Sermon Tone Analysis

Cinderella Gospel – The Fall – Part 2 OT Sermon Series

While there are many different human authors to the books of the Bible, there is only one ultimate author, God.

He writes the story from beginning.

Last week we looked at the opening of the Bible, where God sets everything up.

The foundation for the story is laid here and there are three basic lessons that we need to take away.

God is the sole decider of what is good.

We are made in God’s image.

Our job is to know what God considers good and then do it.

And God established a certain order to His creation.

God rules over man and man rules over beast, or God’s creation.

As we look at how the OT fits together we need to know a little bit of how a story works.

I am probably going to ruin some of you for any of the shows or movies that you watch from now on.

They all fit this pattern.

This morning we will use the gospel of Cinderella as an example.

The first thing that we find in a story is the Stability.

This is the part of the story that establishes the setting; where everything takes place.

Things are happy, stable; anything can happen in the story.

In the beginning of the story you see Cinderella, a young girl, who even though she is not in an ideal situation, she is happy and she just goes about work and play as normal.

Then tension is introduced into the story, some problem that must be solved.

The story then follows the main character’s attempts to fix the problem and return to stability.

Cinderella’s situation quickly worsens as she is dominated by her ugly stepsisters.

They belittle her, taking advantage of her kind nature.

It seems that her hopes and dreams will never come to pass.

And it just gets worse when the invitation to the ball comes.

Everyone is excited at the possibility of going to the prince’s ball, but then the ugly stepsisters not only exclude Cinderella, they humiliate her.

This is where we see the plot of the story form.

What is the main character’s response to the tension?

We usually see a contrast between the main character and the supporting characters.

One important thing that we need to know is that the main character is the only person who can truly solve the problem in the story.

So we look to see what is Cinderella’s response to the tension, (the struggle) the way she is treated by her wicked stepsisters?

We see that she responds by continuing to be true to herself.

She even helps the stepsisters prepare for the very ball from which she is being excluded.

This shows us something about her character.

At some point in the story the tension is overcome and balance is once again maintained and the story ends on the same plane that it started on or even better (Resolution).

Cinderella’s relief from the tension comes by way of the appearance of her fairy godmother, who comes in and rewards her conscientious behavior by preparing a gown, and turning a pumpkin into a coach to take her to the ball.

Cinderella is rewarded for staying true to herself and winds up marrying the prince and living happily ever after.

Balance is achieved once again.

So the moral of the story is: Get yourself a magic pumpkin and a fairy godmother and life will be good.

No!

The moral of the story is:  Stay true to yourself.

Be a Cinderella not an ugly stepsister.

Every story works this way.

Happy Days.

Life is good.

Richie wrecks his dad’s car.

What is he going to do?  Hide it?

Lie about it?

Try to fix it without him knowing?

We see the character of all his friends around him in their suggestions, but in the end we see his character in telling his dad what happened.

And the story ends with everyone being happy.

Not all stories have a happy ending.

Sometimes when things are resolved the main character is not better off than when they started.

That is the difference between comedy and tragedy.

So now that I have ruined you for watching movies and television, let’s look at how the story of the Bible fits into this framework.

While we tend to focus on the stories of the men and women in the Bible, we find that God is the main character.

It is during the struggle of the story that the traits and philosophies of the main character are revealed in the story-line.

The Bible does this through its many stories; each one showing a bit of the character of God.

As I have already stated, the main character is the only person who can solve the problem in a story.

This is significant because God lays out the problem in Genesis and then uses the rest of the Bible to show how He will solve the problem.

The other characters that we see show God working through them to highlight His philosophy and character.

God uses these image bearers to do His work.

Genesis 1 and 2 provide the setting, the stability, and establish the main character of the story.

In the setting we see that God has provided food, a place to live, everything that man needs.

Genesis 2:9 (NASB95) \\ 9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:15 (NASB95) \\ 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

The Hebrew word here that is translated as put is actually a word that means rested.

God rested him in the Garden to cultivate it and keep it.

I don’t know about you but cultivating and keeping a garden would not be rest for me.

There is nothing about working in my yard, the flower bed or a garden that I consider restful.

But I have a good friend who has one of the best looking yards that I have ever seen.

He spends about an hour a day out in the yard cultivating it and keeping it.

When I asked him about he told me that working in the yard is how he relaxes after being at work all day.

He doesn’t see it as work.

He can come to my house and relax anytime that he likes.

But we see here that God rested man in the garden with a purpose.

Then:

Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB95) \\ 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

This isn’t about eating a piece of fruit or not.

This isn’t even about apples.

It is about choices.

There are two clear cut choices here.

Eat from the tree or don’t.

The choice is to obey or not to obey.

To put it more bluntly the alternatives are:  Choose life or choose death.

These are the same choices that Moses lays out for the Israelites.

Life and death.

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NASB95) \\ 19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,

That is always the choice.

In Romans Chapter 6 Paul writes

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

\\ \\ Adam had access to anything in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It is not the fruit that is poison, it is the disobedience that leads to death.

Knowledge of good and evil is not just head knowledge.

It is man wanting to make the judgment of what is good and evil.

This takes us back to rule 1.

It is God’s job to determine what is good.

Genesis 3 introduces the problem of the story.

Genesis 3:1-16 (NASB95) \\ 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’