Can God Really Restore What's Broken? | Genesis 1:31-3:15, John 19:38-20:1-18
Series: God's Promises, Our Journey
Title: "Can God really restore what's broken?
Scripture: Genesis 1:31-3:15, John 19:38-20:1-18 NIV
Bottom Line: Because of the cross and resurrection, what was broken by sin can be restored by Jesus—if we repent, believe, and receive Him.
In fact, it will be restored for the Church. The real question today is will it be restored for you?
INTRODUCTION
CONTEXT
SERMON OUTLINE
CONCLUSION
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
NOTES
YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION
MAIN REFERENCES USED
My opening prayer: Lord God, help us grow to be and do like Jesus, while abiding in him and leading others to do the same.
INTRODUCTION
Marvel Universe
“If you’ve ever watched the Marvel movies, you know they’re not just random, disconnected stories.
At first, it feels like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor—they all have their own separate plots.
But as the story unfolds, you realize… it’s all connected.
Every movie is part of a much bigger story that’s building toward one climactic moment.
The Bible works the same way.
It’s made up of dozens of books, written over centuries, with different people and settings—but it’s telling one unified story.
And that story moves from creation… to brokenness… to redemption… to restoration.
Today, we’re going to step into two scenes in that story—
two gardens—
and see how everything connects… and how it connects to your life.”
OUTLINE (With help from ChatGPT)
I. Name the room: “We Know Something Is Broken”
Some of you walked in here celebrating...others are carrying heavy burdens
• Loss (recent deaths)
• Marriages under strain
• Financial anxiety
• Health struggles
• Relationships in crisis
“You don’t need a theology degree to know something is wrong with the world… you just need to live in it for a while.”
“The Bible tells one story that explains all of it—and offers one solution that can heal it.”
II. Eden: Where brokenness began (Genesis 1:31-3:15)
God designed life to be good and whole (Genesis 1:31-2:25)
Sin shattered what God made whole. (Genesis 3)
• Relationship with God → broken
• Relationship with each other → broken
• Relationship with self → broken
• Relationship with creation → broken
Tie directly to today:
“Every funeral, every divorce, every anxiety… traces back to this moment.”
Share the 3 Circles here--Link:
https://youtu.be/5W8ynRMr59k?si=6FZMytsIOhLmbQib
“So the question is not: Is there brokenness?
The question is: How do we get out of it?”
III. Cross/Good Friday - Jesus enters our brokenness on the cross (where sin was paid for)
Bring them to the cross.
• Jesus doesn’t ignore brokenness—He enters it
• He carries:
• Our sin
• Our shame
• Our suffering
IV. Resurrection/The Garden Tomb - Where restoration begins (John 19:38--20:1-18)
Jesus didn’t just die—He rose to restore.
• The tomb is in a garden
• Mary mistakes Jesus for the gardener (John 20:15)
That’s not accidental.
“In Eden, humanity lost the garden. In the resurrection, the Gardener begins restoring it.”
Tie her in personally:
• Delivered from demons → deeply broken
• At the cross → grieving
• At the tomb → confused
• Encounters Jesus → transformed
Key moment:
“Jesus said her name—‘Mary’—and everything changed.”
V. Connect to OUR Story
“Some of you feel like your story is too far gone…”
Apply specifically:
• “Your marriage…”
• “Your past…”
• “Your regrets…”
• “Your grief…”
Then:
“If Jesus can walk out of a grave, He can step into your situation.”
Name their pain again—but now with hope:
• Grief → “Death is not the end”
• Broken marriages → “God restores what seems beyond repair”
• Anxiety → “You are not alone in the garden”
• Shame → “Jesus already carried it to the cross”
Power line:
“The same Jesus who called Mary by name is calling your name today.”
VI. Call to Respond
A. REPENT
Turn from sin and self-rule
B. BELIEVE
Trust what Jesus did on the cross and resurrection
C. RECEIVE
Surrender to Him as Lord and Savior
Tie to Romans 10:9–10
VII. How baptism fits
“Earlier in the service, you saw people baptized—
that’s a picture of this very thing.”
Tie to gospel:
“Buried with Christ… raised to new life.”
Then pivot immediately:
“But baptism doesn’t start the story—Jesus does.”
VIII. Closing Image
Bring it back to gardens:
“We lost everything in a garden…
Jesus paid for it on a cross…
And in a garden, He began making all things new.”
Then:
“The question is not: Is restoration possible?
The question is: Will you come to the Gardener?”
John 15:1-5 "my Father is the Gardener"
As we move to celebrate the cross and resurrection through the Lord's Supper, where he instituted a perpetual reminder, we pause to confess our sins to a holy God, repenting of those sins, believing Jesus forgives and saves, and receiving the gift of salvation by grace through faith in him alone.
Questions (Write this down)
What is God saying to you right now?
What are you going to do about it?
Pray
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Discovery Bible Study process: https://www.dbsguide.org/
Read the passage together.
Retell the story in your own words.
Discovery the story
What does this story tell me about God?
What does this story tell me about people?
If this is really true, what should I do?
What is God saying to you right now? (Write this down)
What are you going to do about it? (Write this down)
Who am I going to tell about this?
Find our sermons, podcasts, discussion questions and notes at https://www.gracetoday.net/podcast
NOTES
Introduction (long version, but here it is stream of consciousness)
Marvel Studios turned their company around when they began making superhero movies. (Tell this story briefly how they went from near bankrupcy to box office success through the risk taking of Kevin Fahge and the first Iron Man movie) The idea became a series of movies (22?) that fit under the banner of phases 1-4 of the Avengers. (?) What makes this franchise pretty unique is that all 22 of these movies fit into a larger story arc that covered many (15 years?) years. Each superhero origin story and sequel contributed to the meta-story arc resulting in one of the most successful movie franchises of all time.
Why do I share this with you? Because it is very much like what the Bible represents in it's library of 66 books with dozens of origin stories all pointing to the meta-story arc from Genesis 1-2 through Revelation 21-22. The story: Creation-->Fall-->Redemption-->Restoration.
As I was preparing for today, I ran across this quip by author Leonard Sweet:
"How can a church silence or stifle the voices of women when you can't tell the story of Holy Week without hearing the voices of women?"
I'd already been considering the 2 gardens--2 women idea when I read that and sensed God confirming my direction.
As I was trying to decide what to preach this Easter Sunday, I seriously considered continuing through our Genesis series. But Sodom and Gomorrah. Not your typical "Positive and uplifting" Easter fodder.
Earlier that week, my wife gently suggested that it might be good to preach a resurrection sermon on resurrection day. Ha! So, believing that that was from the Lord, I pivoted to John 20:1-18, dipping back into that deep well of truth John writes about so well. And there I found a woman. Mary Magdalene or Mary from the town of Magdala. Tradition says she was a prostitute, though scripture does not back that up. However, she was demonically possessed. In Mark and Luke we read where Jesus delivered her from not 1, not 2 but 7 demons. She was thoroughly and completely enslaved to demons. Is anything too difficult for God?
She then begins to follow Jesus, though women were not permitted to be disciples formally. She was apparently a woman of some means. She followed Jesus and supported his ministry both financially and personally with all her time. She was as devoted as any of the twelve disciples were.
In John 20, we find her devotion unwavering as she approaches the tomb early Sunday morning. It's before dark as she heads to the tomb. Hence, many participate in sunrise services every Easter. At some point, 3 other ladies join her at the tomb. And none of them know how they'll actually get into the tomb with a giant bolder rolled in place to keep people out. Yet here she is. Here they will gather. But let's focus on Mary of Magdala. In a garden.
Joseph of Arimethia's tomb was in or near a garden. In fact, when Mary sees the resurrected Jesus at first, she thinks he's the gardener (v. 15).
What was lost in the Garden of Eden will begin to be restored at the tomb in another garden...a garden near Golgotha, the place of the skull. And if you think it's weird to have a garden close to tombs, think about cemetaries today. We cultivate gardens with flowers around them headstones and around the grounds. We want people to rest in a beatiful place symbolic of the most beautiful place they will (hopefully) end up in...the new heaven and the new earth.
We'll go back in time another 2,000 years to another garden and another woman. Eve, in the Garden of Eden, will disobey her father. She'll crave, take and then eat a piece of forbidden fruit, share a piece with Adam, and thrust humanity into darkness. We'll see the Fall of humanity in that moment where brokenness on earth began.
We'll also see a promise made by God to Adam and Eve. A promise that the "Seed" of Eve will make things new again. Will reverse the curse and re-establish a new garden and a new city.
We'll begin to see that we're in a meta-story. One that began with Creation that was good. (Genesis 1:31) We are in the part of the story between Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22. The bookends, if you will, of this meta-story. Z
Brokenness begins in Genesis 3.
Restoration begins in John 19-20.
The Bible tells one story that explains all of it. Good to broken to Good again.
The Bible is one story. His-story. History. The 66 books of the Bible include origin stories that all point to the meta-story. After all, it's the one story that matters most of all. But our story fits underneath this story arc. Our story matters. Our story is still being written today. How will it end?
“To quote another German one Nietzsche would have deeply disagreed with, the great Martin Hengel of the University of Tübingen concluded his groundbreaking study of the origins of the New Testament idea of atonement with these words. Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples, and in it, in a symbolic action, he related the broken bread to the breaking of his body, and at the end of the meal the wine in the cup of blessing to the pouring out of his blood, through which the new eschatological covenant with God would be founded, and atonement would be achieved for all. A story is told about the late Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Martini, and man, I hope it's an accurate story.
The Cardinalʼs Confession
Apparently, in a public lecture years ago, he told this lovely anecdote. He said he knew of three young men in Rome years before, who spent a debauched night out on the town together, which ended with them all sitting drunk on the steps of an old church in Rome. And high above them, they noticed on the outside wall of the church, there was a huge crucifix.
For a moment, they looked up at it, remembering the lessons from their childhood, and then one of them gave a dare. One of us should go in, find the priest on duty, and confess to him all the terrible things we've done tonight, and shock him by inventing further sins, and then just as a joke, do whatever penance he offers. One of them piped up and said he'd do it.
So he walked in, found the elderly priest on duty, sat down, and in excruciating detail began to describe all of the actual sins of the evening, and then some of the invented ones, hardly holding back the mockery. The priest apparently just listened patiently, and then said, I want you to do something for me. Outside our church is a large statue of Jesus on a cross.
He died for your sins. I want you to go down the front steps of the church, turn around, point your finger at it, and say out loud, I know what you've done, and I don't give a damn.
Will you do that?
It didn't sound like any penance the boy had heard about before, but he thought he'd give it a go. He ran outside. His friends were eager to hear what happened.
He walked down the steps. He turned around, and sure enough, there's the statue that somehow looked bigger and more serious than he remembered. And he pointed his finger at it and rehearsed in his mind the words, I know what you've done and I don't give a damn.
He couldn't do it. In fact, in front of his friends, he knelt down on the steps in remorse and respect. Now, when the Bishop of Milan told this story, he ended by saying, I want you to know this story is true.
I was that young man in Rome 40 years ago, and it was the pivotal moment of my life. What was it that changed him? Well, not a piece of religious penance, but confronting his guilt and shame while looking at the cross.
And my question this Easter, dear listeners, is how would you finish the sentence in the light of Good Friday? I know what you've done, and… For some, I'm sure it's going to be, and I don't give a damn.
For others, it might be, I need more time to think about it. For others, thank you. Thank you for Good Friday.
Good beyond compare.
On Undeceptions Podcast.”
From Undeceptions with John Dickson: 173. Good Friday, Mar 29, 2026
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/undeceptions-with-john-dickson/id1478239058?i=1000758071210&r=3294
YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION
Series: God’s Promises, Our Journey
Title: Can God Really Restore What’s Broken?
Scripture: Genesis 2:18–25; John 19:41–20:18
What if the Bible isn’t a collection of disconnected stories—but one unified story pointing to Jesus?
In this Easter message, Pastor Darien Gabriel walks us from one garden to another—from the Garden of Eden, where brokenness began, to the garden tomb, where restoration began through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We all feel it—grief, broken relationships, anxiety, regret. The question is: Can anything truly restore what’s been lost?
Through the cross and resurrection, we discover that Jesus doesn’t just meet us in our brokenness—He makes a way to restore us.
This message includes a clear, visual presentation of the gospel using the “3 Circles” and a powerful look at the story of Mary Magdalene, the first witness to the risen Christ.
If you’re searching for hope, healing, or a fresh start—this message is for you.
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Bottom Line:
Because of the cross and resurrection, what was broken by sin can be restored by Jesus—if we repent, believe, and receive Him.
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Next Steps:
If you made a decision to follow Jesus or want to learn more, we’d love to connect with you.
🌐 Visit: https://DarienGabriel.com
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About Grace Christian Fellowship:
We exist to glorify God and enjoy Him forever by making disciples of Jesus Christ who make disciples—around the corner and around the world.
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MAIN REFERENCES USED
“Genesis,” by R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary, Edited by Kent Hughes
Exalting Jesus in Genesis, by Bethancourt
The Genesis Record, by Henry Morris
The Genesis Factor, by David Helms & Jon Dennis
“Look at the Book” by John Piper (LATB)
“The Bible Knowledge Commentary” by Walvoord, Zuck (BKC)
“The Bible Exposition Commentary” by Warren Wiersbe (BEC)
"Genesis" by Briscoe (TCC)
Outline Bible, D Willmington (OB)
Willmington’s Bible Handbook, D Willmington (WBH)
NIV Study Bible (NIVSB) https://www.biblica.com/resources/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/
Chronological Life Application Study Bible (NLT)
ESV Study Bible (ESVSB) https://www.esv.org
The Bible Project https://bibleproject.com
“The Bible in One Year 2023 with Nicky Gumbel” bible reading plan on YouVersion app (BIOY)