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Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration

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Chris Sicks
December 1, 2024

Sermon Manuscript


Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration


December 1, 2024
Pastor Chris Sicks

Today is the first day of December, the month we celebrate Christmas.
Besides creation, the birth of Jesus Christ was the most important event in the history of the world.
So this month, we want to do a sermon series called God’s Big Story.
The Bible is one big book, telling one big story in four chapters.
The first chapter of God’s Story is creation.
In the beginning, God made everything from nothing.
And everything he made was very good.
In the garden there was plenty of food.
People lived in peace with God.
There was also peace between husband and wife–the first two people in creation.
But very quickly, evil entered the world.
In English we call this second chapter the Fall.
The first human sin was rebellion against God the King.
A rebel is someone who fights against the King.
Adam and Eve’s rebellion meant they couldn’t stay in the kingdom of peace that God had made in the garden.
The story would have a sad ending, but God had a good plan.
The third chapter is called redemption, or salvation.
God the Father sent God the Son to earth to be born as a human being and live a perfect life.
He suffered the punishment of a rebel, so that rebels like us could become sons and daughters.
Redemption gives us new life and hope for the better future that will come in Chapter 4.

Chapter 4 of God’s Big Story is Restoration, giving us hope to keep going in this broken world.
One day Jesus will come back and bring us to heaven.
In heaven there will be no more sin, no more tears, no more rebellion.
We will live together with God in peace and joy forever in the new heaven and new earth.
For today’s sermon, I want to take us quickly through all four chapters of God’s Big Story.
We are going to look at a lot of scripture.
Because God can tell the story better than I can, from his own Word.
Before we begin would you pray with me?
Holy Spirit, please open our hearts and minds to Jesus the Living Word.
Father, we want to be obedient, joyful, and productive sons and daughters.
Please use your word, by the power of the Spirit, to make us more like Jesus.
We pray in his name, amen.

Chapter 1: Creation
God’s Big Story begins in a garden and ends in a city.
Today we live in the middle, between the garden and the city.
To understand our lives today, we need to go back to the beginning.
To the garden that God made.
Genesis 1:1–3
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.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”
We see in these verses that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in creating the heavens and on the earth.
God the Spirit is there.
God the Father speaks.
God the Son is the living Word that is spoken.
After making the light on the first day, God separates heaven and earth.
He makes the sky, and the sea, and the dry land.
Then God fills each of those places with the right kind of creature.
Birds for the sky.
Fish for the sea.
Plants and animals for the land.
It’s a good plan.
It’s a beautiful creation.
Next, God makes human beings to enjoy his creation.
Genesis 1:26–27
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.”
God made us like him in many ways.
We aren’t equal with God, of course.
But we are his representatives on earth.
We are like living statues that remind the world who is the true Creator and King.
When God made us, he made two different kinds of human beings.
He divided different aspects of his image between the man and the woman.
Men and women are equal in dignity and value.

Genesis 1:28–29
28 “And God blessed them.
And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.
You shall have them for food.”


God makes two people, and then blesses them with the ability to make more people.
We see in verse 29 that the plants have seeds so they can reproduce.
The plants can make more plants to fill the earth.
But the man and woman do not reproduce like the plants and the animals.
Human reproduction is tied to relationship.
God made the world in love.
And when the man and woman come together in love, they discover that they can fill the world with more images of God.
In the garden Adam and Eve are happy and safe, because their relationships are good.
Everything in life works as God designed it to work.
Everyone is where they should be.
Until the fall happens.

Chapter 2: Fall
Genesis 3:1-5
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.”

The serpent in these verses is Satan.
Satan was an angel who did not want to follow God, so he left heaven and took one-third of the angels with him.
Satan comes to the garden to recruit Adam and Eve, inviting them to join his rebellion.
Satan wanted to be like God.
He also promises Adam and Eve that they can be like God, if they disobey and eat the fruit.
Genesis 3:6
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.”

Notice the words “delight” and “desire” in verse 6.
In the creation, God gave his people everything they could desire.
They had a rich, delightful garden and an entire world to enjoy and explore and fill with children.
But sin focuses our hearts on what we do not have.
Sin makes us desire what is forbidden.
“Don’t tell me what to do” is the message inside every rebellious human heart.
Now let’s see how God punishes rebellion.
Genesis 3:17–19
17 “And to Adam, God said:
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ 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.”

After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, every relationship was damaged.
Adam and Eve wanted to be king and queen, so their relationship with God the true king was damaged.
God had given them the power to rule over the earth, but now they experience conflict with the earth.
Work becomes difficult.
Disease and disasters threaten their safety and lives.
Sin also damaged human relationships–between Adam and Eve, and their children.
One of their sons murders his own brother.
In the New Testament book of Romans, Paul paints a terrible picture of how human sin corrupts our lives.
Romans 1:28–32
28 “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice.
They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
They are gossips,

30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

Anyone who is awake and aware today knows that brokenness is everywhere in the world.
Why is the world such a mess?
Because when creatures break relationship with their Creator, everything else becomes broken.
Who can end all the world’s suffering?
Who can fix all this brokenness?
Only the true God who exists in unbroken relationship with himself.
Three perfect persons, united in one perfect community that we call the Trinity.
They had a plan from the beginning, to make sure that God’s Story will have a happy ending.
Let’s look at the third chapter.

Chapter 3: Redemption
Redemption comes from the word redeem.
Redeem means to buy back, or to fix what is broken.
To redeem creation, God the Son took on human flesh.
He came to live among us, and face the same temptations we face.
Listen to Matthew 4:1-4.
1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3 And the tempter came and said to him:
“If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

4 But Jesus answered:
“It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”


Satan wants God the Son to join him in rebellion against God the Father.
But Jesus responds to Satan’s temptations with the Word of God.
Jesus is not vulnerable to Satan’s lies because he is in a secure, unbroken, perfect relationship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Together, the three persons of the Trinity had a plan to fix what was broken.
To redeem us from sin and death.
But to do it, Jesus the Son would have to die a rebel’s death so we could receive eternal life.
1 Peter 3:18 says:
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,”

Because Jesus lived a perfect life, his sacrifice was sufficient to pay the penalty for all our sin.
He suffered once for our sins.
The righteous Savior died for unrighteous rebels like you and me.
He was put to death so we can be made alive.
Romans 8:1–2
1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

Satan continues to whisper lies to us.
He wants us to feel condemned, to believe that our relationship with God is broken.
But like Jesus, we can be strengthened by the Word of God in verses like this.
If you have trusted in Jesus for forgiveness, and believe that his death was sufficient payment for your sin, then you receive eternal life.
That’s the Good News!
Do you believe it?
Look at the freedom God promises to everyone who believes in Jesus and calls him King:
Colossians 1:13-14
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son
he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Chapter 3 is about the good news of Redemption.
God buys his people back from the slavery of our own sin.
He rescues rebels like us from the darkness of our own kingdoms.
Now we live as citizens of the kingdom of the Son.
Our relationship with God is now restored.
It is healthy like it was back in the garden in Chapter 1.
2 Corinthians 5:17–18
17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;”

The same creation power that God used to breathe life into Adam is the power that gives new life to us.
Our souls are born again when we are reconciled to God through Jesus.
But our relationships with nature and other people remain broken.
Chapter 3 is about living in tension between the Garden and the City.
We are new creations, walking through a world that was deeply broken by the Fall.
However, as citizens of heaven, we walk with heavenly hope.
Our calling today is to love God, to love one another, and to invite everyone to join us in Chapter 4, where we’ll live together forever in heaven.

Chapter 4: Restoration
In the last book of the Bible, the apostle John tells us what will happen after Jesus returns to bring all of his followers home to his Father’s house.
Revelation 21:1-4
1 “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.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 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.

4 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.”

In a world with so much death, and crying and pain, we need hope.
Do you see in verse 3 the reason why there will be no death or crying or pain in heaven?
Because “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.”
Before the fall, Adam and Eve had peace because they lived with God in a healthy relationship.
That healthy relationship with God meant that every other relationship was healthy too, with other people and with creation.
In chapters two and three, everything was broken because the relationship with God was broken.
But in heaven, everything broken will be fixed, because the relationship with God will be permanently fixed.
Revelation 22:1-5
1 “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
2 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.

3 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.
4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
5 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.”


John describes the city of God, where all of the redeemed people of God will live forever.
In the city we see “the river of the water of life” and “the tree of life.”
The river and the tree of life that were in the Garden in Chapter One are here again in the City in Chapter Four.
God’s Big Story has moved from Life, to Death, to Hope, and then back to Life again.
I know I had to move through the four chapters quickly.
We are going to spend more time looking at each chapter, every Sunday in December.
I hope that this year, you will celebrate the birth of Jesus with joy, because you understand how Christmas fits into God’s Big Story.
At Christmas we love to sing about “peace on earth.”
But true, lasting peace is only possible because Christ died to end our rebellion against heaven.
In him we can live in hope, during our journey through a cold and dark world, knowing that the final chapter is full of love and light and eternal peace.

Please pray with me.
Father in heaven, thank you for this picture of heaven that helps us continue to live in this broken world.
Jesus, we want to be messengers of hope who tell other people the good news of the gospel.
Holy Spirit, please fill us with courage, and power to love God, love others, and to walk in obedience on the road between the garden and city.
Until you bring us home to heaven.
We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Questions for Meditation and Discussion


1) Read Ephesians 2:1-10, printed on paper if possible, or in a physical Bible.
a. With a pencil, mark with numbers 1-4 the words or verses that connect to each chapter in God’s Big Story:
b. 1 for Creation, 2 for Fall, 3 for Redemption, 4 for Restoration.

2) Read Colossians 1:13–22, printed on paper if possible, or in a physical Bible.
a. With a pencil, mark with numbers 1-4 the words or verses that connect to each chapter in God’s Big Story:
b. 1 for Creation, 2 for Fall, 3 for Redemption, 4 for Restoration.

3) Take some time to pray, telling God about the things that make life difficult for you today, as you journey between the Garden and the City.
Then remind yourself of the good work God has already done, to save you and give you new life.
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you heavenly hope for tomorrow, and to share this good news with others this week.



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