Three Trees

Transcript

GR 32
3/29/2024
Three Trees
Select Verses
Jesse Randolph

Well good evening as most of you know it was here, in the State of Nebraska that the national tree planting holiday Arbor Day was birthed in the late 1800s. Far more than a holiday now, in just over 100 years, Arbor Day has really taken on a life of its own. In fact, it’s now a global nonprofit known as the Arbor Day Foundation which is not only a multi-million-dollar conglomerate but a multi-million-dollar conglomerate with a message. You might even call it a “religious” message.

For instance, if you go on the Arbor Day’s website, you’ll find this language: “We plant trees to take on the world’s biggest problems,” or “We get people to celebrate trees.” The Foundation also says this: “While most holidays celebrate something that has already happened and is worth remembering, Arbor Day represents a hope for the future.” I’ll say that again: “While most holidays celebrate something that has already happened and is worth remembering, (think on that tonight) Arbor Day represents a hope for the future.”

Satan, who is called the “god of this world” in scripture, II Corinthians 4:4 is a master deceiver, a truth-twister A cruel mask wearer who, as he promotes darkness disguises himself as an “angel of light.” One of the oldest tricks that Satan runs in his grimy old playbook is that of misdirection. Meaning he works overtime to blind and deceive us into overemphasizing that which is not all that important while getting us to under emphasize or ignore that which is truly important.

Satan is tickled pink that parents are zealous to tell their children stories about Johnny Appleseed and The Lorax. Satan is supportive of the Sierra Club. Satan is in favor of environmentalism. Satan is all for our cultures worship of John Muir, the patron saint of the American wilderness. And yes, Satan is totally pleased with the fact that Arbor Day and The Arbor Foundation is educating people about trees. So long as they don’t learn about certain trees. Including the three trees that we’re going to look at tonight.

We’re going to look at Three Trees tonight. First, we are going to look at one going all the back to the book of Genesis. This tree over which man originally stumbled. Leading to the sin cursed world and the state of sin we find ourselves in today. Then we’ll spend a couple of minutes looking at a tree at the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation where we consider that tree that those who were in the family of God will enjoy forever in the presence of God. Then we’ll spend some time, most of our time looking at the tree that serves as the bridge between each of those two trees. The tree that delivers sinful man from his hopeless condition and the tree that offers the hope of eternal life. I’m speaking of course of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Let’s start with our first “tree.” The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now, a little bit of Bible background for you, especially for those of you who may be visiting this evening. Genesis 1 gives the record of how God created the heavens and the earth. Everybody has heard the verse Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Meaning several thousand not millions or billions or trillions of years ago, God made the world. He created everything in it, and He created the world perfectly and He did so in six literal 24-hour periods. In those 24-hour periods He created the sun, and the moon, and the stars and the earth and the seas. He created plants and vegetation. He created animals on land, and animals in the sky and animals in the seas. Then, as the crown of His creation, Genesis 1:26 says, “He created man in His own image,” and this is a controversial statement today. But it says, “male and female he created them.”

Now, when we turn to Genesis chapter 2, we are given more details about how God formed man. We’re told in Genesis 2:7, “The LORD God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” In verse 8, we’re told where God placed man: He place him in a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed man whom He had formed. Then in Genesis 2:9 it says, “Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

So, we have this description of the creation of man. We have this description of God’s formation of the Garden. The trees that God caused to grow in the Garden including the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As we read on, we see that God gave this command, this is prohibition about what man could and could not do with respect to those trees in that Garden. Here’s Genesis 2:16-17: it says, “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”

Now, reading on and don’t worry we are not going to do all of Genesis tonight, we get to Genesis 3. By Genesis 3, we have the man, and by this point, we have the woman, Eve who had been formed from man’s side, his rib. But now we have a new character introduced to the narrative. The serpent. The serpent, Genesis 3:1 tells us, “was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.” The serpent, we learn, tempted Eve and then passed that temptation along to her husband, Adam. Here’s Genesis 3:6: “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 desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

God had given His clear command. There was to be no partaking of this one fruit of this one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam and Eve ignored the command. They disregarded the command and they sinned against the Lord. This planet, and mankind, and the human race has never been the same. Romans 5:12 says, “through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.” That’s referring back to this first tree; and this first couple partaking of the forbidden fruit of that tree. The reason Adam eventually died, the reason Eve eventually died, the reason you and I will eventually die. The reasons we have hospitals and graveyards, and funerals. The reason we grieve and mourn and hurt traces all the way back to that first tree.

Now, Adam’s sin brought about not only the physical death that we experience in this world. Why we have hospitals and gravesites and such but our spiritual death as well. Since Adam’s fall, every single one of us has been born dead. Ephesians 2:1 says, “you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Meaning, every single one of us was spiritually stillborn at birth. Totally depraved. Completely unable to please God. Romans 3:9-12, “There is none righteous, not even one: there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless, there is none who does good, there is not even one.” The reason that we can’t get over that Sisyphean feeling of not being able to push the rock completely uphill, is because we can’t. The reason we can’t get over that feeling that we’ll never be able to please God, is because we won’t. There’s nothing that we can do to get ourselves from outside that plight. The fact that we are dead and damned and cursed and condemned. We are natural- born sinners. We are each doomed members of Adam sin marred line. It all goes back to that first tree. Now if that weren’t a bleak enough picture for us on Good Friday, Romans 6:23 tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” Physical death is one component of that. Meaning, our bodies will eventually expire and turn into compost to put it bluntly. Spiritual death. Meaning, on account of our sin, we are relationally separated from God an eternal death. Meaning, we each in our unredeemed state await the just and righteous punishment of a holy God in the eternal flames of hell. All that to say the first tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil led to death.

Now with that I want to take a huge leap to our second tree. The second tree in the biblical narrative by going all the way from the first book of the Bible Genesis to the last book of the Bible Revelation; this second tree is the Tree of Life. The Tree of
Life is found in this place called the New Jerusalem, which is found in the New Heavens and the New Earth. The place where those who are truly in the family of God will one day spend eternity.

Now if I may, slight rabbit trail. A lot of times, people think that if there right with God they’re just going to go to this place this ethereal place called heaven and they are going spend forever on a cloud playing a harp for all of eternity. That’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches is that heaven is an intermediate place. A stopping off point if you will for the believer. But their one-day ultimate destination is the The New Heavens and the New Earth which has this capital city called The New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is described in Revelation 21 and 22. For time’s sake I’ll just read a couple of verses here from Revelation 22 it says “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, this is the new Jerusalem in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

So right there in the middle of the New Jerusalem the believer’s forever dwelling place is going to be this “tree of life.” The celestial counterpart to the tree of life back in the Garden of Eden. This “tree of life” we see it here is going to offer an eternity for the believer, the follower of Christ of provision and variety and health and enjoyment and blessing forever. So those are two trees now. One tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil led to mankind’s fall and ruin through the sin of Adam. The second tree, the Tree of Life will supply redeemed mankind with eternal fulfillment.

How does one escape the disastrous fallout from man’s sin involving the first tree?
How does man go on to enjoy the glories of the other tree? Well that brings us to the third tree. The cross of Jesus Christ. In Acts 5:30, Peter said to the Jews of his day: “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a xulon,” that’s a Greek word for tree. Your Bible might say cross the actual word is tree. In Acts 10:39, Peter then goes to the Gentiles and says something similar, he says “We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a xulon, tree.”
That’s worth remembering tonight on Good Friday. That Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Perfect Lamb and the Prince of Glory. Hung on a tree and He did so for you and me.

Now, sadly, in our day the cross of Christ has become so familiar to us, so commercialized that its meaning and its weight and its significance, if we’re not careful be completely washed out. We carry images of this Third Tree around our neck. We put ink on our arm with a picture of this third tree. We represent this third tree in our clothing and our apparel. But do we understand, do we truly understand what it means and what it signifies and what it represents? I’ve got a few reflections for us tonight on this Third Tree that I pray will cause everyone here to marvel and wonder at the cross of Jesus Christ.

First is this: The death that Christ died on this tree the Third Tree was preordained. Let us not forget that Jesus Christ, the perfect and eternal Son of God went to that third tree to die. As He did so, He did so in accordance with God’s perfect will and eternal decree. Acts 2:23 says that Jesus was “nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men [who] put Him to death.” But right before that in Acts 2:22, it says He was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.”

In other words, God the Father, out of His great love for mankind decreed that God the Son would die on the cross and die He did. Romans 5:8: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Second, the death Christ died on the tree was predicted. By this, I mean that it was predicted by Christ Himself. It was no surprise to the Lord Jesus that He had been sent to this earth on this divinely ordained mission to die. Not at all. Matthew 16:21 says that: “Jesus around his disciples began to show them that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.” Jesus Himself in His own words spoke of His divine mission. In John 3:14 and 15 He said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life.”

Third, here’s another one. The death that Christ died on the tree was prophesied. Meaning it was in the Old Testament it was spoken by Old Testament Psalmists and prophets. David, in Psalm 22:16 it says “A band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” This is a Messianic Psalm looking forward to the coming Messiah. Many, I’m sure you’ve seen these on your Facebook wall is Isaiah 53:5, “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”

Here's number four. Let’s sit for a moment with the fact that the death that Christ died on that tree the third tree was painful, excruciating. That word “excruciating” has the word “cross” the Latin word cross right in the middle of it. Jesus experienced horrific pain through the whips and the cords that ripped through His flesh while He was violently flogged. He experienced horrific pain with the five-to-seven-inch nails that were driven into His hands and his feet. He experienced horrific pain as the mocking robe and scepter were draped on and hammered into his already bruised and battered body. He experienced horrific pain when that crudely twisted crown of thorns was driven into His already bleeding skull. As our Lord hung upon that cross from morning until early afternoon, He felt God’s measured fury. God’s perfect justice. God’s righteous wrath being poured out on Him. He was in unthinkable pain. Unimaginable agony. Then with His energy depleting and His life leaving Him and it all is going away and going black He cried out with His final breath: “Tetelestai”, “it is finished.”

Fifth, the death Christ died on the tree was purposeful. Jesus didn’t die through some random act of violence. No, His death had a purpose. God has always required a payment for sin; and the payment for sin that He has required is shed blood. Hebrews 9:22 says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” The only problem is because of the great extent of our wickedness and our sin. Because of our limitations as human beings, especially as sinful as we are; no sacrifice we ever could have ever made whether of bulls, or goats, or even ourselves would have ever been sufficient to pay our sin debt. Well on that third tree on Calvary’s cross Jesus shed His own precious perfect blood on our behalf. He died with a purpose; He died in our place. The perfect Lamb served as our perfect sacrifice. II Corinthians 5:21 say “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Sixth, the death that Christ died was propitiating. There’s your big theological word for the night. Propitiating. Propitiation simply means satisfaction. Because God is holy and perfect in all His ways. He hates sin. He must deal with sin. Sin simply cannot go unpunished in a universe that’s governed and reigned by a perfectly holy God. Well through this third tree the cross of Christ. God’s wrath toward sin. Wrath which each of us deserved wrath which should have poured out on us in an eternity spent in hell was absorbed on our behalf by God the Son. Through the death of Christ. God’s wrath which once loomed over us like a menacing storm cloud was propitiated, satisfied. Our sin was laid on His shoulders. I John 4:10 says “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Seventh and this is last. The death Christ died on that Third Tree was pardoning. Pardoning. Through the precious blood that Jesus shed on the cross in our place. Though we were once viewed by God as enemies, and rebels, and criminals, and felons, we have been pardoned. Those who were inherently unholy in the eyes of a holy God are now viewed as holy. Those who are inherently unworthy in the eyes of an ultimately worthy God are now viewed as worthy. Through Christ’s shed blood, our sins have been forgiven. Revelation 1:5 says that He has “released us from our sins by His blood.” We’ve been cleansed if we have believed upon the name of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 1:18 says “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” Because we have been cleansed, we can now for we who have believed upon the name of Christ, enjoy eternal fellowship with that same pure and holy God who we had so grievously offended.

So, there we have it. Three Trees. Tree number one on account of Adam’s sin brought death into the world. The second tree found in that dwelling place eternal dwelling place of all believers will one day bring them eternal refreshment and satisfaction. Then tree number three the cross of Jesus Christ is the bridge from one to the other.

Now, sinners, and when I say sinners, I’m talking to everyone in the room because we’re all sinners. Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sinners, do you understand what Jesus Christ did on your behalf on that cross, on that third tree? Do you understand how pitiful your plight would have been had He not gone to the cross for you? Do you understand the depths of the anguish that He experienced on your behalf? Do you understand the unfathomable love the world’s only Savior had for you? Do you not only understand and affirm those truths intellectually, but do you believe in them in your heart. Do you cling to them with hope? Are you willing to bank your eternal existence not on your inflated sense of self-importance, or self-worth, or self-value. Not on the resume of so-called good deeds that you think you’ve done. But instead on Christ, the One who is of matchless worth and matchless value and who has already paid the price on your behalf? Can you say, as Paul would say in Galatians 6:14, “May it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world?”

COMMUNION
As we partake of communion here this evening, I just want to let everyone know that this is a time in which we who have put our hope our faith in the death and the resurrection of Christ, this is a time to remember. A time to reflect, to recall who we once were in our sin. To remember the great debt to a holy God that we had incurred on account of our sin. To remember the sure and terrifying wrath of God that we faced because of our sin. To remember the finished work of Christ on the cross; and how, through His death Jesus paid in full the debt of our sin. So that our sins could be forgiven. So that our relationship with a holy God could be restored and so that the hope of eternal life and fellowship with God could be secured.

Paul instructed the early church at Corinth in I Corinthians 11:26, in these terms as it relates to taking communion. He said, “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” That’s what we’re going to do right now, with Communion. We’re remembering that Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God the Word who became flesh, died for us. We are “proclaiming the Lord’s death.”

When we partake of communion here as a church this is a fellowship meal for believers. Only believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should be partaking of these elements. In fact, there are two ordinances or practices that the Lord gave to the church to remember all that He has done for us. One would be communion what we are doing right now, and the other is baptism, believers’ baptism, which we will see Sunday morning on Easter. But I want to make sure I’m being clear that what we are about to do right now is for believers and believers only. So if you have not put your faith in Jesus Christ, I’d encourage you to let these elements simply pass you by and I would love to and I know our other pastors and elders would love to chat with you after the service to let you understand and help you see what it means to count the cost of following Jesus as Lord.

The second thing I want to make sure you know is that the bread and the cup that we’re going to partake of in just a moment are simply representative. They don’t “become” the body and blood of our Lord like the Roman Catholic Church would teach. Christ’s body and blood aren’t “mystically present” in the elements like the Lutheran Church would teach. No, these are mere representations, symbols. It’s really just bread and grape juice. But the bread represents the body of our Lord. His broken body on the cross. The cup, the juice representing his shed blood.

In I Corinthians 11:23-24 the Apostle Paul directed by the Spirit said this. “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me’.”

PRAYER:
Lord, we come before you with humble gratitude in your perfect and sovereign plan you saw fit to send your Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world. To put on flesh to walk the earth to live a perfect sinless life and God to die a death that really should have been ours. God as we commemorate the bread and the breaking of the body of our Lord, we think of the pain, the agony that he experienced on our behalf. We think of the scourging He received, we think of the crown of thorns, we think of the whips the cords and we are so grieved by our sin and at the same time so grateful for your perfect plan of redemption and salvation. God thank you for the cross of Jesus Christ. May we not take it lightly. May we not look at it as a cultural icon. May we see it for what it is as we have seen this evening preordained, predicted, prophesied, purposeful, pardoning and the rest. God, we thank you for the cross, in your Son’s name we pray. Amen.

Now as we turn to the cup, we remember the shed blood of our Lord. The eternal and holy God revealed in the Bible has always required as we mentioned earlier the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9:22 says, “That without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”

And we thank the Lord because of how gracious and merciful and loving and kind He is. He has always provided a way for the sins of us His people to be transferred to a substitute. In our day its through God the Son the Lord Jesus Christ who, as we’ve seen and commemorated and been singing about this evening, shed blood, his precious blood, on our behalf. It is through Jesus’ shed blood that our sins can be forgiven. Washed as white as snow. Our sin debt cancelled and nailed to the cross. I Corinthians 11:25 reads, “In the same way, Christ He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

PRAYER:

God, we say thank you again, for the sending of your Son into the world to die for our sin. We thank you specifically now as we have taken of the cup for the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are reminded of the hymn that says there is a fountain filled with blood. Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. God, I do pray this evening for we who have put our faith in Christ that we would be remembered and reminded of the precious nature of this shed blood of our Lord. That we would remember the cost of our redemption, the price of our redemption, the sacrifice that was paid would motivate us and fuel us to live upright godly lives for our Savior and to proclaim His name to the ends of the earth. God if there is anyone here this evening who does not know you, if Good Friday is just a box they check or they were invited, and they don’t know what this whole Christianity business is all about. That they are uncomfortable, they don’t like it and they want to leave, God I do pray that tonight that you would work in their hearts. That you would help them see the wickedness of the sin that is still there. That they would come to the end of themselves and not fight the flesh anymore. That they would see that there’s no amount of works, deeds, good behavior, actions even church attendance that can clean up a wretched sinner like they are and like we all are. That It’s only through trusting in the shed blood of Christ, His death on the cross that a sinner can be made right with the holy God. God turn a heart, turn many hearts to you this evening. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.