Okay, friends, if you have a Bible, please open with me to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis chapter 2.

You'll notice in your handout this week, your sermon notes, I try to tell a story for all of us. I try to give pictures for the artists in the room, and I try to give a graph for all the engineers. So, hopefully, some of you We'll find yourselves lost in all the information in your sermon notes. There's a lot of information here.

We're going to cover, we're going to preach through as we normally do these sermon notes. But I just want to orient you to what you see here so that you know what it is you're looking at. On the first page are normal sermon notes that we have almost every week. And I'll give you the blanks. If you're new to Trinity, I'll give you the words that you fill in the blank if you like to take notes.

On the backside, the notes continue where there are eight implications that we'll talk about today of what it means for us as a church. I'll explain what that means in just a little bit. But behind those eight, you'll notice some artwork. And that artwork are the hammer beam trusses in our new church facility.

And each of those hammer beam trusses, there are 12 of them. And each of those hammer beam trusses on the ends of those hammer beams are carvings that depict movements of the biblical story from Genesis to Revelation. The Old Testament will be on the south wall and the New Testament will be on the north wall, six and six.

And you'll notice, look at those pictures down there. The first truss you see on the bottom left with the fruit on the end, that is, of course, the garden. And then the twelfth truss, which is on the opposite side, will be the Garden City in the New Jerusalem. So I want to invite you to let your imagination be captured by the story of the biblical good news that we go from a garden to a city.

And over these 12 weeks, I want to show you the beauty of the church, which is not contained in brick and mortar of a physical building, though Peter calls us living stones. It is contained in you, the church, the living stones of Christ, and the building across the street, though it will be beautiful and it will have a uniqueness all its own.

It is in you. It's pointing us to the beauty of the lives lived in the people of Trinity Presbyterian Church as we refract the beauty of Christ like artwork, eternal artwork, bound to give the world a sense of God's glory and grandeur. So for these next 12 weeks, friends, we're going to walk through these 12 hammer beam trusses, these, the story, the beauty of the church.

And this week, we start with the church in the beginning. So if you're willing and able, would you stand with me as we read select portions from Genesis chapter 2? And then we'll turn our eyes toward Revelation 21 and 22. I encourage you just to listen to these texts rather than follow along in your Bibles because I'm gonna jump around.

You may see the words on the screen behind me if you'd like to follow. Genesis 2, 5. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, a mist was going up from the land, it was watering the whole face of the ground.

Now verse 10. And a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. In verse 15, the Lord took man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Key words. And the Lord commanded the man saying, you shall 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 that day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

And then in revelation, chapter 21, beginning at the beginning. And now at the end. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. And then verse 15, And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls.

And the city lie four square, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with the rod, 12, 000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement. which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second, sapphire, the third, agate, the fourth, emerald, the fifth, onyx, the sixth, carnelian, the seventh, chrysolite, the eighth, beryl, the ninth, topaz, the tenth, chrysoprase, the eleventh, jacenth, the twelfth, amethyst.

And the twelve gates were the twelve pearls, were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of the Lord gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

And by its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false for only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, brightest crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also on either side of the river, the tree of life, which its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations and no longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it.

And his servants will worship him and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more and they will need no light of lamp or sun For the Lord God will be their light and they will rain forever and ever. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but God's word stands forever.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. He may be seated. Please. Father, would you open our hearts? To see the beginning through the lens of the end, and show us the beauty of your church, we thank you. Would you speak to us through your preached word, and would you change us by it? We ask these things in Jesus name, amen.

In the heart of New Hampshire, nestled among the White Mountains, there is a place called the Cathedral of the Pines. Anybody ever been there? It is an outdoor sanctuary. It's stunning. It's a place of worship surrounded by the beauty of God's creation. And the cathedral, as it's called, was established in memorial of a family's son who died in World War II.

And it was designed to invite people to take rest in this outdoor sanctuary, this beautiful garden, to help them worship and to rest in the presence of God's beautiful creation. And visitors to the Cathedral of the Pines often speak of the sense of peace and the reverence that they feel as they walk among these towering trees in this beautiful space.

They listen to the wind rustle through the leaves and they gaze upon the distant mountains. It's as if the natural world itself beckons them into a sanctuary, a sacred space. A place where God's presence is felt in a very, very profound way. And one might say that the Cathedral of the Pines is a modern day reflection of the Garden of Eden.

It's a place where the created world reveals the presence of the Creator and where people encounter God in a tangible and transformative way. And this image of the Cathedral of the Pines in New Hampshire reminds us of the idea of God's presence and dwelling in a sacred space is not new. In fact, it goes all the way back to the very beginning.

It goes back to the very first sanctuary, which is we have ever created, the Garden of Eden. In 2, we see that God didn't just create a world and put humanity in it to live. He created a sacred space. He created a proto temple. He created a space that was meant to dwell where he was dwelling among his people.

A space that was so sacred that God and man walked together in perfect union. Can you imagine it? And Eden wasn't just a land that had a garden in the east of it. It was the first temple of the Lord. It was the first place where heaven and earth overlapped. Where God walked with Adam as it says in Genesis 3.

8.

But Eden, friends, was never meant to be the end of the story. Eden was meant to be the presence of God in the temple that was then meant to be the foundation of sending God's people out, namely Adam and Eve, to extend the beauty of the garden throughout the whole earth as the waters cover the sea, as Isaiah says in Isaiah 11, 9.

Eden was never meant to be an end of the story. In and of itself, Adam and Eve were given a task of working and keeping the land. That was their mandate. And it involved a duty not just of maintaining what was there, but it involved being fruitful and multiplying God's glory throughout all of the earth.

And although Adam and Eve failed in this task, God's plan did not fail. It continued through Noah and through Abraham. It continued through David. In the people of Israel, and it found its consummation, of course, ultimately in Jesus, who is called what? The true temple. John 1 says that Jesus came and he templed among us.

He dwelt, the word in Greek for dwelt is tabernacled, among us. Jesus was the only one that could restore what was lost in the garden back to his covenant people by becoming for us the presence of God's true dwelling place in which we again find our safe haven and our rest. And if there is anything that I want you to know, It is this truth that we are God's covenant people, and we are called to extend God's transforming presence in the world to the ends of the earth, just like Adam and Eve were called to do in the garden, but failed.

We, now, continuing that story, stand on the shoulders. Yes of Noah. Yes of Moses. Yes of David. Yes of the patriarchs before them. We stand on their shoulders. And we being spiritual Israel are called to extend the garden even today in every corner of the world. The Garden of Eden was never meant to just remain a localized garden.

It was meant to spread across the entire known world. And so also Eden's story becomes our story, O church. And as you live into that story, you begin to see the beauty of the church as it extends God's glory to the ends of the earth. So Christians are God's covenant people extending God's transforming presence in the world to the ends of the earth.

And we are God's priests in God's presence who are equipped to extend God's glory to the ends of the earth today. So this morning, I want to take us back to Eden to see, first, God's priest, secondly, God's presence, and thirdly, that we are equipped as God's people to extend his glory to the ends of the earth.

You ready? How many of you have thought about Eden being the first temple? Is this a new concept for some of you? It's a new concept for some of us, isn't it? First, God's priests. In Genesis 2 15, The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. Now in Hebrew it's fun to read a

man to work and keep the ground. He was to work the ground. And here is the mandate that was given to Adam. This was his responsibility. Adam, you are to work the ground and keep it. And then later it says la. Shamra, to work and to keep it or to guard it. And what's interesting about that language is as you read through the course of scripture you get into Numbers and you listen to the way that, that the Lord commanded Moses to give instructions to the Levites of how they are to work and guard and keep the temple.

I want you to listen to what Numbers chapter 3 says. Bring the tribe of Levi near and set them before Aaron the priest that they may minister, la'avod, they may work, that they shall keep Ula Shamra, guard him over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, and they shall minister, avod, At the tabernacle and as if to emphasize it, he says it again, they shall guard same word, all the furnishings of the tented meeting and they shall keep guard.

Same word over all the people of Israel as they minister Avo. Same word as they work at the temple. Now, what's the point? The point is that in the garden. Adam was called to be a priest unto God, with the very specific task of working and keeping the garden. So isn't it remarkable that when God is giving Moses commands about the temple, God is saying, just like the first temple, in the physical temple, in the tabernacle, the Levites are to do the same task that Adam did, but failed.

In his amazing work called Biblical Theology by John Owen, In the 17th century, Owen says this. He says that Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, a place of pleasure, to dress it and to keep it. This was not only a work of his own personal obedience, but he was therein a public person, representing the Church of God in the state of innocence, and the duties of it in that state.

His dressing and keeping of the garden was a symbolic instruction of the duty of the church in serving God according to the law of nature and a state wherein it was created. In other words, Owen says that just like Adam was called to work and keep the garden, so also the church today is called to work and keep, not just the garden, but work and keep the purity of his church as a covenant people, and to extend as the church grows The beauty of his church across the world, even beginning to redeem the world in a very beautiful way, as the church uses its gifts for the good both of common grace and in preaching the gospel through special grace.

Further, Owen has this to say about the words, to work it and to keep it. The words to dress and keep it have a double significance. First, they are to cultivate the ground, and secondly, they are to keep it and preserve it from all that might be hurtful or nauseous to it. But there is more even than this.

They include a moral duty that Adam should by all means keep himself in the garden from all defilement, and guard both from all entrants of the enemy who might attempt to disturb the peace and order of that holy place. In other words, Owen is saying, how did the serpent get in that garden?

Adam did not do his job.

And one of the uniquenesses of the church and so much of your own story as part of the church is you think, oh, beauty of the church, that sounds nice. I don't see it. And it is true that we live now between the already and the not yet. We are broken people. Because of Adam's fall, we sinned all. And it's only as we look to Christ, who is that second Adam, and we are renewed in our faith in Him to become His hands and feet.

And we are sanctified progressively, which means that we are slowly, some of us if you're like me, ever so slowly becoming more and more in the image of Jesus. And it is a beautiful thing for us as a church to recognize that we are responsible for each other. And what you do in the privacy of your own home, you think, well, it doesn't bother everybody.

Yes, it does. We are called to cultivate intimacy only within marriage. Not to worship Aphrodite like they did in the ancient Near East in the way that so many are captivated by the sexual, the whole pornography industry and how sexually charged everything is. It affects the church. We're called to walk in humility as a people of God.

This is how we guard and we keep it. We have elders of our church who are tasked to help guard and keep the church. As we exercise church discipline together, this is who we are. And we do it together. Because we are called to be priests in the same way that Adam was called to be priests. Except now we are empowered by the Holy Spirit through the finished work of the second Adam, namely Jesus.

And we are able now to extend the beauty of that garden where we are. So first, we are God's priest. Secondly, God's presence. God and man and woman walked together in the cool of the day. Oh, I long for that.

And the description of God walking indicates a closeness that God had with humanity then. And all throughout Scripture, you see echo traces back to Genesis 3 and 9. Enoch in Genesis 5 walked with God. Noah. is said to have done the same in Genesis 6. Abraham in Genesis 17, Isaac in Genesis 24, Jacob in Genesis 45, Moses in Deuteronomy 5, David in 1 Kings 3, and Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 10.

Leviticus 26, 12 says, and I will walk among you, and you will be, I will be your God, and you will be my people. And even Jesus in John 8, 29 says, And He who sent me is with me. He is with me. He walks with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. And to the disciples and to believers today, Galatians 5, 22 says, But I say to you, walk by the Spirit.

And you will not gratify the sinful desires of the flesh. These are echo traces taking us back to the garden in Genesis 3 9 when they walked with God in the cool of the day. And God's presence dwelt in Eden where people walked together with Him. And they didn't just walk with Him, but Eden was a tabernacle where God's presence remained in Exodus chapter 25.

And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. That goes back to the Garden of Eden, doesn't it? Ezekiel 28, 13 and 14 says, You were in Eden, the Garden of God. You were anointed. You were an anointed guardian, a cherub. And I placed you there. And you were on the holy mountain of God. In the midst of stones of fire, you walk.

At the very end of the Bible in Revelation 21, you see the final verses of Revelation talk about not an Eden restored, but now we have an Eden consummated in a city, not a garden, in a city. And I heard the voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with them. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.

Do you hear the echo trace back to the garden in those verses? Are you following me? The garden is the first temple. We serve as priests to extend God's presence. And there are echo traces back to the responsibility that Adam had in the garden that he failed to do, that Christ fulfilled. As the second Adam, and we, through faith in Christ, now extend God's kingdom through our own spiritual gifts and obedience and actions and delight as a covenant community together.

That is the utter uniqueness of the church and the beauty of it. Notice also in Revelation 22, it puts the tree of life back in the story, doesn't it? Then the angel showed me the river. There's another river. The water of life, brightest crystal flowing from the throne of God, and the lamb through the middle of the street of the city, and also on either side of the river.

What's there? It's the tree of life with 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The tree of life which first appeared in the garden of Eden, that the cherubs were put to guard so that Adam would not go back to the tree of life and eat of it, and be eternally condemned in eternal hell.

The tree of life comes at the end where we will feast on it. We will eat of it in God's presence and we will enjoy the beauty of God's garden city together with him.

Eden was also supposed to be a place of God's rest. It's as easy to see as you read Genesis 1 and 2. When you come to the very end in Genesis chapter 22, you also see it being a place of God's rest. There will be no more tears. Death shall be no more. There'll be no more night. Jesus, who's the light of the nations, the light of the world now comes and illuminates everything by his presence.

Sacred Eden was the first temple of the world, and in that world, man was called to extend his presence to the ends of the earth, but Adam failed. He disobeyed God's command. And Jesus Christ, Picked up that covenant of works and he himself fulfilled it by being that second Adam. Are you with me? He accomplished everything that was required of Adam.

Every jot and tittle of the law given to him. Even his own baptism was done to fulfill all righteousness. So he could be the perfect Adam and in union with Christ by faith in him, we can receive his righteousness, which covers us. The indwelling presence of His Spirit indwells us, and He knits us together as a local church to be the extension of God's presence in the world now.

And so while brick and mortar and a localized place, like a building, is not God's presence, Nevertheless, sacred space, even from the very beginning, has always been important. And as we gather to worship in this place, and soon across the street in the church building, we gather in a unique place, in a beautiful place, to be able to say that we are the beauty of the church, the people of the church, in the shadows of beautiful architecture.

We are the ones who are the, then leave that place to go and extend God's glory to the ends of the earth. Don't you see what an incredible privilege that is? We are the ones who are able to be God's priests and dwell by His Spirit to extend God's presence just as Adam was called to do in the garden.

And by His Spirit, He equips God's people to extend His glory to the ends of the earth. And the Cathedral of the Pines, if you ever have a chance to go there, it is breathtaking. And wouldn't it be great if Tulsa had a Cathedral of the Pines? I mean, we're trying. Zinc Lake is getting there. We rode our bikes on the river, on the riverside.

This is beautiful. It's beautiful. But would you be surprised if I said there's something even far more beautiful than the Cathedral of the Pines right here? You are the Cathedral of the Pines. In fact, the Cathedral of the Pines can't hold a pine cone to how beautiful you are. And I know that it is something you cannot always see.

But I wish you could see the text streams that are going out for young Annika Kunke, the way that people are praying for her. I wish you could see the text streams on so many of the groups at our church, of people praying for each other. It's overwhelming, the way that our lives are intersecting, the way that we are giving ourselves to each other.

Our time, our talent, our treasures are, we're giving for one another, we're helping each other out. This is what the church is called to be. And our church doesn't always, we don't live in the same subdivision. Like we are quite spread out, aren't we, Allens? I mean, day drive from Muskogee. This is a long way.

We are spread out. We've got people that are way north. We've got people that are way south. But yet we come together to worship Him, and it's beautiful. And if you're not yet in a community group, we want you to get grafted in. Why? Because that is the means to which God extends His presence in the church as we meet during the course of the week.

It's not because we want to have community groups for the sake of community groups. It's because you're called to be priests to extend God's presence and dwelt by His Spirit. All under Jesus, who is the true prophet, priest, and king. And he equips us to extend his beauty and his pleasure. Ephesians chapter 2 calls us a holy temple.

It doesn't get more direct than that. We are called a holy temple. And that has echo traces back to Genesis chapter 3. And it is a prelude to what you read in Revelation 21 and 22. First Peter, if you couldn't get more explicit to connect the dots between Genesis and Revelation, calls us living stones.

The church is his temple in the world and dwelt by Christ's spirit. So what does this mean for you? You are a part of God's unfolding plan beginning with Adam and culminating in Christ who redeems the covenant community and prepares us for Eden Even better than Eden, the Garden City of the New Jerusalem.

And in our new building one day, you'll be able to reflect back and see the story of the garden on one end, and you'll be able to look across and see the story of the Garden City on the other. And to see how the entire biblical story wraps itself around the promise of the tree of life that we lost, and the tree of life restored to us, because Jesus died on the tree of life.

Amen? The implications for us are that you, O Trinity, members of this church, and all who profess faith in Christ around the world, comprise in our world what the temple provided the ancient Near Eastern world, the dwelling place of God's presence, the place of spiritual sacrifices to the way that we serve each other and the world.

Secondly, what's it mean for you? It means the church, as the body of Christ, continues God's mission. We send missionaries around the world. We share the gospel with those in our subdivision and in our classes. We continue to spread His glory, the good news of His glory. Third, the church is a foretaste of the new creation.

We help our children see what heaven's going to be like in the way that we love and serve and care for each other. And I pray it doesn't take suffering in your life for you to appreciate that fact, but when you do suffer, we long to come alongside you and encourage, shepherd, comfort, and dwell with you.

Fourth, the church is a royal priesthood. It mediates God's presence in the world by His Spirit through our service and sacrifice for each other. Yes. Also for the world. We extend God's mediating presence to the world. Fifth, the church is the bride of Christ, walks in holiness, and prepares herself. We fight sin together.

We walk in holiness. Not in so doing does God become more pleased with us. He's perfectly pleased with us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But we do it because we are called to be His priests for His glory's sake. Do you see the connections? Sixth, the church. Seventh, the light of the nations to engage the world with the gospel.

We have a missionary identity that's always pushing the bounds of our garden out to the wilderness of the world. Seventh, the church is a community of reconciliation that promotes peace among men. We are the ones who are bringing down the dividing wall of hostility between races, socioeconomic status.

And we are the ones who are saying the most diverse place in the world ought to be Christ's church where you can come and find rest here despite all the differences. Jesus unites us together in the spirit of reconciliation. And that means, O Christian, that if there's somebody in our church with whom you are unreconciled, take advantage of the passing of the peace to move toward them to reconcile, to call them up this week and to move toward each other because we communicate the beauty of Christ's glory out into the world by the unity that we share together as a local church.

Seventh, the church is a community, I've said, of reconciliation. Eighth, the church is the first fruits of the new creation and it brings hope to the world. Forty million Americans have walked away from the church in the last 25 years. Even the most religious city in this country, what do you think that is?

Atlanta? Dallas? Name your city. Only 25 percent of the most religious enclaves in our country Go to church more than 12 times a year.

And so we're expected to be the hands and feet of Christ when we have so little exposure to the teaching of God's Word and the fellowship of the saints. What a privilege it is to be able to dwell together. And I would just encourage you to be on mission. Not just with your schedule, but to be on mission in the ways that you're able to make space for each other, to be on mission in the way that you invite your neighbors over for dinner, to get to know you and your family, to be on mission in the way that you reveal your need of help to others in the church so that they can know you.

One of the most destructive things to the church are people who join our church, who then become like Berlin walls that nobody knows after that. And I know it's scary to let those walls down, Mr. Gorbachev, care.

And we want you to be able to tear those down in a safe place, and it's hard, but we do it together. Because what began in the beginning of the garden is fulfilled in the garden city and revelation. And the church in the beginning is this amazing privilege that we have as a local church at Trinity Presbyterian Church.

In small ways, and every church where the gospel is preached is commissioned in the same way to extend the gospel in beautiful ways. And so that means that when you meet other believers, In the Lord Jesus, who were tilling the ground with you. How foolish it would be for you to kick their spade out from under them.

Or how foolish it would be for you to fight with them. Listen, there's a whole world that needs to hear of Jesus. And so what a privilege we have to work alongside them however we can to extend the beauty of the garden. Wouldn't that be great? Oh, the Cathedral of the Pines, O Trinity, has nothing on you because you were indwelt by their presence.

of the spirit of the second Adam who accomplished everything that first Adam could not accomplish. And he invites you to know him even today. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that what you began in the garden, you will certainly bring to fruition.

Thank you, Father, that you have called us to be priests under Jesus, our great high priest in your presence, equipped as your people to extend your glory to the ends of the earth. Father, would you help us to do that? Would you help us, Lord, to have a bigger picture of the church, to recognize that it is not just a local gathering, and it certainly is not just brick and mortar of a place where you happen to go on Sunday to worship.

It is far bigger. And yet sacred space is important. And so may we, as we gather together, may there be a kind of catalyst empowering that happens when we worship together. to go out into the world to use our spiritual gifts for your glory. And may we demonstrate that in a thousand ways, even as we now give up our tithes and offerings to you, yielding the whole of our life, no square inch of our life have we sealed off from you.

And so Lord, as we come to your table now, we pray that we can come as those who've been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, the second Adam, the true temple, and we find our rest in you, in Jesus name, amen.