Sermon Extras

SERMON NOTES

Memento Mori: “Where did death come from?” Gen 1-3 

REVIEW> We started a brand new series last week! Go check it out on our website our podcast! This phrase means, “Remember your death” Why would we do that? “Remembering our death renews our life.” 

INTRO> Maybe this will help us get set up for where we are going today. A few weeks ago, Courtnee took the kids over to the city cemetery so they can walk around and hang out, it’s actually a really nice place! Piper saw a head stone that had Mickey Mouse on it, and she was confused and asked why Mickey was on that head stone, courtnee told her, Piper responded with, “Kids can die too!” You see, this has been a tough conversation ever since our GaGa died.

APP> You see, Piper realized in that moment something that we all learn about death:

Death is: 

• real
• universal (65 million people die each year in the world.  That is 178,000 each day, 7425 each hour, and 120 each minute.)
• inevitable (As Johnny Cash says in the song Hurt, “Everyone I know goes away in the end)

APP> The way that we said that this series is going to do is that, each week we are going to ask a question and answer that question from the scriptures. This week, we are asking, “Where did death come from?” What is so interesting, there are as many origin stories about death as there are people on the planet, because death is universal, it’s stories are universal. I would also press in and say this… no matter the age, no matter the situation, standing by someones bed or at a grave side, this statement seems so true… Death seems wrong. 

• 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[e] in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept.” John 11:33-35

Context> I want to look at the original story, How it was suppose to be and what happened to answer todays ?

• Death was never the original design. 
• “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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.” Genesis 2:16-17

APP> Here we see the original design. God said to Adam that everything was good and Adam had everything that he needed. Here is a question, this is the first time the Bible uses the word death, what kind of death would happen if Adam disobeyed? 

3 Types of Death in the Bible: 

• Physical Death- “…till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19
• Spiritual Death- “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:1-3 *ILL> Show the Soul, Spirit Body Graphic! 
• Eternal Death – “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

APP> There is a common theme or thread through all the bible when it comes to death. I think we can define death this way: Death is separation. 

• The soul from the body. 
• The body from loved ones. 
• Ourselves from God. 

2) Disobedience is the doorway to death. 

• Genesis 3:6-8 

Big Idea > Death is the result of disobedience to God’s good word. 

• “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” Romans 5:12

APP> I want to stop here and think for a moment… Many of us know the devastation and pain that death has brought to our lives with the passing of a loved one… The pain of the separation of the loved one from ourselves. 

Do we think of our sin that way? When we think of the devastation that death brings into our lives, do we think of our disobedience the same way? 

• After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”- John 6:66-69

*ILL> What If you went to the doctor, and he said that there was something horribly wrong with you but there was hope, if you just simply took this little pill every day you would live. Would you take it? Why don’t we view God’s words that way? 

• 2 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” Genesis 3:22-24 
• Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.” Exodus 26:1
• And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.” Matthew 27:51

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus took on death by living a perfect life of obedience, dying on the cross and being raised on the third day! 

Application: 

• How does this biblical view of death, change your view of death? 
• Where am I inviting death into my life through my disobedience to God’s good word?
• What is the Spirit saying to me?
• What am I going to do about it?