Genesis 1:2

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. There's so much that we learn here in this verse, just from these first few words. First, we learn that there is a beginning to everything. Even modern science tells us that this is true. Although they may have different conclusions as to what that beginning is, they agree that there was a beginning to everything that is. The Bible confirms that, and it has said so for thousands of years. Science has only come to realize this in the last 50 to 100 years. There is definitely a beginning to everything.

But in the beginning, God. God is before the beginning; He is before all things, as the Scriptures show. We read that He is creative. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, along with everything that is contained within them—everything seen and unseen.

Now, I want you to skip everything else in chapter 1 and just look at verse 31, Genesis 1:31. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. Indeed, it was very good. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and God looked upon everything that He had created. It was indeed very good.

Would you pray with me? Father, we ask as we now look at Your word that You would, Lord, speak to our hearts. Through Your word and by Your Spirit, give us insight and understanding so that we would know what really is the point. What motivates our celebration during this time of year? Help us to see through all the distractions and to recognize the point. God, speak to us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all God's people agreed, saying, Amen. These are the words that God chose to begin His revelation to mankind.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He looked upon everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very, very good. God is an artistic creator; He loves aesthetics. He loves things that look good. As we find in these opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, we are created in His image. Therefore, we also are aesthetic beings. We love the way things look, and we try to make things look good and inviting. We appreciate beauty because God appreciates beauty.

None of His other creatures are aesthetic beings. They do not go around painting their living spaces or remodeling their environments. We are the ones who build zoos and create environments for them, but they do not seem to care much about aesthetics. However, being created in God's image, we do care. Why? Because He is an artistic creator who loves the way things look and creates beautiful things.

If you ever have the opportunity to travel around the world and see some of the amazing and beautiful wonders that God has created, you will recognize that even in these opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, the world is not as good as it once was. Yet, it is still beautiful, still awesome, and still wonderful. God created things to be good and pleasant. In fact, that is exactly what the Scriptures tell us in Genesis chapter 1. God, seven times, says, "It is good." On each day of creation, He looks upon what He had made and declares, "It is good." On the third day of creation, He says it twice. Then, at the very end of Genesis chapter 1, verse 31, we read, "It is very good." This means it is pleasant, right, excellent, and abundantly good. God made it to be that way.

The Scriptures reveal in this passage that God is a gift-giving God, which we will consider over the next three weeks as we approach Christmas. He is a gift-giving God, and this is seen in how He makes things and why He makes things. He gives these things to man. He made good and pleasant trees to grow in the garden that He created. All those things were not only good to look upon, as Genesis chapter 1 says.

All the trees that He made were pleasant to the eyes, but they were also good for food. He made them to look good and to taste good, appealing to the senses that He created in us, His creation. He made them pleasant to the eyes and good for food, and then He gave those to man whom He had formed.

Look at Genesis chapter 2, verse 16. God creates a garden and gives this garden to man as a gift because He is a gift-giving God. Genesis chapter 2, verse 16 says, "And the Lord God commanded man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.'" God says here, "They're a gift for you. I made them for you. They're pleasant to the eyes. They're good for food. And I give it to you. Of all these trees in the garden, you may freely eat."

But then, as many of you know from reading this passage of Scripture before, verse 17 goes on to say, "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." God is a gift-giving God. He created everything seen and unseen. He creates this marvelous garden in the midst of His creation and gives it to man whom He had formed out of the dust of the ground. He says, "Because I've given you this garden, I've given you all of these trees that are pleasant to the eyes and good for food for you to freely eat. But there's one of them that you're not to eat of because in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die."

There was something about this tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that made it off-limits to Adam at this point in time. And God, because He is a good God and a gift-giving God, says, "Don't eat of that because that will devastate you. In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." Something will happen if you partake. All was very good for man and God's garden.

Then, in chapter 2, verse 18, we have the first negative of this whole passage. Look at Genesis chapter 2, verse 18. "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good.'" Did you underline those words, "not good," in your Bible? "It is not good that man should be alone." And all the guys say, "Amen." It's not good that man should be alone. Here, the gift-giving God creates.

He creates everything seen and unseen, and it is good. It is good. It is very good. Then He takes and makes a garden, and He gives that garden to man, whom He had formed out of the dust of the ground. He says, "It's for you. I give it to you as a gift. Pleasant to look upon. Good to eat. It's yours."

Then God beholds this creation. Because He knows all things, He knows that there is something that is not good. These words, "it was not good," do not imply that it was evil; it simply indicates incompleteness. God observes what He has made and declares that there is an incompleteness. The incompleteness is that there is no helper found. At the end of verse 18, it states that there was no helper found that was comparable to man. So God said, "I will make for him another gift. I'm going to make him a helper comparable to him."

This helpmate, this helper that God chose to form in this passage, is given to man to be comparable or even compatible with him, to complete him. And all the women in the church say, "Amen." The Lord God said, "It's not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him."

Now, notice this. Look at verse 19. This is awesome. The way that God reveals to Adam that there is an incompleteness is significant. At this point in time, Adam doesn't recognize it, but God is going to show him that something is missing so that Adam sees as God sees. God knew that there was something missing, that there was an incompleteness, but Adam doesn't quite recognize that yet. So God is leading him to this deduction, to this understanding.

In verse 19, it says, "Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air." Now He brings them to Adam. The gift-giving God brings all these animals to Adam to see what Adam would call them. Whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

So God brings all these animals that He had already created and passes them by Adam. He is showing him, leading him to the realization that there is something missing. As God passes by him with an animal, Adam looks at it and says, "Yeah, that's a hippopotamus. Okay, that's what we're going to call it." He passes another one and exclaims, "Whoa, yeah, giraffe. Yep, that's it, giraffe." Then he sees another one and says, "Platypus."

You just keep going by, whatever it was. That's what we're told here in this passage. God gives this man the opportunity to give names to each of these animals, but there's something that he's seeing as they pass by. He sees the lion and lioness. He sees the cow and bull. He sees part and counterpart.

But notice what we read in verse 20. At the end of verse 18, God said, "I will make him a helper compatible, comparable to him." Now, as Adam passes by every animal, every one of God's creatures, he does not find one that is comparable or compatible to him. God knew that there was an incompleteness, but now Adam recognizes that there is also an incompleteness. It says all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air pass by him, and he is able to see that this one has a part and a counterpart, but there is no one compatible to him.

The only thing that could have come close would have had a whole bunch of hair. If Adam had chosen his own, he would have chosen an ape, and that wouldn't have been good. It's like, "Hey, Lucy, how you doing?"

So, God's answer comes in verse 21. The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. Then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. The rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, He made into woman. Notice this: He brought her to man.

The gift-giving God, after all the wonderful gifts that He has made—this great earth, this great garden, all these trees that are pleasant to the eyes and good for food that He gave to man—now brings the most magnificent gift. Remember what the Proverbs say? Proverbs chapter 18, verse 22 states, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord." He receives a great gift from the Lord, and so God brings this individual, made from man, taken out of man.

From one, God made two for the purpose of joining them once again as one. He brings her to man. Now remember, God had made all the creatures pass before Adam, and every single one that he named, he said, "Well, that's a giraffe." That's what its name would be. So God brings this one to him, and he goes, "Whoa, man!" And so they called her woman.

Okay, that's probably not quite the way it works in English; it doesn't in Hebrew, which this was in. The gift-giving God creates and brings this woman to man as a precious gift given to him, and he places them in this wonderful garden full of bountiful blessings. God's goodness and graciousness are clearly seen here in this passage. God has revealed from the opening verses of the Bible to be a gift-giving God.

But then in chapter 3, something new is introduced: a question concerning the goodness of God. Look at Genesis chapter 3, if you would. We read in verse 1, "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"

This being, this serpent, now comes and introduces a question about the goodness and the provision of the gift-giving God. You see, up to this point, man and woman, Adam and Eve, had a recognition that God provided everything they needed. He had provided a home, the garden. He had provided food from those trees in the garden. He had provided a counterpart for them, a helper comparable to one another. They knew that He was the one who supplied their every need up to this point.

Now the serpent comes and introduces a question: Is God really giving you everything that you need? Is He really making good?

On that promise of provision, has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden." That's exactly what God had told Adam back in chapter 2, verses 16 and 17. Of all the trees of the garden, you may freely eat. It's for you. She says right there, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden."

But verse 17 states that there is one tree in the midst of the garden that you are not to eat of. Now, it is my opinion, and it is speculation—not clearly stated in the Scriptures—but I believe that God would ultimately lead them to a point where they would be ready to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, at this point in time, it was off-limits. It wasn't the right time.

The woman responded, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, 'You shall not eat it.'" She was absolutely right. But we don't know why. Maybe in her zeal, in her passion, or perhaps it was the zeal of her husband, Adam, that led her to add to what God had said back in chapter 2, verse 17: "You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die."

Of course, God did not say that. However, why else would you touch it unless you were going to eat it? It seems logical. If we shall not eat it, we might as well not touch it either, because if you're going to touch it, you're probably doing so for the purpose of eating it. Her addition seems plausible; it seems logical. It wasn't exactly what God had said, but it fit.

So, she said, "You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." Then the serpent, seeing an apparent opening, said, "You shall not surely die." But notice this: he introduced more questions into the heart of Eve. "For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be, what? You will be like Him, like God."

The serpent continued, "God knows that when you take of that and partake of it, your eyes will be opened," which is slightly true. "And you will be like God in this, knowing good and evil."

What is the enemy basically introducing to this woman here at this point in time? This thought, this question that God, with His command, is holding me back. I suggest to you that a lot of falls into temptation and sin have come as a result of that question: God is holding me back. He's keeping me from something good. For God knows that in the day that you eat of it, your eyes will be opened; you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Notice this in verse six: when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, we see an interesting dynamic. The Scriptures tell us that every tree in the garden that God had made was pleasant to the eyes and good for food. Even the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was pleasant to the eyes and good for food. There is not a single tree in the garden that is not pleasant to the eyes and good for food.

She beholds it like all the other trees. It seems to be no different than the others. It's good to the eyes, pleasant for food, and perfect. However, there is something more that this tree seems to have that the other trees do not, which the serpent has introduced. The tree was desirable to make one wise.

There is an interesting equation going on here. The Apostle John, in the New Testament in his first letter, tells us that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. As you study through the Scriptures, you find that this equation is repeated time and time again.

We see it for the first time here. When the woman saw, in verse six, that the tree was good for food, that represents the lust of the flesh. When she saw that it was pleasant to the eyes, that represents the lust of the eyes. When she recognized that it was desirable to make one wise, that represents the pride of life. This equation of temptation now draws her in and leads her to this conclusion in verse six: when she saw it, she took of its fruit.

And she ate. She also gave a gift to her husband, and he ate as well. Because he was a smart husband, he ate whatever she put before him. Now they had done what God said not to do: "You shall not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die."

She took of it because she saw that it was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. They ate. She took what was not hers and gave it to her husband, and he ate.

In verse 7, the eyes of both of them were opened. What did the serpent say? He had said in verse 5, "God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened." He was speaking somewhat truthfully; their eyes were indeed opened. But what were their eyes opened to behold? They were opened, and they knew. They had a new knowledge, just as the enemy had said. Their eyes were opened, and they would know something that they did not yet know.

The very last verse of chapter 2 states that Adam and Eve were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. They had no sense, no understanding, no knowledge of shame. But now, all of a sudden, we see in verse 7 of chapter 3 that their eyes were opened. They knew that they were naked. That which they did not know, that which they had no shame about in verse 25, they now knew, and they felt shame.

They sewed fig leaves and made themselves coverings. Now, because of their shame, they were trying to cover up their nakedness. Their eyes were opened, and they knew something was wrong. Then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. All of a sudden, innocence was lost, and shame and fear entered in. Their eyes were opened, and they had knowledge.

They did not have previously, and their insight only led to shame and fear. Shame so much so that they tried to cover their shame. Fear that they tried to hide from God. They sought to hide their nakedness. They sought to hide from God.

In verse 9 of Genesis 3, the Lord God called Adam and said to him, "Where are you? Adam, where are you?" So he said, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, ashamed. So I hid myself." God then asked, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded that you should not eat?"

Like so many of us, Adam did exactly what you and I probably would have done. The man said, "Yeah, the woman! The woman that you gave me." It's a funny thing, God, you know. I was just sitting here minding my own business, and she brought me this plate of food and said, "Here, eat." And I said, "Okay, I'm not going to argue with you about that." The woman that you gave me.

If you actually look at it, behind what he's saying, it's very clear that he's accusing God of being the one that did this. God's at fault. He says, "God, it's the woman that you gave me." The implication is that had you not given her to me, we wouldn't be in this mess. The woman that you gave me. The woman that you gave to me, she gave to me, and I did eat. So, God, it's your fault.

In verse 13, God turned to Eve and said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent. He deceived me, and I ate." She blames the serpent, but her blame laying upon the serpent is completely legitimate. The serpent did deceive Eve, and she did eat as a result of that deception.

Following this, in verse 13, the remainder of chapter 3 describes the curse that falls upon the serpent, then upon the woman, then upon the man, and then upon all of creation. Here in Genesis chapter 3, we see the most devastating blow to God's creation that could ever come: sin now enters in. Sin is transgression against God's commandment. He had commanded, "Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge."

Of good and evil, God commanded that they not eat of it, not because He is some God trying to withhold good from them, but because He is trying to keep them back from that which is bad. You see, when they ate of it, it was not necessarily His punishment that their eyes were opened and they beheld their nakedness; it was just the result of that tree and that fruit.

Now, of course, in our culture, we say it was an apple. The Bible doesn't say that. We don't know that at all. It's just some fruit that was pleasant to the eyes and looked good for food. Then the serpent said, "Well, it's going to open your eyes. It's desirable to make you wise." As a result, this curse falls upon the serpent, upon the woman, upon Adam, upon man, upon the garden, and upon all creation.

Why do we need Christmas? The first answer to that question is because the world is broken. The world is broken. The great 20th-century philosopher Bob Dylan knew this. He wrote a hit song titled "Everything is Broken." You may remember that song. He understood that everything is broken. There is a recognition, even among those who are not clearly and directly following God on a daily basis, that something is not right.

This creation, which the good, gift-giving God created as very good (Genesis 1:31), is now broken. Why Christmas? Because the world is broken. Without this as a basis, without this as a foundation, there is a lack of clarity and understanding as to why Christmas was necessary. Sure, people can say, "Jesus is the reason for the season," but what's the point of His advent? What's the point of His coming? Why did He even come? If you don't understand this, you cannot grasp the answer to the question: Why Christmas?

Because the world is broken. Cookies, bells, presents, lights, candles, ornaments, decorations, trees, wreaths, carols, eggnog, snowmen, gingerbread, chestnuts—if you go down the list of all these things, in reality, none of these things is bad in and of itself. Now I know.

It's probably a good question to answer here at the outset of this series. I know that there are some people within the church, and when I talk about the church, I'm not necessarily talking about this church; I'm talking about the church globally. There are some people in the larger body of Christ who say Christians should not celebrate Christmas. They argue that it's highly unlikely, and I agree, that Jesus was born on December 25th.

How many of you are aware of that? Okay, we got that. It is highly unlikely. Yes, we know that originally, this holiday, which has now been used to celebrate the coming of Jesus, was a pagan holy day celebrating the winter solstice. Some Christians say, "See, it's a pagan holiday; we cannot celebrate Christmas because they are celebrating the solstice."

I've only met a couple of people in my life who genuinely celebrate the solstice, and they always wear hemp clothing and smell really funny. I don't know anyone normal who celebrates the winter solstice.

There are some Christians who advocate for taking the approach of the Puritans, rejecting Christmas because they view it as ungodly and a pagan holiday. They believe we should not engage with it at all. Now, I will openly confess that myself and the leadership of this church do not take that approach.

There are different ways we can approach the cultural things happening in our world. We can reject them and say they are ungodly, wanting nothing to do with them. We can receive them and say, "You know, it's okay; we're going to accept it." Or we can redeem them, recognizing that while it may have gone bad in some areas, we see an opportunity in it.

We recognize a redemptive opportunity in Christmas. Why Christmas? Because the world is broken. Yes, all of these things—cookies, bells, candles, ornaments, decorations, wreaths, eggnog, and all the other stuff—are associated more with winter than anything in the Bible. There is nothing in the Bible that talks about reindeer, especially ones with red noses that can fly. You won't find a verse about that. There is nothing in the Bible regarding elves or anything about Santa Claus. Those concepts came much later. There is nothing in the Scriptures about those things. In and of themselves, they are not biblical.

Though those things are not necessarily bad, in fact, many of them can be enjoyable and wonderful. I don't know about you, but I love this time of year. To me, it is the most wonderful time of the year. And no, I'm not going to sing the song. I'll have you sing it later, Mom.

The problem is that these things can, and I would say do often, become a distraction from what the real point is. The marketing entities of our nation know that these things are a very good route to high profits. They have emphasized these activities in their shopping centers and retail establishments because ultimately, they are looking to make money, and they make a lot of it during this season.

One of the reasons that Black Friday is called Black Friday, although it wasn't the original reason, is that many retail establishments operate in the red until that day. They make all of their profits as they come into this holiday season, which normally lasts for less than a month. It's an amazing phenomenon.

When Dave and I were out at the shopping center the other day, we saw a lot of people who had no Christmas cheer whatsoever. They were not happy. One lady wanted to express her unhappiness to me and insisted that I let the management of the store know how upset she was. I told her, "I don't work here. I'm just a guy with a microphone." But she thought she had an opportunity to tell me how mad she was. I said, "Man, it's Black Friday. I don't know if you really want to shop for things on this day. It's kind of crazy."

These distractions can seduce many people, but there is a redemptive opportunity. Why? Because the overwhelming majority of the people in our culture are celebrating this holiday. Even though there are politically correct influencers in our world trying to remove the idea of Christ from the holiday, a majority of people in our nation are celebrating it, even if they may not have any idea or clue whatsoever about its true meaning.

As to what it actually is about or why Christ came, the first answer to the question is that the world is broken. A lot of people have an innate understanding that there's something not right, but they don't know why and they don't know the cure. We know why, and we know the answer.

So may it be that we take advantage of this period of time, not just this year, but every year, and we use it for what it really ought to be for: revealing who Jesus is and why Jesus came. As we're going to see next week, we're going to start where we left off here in Genesis chapter 3. In this chapter, the gift-giving God reveals a gift that's packaged and ready to be given. That's where we're going next week.

Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Amen.

Father, as we stand here today, I recognize, and I hope that my brothers and sisters here do as well, that this world is broken. I recognize that it's easy for me to be distracted from the real point and the reason for this season. It's easy for me to lose sight of the why about why You came.

But Lord, I pray that You would stir my heart and give me an opportunity this week and this month to share that reality with people I come in contact with: friends, neighbors, and family members who don't know You.

Lord, we thank You that although the world is broken, You have an answer for that brokenness. Help us to recognize it and help us to see it. Stir our hearts to resound with joy during this season, even in the midst of all the stress that can happen, even in the midst of all the craziness that goes on, that we would be filled with joy—Your joy—and that it would be contagious.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you.