The Promise of Christmas

Introduction

This morning I want to start in the garden and end in the manger.

Christmas is that time of year on the church calendar when we remember with focus the incarnation of God. When God the Son—took on humanity and initiated the last age.

During Christmas we rightly focus on the birth of Jesus of Nazareth—the long awaited and long foretold—messiah. The fruit of God’s promise to rescue us.

My goal this morning is for you and I to marvel at God’s good plan unfurled throughout the scriptures and arrive at the manger with more awe and with hearts full of worship.

So we’ll start in the garden—survey the history of God’s people—and end this morning looking over the manger.

I. The Garden

God creates the world from disorder and darkness. His creation is good and includes all that we see in nature.

And the jewel of his creation on this earth are humans. They are made in God’s likeness—they bear God’s image—and they are given the job of ruling the earth and filling it with more humans that will bring glory to God.

Everything is given to them but one thing God tells them not to do. Do not eat from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. To do this would be to rebel against God.

And in Genesis 3 we are introduced to a being who is in rebellion against God. He comes to Adam and Eve as a serpent. And there are things about this serpent that should tip us off—that what we are dealing with here is not a mere snake.

This snake talks. This snake talks to humanity and talks to God. This snake listens and reasons. Unlike any other animal this snake is more like man—a being with reason and intelligence—a being made in the image of God.

And later revelation of scripture tells us that we are dealing here with The Adversary—with The Satan—that spiritual being in rebellion against God.

Revelation 12:9 names the adversary as “that ancient serpent who deceives the whole world” and as we see what the Bible says about the adversary, and as we see him in the NT interacting with Jesus we see that the snake and the adversary are the same.

And so Adam and Eve listen to the false teaching of this spiritual being and they decide that they will rule God’s creation—not on God’s terms but on their own.

And what happens next should be a sobering reminder to you and I that when we stray from the path of our loving Father what lies beyond the next on the path we have chosen is ultimately regret and death.

Immediately Adam and Eve are ashamed of their sin—they are exposed by their choices and the goodness of Gods creation is twisted into proof of their judgment. They are laid bare physically and spiritually. And so they seek to cover themselves again by their own providence. They make for themselves covers for their sin.

But these covers are inadequate and God casts his judgment on them.

These first chapters of Holy Scripture reveal to us the bleak situation of life that you and I and every person are born into.

But in the darkest hour when hope is non-existent God makes a promise as he curses Satan. And we find it in Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This is not just a folk story explaining why we don’t like snakes. Theologians refer to this as the “Protoevangelion”.

Proto means first. Evangel means good news, gospel. Within Genesis 3:15 we see the first proclamation of the gospel.

God says I will put enmity, hatred between you and the woman and this will extend between her progeny and yours.

Adam and Eve belonged to God. And for all those who belong to God they will always be at war with Satan and his children.

Ephesians 2:2-3 tell us that the children of Satan are those “sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived”. These are those who agree with Satan’s rebellion against God. These are the lost children of man in desperate need of a rescuer.

In Genesis 3:15a God speaks in the plural…they. In general, they—the seed, the children of woman and the children of Satan will be at war with one another.

But then in 3:15b God switches from the plural to the personal. “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

One single seed—offspring of Adam and Eve will fight against the Serpent.

Not they, but one. And in this fight there will be bruising. There will be a bruised heel and a bruised head. And we might be tempted to think a bruise is not so bad. But what is being communicated here is a serious blow.

The hebrew word for bruise is (Shuph) and it means to bruise, break, overwhelm. It can mean to crush.

Friends you tell me what is more serious. If two people get into a fight and one takes a serious blow to the heel and one to the head, who won?

A serious blow to the heel will wound but a serious blow to the head will kill you.

And so in Genesis 3:15 we see a picture of a single seed of woman fighting against Satan and the broken rebellion that he has brought into the world.

And the picture is of a crushed enemy and a wounded victor.

Do you see the preaching of the gospel here my friends?

Jesus who would be born as an infant would grow and one day crush Satan under his foot. And Satan would wound Him, but not destroy Him.

This is the promise given in the aftermath of that dark day. God says you messed up—you brought death to yourselves and to my world—but I will send one who will be wounded but will be victorious. He will defeat the dark work done here today and will rescue my people.

When Jesus bursts onto the scene in a stable in Galilee it’s not so much a bursting forth but is the long awaited fulfilment of a promise proclaimed by God to his people for thousands of years.

Proclaimed through types and shadows that constantly reminded God’s people of that promise in the garden. Sin has killed you but there is life in the wounded victor.

Let’s look at some of those pictures now.

II. Promise Pictures

A candle will cast a thousand shadows and so we could spend all day together reading through the Bible and discovering time and time again where God graciously reminds us of the promise in the garden. One of the most exciting times for me in scripture reading is seeing Christ pictured in a passage I haven’t seen him in before.

But for times sake we’ll focus on just a few.

Animal Skins

Right after this promise is given before God removes Adam and Eve from the garden he cares for them by covering their sin.

Remember they covered their sin by their own providence—with stiched together leaves they tried to cover their guilt.

And then God does something. Look at Genesis 3:21 with me.

Genesis 3:21 ESV

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

The nakedness was already covered. But God replaces their garments with one’s that He has supplied.

God clothes them and immediately begins to flesh out the promise that he gave moments before. You need to be covered—not by your own efforts but by mine. And this covering will require death. It will require blood.

Here the economy of God is revealed. This covering that you need—this rescue from your sins—cannot be had by your own efforts or your own plan but it can only be obtained by my work on your behalf.

And it comes by a sacrificed life.

Friends, this points to Jesus!

Jesus is the better covering for our sins. Jesus is the sacrifice. And by his blood we are healed.

For all those who would try to cover their sin before God by their own efforts He proclaims to us—you must be covered by my Son!

Who are you trusting to do away with your sins? Are you trusting yourself? I plead with you to cover yourself with the righteousness of God supplied for you in Christ.

Fast forward a bit and now Adam and Eve have had children who have had children. And the sin introduced in the garden has spread in the world. In less than two thousand years this leads God to say in Genesis 6:5 “That the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

He repeats it in Genesis 6:11-12 “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”

And so the promise is seen again in...

Noah’s Ark

God sees the sin of the world and shows what sinners can expect. They can expect that God who has never spoken a lie was truthful in saying that sin leads to judgment and death.

God floods the world as a righteous judgment against the sin of man.

Let us be soberly reminded friends that God, while He is a God of love, is also a righteous God which necessitates that He is a God of judgment.

The flood makes that apparent. That sin is no mild enemy—but is ultimately a sentence of death—and that God can execute that judgment at any time.

In Matthew 24 Jesus says it will be like the days of Noah when He returns again.

But God is faithful and preserves the promise of the garden.

Of all the known world it was Noah who walked with God. Earlier in Genesis after the death of Abel the Bible says that people began to call on the name of the Lord. And fast forward less than 2k years and there is only left Noah who is “walking with the Lord”.

And so God takes this man and his family and provides for them a rescue from his judgment. Noah builds an ark—a massive wooden ship—and God by many miracles fills it with animals and the family of Noah. Genesis 6:16 says that God shut them in.

And in this wooden ship Noah and the future of the world are protected from God’s judgment on sin.

God delivers them by his kindness. And again we see that God is preserving his promise.

It is by the act of God working on behalf of man that they are saved.

And in this we see a picture of the wounded victor—the coming messiah.

Noah climbed into a wooden ship. And Christ climbed onto a wooden cross.

In Christ we must be found. Within Christ is our salvation.

The wrath of God beat upon the sides of the ark but those contained within were kept safe.

And there would come a day when the wrath of God would be dispensed upon the body of Christ and those who are found in Him are kept safe.

Jesus is the better ark, he is the better Noah. Do you know Him? If you are in the Lord say Amen!

As we keep going in the history of God’s people we come to Abraham.

God’s Covenant with Abraham

The world is filled with people again and once again the people are pursuing their own plans. Sin is still prevalent and God is still preserving and illustrating his promise to send the wounded victor.

Out of all the peoples on earth God calls a man to himself. And in that call he gives a promise that should start sounding familiar to us.

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Abram who later is renamed Abraham is called out by God. God will make a great nation out of Abraham and through this called out people of God there will come a blessing for all the families of the earth.

We can hear the echoes of the promise. I will send one who will defeat the enemy. I will send one who will crush the head of the serpent. I will send one who though wounded will be victorious. And God is saying I will send this one through this people, through this nation.

This is what all the geneologies at the beginning of Matthew is all about. God shows that the messiah would come from Adam and Eve to Mary and Joseph. And in that list is guess who?

Matthew 1:1 “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

There’s only one problem. Abraham doesn’t have any children. How will a great nation—an innumerable people come from Him?

Abraham asks this question himself in Genesis 15:2 “But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?””

“I don’t have a child Lord—a servant is the heir of my house.”

And here we see more of this promise fleshed out for us.

God answers Abraham and makes a covenant with Him.

Genesis 15:4–6 ESV

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

God says that you will have an heir that is from you directly Abraham. In fact look at the stars as innumerable as they are and so shall your offspring be. From this child that I will give you, you will have many, many children.

And the word of God says Abraham was counted as righteous because he believed the promise of God.

And God does something amazing next. Right after this promise to Abraham that echoes that point to the promise in the garden God covenants with him.

There was an ancient covenant that exsisted in the ancient world. Two parties would sacrifice an animal upon making an agreement. And then both parties would walk between the split animal to signify that if either party broke the covenant then the consequences would be that they would be destroyed as the animal had been.

And so God instructs Abram to get a heifer, goat, ram, turtle dove, and pigeon and cut them in half. And all day Abram protects the sacrifice from birds. And then evening comes and the word says that a deep sleep fell on Abram and God gave him a vision. And in this vision God walked between the animals, but he walked alone.

What was God saying? He was saying the same thing he was communicating back in the garden. There is coming a rescue but it is not dependent on you.

“The covenant and promises of the covenant are not dependent on your obedience but mine.” I will provide this because you cannot.

And then we see it again when God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, the child of promise who will become a great nation.

Abraham believes God and goes to sacrifice Isaac. But God stops him. And God provides the sacrifice.

We won’t die because God will provide the sacrifice. God will do it. God will rescue us because we can’t rescue ourselves.

And in this we see that Jesus is the seed of Abraham. Jesus is the substitutonary sacrifice provided so that we won't have to die. What must you do? All you can do is that which Abraham did—believe my promise, God says.

Believe in the sacrifice I provide for you! And this is his call today. Believe in Jesus. Believe in the embodiment of promise—in the real reason for Christmas!

God’s people do in fact become a numerous people and they are living in Egypt enslaved as God says they would be. And in power God delivers his people through Moses with many miracles and judgments against Egypt and their false gods but the final one is a clear picture of the promise in the garden.

The Passover

God tells his people to take a perfect, spotless lamb and to kill it. To take the blood of the perfect sacrificial lamb and to cover the entrance to their home with the blood.

God is sending judgment for sin to Egypt and all those who are not covered by the blood of the perfect sacrifice will be judged for their sin.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death,

And so that night the firstborn in every home not covered by the blood of the sacrifice was killed.

God again soberly reminds us of the seriousness of sin.

God again reminds us of the promise that was made in the garden.

I am sending one who will die for your sins. By his perfect blood you must be covered.

Jesus is the better and final sacrifice.

God says that by the blood of bulls and goats no one can be saved. The passover lamb was meant to point to the coming fulfillment of the garden promise.

Paul says so in 1 Corinthians 5:7 “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

Paul’s point? Do you want to be made new? Redeemed? Rescued? Trust in Christ our Passover Lamb.

and we could keep going on and on.

God’s law given points to mans inability to earn salvation and peace with God while pointing forward to the one who would keep it.

King David points to a coming King who would truly rule in an eternal kingdom.

Isaiah tells us exactly what will happen to this wounded victor and in great detail tells how he will be wounded.

The promise is given in the garden. And it is echoed and revealed and fleshed out progressively over and over and over again.

And this continues today as we consider Christmas.

III. The Promise of Christmas

We hear that promise given long ago and we see it repeated as we look to a stable in Galilee.

There among the straw and the mud. In the midst of the animals—in one of their feeding troughs lay the promise.

Wrapped in swaddling cloth—being kept warm lay the seed of the woman.

There lay the better covering.

There lay the superior ark.

There in the manger lay the true blessing to the families of earth.

There by the faithfulness of God’s promise and the power of God’s providence lay the embodiment and perfect keeper of the law.

There lay the true, eternal King. The one who will reign forevermore! In a heavenly kingdom not built by hands!

There lay the true Passover lamb who once and for all would die for the sins of God’s people.

He would fulfill the promise. He would be wounded—struck on the heel. He would be wounded in the process of crushing the head of the serpent, but not destroyed!

He’s victorious!

He’s the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

There lay Jesus the messiah, the Lord, the Lord, eternal and good, the Lord, the Lord, savior and King, the Lord, the Lord God’s promise to you and me.

God’s promise to you and me.

And where are we in this story friends? We are not the hero. We are not the wounded victor. We are the sin soaked refugees shaking rebel fists toward the throne of heaven—we are those in the garden coveting that which God would protect us from. We are the scoffers.

And what does Holy God say to us?

I love you. I love you. I know what you’ve done…and I love you. I know that you are broken…and I love you.

Look in the manger and know that I love you.

God has been promising Christmas from the very beginning and this morning as we look down into the manger we know that the promise has come and our rescue is here…here in Jesus Christ.

Let’s Pray.