Paradise Business: A Sermon Based on Genesis Chapter 2

Paradise Business

A Sermon Based on Genesis Chapter 2

This is what the inerrant Word of God tells us. God is the creator of the world and of man. During the first five days, He made the earth and everything that is on it, as well as the sky. On the sixth day, He created man. On the seventh day, He rested after all the work that He had done.

Then, He put his newly created people in a garden paradise, and that place was called Eden. They were naked, but they were not ashamed and they knew no sin. In every way, all was right, all was perfect. And in that perfection, they were given free will so they could choose between right and wrong.

And yes, as I'm sure you all know, they would make an important choice, and there would be consequences, and things would change....life would be different.... "after".

Alot has been said and written, about what the time "after".

Starting in chapter 3 of Genesis...the whole bible is about the time after. All of history is the time after.

But that's getting ahead of thing. And we will get back to that, I promise you

But today we are going to focus on that very brief time we had in paradise BEFORE.....

A time that was a pretty special time. The only time in history in which NOTHING WENT WRONG...EVER. Every moment ...was blissful utopia.

Do you ever imagine what would that have been like? It's really hard to imagine.

The question has made people want to find out first hand..they ask ."Does Eden still exist? Is it still out there, hidden somewhere?"

And throughout time, there have been many attempts to locate Eden based on the Scriptural description. You will still hear a news story now and again about someone today who thinks they have narrowed it down.

And actually, the bible doesn't say it's gone. What it does say is we can't get back into it. So, if the bible is as true as we believe it is. We can't go back. We won't be able to enter it, even if we knew where it was.

So yes, it could still be somewhere, hidden and protected. But the search for it would be in vain.

Most Christian archaeologists, however, think that the garden was probably destroyed in the flood, if it even still existed then.

We do actually know of it's original location, and pretty specifically. More specifically actually that most biblical locations. The bible tells us exactly where it was based on the four rivers that are mentioned. Unfortunately, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, are not in same location as they were before, and yet another of the rivers has long sense dried up and vanished, and the last one, the Pishon, we have never known where it is, not even in the time of Moses. (people have been long looking for it as well because of the gold mentioned to be there in great supply). So even using the Tigris and Euphrates, looking for the Garden of Eden, which would put us today somewhere in southern Iraq, we'd probably be way off!

But still we keep looking for it because we so desperately want to get back there -- and there is pain and suffering and loss in the knowledge that we can't.

As human beings, we are all looking to return to paradise lost. And we do find glimpses of it.

For one pastor online, paradise is Paradise National Park on the southwest slopes of Mount Rainier.

He wrote: "The flowers were so gorgeous this past summer, we invited some friends to go up with us to experience the wild mountain flowers in their pristine beauty. The flowers were all over and up to your knees. You almost feel like it is a high mountain garden, that the sun, water and soil are in perfect balance to create one of the most beautiful paradises for humankind. Or, in the winter after a freshly fallen winter snow, you can cross country ski down to the most beautiful mountain valley you have ever seen, as we did two days ago. On Monday, my day off, my wife and I skied the snow drifted valley and there were no tracks. The Tatoosh Mountain Range was out in all of its perfection, as was Mount Rainier in all of its glory. It would have not been any fun by myself; I wanted someone to share the mountain valley with me and that someone was my wife. The place is paradise. It is rightly named. You can see and feel the Presence of God right there in front of you and around you. Paradise. I know where to find it. Two hours from our front door up on Mount Rainier. Summer or winter. Paradise National Park."

So...from this pastor's description, indeed matches the biblical description...

• Paradise is a place of enormous beauty.

• It's a place where you see and feel the Presence of God.

• It's a place you want to share

• There is an absence of conflict, pain, and evil.

• And in paradise, your heart is filled with thanksgiving and praise to God.

Doesn't that sound like a great place to be?

This kind of paradise is found in three places in the bible.

It is found in the beginning of the Bible, at the end of the Bible and in the middle of the Bible.

But to start, in the Old Testament, we read today of this paradise as the Garden of Eden.

Let's read this account...

Genesis Chapter 2 [from The NLT '" New Living Translation]

So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.

When the L ord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the L ord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. 6 Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. 7 Then the L ord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person.

8 Then the L ord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The L ord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground'"trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. 11 The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. 12 The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. 13 The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. 14 The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.

15 The L ord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the L ord God warned him, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden'"17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die."

18 Then the L ord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him." 19 So the L ord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

21 So the L ord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the L ord God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the L ord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

23 "At last!" the man exclaimed.

" This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called 'woman,'
because she was taken from 'man.'"

24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

The Greek word, "paradaysos" or paradise, simply means a garden, and in the second and third chapters of Genesis, we hear often about God's paradise, God's garden of Eden.

So we all come from God's Garden...

In the beginning, God put a man in His garden.

But God thought that that man should not be alone in that garden.

He created marriage for man and woman. It is interestingly one of the few things from the garden that we retain. Marriage is something from BEFORE -- and man and woman together, married, one flesh, it was both of them TOGETHER that made that fateful choice with fruit. We'll get into that again next chapter, but people with say... he did it, she did it. No...they did it, together.

Now, I've also heard people say "marriage is hell on earth". That is so wrong in so many ways. And God certainly didn't intend us to view his gift to us in this way. Marriage is literally a remnant of God's paradise on earth. Wouldn't the world be a wonderful place if everyone saw it like that? Marriage is part of Eden.

And Eden is the first biblical garden paradise. But there's more, because God is in the paradise business.

At the end of the Bible, we discover the eternal city of God, the eternal paradise of God. Paradise there is described as being a heavenly city with streets paved with gold and with pearly gates. All the animals and all the kings and all the people will be praising God.

In this garden, there is no serpent and there is no tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In paradise in the last book of the Bible, evil has been destroyed and there will be no more pain and no more crying and no more death. And paradise will last forever and ever and ever and ever. And now, these is only one of the trees in paradise: the tree of life, the tree of everlasting life.

Doesn't that paradise sound incredible? I can't wait!

So even though you and I will never return to Eden, this paradise lies ahead of us.

There was paradise BEFORE...and there will be paradise AFTER.....,

But is there no paradise in between?

The bible says YES...

And in two important ways.

We do indeed live our lives in the AFTER TIMES...the after the fall...times. And Paradise has not been restored on earth, yet.

But we ALSO are witnesses to the COMING of the Kingdom. We do participate here and now in the events leading to the return of Paradise. SO in this way we really live in the BEWTEEN TIMES.

We live AFTER, BEFORE, and IN BETWEEN.

If that's not confusing and mind bending enough, I'm going to boil that down even further. Beyond all that....just put that aside...cause what it means is you are living NOW.....

The glory of God exists right now, in my life and your life, and we can take it all in, and live joyfully in it. From breathing in the wonder of his creation..which is still magnificent even after we left Eden...to seeing God at work transforming and healing people right before our eyes. Paradise is still at hand.

Do you ever really stop and experience the wonder of God in the present moment. I mean really get knocked off your feet by the wonder of God in your life? I have. And in those moments, I still see Eden. I still see Paradise. It's still there, before me, and around me.

Now I'll be the first to admit that the world is a pretty tarnished place right now. It's has an abundance of darkness and seems rather bleak.

But, you know, as a follower of Christ we have hope, because we can see the light of Christ shining through these things. Jesus helps us to see God's wonder, even when the rest of the world can't see it.

So if we can't see God's wonder in your life, maybe we should ask ourselves...am I looking at Jesus, or focusing on something else?

There are still glimmers of that paradise with us now. If you stop and look and smell and taste and hear and feel and take it in.

But we'd all concede that there is no perfect paradise on earth right now. We live in that in between time.

...does that mean that you and I have no chance of ever seeing God's perfect paradise?

Let me tell you a story.

Two thieves were hanging from their crosses just as Jesus was hanging from his cross in the middle. All three men were in terrible pain. But the first criminal kept hurling insults at Jesus, "If you are God, save yourself and us." But the second one did something different.

• He did not scoff at Jesus or make fun of God.

• He feared God.

• He knew that he was guilty and deserved punishment.

• He recognized Jesus as Lord.

• And He believed and trusted in Jesus.

• And in humility he said, "Remember me when you come into your Kingdom."

And this thief got it right.

He believed and accepted all the right things. The very same things we must all believe and accept when we trust Christ as our Savior.

And what does Jesus say.....to this thief.... knowing that he would die that day..... and to us, knowing that we also all die one day....

" Today, you will be with me in paradise."

Today. Immediately. Now. Not tomorrow. Not in a hundred years. Not in a in a thousand years. Not a in a million years. But today.

" nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not principalities or powers. Not the devil and his angels. Not disease. Not death. Nothing. Nothing can separate us from the Love of God which is found in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Once you got it, you got it.

Paradise is yours. Forever. Guaranteed.

Like the thief, we too will be in paradise with God THAT VERY MOMENT.

So before and after, here and there, God has paradise for us. He wants us to have paradise.

Today, you will be with me in paradise, Jesus says. A trustworthy promise of God.

So if nothing else today, I hope you can see by this biblical overview of paradise just how pervasive it is in God's plan.

But paradise will not be just lying in a hammock, strumming our harps and and eating fruit from a tree. It was not then, it is not now, nor will it be ever.

Adam and Eve had things to do I their paradise, we will have things to do in the heavenly paradise.

Some people don't realize this, but the book of Revelation tells us we will be serving God even in heaven. No just hanging around. There will be things to do.

There are always things to do in glorifying Him.

So I hope we will all fully embrace all the paradise God has for us.

Yes, the one in Eden is long gone. And I'm sorry, but we can't get that one back.

The one in spoke of in Revelation is yet to come, and I'm also sorry this one may not come in our lifetimes. It may, but there still may be some time to wait.

But there is the garden here on earth that God still gives us, and still cares for, although it is a bit tarnished, He has still given us the job to guard over it. It's an important job.

But we are told, as amazing as this may sound, that all of these paradises pale in comparison to the one you and I are ASSURED. The one you and I are ARE PROMISED.

Cause God is in the salvation business. You see him saving us, one way or another, through out the bible, and throughout our lives. And in that, he is also clearly in the paradise business.

What was needed for the thief on the cross is the same for us. Trust in Christ, Recognize Him as King and Savior.

Then, even as you hang in the final moments of your life, Jesus will say to you.

" Today, you will be with me in Paradise!"

Amen.

©2011 Timothy Henry