune every single weeknight.

In fact, I got so into Wheel of Fortune that I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune

and I made my way past several preliminary rounds before I was eventually eliminated.

But that's another story for another day.

If you've ever watched Wheel of Fortune, you know that one of the most painful parts of the show

is when it comes to the very last puzzle and the person is there,

all the pressure of the world is on them to solve that last puzzle

and the time is ticking and then it ends and they haven't done it

and they fail to achieve the prize.

And Pat Sajak does this cruel thing where he makes them look at the prize they could have won

had they succeeded.

Sometimes it's a car, sometimes it's a trip,

sometimes it's a whole bunch of money and everybody in the audience

and everybody watching at home just lets out this exasperated groan

as they look at what could have been.

That's a little bit like how it feels reading our passage this morning in Genesis chapter 2,

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

this picture of a perfect paradise.

It's a picture of a perfect world free from sin.

It's beautiful.

Everything that mankind needs is here.

God is here with man.

It's absolutely perfect.

And it almost hurts to read it because we know deep down

that is how things are supposed to be.

This is what we should be enjoying right now.

But you and I and Adam in our place, we have lost out on the prize.

What we see here in Genesis chapter 2 is a brief glimpse,

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

this window into a perfect world.

This is a brief glimpse of what the world looked like before sin comes in

and wrecks the whole thing.

And we see a brief glimpse of God's design for the universe.

And the big picture for our passage this morning is this.

God created man to enjoy paradise with him in covenant relationship.

That's the big idea this morning.

I'll say it again.

God created man to enjoy paradise with him in covenant relationship.

So let's look at our text and we'll see what was life like in the Garden of Eden.

First, we see life in the Garden came with great blessing.

Life in the Garden came with great blessing.

Look there with me starting in verse 4.

And you notice that it begins with this heading here.

It says,

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.

This is sort of like a header of a new section of the book.

You'll see this over and over and over again as we walk our way through Genesis.

And it's an organizational tool.

That's a good reminder.

It's a good indicator for us that we're entering into a new section of the book.

Which explains in part why we're circling back now to some of the topics that we've already addressed.

And we finished last week, this whole week of creation.

God worked six days in creating the world.

And then he rested on the seventh day.

But now it's like we're going backwards, aren't we?

And we get another look here at the world being formed.

He says,

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.

This is sort of a recap, isn't it?

And you might wonder,

well, why are we coming back to that same material again?

And why does it sound just a little bit different than the first account?

And again, this is just sort of how Hebrew literature works.

It's not linear in a straight line like you and I tend to think.

It's more circular.

It comes back around,

and it focuses in on something in more detail,

or from a different perspective.

That's what we see here.

And the point is, in this section,

is to show us, again, the prize that we should have won.

This is the good, perfect creation that we, by design, are meant to enjoy.

This is what we could have had.

Now, look with me at all the blessings that Adam gets to enjoy here in the garden.

For one, Adam gets to enjoy the blessing of God's design in the garden.

He gets to enjoy the blessing of God's formation of the universe by His Word.

If you remember from chapter 1, we saw that, again, God is the main character of this story.

The Bible begins with God.

He's the focus of the Bible.

He's the focus of creation.

The whole Bible is not about us.

It's about God.

The creation is not about us.

It's about God.

He's the main actor.

And we see Him acting time and time and time again throughout this account.

The plants haven't grown because God hasn't caused it to rain, verse 5.

God forms the man from dust, verse 7.

He breathes life into him, verse 7.

God plants a garden, verse 8.

He puts man in the garden, verse 8.

God makes the trees to spring up, verse 9.

God speaks and He gives commands to the man, verse 16.

It is clear to me that the emphasis here is that this is God's world.

God's at the center of it.

He's the main character of the story, and Adam simply gets to enjoy it.

It's a blessing for man.

He simply gets to receive and enjoy the world that God has made.

But before he can do that, we see another blessing.

Adam gets to enjoy the blessing of life.

Look there to verse 7 with me.

I love this picture of God creating man.

Look there with me at verse 7.

It says,

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.

You know, we should realize that life itself is a blessing

and a gift from God.

Amen?

Life itself is a blessing from God,

an undeserved blessing from God.

We tend to think that life itself is a right, don't we?

Our Declaration of Independence, what does it say?

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that all men have this fundamental right to life and liberty

and the pursuit of happiness, it says.

And while that may be true on a horizontal man-to-man level

between us and God, that is not true.

God does not owe us life.

God does not owe us liberty.

God does not owe us pursuit of any sort of joy or happiness.

All of this is a good blessing and a gift from God.

Every day that we have life is a gift.

We shouldn't presume upon our next breath.

We shouldn't presume upon our waking up tomorrow morning.

And every moment we have is a gift and a blessing from God.

We get to see this clearly here.

We also get to see where man comes from.

This is sort of mankind's origin story here.

It says we come from the dust of the ground.

God has taken mankind like a potter with clay

and molded us as his creation.

There's a song that we sometimes sing here.

It's called,

My Worth is Not in What I Own.

And it's got this line that I love.

He says,

Two wonders here that I confess.

My worth and my unworthiness.

And we see both represented here, don't we?

We're dust.

Our unworthiness is on display here.

We come from the dust.

We're not evolved creatures.

We can't find our origins in anything in the animal kingdom.

That's actually a step too high, isn't it?

We come from the dust of the ground.

We ought to be humbled by this.

And yet, we also see that God has taken us from dust

and he's molded us and he's embedded within each one of us

this undeniable worth.

That every single one of us,

man, woman, boy, girl, child, adult, believer, non-believer,

every single one of us is made in the image of God.

Adam gets to enjoy this blessing of life from God himself.

And then we see that Adam gets to enjoy the blessing of a perfect land.

The Garden of Eden is a perfect paradise for him to enjoy.

We see verses 8 through 14 show us this glorious garden paradise.

Look there with me to verse 8.

It says, God planted a garden.

Just imagine that with me.

God planted a garden.

In my family, when we lived in Myrtle Beach area,

we used to go to Brook Green Gardens.

I can hardly pronounce it.

You know what I'm talking about.

Brook Green Gardens is beautiful.

We love to walk around there and see the plants

and the beauty of this garden.

Man can create some beautiful gardens,

but just imagine God planted a garden.

Man, we see that he caused to spring up every tree that's pleasant to the sight.

It's beautiful to look at.

It's pretty.

It's full of color and life and vibrant.

And it says it's good for food.

It's not just good to look at.

It's good to eat.

Adam could take food whenever he pleased.

Everything Adam needed was right there at arm's reach.

You see, the land was well watered.

You have these four rivers flowing through.

It's full of gold and precious gems.

It's just absolutely beautiful.

You imagine this.

Anything Adam could have possibly wanted or needed,

God had already thought of it.

And he placed it right there for him to enjoy in the garden.

Now, stop for just a minute

and think about how Israel would have responded to this

when they read this account.

Do you remember where they are?

Do you remember where they are when they're receiving the book of Genesis?

Moses is compiling this for them

and they're reading this as they're in the wilderness,

in the desert,

journeying through the desert.

On the way to the promised land.

How would they feel as they read this account

of this lush and beautiful and abundant garden

with all the food they need?

It's green.

It's lovely.

It's pretty.

And they're here in the desert.

Surely they would just groan and feel this sense of sorrow.

How in the world could we have lost all of this?

What happened?

This is what we could have had?

This is what we were made for?

And look how far we've fallen from this state of blessing.

Now to this.

There is this infinite gulf between what Adam enjoyed in the Garden of Eden

and what Israel endured in the desert.

And here as we zoom forward to us a few thousand years later,

that gulf is still there, isn't it?

I don't know about you.

I don't live in a perfect garden paradise.

My life is not perfect.

The place where I live is not perfect.

There's things that aren't quite right.

I don't have everything that I think I need.

There's an infinite gulf between what Adam enjoyed in the Garden

and what we experience, isn't there, in our day-to-day life.

We should read this text

and feel a sense of loss.

This is what could have been.

This is what should be.

C.S. Lewis has this quote.

I'm going to butcher it.

He says something like,

if we find ourselves to have a desire

that nothing in this world can satisfy,

the most probable explanation

is that we were made for another world.

It's the world that we see in Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

We were made to enjoy paradise

in covenant relationship with God, our Creator,

but because of our sin,

we have forfeited our right to the prize.

You know, it's tempting sometimes, isn't it?

When we look at our lives

and we look around at the world that we live in

and we see all the broken things inside of us

and without,

it's tempting for us to blame God for all of that, isn't it?

I mean, Israel did that.

Lord, why have you brought us out into the wilderness

to die out here?

It's tempting for us to look out and to blame God,

but we look at Genesis 2

and an honest reading would show us

that God has designed blessing for us.

God's design is that

we were made to enjoy paradise with Him

in covenant relationship.

But second,

second, what we see here in verses 15 through 17

is that all of this was conditional.

There are conditions

that must be met

for Adam to continue in this garden paradise.

So second,

second, we see life in the garden

came with great responsibility.

Life in the garden came with great responsibility.

Verse 15, look there with me.

He says,

Then the Lord God took man

and put him in the garden

to cultivate it and keep it.

The Lord God commanded the man,

saying,

From any tree of the garden

you may eat freely,

but from the tree of the knowledge

of good and evil

you shall not eat,

for in the day that you eat from it

you will surely die.

God here is very clearly

laying out the conditions here for Adam.

This is the word of the Lord.

Adam's enjoyment of this garden paradise

was conditional.

If he obeys the word of the Lord perfectly,

then he gets to enjoy the blessings

of this garden paradise forever.

But if he disobeys the word of the Lord,

even in one part,

the day you eat of it again,

you shall surely die.

This is the word of God.

And we should realize also,

this is a blessing here as well,

isn't it?

Here before the fall,

here before sin enters the world,

the presence of God

is here with Adam

and the word of God

is there.

They're guiding Adam.

God delivers the word of the Lord

to Adam here

even before sin enters the world.

It's a blessing.

Man from the beginning

is given the word of the Lord.

He is bound to the word of God.

He's governed by the word of God.

He's subject to it.

Here in the beginning,

God declares by his word

for Adam what's good

and what's right.

And Adam is created

with the capacity

to listen

and to obey the word of the Lord.

and the expectation

that he should,

he must do so.

All of this is very good.

It's God's design.

Sometimes the law of the Lord especially,

it gets a bad rap, doesn't it?

And we kind of talk about the law

like it's a burden

and our sin,

especially on this side of the fall,

it makes us say,

well, that's restrictive.

That's too much.

Why can't God just let us do what we want?

But the law of the Lord,

when we understand it rightly,

it's not a burden,

it's a blessing

and a gift.

And we go home this afternoon

and read Psalm 119

and you tell me

the impression you get

of how Israel and David

felt about the law of the Lord.

Blessed are those

whose way is blameless,

who walk in the law of the Lord,

he says.

I will praise you

with an upright heart

when I learn your righteous rules.

How can a young man

keep his way pure?

By guarding it

according to your word.

With my whole heart,

I seek you.

Let me not wonder

from your commandments.

I have stored up your word

in my heart

that I might not sin

against you.

Blessed are you,

O Lord.

Teach me your statutes.

With my lips,

I declare all the rules

of your mouth.

In the way of your testimonies,

I delight as much

as in all riches.

I will meditate

on your precepts

and fix my eyes

on your ways.

I will delight

in your statutes.

I will not forget

your word.

The law of the Lord

is a wonderful gift

for God's people.

I wonder if you love

the word like this

or if it feels

like a burden

to you.

The law of the Lord

here is a blessing.

It's a gift for Adam

and Adam is meant

to live by it.

And again,

if he does perfectly,

if he perfectly obeys

the law of the Lord,

he gets to enjoy

all of these

wonderful blessings.

And we see here

there's a positive command

and a negative command,

isn't there?

There is something to do

and something not to do.

What must he do?

Verse 15.

Literally,

verse 15,

it says,

God put man in the garden

to serve and obey.

And we saw a couple

of weeks ago,

didn't we?

This blessing of work.

Man was made

in God's image

and he's given this task

of filling the earth

and subduing it,

ruling over it

as God's image bearers.

He was meant

to work as an extension

of God's work

in the world.

That's what he must do.

But there's also

this command

what he must not do,

isn't there?

Look there again

to verse 16.

You may surely eat

of every tree

of the garden,

but from the tree

of the knowledge

of good and evil

you shall not eat.

For in the day

you eat of it

you shall surely die.

Now,

we've got to think

about this for a second.

Because there is

something here

in the garden

of Eden,

in perfect paradise,

that man is told

he must not do.

Have you ever thought

about this?

We need to grasp this.

Because for many of us,

our idea of paradise,

if we could draw up

our perfect paradise,

our version of Eden,

it would be that

nobody can tell us

what to do

or not to do.

Our vision of perfection,

our vision of paradise

is that we are

absolutely free

and autonomous.

We are a law

unto ourselves.

Our vision of

a perfect paradise

is that nobody

can tell us what to do

and nobody can deny me

of what I want.

but here in a perfect world,

here in paradise

before the fall,

God tells man,

don't do that.

God,

by his word,

he put boundaries

and limits in place

that are good for us,

for our flourishing

and for our life

that we might thrive

with him in relationship.

He tells the oceans

to go here

and no further.

He tells the sun

to stay there

and to shine.

He tells the stars

to go here

and he tells man,

don't eat of that tree

because the second

he does so,

here's the warning.

All of this blessing

for him

is lost

but not just for him.

Here's what we need

to understand.

This is why this account

matters for you,

for us this morning.

Not just for him.

All of this will be lost

for him

and all of this

will be lost

for us.

Our hope

of enjoying

this garden paradise

with God,

it hangs in the balance

on whether or not

Adam can do

what he's told to do.

And the reason why

is because third,

third,

life in the garden

is defined

by something called

covenant.

It's defined

by covenant.

covenant.

You remember

the big picture

here?

God created man

to enjoy paradise

with him

in covenant

relationship.

Covenant

relationship.

We tend to

complicate this.

It seems like

an overwhelming,

scary topic

to talk about

but really

it's not that

complicated

because everything

that we just

described

this whole time

we've been sitting

here

is what it means

to be in

covenant.

In the Bible

covenants

define

relationships.

And we just

got done with

Valentine's Day.

Right?

All over the world

men and women

are thinking

they need to sit

down and have

the DTR talk.

You know what that is?

They need to define

the relationship.

We need to

come to terms

on how I relate

to you

and you relate

to me.

I need to understand

the relationship here.

Are we boyfriend,

girlfriend?

What is this

relationship that

we're in?

In the Bible

God defines

the relationship

by way of

covenant.

Ligon Duncan

defines it like this.

He says a covenant

is a special

relationship

established

and bestowed

by God

that has

blessings

and obligations.

And it is

of life

and death

significance.

significance.

You may feel

like your

boyfriend,

girlfriend's

situation

is of life

and death

significance.

It's not

quite there.

In the Bible

though,

a covenant

is a special

relationship

established

and bestowed

by God

that has

blessings

and obligations

and is

of life

and death

significance.

And isn't

that what we

see here

in the

garden?

Isn't

that what

we've

just seen?

Here in

the garden

of Eden

we see

that God

has defined

the relationship

between him

and Adam

in what we

call the

covenant

of works.

God

initiates

this

relationship.

God

establishes

the terms.

God

makes

these big

promises.

Eternal

life.

Life

forever

in the

garden.

And God

says here

is what

you must

do in

order to

enjoy

all of

this.

If you

succeed

you get

to enjoy

all the

benefits

of

eternal

life

and

paradise.

But if

you

fail

then

guess

what?

You

die.

But again

not just

you,

not just

Adam,

it's you

and everyone

whom you

represent.

You and

everyone

who descends

from you.

This covenant

here in the

garden with

all of its

promised

blessings

and all

of its

promised

consequences

it

includes

us.

It

defines

our

relationship

with God.

You want

to know

why we're

not in

the garden

of Eden

this morning?

It's

because

Adam

has

failed

in our

place.

You want

to know

why we

don't

enjoy

perfect

paradise

and

in

right

relationship

with

the

Lord?

It's

because

we

are

included

by

natural

right

in

Adam.

Adam

has

failed

as our

representative

and so

now

his

sin

is

our

sin.

His

failure

is

our

failure.

His

punishment

is

our

punishment.

We

don't

enter

the

world

on

neutral

terms

with

God.

We

enter

the

world

in

covenant

with

God

that's

been

broken

already

in

Adam.

This is

bad news.

Is it

not?

This is

bad news.

God

if it

sounds

unfair

to

you

that

we

might

enter

on

negative

terms

with

God

that

we

might

have

no

chance

in

our

own

right

of

earning

our

way

to

right

relationship

with

the

Lord.

Just wait

till I

tell you

about

the

good

news.

The

good

news

of the

gospel

is

that

God

has

made

a

way

to

bring

us

back

into

covenant

relationship

with

him

by

sending

his

own

son

Jesus

as

the

head

of

a

new

and

better

covenant.

So

Jesus

Christ

has

come

to

redeem

what

Adam

has

lost.

This

is

why

we

call

Jesus

the

true

and

better

Adam.

Did

you

hear

what

we

just

sang

moments

ago?

He

the

true

and

better

Adam

come

to

save

the

hell

bound

man

Jesus

is

the

true

and

better

Adam

because

unlike

us

Jesus

doesn't

inherit

Adam's

natural

guilt.

He's

born

of a

virgin.

He's

born

without

our

sin

nature.

And

what we

see

is that

unlike

Adam

and

unlike

all

of

us

Christ

Jesus

has

perfectly

obeyed

the

law

of

God.

Positive

and

negative.

He

has

positively

obeyed

everything

God

commanded

!

And

he

has

avoided

!

Every

temptation

and

every

sin.

He's

tempted

and

tried

in

every

way

as

we

are

yet

without

sin.

And

Jesus

Christ

the

true

and

better

Adam

he

lived

the

perfect

life

that

you

and

I

should

have

lived

!

And

he

died

the

sinner's

death

that

you

and

I

deserve

to

die.

You

want

to

talk

about

unfair?

This

is

unfair!

Jesus

says

how

about

I

take

on

all

of

the

punishment

that

you

have

earned

and

I'll

just

give

you

all

of

the

eternal

life

and

righteousness

that

I've

earned!

How

about

that

deal?

I

will

become

a

curse

for

you

so

that

in

me

you

might

become

the

righteousness

of

God

who

can

be

blessed

in

me

he

says

he

made

him

who

knew

no

sin

to

become

sin

for

us

so

that

in

him

we

might

become

the

righteousness

of

God

all

you

have

to

do

is

simply

repent

of your

sin

and

trust

in

Christ

come

to

him

in

faith

you

know

this

is

why

try

harder

just

this

doesn't

cut

it

does

it

any

sort

of

works

righteousness

I'm

just

trying

to

be

a

better

Christian

I'm

trying

to

better

myself

I

just

want

to be

a good

Christian

person

none

of that

none

of that

works

it

doesn't

cut

it

you

can't

better

yourself

into

paradise

it's

impossible

no

amount

of

effort

you

put

in

will

get

you

one

inch

closer

to

God

why

because

covenant

defines

the

relationship

you

are

either

in

Adam

or

you

are

in

Christ

and

all

of

your

best

efforts

in

Adam

are

worthless

you

must

simply

come

to

Christ

in

faith

and

say

I

can't

do

this

my

greatest

efforts

are

not

enough

I'm

guilty

I'm

a

sinner

and

I

need

you

to

save

me

you

are

either

in

Adam

or

you

are

in

Christ

Paul

says

in

Romans

Romans 5 · chapter mention

chapter

5

therefore

as

one

trespass

led

to

condemnation

for

all

men

so

one

act

of

righteousness

leads

to

justification

and

life

for

all

men

for

as

by

the

one

man's

disobedience

the

many

were

made

sinners

so

by

the

one

man's

obedience

the

many

will

be

made

righteous

he

says

in

Romans

6

23

the

wages

of

sin

is

death

but

the

free

gift

of

God

is

eternal

life

in

Christ

Jesus

our

Lord

church

do

you

want

to

be

paid

a

wage

or

do

you

want

the

free

gift

this

if

God

pays

you

the

wage

that

you

deserve

for

your

righteousness

your

works

we're

toast

and

we

need

the

free

gift

of

eternal

life

in

covenant

relationship

with

God

in

paradise

and

that

free

gift

is

found

only

by

faith

in

Jesus

Christ

the

call for

us

this

morning

church

if

you're

not

a

believer

the

call

for

you

is

come

to

faith

in

Christ

repent

of

your

sin

turn

from

your

wicked

ways

and

put

your

faith

in

the

Lord

stop

trying

to

better

yourself

you

can't

you

need

a

new

representative

not

Adam

but

Christ

Christ

stands

here

with

open

arms

and

says

come

to

me

come

to

me

come

receive

my

righteousness

and

come

receive

eternal

life

by

faith

alone

in

Christ

alone

if

you're

not

a

believer

come

to

Christ

and it's

true that

as

sinners

we look at

Genesis chapter 2

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

and we grieve what we've lost

but as Christians

church we can

look at this passage

and rejoice

at what Christ has done

to give us

in him

a certain

hope of a new

and better

paradise to come

where we

his covenant

people can enjoy

God forever

in paradise

I want to

close this

morning by

reading from

Revelation

we're going from the very

first two chapters

of the Bible

to the very last

two chapters

of the Bible

this morning

and I just want you to

notice again how

familiar this

should sound

this is what

awaits all of us

in Christ

John says

then I saw a new

heaven and a new

earth

for the first

heaven and the first

earth had passed

away and the sea

was no more

and I saw the

holy city

the new Jerusalem

coming down out of

heaven from God

prepared as a bride

!

I was

adorned for her

husband

and I heard a loud

voice from the throne

saying behold

the dwelling place

of God

is with man

he will dwell

with them

and they will be

his people

and God himself

will be with them

as their God

he will wipe away

every tear from

their eyes

and death

shall be no more

neither shall there

be mourning

nor crying

nor pain

anymore

for the former

things have

passed away

and he who is

seated on the

throne

said behold

I am making

all things

new

chapter 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 twelve

kinds of fruit

yielding its fruit

each month

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 of 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

father

we thank you

for sending

Christ

in our place

the true

and better

Adam

who lived

in our place

and perfectly

fulfilled

the law

of God

where none

of us

can

Lord

none of us

can knock

down the doors

of paradise

but Christ

has entered

in on our

behalf

so he says

like he said

to the thief

on the cross

today

if you believe

in me

today

you will be

with me

in paradise

we thank you

for Jesus

Lord

we confess

our sin

to you

and we thank

you that

Jesus

welcomes

sinners

into the

presence

of God

by his

blood

the new

covenant

we love

you Lord

we pray

this in

Jesus name

amen

through