United Cross reference

Intro:

Tonight we begin a new series in our semester of teachings on the Supremacy of Christ.

Last month we walked through the Sermon on the Mount and saw that to be a disciple in the manner Jesus commands requires perfection.

However, we are all imperfect and fallen human beings and thus, cannot fulfill the call of being a perfectly righteous disciple, only Jesus can and did.

Tonight, we begin a new series called Cross Reference, as we attempt to show the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament and Jesus’ commanding role over both.

You may ask, why? We do not even follow the rules of the Old Testament anymore right?

The reason we are studying this is because to separate any amount of Scripture from the rest is an issue and can cause major misrepresentation of Scripture.

Therefore, throughout this series we are going to look at some key verses throughout the Old Testament and how they both relate and confirm the New Testament, as well as confirm the holy identity of Jesus.

Today we are going to start with a very famous verse within a famous chapter of Scripture, you all have likely heard this verse or its context at some point.

Today we are looking at the Protoevangelium (proto - first of its kind) (evangelium - gospel) in Gen. 3:15. Let’s begin by reading the verse and then we will briefly cover context, then we will get into the meat of the message.

Genesis 3:15 NIV

15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

The context surrounding this verse is well-known. Adam and Eve are placed in the garden and everything is perfect.

I always picture Adam wrestling with bears and lions

telling the girls I’d fight a bear for them

But then they do the one thing God asks them not to. They sinned in the garden after being tempted by the Serpent and God is now speaking to each person responsible within this situation and giving them their due punishments

The woman is given the pain of childbearing and the struggle of submission to her Husband.

The man is given the struggle of the ground and of hard work to eat and survive.

But, the punishment we are going to look into and focus on today is of the Serpent.

Therefore our first point today is:

Cosmic Struggle between Man and Evil

The main overall point of this verse is the understanding that the two parties who caused the fall shall forever struggle against one another now.

As they began “together,” in their sin, God has now separated the two and will cause a cosmic struggle between the two parties.

The offspring of the Woman can be seen as all of Mankind, or it can be seen as a specific offspring.

We will get to that point in just a moment, but for now let’s think of the implications found within just the first part of this verse.

There are many people in the world today that ask the question of why. Why is the world so broken and full of war, strife, envy, struggle, and hatred? Why can people just not get along? Why is there always some kind of war or fight going on?

This is the reason. The first sin is the reason for so much hatred and anguish and war within the world.

Think about it, the reasons many wars are fought and people die are for very simple reasons.

The two greatest wars in history were fought over imaginary lines and power.

The feeling and idea that the one who wields the most land, money, and power is closest to a god-like human being began at this very moment.

The woman and the man thought it would be nice to be like God, to achieve what he has achieved, and that idea or point of thought is what drives the sins of the world.

The reason there is strife and anger and war is because of this situation we see all the way back in Genesis.

And even furthermore, the reason you choose your sin, boiled down is you think that you are a better God than the Creator of all things.

You think that you know better, you deserve better, your timeline is better, whatever it is, that you can play god and be god of your life

There is almost an immediate working-out of this text in Genesis when the story shifts to Cain and Abel.

Abel the righteous brother who offers righteous and well-meaning sacrifices to the Lord and Cain the unfaithful brother who murders his brother due to jealousy.

There is enmity between the two brothers as one stands faithful to the Lord and the other stands in opposition to the Lord and in his evil and twisted state of mind Cain kills his brother.

There is true hatred found in the act of killing a brother. God makes it clear with his brief remarks to Cain as he tells him that “sin is crouching at your door.”

The Lord knew the struggle between man and evil and the evil desires within Man’s heart would lead to sin and strife and hate and murder, and he forewarned Cain of this.

However, Cain does not heed the warning and instead, like so many, succumbs to the seduction of Sin, cursing not only him but his family line as well.

In fact, we can see the cycle of man vs evil all throughout Scripture.

In Genesis we see the overt struggle against the figure of evil, in Judges we see Israel's struggle with the sinful nations around them and the judges struggles with keeping Israel in line,

in Isaiah and Jeremiah we see the struggle of Israel versus themselves in many cases and in their own sin their negligence to the Lord.

We even see the outworking of this cosmic struggle during Jesus’ work in the New Testament as he seeks to unveil the evil hidden within the religious leader's hypocrisy.

The point here is to understand that due to this cosmic struggle that was set here in Gen 3:15, man will always be at war with the offspring of the evil one, with the sins and rulers of the Earth. This strife and struggle is exactly what Jesus came to defeat!

Jesus is the Victor

The second point I want us to see and really the hope found is that Jesus is already found victorious in Gen 3:15.

Right, this is why we can call it the protoevangelium.

This is why even after this sinful, evil, wicked, moment in the garden that would change the trajectory of the world

We can look and say, but there is good news

Jesus who would not come into earthly being for another four thousand years is found to be victorious over the evil one and over the offspring of the evil one even here in Gen 3.

Jesus is proclaimed here to be the one who will crush the head of the serpent and who will right the wrong of the sins of Man!

How can we confirm that this verse is speaking of Jesus? Let’s take a look at Hebrews 2:14-15

Hebrews 2:14-15, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”

These two verses are among a larger section of verses in Hebrews as the author attempts to clarify the message that Jesus is the one who defeated the offspring of the serpent.

That through Jesus’ death and resurrection he has destroyed the power of sin and death.

How did he do that? Jesus lived the sinless and blameless life that was foretold in Isaiah, which we will get to in another message, but through this sinless life and through the death that was to be dealt to all sinners, Jesus stood accused and condemned for the sins of the many.

Jesus defeated the serpent through death. Jesus squashed his head as he proclaimed to be King over all things, in all things, and through all things!

So, what we ought to see is this:

God is our sovereign redeemer

It’s not like adam and Eve failed and God went, oh no what do we do now?

Let’s just wing it and see what happens

No! from the very beginning Jesus was known to be the solution to the sins of man.

God planned for and outlined throughout all of Scripture for Jesus to be the main character, the Savior, the hero, the one to be Worshiped!

One of my favorite preachers to listen to says this a lot, we often like to think of ourselves as the QB on the Super bowl winning team

No, you’re the 3rd string TE on a team that doesn’t even use TE’s

If we read through Scripture constantly trying to make it about us we completely missed the point.

From front to back Scripture is trying to point us to Jesus

Jesus was the plan when Satan commandeered death and now stood in the staunch separation of the Father, thus taking humans with him as he seduced, manipulated, and changed humans to follow after him and his ways instead of the Lord’s.

Jesus took on flesh, lived perfectly, died righteously, and rose triumphantly and swiftly took the power of Satan and crushed it under his heel!

It’s pointing to Jesus over and over and over again

In Genesis, Jesus Christ is the Seed of the woman

In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb.

In Leviticus, He is our High Priest.

In Numbers, He is the Pillar of cloud by day and the Pillar of fire by night

In Deuteronomy, He is the Prophet like unto Moses.

In Joshua, He is the Commander of the Lord’s army.

In Judges, He is our Judge and Lawgiver.

In Ruth, He is our Kinsman Redeemer.

In 1st and 2nd Samuel, He is the Seed of David.

In Kings and Chronicles, He is our reigning King.

In Ezra, He is our faithful Scribe

In Nehemiah, He is the Rebuilder of everything broken

In Esther, He is our Mordecai, our Advocate.

In Job, He is our ever-living Redeemer.

In Psalms, He is our Shepherd.

In Proverbs, He is our Wisdom.

In Ecclesiastes, He is our meaning for life.

In the Song of Solomon, He is the loving Bridegroom.

In Isaiah, He is the Prince of peace

In Jeremiah and Lamentations, He is our weeping Prophet.

In Ezekiel, the Glorious Lord

In Daniel, He is the fourth Man in the "fiery furnace."

In Hosea, He is the faithful Husband

In Joel, He is the Outpourer of the Holy Spirit.

In Amos, He is our Burden-bearer.

In Obadiah, He is our Judge and Savior.

In Jonah, He is the risen Prophet.

In Micah, He is the Ruler of the world from Bethlehem.

In Nahum, He is our Stronghold.

In Habakkuk, he is the Watchman

In Zephaniah, He is the Mighty to save

In Haggai, He is the Restorer

In Zechariah, He is the branch of David; the One pierced for us

In Malachi, He is the Son of Righteousness

In Matthew, He is King of the Jews. the Messiah. the Christ, the Son of the living God.

In Mark, He is the Servant. Miracle Worker

In Luke, he is The Son of Man.

In John, He is the Son of God; the Living Word; the way, truth and life

In Acts, He is the Savior of the world; Ascended Lord

In Romans, He is the Justifier.

In I Corinthians, He is the Resurrection

In II Corinthians, He is our Comfort.

In Galatians, He is our Liberty;

In Ephesians, He is Head of the Church.

In Philippians, He is our Joy.

In Colossians, He is our Completeness and the glue that holds our world together

In 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, He is the Coming King.

In I & II Timothy, He is our Mediator.

In Philemon, He is our Benefactor.

In Titus, He is the Blessed Hope.

In Hebrews, He is our Perfection

In James, he is the Power behind our faith.

In I, II Peter, He is our Chief Shepherd and Chief Cornerstone

In I, II, III John, He is our Truth and Everlasting Life

In Jude, He is the Foundation of our faith. Our security

In Revelation, He is The King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

How dare us cheapen the story of the gospel by only picking and choosing what parts we want and like

If you want to follow Jesus, understand this: He is Lord

He has been from before the creation of the world, He has been from Genesis until He put on flesh

He was on the cross, He was in the grave, He was in the ressurection

He is in the early church, He is in the current church, and He will be forever more

He sits on the throne and not even satan himself could have a say in the manner

And even in this whisper of confusion, Jesus planned for the cross.

Therefore, we now live not as those who are under the weight and guilt of sin, but rather as saved believers through faith in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection we live as free men who are under the saving grace of Jesus!

We are no longer bound by death and sin and shame, we are free from sin and its wages!

And all of this was the plan from the beginning.

Christ has reigned supreme from start to finish and we cannot forget that.

We cannot forget the whole Scripture is about Jesus and his work. He is the main character of Scripture. Christ sits in command of the throne and has subdued the power of the evil one under his foot.

So Christian, please do not live as one who is still a slave to sin. Do not believe the lie that you must sin or that you are helpless to fight sin.

You are living under the power of the risen and righteous savior who not only gave us salvation through his death, planned from the beginning, but is also ever present in our times of deepest struggle and temptation.

Jesus did not destroy the power of Satan so that you would continue to defile his name and work with willful and continual sin.

Understand you have the power to resist temptation now,

Because of the cross, you are free from Sin not free to sin!