Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed: 04/28/19

Intro:

• A website called Smart Insights published an article on their website offering some revealing stats.
  • They listed the world’s population as 7.676 billion.
  • Of that population there are 5.112 billion unique mobile phone users or 67% of the worldwide population.
  • 4.388 billion unique users of the internet can be detected or 57% of the worldwide population.
  • As for social media there are  3.484 billion active social media users and 3.256 mobile social media users. This means that just under 50% of the world population have an use social media.
  • Of the social media platform Facebook is far an away the largest platform with 2.234 billion users followed by YouTube with 1900 billion users.
  • Perhaps most surprising in the report is a discussion of population segments including children 8-11 and teens 12-15.
    • For children 8-11 35% have a smartphone and 47% have a tablet. While numbers stay the same for 12-15 year old tablet ownership; 83% of 12-15 year olds have a smartphone.
    • Of the children 8-11 77% use YouTube and 18% have a social media profile. But again the numbers skyrocket for 12-15 year olds. 89% of 12-15 year olds use YouTube and 69% have a social media profile.
• Before you balk and say that you do not have a mobile phone or use social media, don’t miss my point.
  • These numbers illustrate a desire on the part of around half our world’s population to be connected by these technologies.
  • As Christians we cannot ignore or simply decry this technology.
  • Instead, if we truly desire to be a gospel witness to half of the world’s population and well over half of the coming generations, we need to figure out how to respond to these ways to digitally connect.
  • And as we begin this sermon series, let me also assure you that this problem is nothing new.

Hook:

• In our fallen world, connecting has challenged people.
  • We all have heard the biblical admonishment, “bad company ruins good morals,” meaning that not all connections to others are helpful.
  • As soon as writing utensils were developed, it was not very long before not all pictures, letters, notes, and books were filled with helpful knowledge, as the erotic papyri of ancient Egypt demonstrates.
  • Technologies such as the telegraph and then the telephone were equally used to share important news but also to transmit gossip and other sinful information.
  • Radios brought a new level of instantaneous communication but also filled our homes with a never-ending stream of unfiltered communication that connected us to others.
  • This was eventually surpassed by television which added to the audio stream a visual stream of information that connects us with people and ideas.
  • Especially the developments of my generation that began with personal computers and have ended up now with mobile devices, at our fingertips, at all times, and in all places we can connect.
• With every new connection we are faced with an inescapable question, “how connected is too connected?”
• For the next ten weeks we will try to answer that question, beginning with an examination today of the first danger of connecting.
• My hope is that today when we leave that we will all understand the first major danger of connecting that we will see comes from three challenges in this passage.

Message Points:

• Over these ten weeks, my goal is to build for us a biblical theology of connecting.
  • A biblical theology tracks a concept throughout the Bible, helping us to see what the Bible tells us about a particular issue.
  • Our question, “how connected is too connected?” is a form of the biblical topic known as the “fear of man”.
    • Some of us may not use any of these technologies because we fear negative influence of other people.
    • Others of us may choose to utilize these technologies because we fear being left behind by others, or not being included in something important.
    • These concerns and many others come under the topic of the fear of man.
  • So through these weeks, that is the concept we will trace through the Bible. We will not seek to be exhaustive, but comprehensive, covering all the Bible’s main teaching on this subject.
• Thus, today, we begin our journey in Genesis.
  • As we do, we must first say that connecting to others is not necessarily a bad thing.
  • As believers our doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that there is one God, revealed to us in three persons.
    • That means that in the Godhead, there are perfect connections and fellowship between the Father and Son, the Father and Spirit, and the Son and the Spirit.
    • The connectedness in the Trinity is far more connected than any technology we can create, and yet there is no sinful influence at all.
    • We can see this fellowship alluded to in first chapter of Genesis.
      • Verses 1-2 seem to indicated God the Father as the creative impulse while God the Spirit is responding to the Father’s plan.
      • Verse 26 also alludes to the Trinity when the statement is made by God the Father, “Let us make man in our image and likeness”.
  • This leads us to another major confession.
    • As people we are made in the image and likeness of our Trinitarian God.
    • Thus we have been made to connect with others. We have a need for true, open, and real fellowship.
    • Rather than connecting merely being an option for us, God actually said in verse 2:18, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
    • Of all the things made good in Creation according to chapter 1, the first thing God says is not good is the fact that the man has no one to connect to as one made in God’s image.
    • And let’s take a few minutes just to reflect on how God chooses to remedy this.
    • He decided to “make a helper suitable” for the man.
      • The word suitable in the NIV derives from a Hebrew family of words that includes words that mean opposite and the verb to communicate.
        • The concept of the  woman being opposite the man is not an expression of enmity, but an expression of God purpose in creating woman with an equal worth to the man, but with different complementary qualities to the man.
        • Thus due to their difference in perspectives and approaches, the man and woman were able to communicate and connect and both be better for it.
      • The word helper literally means one who supports, aides, or offers assistance.
        • But the word helper is modified by the word suitable, revealing to us that the woman was not meant to be a doormat or unwilling servant.
        • No the words together reveal to us that the man and women were meant to be partners in this life – connected and communicating with one another.
          • The man had the unique responsibility to connect with the woman by setting a God-honoring example.
          • The woman had the unique responsibility to connect with the man by encouraging a God-honoring example.
• This background has prepared us to look at Genesis 3:1-7 called by theologians “the Fall”.
  • Here we see described the descent of humanity and the entirety of creation into a sin-marred and sin-susceptible state.
  • From this point forward, the stain of sin has infected our nature and ever other aspect of Creation.
  • We begin our examination by noticing that we read in these verses of “the serpent”.
    • There is some debate about whether this is a Satan-inspired snake or Satan himself.
    • If this is a Satan-inspired snake, then it is a kind of anti-Adam in the same way in the end there will be an anti-Christ.
    • If this is Satan himself, then this is an early but veiled appearance of Satan in the same way we see in the Old Testament the “angel of the Lord” as an early but secret appearance of Christ.
    • In either case “the serpent” is crafty, which has a positive and a negative connotation.
      • Positively the Hebrew word can mean prudent, skillful or wise.
      • But it also has the tone, as it does in this passage of shrewdness, trickery, or willing to do anything.
      • This serpent is willing to do anything to derail God’s plan and achieve his own selfish purposes.
  • It is the serpent who seeks to connect with the woman.
    • He is the one who sends a friend request to the woman by opening a discussion with her.
    • And this discussion serves to place doubt into the woman’s mind.
    • He begins shrewdly with a question in verse 1.
    • Note that friends and consider how often a question is the way that a news story begins.
      • In television news those questions are called teasers for the next segment.
      • In print media and internet posts, headlines are designed to give you just enough information to make you ask, “I wonder how that story/headline ends”
      • And in social media the more questions a picture or video can raise, the more likely someone clicks and seeks to learn more.
    • Connecting both positive and negative causes us to ask a question, to compare ideas and experiences, and to want to know more.
    • Further, notice that the serpent deliberately asks a question that he knows is false and that accuses God.
      • His question begins with “did God really say” which accuses and brings into question God’s words.
        • Remember, the woman was not yet created in 2:16, so she did not hear God issue the command at that time, but has knowledge of the command.
        • The woman may have heard the man relate his experience with God, and she may have heard God himself relay the experience and command at some undisclosed time.
      • But then notice that the serpent’s question contains an obvious exaggeration of God’s command.
        • He asks if God said they could not eat from “any tree”.
        • Again this calls into question what God has said.
  • If we continue into verses 2-3 we see the woman’s initial response to the serpent.
    • She has compared the serpent’s question to her understanding and experience of God’s command and declares it fake news.
    • She rightly says that they can eat fruit of all the trees but one.
    • Then she relates God’s rule, given to allow humanity the choice to either follow Him or follow their selfish desires. The ability to  choose is what differentiates us from mindless robots.
    • They cannot eat from the tree in the middle of the garden.
    • Then she relays more information than was in the original command of 2:16, saying that they could not touch that fruit either or they would surely die.
• Here we see our 1st challenge: Connecting confronts us with differing information, so we must decide what is fake news. (3:1-3)
  • This challenge does not automatically mean that we should refuse to connect with those who have differing information.
  • After all, both Adam and Eve have already connected with God who has a far superior amount of information to either of them.
    • The connection with God has consistently been for their benefit, as it is for our benefit.
    • God communicates with us from His divine point of view, according to his divine purposes.
    • He knows the end from the beginning, the purpose of our existence, and that which is good for us and glorifying for Him.
  • But every other connection introduces us to new, different, and biased information.
    • Perhaps it is the biasing of information that we should consider most carefully.
      • Information is communicated from a point of view, and that point of view seeking to influence us.
        • If it was Adam who communicated God’s command of 2:16 with Eve, then it may have been him who shared with her the basic command and added the words “you must not touch it”.
        • I prefer to understand this as how Eve received this information, primarily because if God said “you must not touch it” then we should expect that Eve’s eyes would have been opened as soon as she touched it in verse 6.
        • By sharing an additional warning, he was seeking to influence the woman in a flawed way according to his bias to please and obey God rather than to displease and disobey God.
        • This is only a speculation, that seeks to explain what we do know, namely that the woman had differing information than the original command of 2:16.
    • Through the rest of the Bible, we see with every connection we form and influence we receive we must decide what is fake news.
      • The concept of fake news is nothing new.
      • From the Egyptian paintings in their tombs depicting each king’s version of his rule, to the yellow journalism of the 1890s and early 1900s, to the accusations in the past few years from our current president of fake news; people have to decide what is true and what is false.
      • Truth is that which most closely conforms to reality and falsehood is that which does not conform to reality.
      • Eve knew that the serpent’s question did not conform to her experience and understanding of God’s commands, thus initially she decided to relay her understanding.
  • With each new piece of information relayed by a connection of ours we must make another decision.
    • With 1 billion website and an estimated 4.66 billion web pages, if each page only reports one piece of information that means that we have at least 4.66 billion potential decisions . https://www.livescience.com/54094-how-big-is-the-internet.html.
    • Even if you do not use the internet, Psychology today estimates that we may make as many as 35000 choices each day which means that in the span of 50 seconds each one of us would make 25 decisions. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/stretching-theory/201809/how-many-decisions-do-we-make-each-day
    • With so many decisions, we are bound to make a mistake.
    • And when we wrongly decide what is true, we call that being deceived.
      • That is exactly how the woman in verse 3:13 describes her ultimate failure.
      • She says that the serpent deceived her.
      • But in these first verses that deception had not set in because she held onto what God had said.
      • If you want to make right decisions about what is true and false information, friends the answer is to know with absolute certainty what God said.
      • That is why we take so much time on a Sunday talking and thinking about God’s Word.
      • That is why we have Bible study groups that meet at all different times during the week.
      • That is the reason we encourage each believer to enjoy a personal time of Bible reading and prayer called a devotion or quiet time.
      • We must make decisions about every piece of information we receive from our connections and the only way to make right decisions is to know with certainty what God has said.
• Now we look to the next three verses.
  • Here in verse 4-5 the serpent continues his connection with the woman offering her contradictory information about God’s command.
    • First he says that they will not die.
    • Then he says the their eyes will be opened so that they will be like God.
    • According to Him They will truly know good and evil.
    • In the way that the serpent contradicts God’s command, he makes it seem as if God has kept from Adam and Eve something precious.
    • This information challenges what Eve knows of God as being good and doing good for them.
  • Verse six then offers us the progression of how we move from choosing what is true and right to choosing what is wrong and sinful.
    • Communication that truly challenges us ordinarily engages as many of our senses as possible.
      • That is why writing seems inferior to conversation.
      • That is why radio gave way to the audio visual stimulus of television and movies.
      • And the addition of clicking or touch has driven the predominance of computers and our mobile devices. Not only do we see and hear, but we get to choose by touch that which we want to connect.
    • Eve tests this new information using her senses and reason.
      • Eve was no different. First she uses her sight to see that the fruit was “pleasing to the eye”
      • She reasons that the fruit it is desirable because it gives to people wisdom God had withheld.
      • She then touches the fruit experiencing its presumably pleasing texture.
      • And then she eats it, again perhaps savoring the taste.
    • Her senses were engaged and deceived her into reasoning wrongly that eating this fruit, which clearly broke God’s command was not so bad.
  • But we also see here in this verse that “she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
    • While we have no idea of proximity, Adam clearly would have known when he saw the fruit that it was from the forbidden tree.
    • 1 Timothy 1:14 tells us that “Adam was not decieved” like Eve, but chose instead to purposefully disregard from what he knew was true.
    • Evidently Adam was afraid to displease his wife more than he was afraid to displease God. Thus he chose  passivity rather than setting a godly example.
• Thus our 2nd Challenge is that Connecting challenges our current relationships, so we must decide how to relate to others. (3:4-6)
  • Eve’s new relationship with the serpent challenged her to decide how she would relate to God. She chose to disobey him through the deception of the serpent.
  • Adam’s relationship with Eve challenged him to decide how he would relate to God and to Eve. He chose to passively disregard what he knew to be true and disobey God to please his wife.
  • These two pathways deceit and disregard stand as a constant possibility as we connect with others.
  • Either we might be deceived by some false information or we might know something is wrong and choose to pursue it anyway.
    • Deceit occurs when we are not sure of something, and instead of making sure of the facts, we choose to act impulsively, on our own without input.
      • Notice that Eve did not wait to ask Adam or God more about the tree in the midst of the garden.
      • She did not get all the facts.
    • Disregard occurs when we are sure of something, and choose to do what we know is wrong.
      • This is how God describes Adam’s sin and culpability in verse 17.
      • Adam receives the consequences because he listened to his wife and ate the fruit he knew was forbidden.
      • No matter what reason motivated Adam, his disregard for God’s will was at issue.
• Our 3rd challenge is that Connecting changes how we perceive ourselves, so we must decide how to handle the ugly truths. (3:7)
  • We read that once Adam and Eve had both eaten that is when their eyes are opened and they realize their nakedness.
    • While we do not want to make too much of this, it is important to realize that for the first time in their existence they felt shame and the need to cover themselves or protect themselves.
    • Perhaps this describes some of our experience with social media and other forms of worldly communication.
    • Maybe we have been burned and hurt by being wrong. Maybe we are afraid of what we know is out there and might challenge us.
    • One way or the other some of us respond by shutting down all connections and trying to protect ourselves by covering over our fear with little more than fig leaves that make connecting more difficult.
  • The propensity to receive new information and decide poorly will only be resolved by deciding that we need God’s help. (3:15, 3:20-21)
    • Look with me at Genesis 3:15 which is called the “first gospel”.
      • Here the connection with God gives Adam and Eve new information.
      • God promises that He will bring about a child of the man and woman who will crush the head of the serpent.
      • Salvation will come through an offspring of the woman.
    • Now look at Genesis 3:20.
      • Adam, instead of naming his wife the mother of all the dying, names her the mother of all the living. That is what Eve means.
      • He believes God’s promise.
      • That is why in verse 21 God replaces their feeble fig leaves with an animal sacrifice, making form them garments of skin to cover their same.
      • This first sacrifice shows us that through connecting with God there is forgiveness of sin and cleansing.

Conclusion:

• So as we consider this world that demands that we connect, we must affirm that The 1st Danger of Connecting is the constant need to decide.
• However, this is also the first Hope of connecting. We can decide to turn to God for help and receive forgiveness and cleansing.