The Tree of Life

One of the most amazing things about the Bible is its beautiful unity and cohesiveness . . . It tells one over-arching story about what God is doing in the world. One remarkable symbol of that is the Tree of Life, which is mentioned first in the creation narrative of Genesis 1-2. Then, after the Fall, God casts humanity out of the Garden of Eden and away from the Tree.

But it’s interesting that we find subtle references to the Tree throughout Scripture. At various places in the Old Testament, echoes of the Tree are found in the Tabernacle and Temple. And then we find the culmination of the story at the very end of the Bible when John sees us reunited with the Tree once again. So in a way, the Tree of Life frames the entire biblical narrative: it’s mentioned at the beginning of Creation, and it’s emphasized in the last two chapters of Scripture.

In this sermon, we’ll study how the Tree symbolizes God’s presence and how the Fall led to our being separated from him. But we’ll also emphasize the beauty of what God has waiting for us: that day when all of God’s people will once again eat of the Tree of Life and will be restored to his presence in a way that we can only imagine.