January 5, 2025
Teacher: Mike Laughrun
The Bible was written over a period of about 1,500 years in various places stretching all the way from Babylon to Rome. The human authors included over 40 persons from various stations of life: kings, peasants, poets, herdsmen, fishermen, scientists, farmers, priests, pastors, tentmakers, and governors. It was written in a wilderness, a dungeon, inside palaces and prisons, on lonely islands and in military battles. Yet it speaks with agreement and reliability on hundreds of controversial subjects. Yet it tells one story from beginning to end, God’s salvation of man through Jesus Christ. No person could have possibly conceived of or written such a work!!
– Josh McDowell
Matthew 7:24
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Luke 24:27, 32
(27) And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. … (32) They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
What happened at Creation?
(1) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (2) The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Big Truth:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
John 1:1-3
(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Genesis 1:4-5
(4) And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. (5) God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Genesis 1:6, 8
(6) And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” … (8) And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
Genesis 1:11-13
(11) And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. (12) The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (13) And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
Genesis 1:14-15, 19
(14) And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, (15) and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. (19) And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
Genesis 1:20-23
(20) And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” (21) So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (22) And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (23) And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
Genesis 1:26-27, 31
(26) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
(27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. … (31) And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Big Idea:
God created all things good and for His glory.
What went wrong?
Genesis 2:15-17
(15) The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (16) And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, (17) 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.”
What went wrong?
Genesis 3:1-6
(1) Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (2) And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, (3) but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” (4) But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. (5) For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (6) So 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 to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Big Idea:
God created and man rebelled.
Genesis 3:7-8
(7) Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (8) And 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.
Genesis 3:17-19
(17) …cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; (18) thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. (19) By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 6:5
(5) Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Is there hope?
Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:21
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Big Idea:
God demonstrated grace in the garden ultimately fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
John 5:39
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
Talk About It
- Why did God create the world?
- What is the significance of being created in God‘s image? How does that impact the way we treat and look at every human being?
- What were some of the immediate and long-term consequences of Adam and Eve‘s rebellion in the garden?
- What was God‘s first response to Adam after the fall in Genesis 3?
give
We respond in worship to God, our Creator and Sustainer, by giving sacrificially and generously. tcbchurch.org/give
respond to the gospel
If you want to know more about what it means to follow Jesus or how to respond to the gospel, visit the Hub in the upper atrium or tcbchurch.org/gospel.
