Redeemer Lutheran Church
1084 W. Bullard Ave.
Fresno, CA   93711
Phone: (559) 439-8500
Fax: (559) 439-8585
office@redeemerfresno.com

The Reverend Clarence Eisberg
Phone: (209) 725-9082
Cell:  (209) 631-3108
pastor@redeemerfresno.com

Worship ~ 8:30 a.m. & 10:00 a.m.
Family Ministries ~ 10:00 a.m.
Holy Communion ~ 2nd & 4th Sundays
Connecting People to Jesus






The Reverend
Clarence Eisberg

February 24, 2008

“Genesis: Where It All Begins”
spent at His grandmother’s knees.  She told Him stories of his heritage.  Those stories
took him back to her grandparents and beyond to their grandparents to a time dated back
he wanted to document their authenticity.  His pursuit began and it took him 12 years, 3
continents, 2 oceans and 2 ½ years later our continent was learning a new definition for
an old world.  The words are “Roots”.  

We each have roots.  A large part of our population seeks to know more about their family
history, their family origins.  For me, it’s always a pleasure to turn off highway 24 just
outside of Keytesville, Mo.’; drive down a black top road and see a white fence and the
giant sycamore tree on the corner with a long steel pipe jutting out from the tree. I’m sure
the pipe was a corner brace placed decades before by some unknown farmer making the
corner of a fence.  The pipe became a child hood cannon for our fireworks.  My sons
used it for the same purpose.

We all have special memories, family roots, family experiences.  Alex Haley wrote a book.  
His roots were important.  They gave him a personal identity.  Our nation has roots.  We
celebrate them every July 4th.  Our congregation has roots.

As Christians we also have spiritual roots.  The first book of the Bible, Genesis is the book
of our theological roots.   Everything starts there.

Today I begin a series of messages through the Old Testament.  Together we will hear
God’s word to us as He speaks from His Word through the history and events of those
recorded in these pages.   

“In the beginning…..”  God flung the stars into space and created the soil from nothing.  
Our soil is watered and from it we receive our food.  So the next time you water your yard,
your garden, contemplate the creative “word” of God which called the soil, the water into
existence.

The book of Genesis traces the beginnings of the universe, man, woman, marriage,
worship, sin, judgment, civilization, redemption and God’s activity in the lives of his people.

Genesis 1-11 presents a wide-angle view of God’s relationship with his creation.  Chapter
12-50 focuses on God’s relationship with one man (Abraham) and his family over the next
four centuries.

Read Genesis 1:1; from nothing
1:3 the creation of light
1:11 the creation of plants, and trees
1:20 the creation of fish and birds
1:24 the creation of animals  (Note: they all ate grass…. Animals lived in harmony and  
peace.
1:26 the creation of mankind    

Who was God talking too when he said, “Let us create mankind in our image?”    What
does that mean? The image of God?   (I John 4:16)   God is the source of love. But love
must have an object.

To love is to give of one self to another.   God tells us that Adam was alone.  2:18   If
Adam was to live in the image of God…he had to have some one to love.

Genesis 2:20 talks of marriage. (read)

Everything God created was good.  He said so.   The earth proclaimed his Handiwork, the
sky cried out His name.  All creation showed the glory, the order and the wisdom of God.  

The perfect order and synchronization with which the universe moves tells the scientific
community and human beings…..this was not a hap hazard accident. The precise way in
which our brain cells function, the intricate interaction of single body cells, the depth of
DNA within each human cell, still astounds the human mind.  And we talk, and walk and
move our eye lashes with out ever a thought.   

That was God’s plan, one perfect order, harmony and peace.  His exquisite garden was
lush, green with moss and ferns.  In the cool of the evening, through the fresh aroma of
flowers He would come and walk in the garden with Adam and Eve.

He gave to Adam and Eve responsibility. (2:15) He gave them one rule. (2:16,17)

Billy Graham wrote:  “Adam and Eve, the first human beings were created by their loving
Father free to obey or defy their Creator.  In their obedience they would find life
everlasting.”   They like us were called to be holy in their character….for God was holy.   

Genesis chapter 3 tells of the tragic destruction of God’s beautiful plan for his creation.
Genesis 3 tells of the origins of sin and Satan’s successful attempt to destroy God’s
perfection, to destroy the sense of peace and harmony, to turn the world back into
darkness, emptiness and chaos.   It also demonstrates God’s power to set matters right.

Adam Eve disobeyed God.  In defiance they found not that they would become ‘gods’ as
Satan had led them to believe…but rather they found destruction, fear and they would
know death.

They discovered the consequences of sin. Their perfect marriage was “no more”.  
v 10  fear
v 12  the first fight…and your children have learned the words so well.   “It’s not my fault”  
Can you imagine the look Eve gave to Adam?  Men, have you ever experienced that
look?   

The harmony and peace they had experienced with each other, and with God was not
gone.  There was fear.  They paid the price of their disobedience.  It is a fact of sin with
which we still live….sin always affects some one else.   The consequences of their sin
which began in the Garden pursued them relentlessly.  In Genesis 4 their oldest son Cain
in a jealous rage murdered his brother Abel.  

Evil continues to stalk the earth seeking to dominate and destroy God’s creation.  Every
man, woman, boy or girl who has ever lived, who lives or who will live is caught in the
crossfire.  All we need do is look at the destructiveness that sin has wrought in our
lives…hurt feelings, loss of friendships, pain and death.

God’s plan was disrupted, the consequences remain… but God’s power was not
destroyed.  Death does not have the final say.  God was on the scene in the garden to
condemn their disobedience.  He also promised redemption and restoration because His
love for His creation had not changed.   His holiness, his righteousness demanded that
they be banished from the garden.  

In His love he covered their shame.  He forgave them.  Gen. 3:21 “Where did God get the
skins of the animals?” Two passages will provide the answer.  Leviticus 17:11 and
Hebrews 9:22  (read)

God began to display His plan to bring His creation back into fellowship, harmony and
peace with His holy character.  The cost was staggering…it required the death of His only
Son, Jesus, as an atonement for our sin.  

God’s plan for His universe, His plan for intimate friendship and peace with mankind has
been thwarted by Satan and remains under continual attack by Satan.  Satan knows he
cannot dethrone the Almighty God, but his greatest desire is to disrupt God’s well ordered
universe and plunge people into darkness, despair, emptiness and rebellion.  

God promised a Savior.  He covered Adam and Eve’s shame.  And when the fullness of
time had come God sent His only Son into the world.  Not to condemn the world but to
save the world through him.  (John 3:17)  And “since we the children have flesh and blood
he too share in our humanity so that by His death he might destroy him who holds the
power of death…that is the devil…and free those who all their lives were held in slavery
by their fear of death.”  (Hebrews 2:14)  

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life… he who believe sin me will life.”  “The
wages of sin is death but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ.”