The Bible - The complete book of the garden – .
In my study I have a book called the Readers digest complete book of the garden. To be honest I have hardly read it and my gardening this year has been anything but complete.
Heather has filled in for me as I got busier and busier.
Today is Easter Sunday and it occurred to me that, today reminds us that the Bible, in a profound way is – the Complete work of the Garden.
I guess the Readers Digest book covers all four seasons.
This morning I would like to take four seasons in the scriptures from where we learn God’s plan and purpose from Easter Sunday and how to respond to God in a world like this.
It is a long way back to Easter Sunday but today I want to begin by traveling back in history a lot further than that to the very dawn of time.
In the book of Genesis chapter 3
GE 2:8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
GE 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."
The natural environment for people is a garden – God put us in a garden and we get a description of it being a beautiful place.
Tragically the man and woman, with the encouragement of the serpent, rebel against God and sin by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Sin changes things.
The bible says the wages of sin is death and sin changes the nature of Adam and Eve.
Before they were quite natural in their relationship with God – but now, Adam wants to hide from his God.
This sin has a terrible consequence:-
22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
This moment in the life of humanity has been described as the fall – if we were to consider it a season in the life of the world it would be Autumn –
We came into this garden in admiration we came out defeated and separated from God.
What began as a good story ends in tragedy.
It is like the garden that has been dug and planted and made ready for the season – everything is ready for a great years harvest.
Then it is neglected – the crop is overgrown by weeds.
The end result is one of a complete mess and no fruit.
This rebellion, called sin ruins the wonderful potential that god planned for that first garden.
The second garden we find ourselves in is the garden of Gethsemane.
Between the Garden of Eden and the garden of Gethsemene is a huge amount of Human history – this period finds its climax in the garden of Gethsemene where we find Jesus wrestling in prayer.
If ever there was a winter of despair in Jesus’ life – this was it.
MT 26:36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
Jesus went to the “Garden of Gethsemane” on the Mount of Olives. The garden still exists today, including a number of olive trees which may date back to the time of Jesus. “Gethsemane” comes to us from the Hebrew into the Greek and then the English. Originally, the name meant, “oil press,” and could have originally been an area designated for pressing olive oil.
In the first garden – the first Adam stands on his feet and depends on his interpretation of what God said assisted by the Serpent.
In the second garden jesus faces a winter – a testing – a bleakness.
We all face times like that.
Times when there appears to be no way out of a difficult spot.
Jesus – the second Adam – faces his test on his knees seeking God and he passes the test – this garden leads to a cross – but it is the correct path none the less.
In this garden world history hung in the balance.A
It also, to use our season metaphor, is the end of winter.
The third garden takes us to the grave –
41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
JN 20:1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!"
JN 20:3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
JN 20:10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
JN 20:13 They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don’t know where they have put him." 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
JN 20:15 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
JN 20:16 Jesus said to her, "Mary."
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
JN 20:17 Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, `I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ "
In this third garden we expect to find death and hopelessness – but instead we find new life.
For humanity this is a new Springtime.
Eden ended in death and defeat –
Gethsemene ushered in death and suffering –
But the tomb in the garden ushers in spring.
There are plenty of springtime images that come from this tomb.
Grief turns to hope when Mary and the disciples realize that the unthinkable has happened –
Jesus is with them again.
Jesus is alive.
The tomb in the garden – ushers in new life.
Now we can truly be born again.
Jesus once said:
JN 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. "
As a result of what happened in this garden so much has happened that could not have happened.
The world has completely changed.
Sin, though rampant now has an antidote.
As a result of what happened in this garden incredible things happen – you and I see it every week.
Chuck Colson from the Prison Fellowship shares an incredible story.
He says – It was a glorious Easter Sunday, the spring sun sparkling and warm, the air fresh and sweet. Too nice a day to spend in prison but that is where I was bound.
As I approached the sprawling complex of brick buildings surrounded by barbed wire fences, I remembered my first visit here nine months earlier.
The place was overcrowded.
On that August day I had visited every corner of the complex.
By the end of the tour I was overwhelmed, as I am in so many prisons, by the sight and stench of death. It was reflected in the inmates eyes, in their head bowed shuffle, in their endless staring at nothing through hand clutched bars.
I asked the young chaplain if I could meet with the Christian inmates. We gathered in a small conference room off the Wardens office.
Of the eight prisoners present, all were lifers, seven were black. These strong, earnest men were a dramatic contrast with what I had just seen. Joyous about their faith they had a resolute assurance that Jesus was alive and real, even in the midst of the human hopelellnelss of prison. We prayed together, holding hands around the table, and then I promised I would be back.
A few months later, at a Prison fellowship meeting two guards burst into the room, clamped handcuffs on a frightened young inmate and hustled him out into a van that took him to court.
The inmate stood before a stern faced Judge.
“Young man,” the Judge said somberely “I’ve been examining your records.” He paused, then looked up. “And I’ve decided to reduce your sentence to time served. You’re a free man.
Good Luck,” he concluded nodding at the speechless prisoner and rapping his gavel.
“Thank-you, your Honour,” the inmate choked, then more loudly, “but sir if it is all the same to you, could I stay in the prison the rest of the week? I’d like to finish the prison Fellowship seminar.”
The Judge, shocked, muttered something about working it out.
The man was reurned to the seminar’s expectant group of believbers where there was much celebration.
Charles Colson – Loving God. Pge 19 – 21.
Friends this is the situation for the whole world – a world of walking dead – no hope – but then comes grace to totally transform them.
The Springtime garden by the grave says there is hope –
Like any garden in this world there are weeds – that is sin but there is hope.
Jesus said – I have come that you might have life and life in all it’s fullness.
The empty grave authenticates this new life Jesus brings.
The fourth season is summer and if you want a picture of the summer garden then you need to move past the grav e to Revelation
REV 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
The fourth garden is beautifully pictured as a place of life and blessing.
God reigns in this garden and we are told there is no sin or curse or anything wrong.
This fourth garden offers complete hope – it is summer – the mature season.
Friends the Bible really is the Complete book of the Garden.
The final garden is beautiful
I was with a Father and his daughter the other day.
The Father very quickly gave his daughter his eft pos number to access his account.
The daughter laughed and said “Dad I don’t like to disappoint you but I HAVE KNOWN THAT NUMBER FOR YEARS. “
It was her Fathers worst kept secret because he wanted her to have access to the families treasures.
God gives you access to his treasures.
That access is authenticated by Jesus by rising from the dead – He gained you access into the Kingdom of God.
All you need to do is believe in Jesus and follow him.
As you do – you will have glorious adventures and will finally find yourself in the wonderful environment of God’s garden.
Feel free to contact us:
jgullick@xtra.co.nz
