We are lost.
- To be lost means to be unable to find one’s way; not knowing one’s whereabouts; having gone astray or having missed the way; bewildered as to place or direction—[a little bit like coming out of Walmart and not being able to find your car]; ruined or destroyed physically or morally; not knowing where you are or how to get to where you want to go.
- We, as in the human race, apart from salvation in Jesus Christ, are lost.
- In Luke’s gospel we read: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10 ESV).
- And you might say, “Wait a minute, Dave, isn’t this a Genesis study?”
- Yes it is. The “lostness” that Luke writes about is a result of the spread of sin and death from the fall of humanity that we have been studying in Genesis three.
- Let’s review a little bit to set the stage. We know that on the day of the disobedience of Adam and Eve that God came to the garden of Eden in the cool of the day looking for Adam and Eve. We know that Adam and Eve are now dead, as God had told them that in the day that they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would surely die. And we know that not only have Adam and Eve died because of their sin but that through Adam’s sin, death and sin have spread to all people.
- So let’s go back to the scene as God comes walking in the garden. “Where are you?” he calls out. Adam and Eve are hiding. God has asked, “Where are you?” but beyond the basic facts that they are hiding among the trees, they just don’t know. The trees they are hiding among are part of the garden that God set them over to work and to keep. Everything is the same, but everything is different. They have lost their way. The effects of this catastrophe have left them in darkness. They were the first sheep off the path.
- (Isaiah 53:6 ESV) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.
- We must understand that we live in a post-Eden world which means that we must understand the continuing effects of the fall. To help us do this we keep asking ourselves the question that God asked Adam and Eve: Where are you?
- Part of the answer to that question is that we are lost. But there is good news. Fast-forward about 4,000 years and we find that the Son of Man has come to this earth to seek and to save the lost.
Message Title: Discovering Our Post-Eden World: LOST!
Message Text: Genesis 3, Luke 19:1-10
