People Of The Bible: Adam & Eve

Book: Genesis 1-3

Genesis 1:1 begins by saying “In the beginning, God created… ” From the start of the Bible to the end, we see God’s love, His plan for His people, and so many details about His story. The Bible is God’s story and it is a true treasure for each of us. It begins with the details of how He created Earth, everything in it, and the first two people, Adam & Eve.

Who was Adam?

• Adam was the first person God created on Earth. God formed him from the dust of the Earth.

• He lived in the Garden of Eden.

• God placed him in the garden to watch over the plants and animals. God even gave Adam the job of naming all the animals.

• Adam is the first of all generations to come, including Jacob and his sons.

Who was Eve?

• Adam was lonely in the garden so God made Eve to be his companion.

• God formed Eve by taking a rib from Adam and forming it into a woman.

• She decides to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after being tempted by the enemy

What was life in the Garden of Eden like?

• The Garden of Eden was a glorious place, Adam and Eve had everything they wanted and needed.

• They took care of all the plants and animals.

• God would come to the garden to walk and talk with them every day.

• They ate from the tree of life, giving them the ability to live forever.

• God gave them one rule, don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Fall

The devil took the form of a serpent and started talking to Eve. The serpent tempted Eve to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It only took two sentences for the enemy to talk Eve into disobeying God’s command. She ate the fruit and gave some to Adam and he ate as well. This is how sin and shame slipped into our world. God had forbidden Adam and Eve from eating the fruit from that tree, they deliberately disobeyed God! They knew they had sinned so they tried to hide from God. But we know, God is omnipresent, He is everywhere, and we can not hide from Him.

Where there is sin, there is separation from God, and all sin has consequences. God punished the serpent for tempting Eve -making it crawl on its belly and eat dust for all eternity. God punished Adam and Eve by making them leave the garden and making life hard on them. Because they were kicked out of the garden, they could no longer eat from the tree of life which meant they would eventually die.

The moment Adam and Eve sinned, shame, and evil entered the world. All bad things that happen are tied back to the Fall, but God had a plan for redemption. Jesus, the new Adam entered the world and took all this sin upon Himself. Jesus died at the cross so that all who believe in Him can have everlasting life.

We read about this more in the New Testament of God’s Word. From the beginning, God had a plan for His people & His plan is perfect.

Key Takeaways:

• Adam and Eve were the first people on Earth

• The serpent tempted them to disobey God, and sin and shame entered the world.

• God had a redemption plan in place from the beginning: Jesus!

• You will be tempted by the enemy just like Adam and Eve, but through accepting Jesus into your life, all your sins will be forgiven.

Parents, 3treesKIDS will be covering “Adam & Eve”, both in-person and online this week.

Be sure to check out their lesson at www.3trees.com/kids.

To find service times and locations, visit https://www.3trees.com/planyourvisit.

How The Bible Teaches Us To Celebrate Christmas

We celebrate Christmas because Jesus our Savior was born. We celebrate his birth because we know what his birth and death means for us. It means that we can have eternal life in heaven if we believe in him. The Bible gives us the reasons for our celebration, but it also tells us how to celebrate. We are to worship God and give to others.

After Jesus was born several different people wanted to see him. First an angel appeared to some nearby shepherds. The angel told them that the long awaited Savior had been born. They went to see Jesus and when they found him they told of everything the angel had told them. After they left they started worshipping God. We are to worship God in the same way, giving thanks to him for giving us a Savior.

Another group of people that went to see Jesus were the wise men. These wise men were from a far away land. They had seen a star arise and they wanted to worship this newborn king. They used this star as a guide to find Jesus. When they found him they also bowed in worship. These wise men also gave Jesus gifts. They gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (very expensive items for that time and region).

Christmas today is filled with people worshipping God and giving gifts because that is what the Bible tells us happened as a result of Jesus’s birth. We should all worship God and care for those around us because of what Jesus means to us.

Besides the story of his miraculous birth, we know strikingly little about Jesus’s childhood. This most likely means that he had a fairly normal one. He most likely played with his friends, went to school, and did chores around the house just like we do now. However, we do have one story from his childhood and that is also found in Luke 2.

When Jesus was 12 years old, his family traveled to Jerusalem for the annual Passover festival. After the festival was over and Mary and Joseph were traveling home they realized that Jesus had been left behind. They went back to Jerusalem and found him sitting with the teachers in the Temple. Jesus was astounding them with his understanding of the Bible and how wise he was at such a young age. It proves to us that we are never too young to learn and to grow.

The end of Luke says that Jesus continued to grow in many ways. Just like we grow in size, we also are to grow spiritually. The more we study and the more we spend time with God the more we will grow. That is what Jesus did. Jesus was just like us, but he grew in God and became the person we all know and love. It was through this growth that he gave his life for us. We are called to this same growth. This is what we have the opportunity to do day in and day out. The more we learn, the more we grow. And learning about God is the best thing to learn about.

Key Takeaways:

• Worship

• Give

• Grow

Parents, 3treesKIDS will be covering “Jesus is Born”, both in-person and online this week.

Be sure to check out their lesson at www.3trees.com/kids.

To find service times and locations, visit https://www.3trees.com/planyourvisit.

Jesus Is Born

Christmas is one of the most celebrated holidays in the world. On December 25th, friends and families gather together to open gifts and spend time together. Most people that celebrate Christmas know about its origins. Christmas was and is still a day that Christians celebrate Jesus being born into the world. In hectic and busy times during the holidays it is easy to lose sight of the meaning behind Christmas. So, we must ask ourselves why we are celebrating in the first place?

The meaning of Christmas goes much deeper and further back than the night Jesus was born. In the Old Testament, God’s people were struggling. Because of sin, there was a gap between people and God. This gap made it hard to connect with God, therefore, people continued to sin and turn away from God. However, God gave them a promise. Throughout the Old Testament, the promise of a Savior emerges time and time again. This Savior would be a person that could bridge the gap between people and God and allow for a new relationship to take place.

For years God’s people waited for this promise to be fulfilled. The New Testament picks up with this promise coming into fruition. Matthew 1-2, and Luke 1-2 tell the story of Jesus being born.

Here we see that God sent angels to visit Mary and Joseph (Jesus’s parents). Even though Mary and Joseph were not married yet, the angels told them that the Holy Spirit would conceive a baby in Mary’s womb and that baby would be Jesus, the long awaited Savior.

The Bible explains that Jesus was God’s son, even though he had human parents. Because the Holy Spirit put Jesus inside Mary’s womb it became clear that this child was special. Mary and Joseph were entrusted to raise and care for Jesus, but they knew that Jesus was God’s own son.

The backstory behind Jesus’s birth is very interesting, but the reason we still celebrate it is because of what it continues to do for us. A significant part of the promise of the Savior was for God to be with humanity. Jesus was with his father in heaven but came to the world so that he could relate to us. While Jesus was 100% God he was also 100% man. Jesus knew what it was like to laugh and have fun, he knew what it was like to have pain and to be sad. Jesus was God with us, he helped those around him to see God in new ways and to further their journey with him.

But the promise did not stop there. Jesus was killed on the cross, but arose three days later. This proved to people that he really was the Savior that the Old Testament talked about. It is through Jesus’s death and resurrection that we can be saved from our sins, be connected to God, and have eternal life.

We celebrate Christmas because Jesus became God with us and became our Savior.

Key Takeaways:

• Jesus is the promise of a Savior

• Jesus is God’s Son

• Jesus is God with Us

Parents, 3treesKIDS will be covering “Jesus is Born”, both in-person and online this week.

Be sure to check out their lesson at www.3trees.com/kids.

To find service times and locations, visit https://www.3trees.com/planyourvisit.