Adult Mentor: 2nd Quarter 2015

By Malcolm R. Rhodes

Adult Mentor (ages 36 & older).This book is for the adult learner, ages 36 and older. It is designed to increase Christian faith and biblical understanding using a variety of learning methods.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Oct 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781589429949

Book preview

PARADISE LOST

QUARTERLY THEME:

Spreading the Good News

Lesson Scripture:

Genesis 3:1–15

DISCIPLINES LEARNED

I. ADAM AND EVE SINNED

II. ADAM AND EVE TRIED TO HIDE

III. GOD PROMISED A REDEEMER

KEY VERSE:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

(Genesis 3:15, KJV)

INTRODUCTION:

Passing through adolescence into young adulthood is a time of discovery. Most of us make some bad decisions along the way as we try to figure out what our lives are going to be all about. This struggle has its roots in the Garden of Eden. Fortunately, though, there is hope. Even though Adam and Eve fell in the garden, God promised to send a Redeemer. Today we are going to look at what happened in Eden as a source of evangelism.

EXPOSITION:

I. Adam and Eve Sinned

There was Adam, planted in the middle of the newly created paradise we call the Garden of Eden. Imagine his looking around in wonder at the newness and breathtaking beauty of it. And then God spoke to him. Adam, thundered the Creator, I am giving you this garden. It is yours to care for. All that it contains is yours to manage, with one exception. Do not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil over there in the garden. If you do, you will die.

Although the Bible clearly defines God’s command to Adam, it does not indicate how Eve received God’s command, which is probably why the serpent found her more susceptible to deception. But Genesis 3 confirms that she was well aware of God’s command by her response to the serpent’s question, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden [except] the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall [we] touch it, or [we] shall die’ (vv. 2-3, NRSV).

THEOLOGICAL CONCEPTS:

1 People often do not understand why God wants them to live the way He has commanded, which opens them up to making sinful decisions.

2 When faced with a choice to obey God or to choose our own way, we follow in the footsteps of Adam and Eve when we choose to rebel against God.

3 It was merciful for God to promise to send His Son so that we do not have to spend all eternity under the punishment due us for our sinfulness.

Although Adam and Eve were given a command, and had intentions of being obedient, it is reasonable to assume that they did not understand why God was restricting them from that particular tree. It was at that point, that the serpent was able to cast doubt on God’s command to Adam and Eve.

The truth was that obeying God would have left them in the center of God’s will, where they could lean on God’s intention to give them only what was good—after all, the entire creation had been called good by God. The lie was that God was holding out on Adam and Eve because God did not want competition. The serpent claimed that if they ate of the fruit they would become equal with God. And so they ate from the forbidden tree and sinned against God.

II. Adam and Eve Tried to Hide

Along with that first sin, a fatal tendency was born in the hearts of our original parents. It is a tendency to want to take charge of our own lives instead of trusting in the will of God. That tendency has been passed down from generation to generation, parent to child to grandchild, and continues to this day. We were all born with it. What appeals to us may not be a fruit. It may be wealth, or power, or sensuality, or beauty, or popularity. For most of us, the tendency manifests itself in a variety of ways, but these ways all come back to the same essential problem that Adam and Eve had. We want to live in a way that makes sense to us.

ACTIVITY:

MAKING IT STICK

Read 1 John 2:16. Think about what the three worldly vices John listed mean and then consider how they appear in the story of Adam and Eve’s first sinning. In Genesis 3:6, we learn that Eve saw, she was pleased and she desired. Use those three ideas as your focus.

When Adam and Eve first sinned, they recognized they had done wrong. Their eyes were opened; they realized they were naked and made clothes out of fig leaves for themselves to cover their nakedness. They then tried to hide from God, which proved to be fruitless.

God came to visit Adam and Eve as He was accustomed to doing. God called out to Adam, but the man said he and Eve were hiding because of the shame of their nakedness. God asked how they knew they were naked, knowing that the two had eaten the forbidden fruit. Adam realized he was caught and tried to shift the blame toward his wife, saying she had given him the fruit. Eve then turned the blame toward the serpent, saying the serpent had deceived