The Fall Genesis 3

THE FALL GENESIS 3

GOAL w To teach students about the beginning of humanity’s sinful nature, temptation and the punishment we all endure because of this first sin. The Genesis 3 account of Adam and Eve’s transition from innocence to disobedience is referred to as “the fall.”

GOSPEL w In Genesis 3:15, we find what is often described as the “first gospel.” This verse declares HIGHLIGHT that, despite the fall, the Kingdom of God will fully return and Satan will be destroyed. This promise came to pass when Jesus came and crushed the Devil and his demons triumphing over them on the cross (Colossians 2:15).

CHARACTERS w Adam: He was the first man to ever exist. He was created by God and placed in the Garden of Eden. Adam allowed himself to be tempted, to take the fruit, and to sin.

Eve: She was the wife of Adam and the mother of Cain and Abel. She was tricked by Satan into disobeying God and eating the fruit.

Satan: He is an angelic being who fell from heaven because of sin. He is opposed to God and His purposes. Satan came in the form of a snake and tempted Adam and Eve to sin.

God: He was the one against who Adam and Eve sinned. As a result of the fall, God pronounced His judgement upon Adam, Eve and Satan.

© 2016 Sharefaith Inc. All Rights Reserved. Duplications and Distribution of this resources without prior permission from Sharefaith Inc, is strictly prohibited. 1 WORDS TO w Sin: Described as the breaking of God’s law (1 John 3:4) and rebelling against God, Himself KNOW (Deuteronomy 9:7).

Judgement: The act where God, as judge, declares the guilt of those who sin and pronounces punishment upon them.

MEMORY w Romans 3:23: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. VERSE

MEMORY w Read Genesis 3: Every one of us has sinned. Because we've sinned, we can’t be close to God. VERSE God hates sin, but He loves us. God provided a way that we can be close to Him despite our MEANING sinful nature. Sin deserves punishment, but Jesus took that punishment when He died on the cross. When we repent of our sins and turn to Him, God forgives our sin.

OVERVIEW w Read Genesis 3: This lesson covers one of the most important events in all of human history: the original sin. Everything was perfect in the Garden of Eden until Satan, who hated God, tempted Eve to sin. Eve, in turn, encouraged Adam to sin. Adam and Eve’s sin changed everything for everyone. Both Adam and Eve disobeyed God, resulting in the fall. Even after man’s fall into sin, God provided a hint that He would someday redeem them by sending a savior who would conquer Satan (Genesis 3:15). For those who believe in Jesus, their sin can be forgiven and they can look forward to spending eternity in paradise with God (John 3:16-18).

© 2016 Sharefaith Inc. All Rights Reserved. Duplications and Distribution of this resources without prior permission from Sharefaith Inc, is strictly prohibited. 2 SUGGESTIONS w This lesson focuses on two big truths: 1) Everyone sins 2) God has made a way of salvation. A great way to discuss these truths with your class is by taking them through the Romans Road. These verses from the book of Romans clearly lay out the dangers of sin and God’s path of salvation.

1. Everyone sins: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

2. The wages of sin: “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a)

3. The free gift of salvation: “But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23b)

4. Confess & believe: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

5. The result of salvation: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

PRE-LESSON w Ages 5-7 Follow the Leader ACTIVITY Play follow the leader with your class. With you as the leader, ask your kids to follow you as you perform a number of easy and safe moves. Then ask your kids to follow you in doing something foolish like pick their nose. After, have a discussion with your kids why they chose whether to follow you or not. This game shows that just like Adam and Eve, people follow others–for good or bad. Optional: Take turn choosing students to be the leader. Instruct them to start with a series of safe moves and then to choose a foolish one.

Ages 5-10 Truth or Lie? | Supplies: A snake hand puppet (or build a sock puppet snake), Apples cut out of red construction paper.

The leader of this game will talk to the class using the snake hand puppet. Have the snake dive into a basket full of red apple cutouts. On the back of every apple glue either a promise of God or a lie from Satan. Have the child read their apple out loud to the class. The class must decide if what the apple says is a true promise of God or a lie from Satan. If your kids aren’t sure, have them look up the Bible verse that corresponds to their apple.

© 2016 Sharefaith Inc. All Rights Reserved. Duplications and Distribution of this resources without prior permission from Sharefaith Inc, is strictly prohibited. 3 Ages 8-10 Adam, Where Are You? | Supplies: A doll or laminated cutout representing Adam.

Choose a student in your class to be “the hider.” Have all other students face a wall with their eyes closed and count to 20. “The hider” will have 20 seconds to place Adam somewhere in the classroom. When the class has finished counting everyone calls out “Adam where are you?” Then your class can begin searching. The child who finds Adam wins and gets to become the next hider. If your class can’t find Adam have the hider give out some clues. Use this activity to remind your Kids of how Adam couldn’t hide from God in the garden.

POST-LESSON w Ages 5-7 Hide and Seek ACTIVITY Play a game of hide and seek with your children. Have the seeker close their eyes and count to 20. After, the seeker tries to find every child or tag them before they reach home base. Use this game to remind your kids of how Adam and Eve hid from God after they realized how sin had broken their special relationship with their creator.

Ages 5-10 Temptation | Supplies: Cut out fig-leaf shapes large enough for students to write on for this activity, pens or pencils, and art supplies

Provide students with a fig leaf. Explain how we are still tempted to sin today. Ask them to write down some things that have tempted them to sin in the past. Tell them to be on their guard for temptation. When they feel temptation, they can write down what they were feeling, and how they responded. Encourage them to share this with their parents.

Ages 8-10 Sin Tag

This is a modified version of the game, blob tag. In this game, one person is “it.” This person represents sin. When someone gets tagged, they must join hands with the person who tagged them. As the game progresses everyone who has been tagged will form a large blob. The game ends when everyone has been tagged. Use this game to talk about how sin

has spread from Adam and Eve to all their descendants (including your class).

© 2016 Sharefaith Inc. All Rights Reserved. Duplications and Distribution of this resources without prior permission from Sharefaith Inc, is strictly prohibited. 4 TAKE w In Genesis 3, we discover how Eve was tempted to sin when Satan twisted the word of God. HOME She sinned when she disobeyed God’s command. The sin committed by Adam and Eve has trickled down and affected everyone. How can we avoid temptation and falling into sin?

1. Look to Scripture: The Bible is our instruction book for life. In it, God tells us what is right and wrong. He tells us how we should and shouldn’t live. There may not be a passage in the Bible that specifically addresses the temptation we are facing, but there will be a verse that applies. The more we study the Word, the more obvious it will be when we are being tempted to sin. The more obvious these temptations are, the easier it is to walk away. Temptation worked on Eve because she hadn’t paid careful attention to God’s exact words. We can identify temptation by studying God’s word.

2. Pray to God: Praying is a way to develop a relationship with God. They are conversations with God in which we thank Him for everything He has so graciously given to us and to tell Him about the obstacles we face. Praying on a regular basis helps to make it a natural part of our life, meaning when we face temptation, prayer and asking for wisdom won’t be the last thing we think of—it will be the first. As we pray more frequently, we will become more acquainted with the Holy Spirit. Often referred to as our consciences, God’s Holy Spirit helps guide us through life. That feeling we get in the pit of our stomach when we consider doing something wrong is the Holy Spirit urging us to do the right thing. The stronger the relationship we have with God, the more we will want to obey Him.

SLIDE 1 Q1a: What was the one thing God told Adam and Eve they could not do?

A1: God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Q1b: If God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat the fruit on this tree, why did the tree even exist in the Garden of Eden?

Teacher Notes: God gave us free will, which means that we can pretty much do whatever we want; however, that doesn’t mean that our choices are always good. If God hadn’t put the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, He would have been refusing to allow Adam and Eve, and subsequently all humans, from freely deciding whether they wanted to obey or disobey Him. While we were created to love and worship God, He did not create us to do so blindly; we have to choose.

SLIDE 2 Q2a: How did Satan disguise himself?

A2: Satan appeared to Eve as a serpent.

Q2b: How can we tell if a stranger is a bad person?

Teacher Notes: Unlike in movies, TV, and books, bad people don’t all wear black and have shifty eyes. Some bad people look like completely normal people. Eve may not have known what Satan looked like, but it’s possible that if he had shown up in the Garden of Eden looking like he normally did, she may have realized anything he suggested was probably a bad idea. Instead, he came as a serpent, something she would have been used to seeing in the garden and would not find threatening.

SLIDE 3 Q3a: What did Eve do?

A3: Eve ate some of the fruit.

Q3b: Did the serpent lie to Eve.

Teacher Notes: Nothing he actually said was a lie, but it is what he left out that made his information a lie. When Eve ate the fruit, she did not instantly drop dead; however, because of her disobedience to God, she would no longer be allowed to live forever. Eating the fruit did make her aware of good and evil, which is a kind of knowledge that God possesses; however, eating the fruit made her less like God in that she had just committed a sin. Telling the truth, but omitting certain parts with the intention of deceiving someone is called a half-truth. It is a way people lie and deceive each other. Satan purposefully omitted certain consequences that eating the forbidden fruit would cause.

SLIDE 4 Q4a: What did Adam do?

A4: Adam ate the fruit Eve gave him.

Q4b: Did the tree make Eve wiser than she was before?

Teacher Notes: No, there was nothing special in the fruit that gave her new abilities. This becomes obvious when, after taking a bite of it herself, she offers some to Adam. If the fruit had made her wise, she would have realized that she had been tricked and that she had just sinned; she wouldn’t have offered the fruit to her husband if she knew eating it was a sin. The knowledge that the tree bestowed was that of the experience of doing something wrong. Once they had disobeyed God, they now had knowledge of right and wrong, and they felt shame for the first time. So, eating the fruit did bring them knowledge of new things, but it was the action and experience of eating the fruit that allowed them to have this new understanding, not the actual fruit itself. God could have chosen any tree in the Garden of Eden to serve this purpose.

SLIDE 5 Q5a: When Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened, what did they realize?

A5: Adam and Eve realized that they were naked.

Q5b: If you cover your eyes, does that make you invisible?

Teacher Notes: No, just because we can’t see anyone else doesn’t mean that we can no longer be seen by others in the same area as we are. It was a ridiculous idea that Adam and Eve thought they could hide from God. When He asks them where they are, it wasn’t because He didn’t know where they were, it was because He wanted them to explain why they were trying to hide from Him. We cannot hide from God—He is with us always.

SLIDE 6 Q6a: How did God punish Adam and Eve’s sin?

A6: He banished them from the Garden of Eden.

Q6b: If Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned, would we have needed Jesus’ sacrifice?

Teacher Notes: No, if Adam and Eve had obeyed God, sin would not have entered the world, and we would not have needed a savior. Jesus was a gift given to us to repair our broken relationship with God and to forgive us of the sins that entered into our world and lives when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.

© 2016 Sharefaith Inc. All Rights Reserved. Duplications and Distribution of this resources without prior permission from Sharefaith Inc, is strictly prohibited. 8 MEMORY w Romans 3:23: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. VERSE

BIG IDEA w Studying God’s Word will help us to obey and avoid temptation.

CLOSING w Dear God, we know we've sinned. Thank You for providing salvation through Jesus Christ. He PRAYER is the only way. Help us to obey You. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, Amen.

SLIDE 1 After creation, Adam and Eve lived in the beautiful garden God created called the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were free to enjoy it and do as they pleased, except for one thing. God forbade them to eat of one tree: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which stood in the middle of the garden.

SLIDE 2 One day, while Eve was strolling through the garden, she met a serpent who was actually Satan in disguise. "Did God tell you that you could eat from any of the trees?" the serpent asked Eve. "All except one. We cannot eat from the tree in the middle, not even touch it. If we do, we will die," Eve told the serpent.

SLIDE 3 "You won't die," the serpent scoffed. "In fact, God knows that if you eat it, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil!" Eve looked at the tree. It did look good. If it would make her as wise as God, well, that would be really good! At that moment, Eve made a very foolish mistake. She ate some of the fruit. This was exactly what the Devil wanted.

SLIDE 4 Then, she saw Adam and handed him some of the fruit. Even though Adam knew they were not supposed to eat the fruit from that tree, he took a bite. Adam and Eve broke the only rule God gave them. The Devil’s lie deceived them; his plan worked.

SLIDE 5–6 At that moment, Adam and Eve’s eyes opened to a whole new reality. They saw that they were naked and suddenly understood the difference between good and evil. They were so ashamed. They tried to cover their naked bodies with leaves, and decided to hide from God. Later that evening, as God was strolling through the Garden, He looked for Adam and Eve. “Where are you?” God called. Naked and afraid, Adam and Eve were hiding from God. God knew they had sinned. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent. God was furious that the Devil tricked them, but more so that they had believed the Devil’s lie.

SLIDE 7–8 God cursed the serpent and banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. He put angels with flaming swords at the entrance. He then told Adam and Eve that they would not live forever; one day they would die. Their lives would be filled with hardship and misery. This was the consequence of their disobedience. Because Adam and Eve sinned, the world would never be the same. Their disobedience would cause every person in the

whole world to be born into sin. In the future, God would send His own Son in the form of a human to redeem and take away the sin of the world and offer eternal life to anyone who believes in Him.