Jesus: The Promised Seed
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Review ALL IN series. Purpose for the series: how our discipleship process is just beginning like it was for them…
Review where we are: we just started a more focused look on the life of the early church after the summary in Acts 2.
Review Last Week: The first half of Peter’s Sermon after healing the lame man with John…
This week, we are going to start in on some of the most profound words spoken by Peter so far..
There are four sets of prophecies mentioned by Peter that we are going to camp out on for a few weeks…
17 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also.
18 “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
22 “Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you.
23 ‘And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’
24 “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days.
25 “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
26 “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
Pray
Peter is here referencing a depth of 1st century Jewish understanding , making layered points that those in the temple where he’s preaching would’ve understood immediately.
Because we are 2000 years removed from the context, we need to reference the Old Testament to see what he’s talking about.
Peter has just told them that Jesus is the Messiah and references prophecies that He fulfilled, thus proving this to be true.
Peter mentions (1) the prophecies He fulfilled in His suffering, (2) the prophet like moses, (3) the agreement of all the other prophets in history, and (4) the “seed” of Abraham.
These are all prophetic elements that were understood to be revelations about the coming Messiah and Peter is telling them, “Jesus fulfilled them all.”
He throws the whole gambit at them, he’s careful to talk about every prophetic cornerstone the first century Jewish believers would be familiar with when it came to the Messiah.
In other words, He’s not just the fulfillment of part of what God had, He’s all of it.
Jesus isn’t a bridge to another coming Messiah. He’s not looking forward to another messenger from God to be the anointed one…
Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Christ. He is the fulfillment of all the prophets spoke of.
I’m already getting happy because I know where I’m going and it blesses me…
Here’s the thing… Peter’s words in this sermon are enough that in the next few verses at the start of chapter 4, The priests and the Sadducees have them arrested!
For you to fully understand the weight of Peter’s words, we have to go back to the origin of the prophecies and see exactly what Peter is saying Jesus fulfilled.
In his description, Peter goes in a sort of reverse-chronological order, so I’m going to start at the end of his description and work my way back through the prophecies until Christ showed up on the scene.
So let’s jump to the end of Peter’s sermon in verse 25 with Jesus being the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham.
25 “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
This is a significant reference, because the promise to Abraham is actually connected to an earlier promise using the same language…
The “seed” is one of those strings of concept that stretches from the very beginning to the very end, though we as English speakers may have to look a little closer for it than those who were there when it was written…
The first time we see this terminology referenced to the human race is in Genesis, just after the Fall of Adam and Eve…
Briefly summarize the fall and its significance
The consequences of these actions cannot be understated…
God spells out the curse Adam and Eve and the serpent brought on themselves in these verses, but the curse on the serpent is where we see a promise along with the curse:
14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life;
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
In theology, this is called the protoevangelium.
Re-read the last two lines of V. 15
Protoevangelium is simply saying in this moment, from the very beginning, God revealed that He had a plan to redeem mankind back to Himself…
Jesus wasn’t plan B.
This was always the plan. God knew how this would play out and He said it from the very beginning!
There was a seed coming!
What’s interesting is that this seed is not attributed to the man, but to the woman.
God could have said:
And I will put enmity between you and the man and between your seed and his seed…
But He doesnt. He attributes the seed to the woman.
The reason this is interesting is because this is the last time the seed is attributed to a woman directly.
Every other instance the seed is spoken of it is always in conjunction with or as a result of a man’s involvement…
Often, the seed is credited to the man exclusively.
We see this in the way it is phrased in Peter’s sermon:
25 “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
The only other time the seed is attributed to a woman, Hagar is already pregnant with the seed of Abram.
But God tells the serpent, “HER seed will bruise you on the head…”
HER seed…
From that point on, the Old Testament unerringly traced the exact location of the ‘seed’ promised in Gen 3:15.
It traced the “seed” from Adam to Noah, which makes sense as Noah’s family were the only ones to be saved from the flood in Gen. 6.
From Noah the “seed” is traced through Noah’s son Shem all the way to Abraham…
Abraham is given the promise mentioned by Peter in this verse…
Then the “seed” is traced from Abraham to Isaac… From Isaac to Jacob… From Jacob to Judah…
14 generations before Jesus shows up, Moses records these genealogies that have been meticulously kept from generation to generation, tracing the “seed” of Eve, looking forward to the promised “seed” that would finally crush the head of the serpent…
Fast forward through the lists of genealogies listed throughout the Old Testament until we hit the book of Ruth,
where the lineage of Judah and King David are connected through circumstances only God could predict.
Meanwhile, the book of Chronicles traces the legal line of succession of David’s throne.
This is important, because along the way, God promises David,
13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
In other words, the one who will introduce the kingdom of heaven will be a dependent of David and will rule on his throne..
So it’s been the enemy’s goal to crush the seed at every turn…
And in Jeremiah 22, it seems for a moment that he might have succeeded with a man named Jeconiah.
Jeconiah was a king who angered God and the consequence is this:
30 “Thus says the Lord,
‘Write this man down childless,
A man who will not prosper in his days;
For no man of his descendants will prosper
Sitting on the throne of David
Or ruling again in Judah.’ ”
Here’s the problem… Jeconiah’s line was the legal heir to the throne of David… but this curse seems to break God’s promise to David.
If the legal dependents who are to inherit the throne can’t be the “seed” promised from the beginning, how can God fulfill both promises?
How can it be that God could promise something, yet still uphold His judgements?
How can He both promise blessings, yet be holy and righteous and punish sin?
How can He be both holy and forgiving?
How can He promise justice and grace?
How can we have free will to choose, yet God knows the outcome?
But God is so sovereign… God is so omniscient… God is so wise…
That even when it looks like the enemy has succeeded… Even when it looks like our failure has messed up His plan…
God already had things in place to make the course correction that His plan still prevails…
What we find out is that Jesus has two recorded lineages: 1 in Matthew 1 and 1 in Luke 3.
Scholars typically agree that Matthew 1 is Jesus’ legal lineage through His adoption by Joseph, while Luke 3 is Jesus’ blood lineage through Mary.
For most this it is confusing as to why the Gospel writers saw fit to record both, seeing as how Jesus is born of Mary, but conceived by the Holy Spirit, so as to be born of a virgin…
So why include Joseph’s adopted lineage at all? He’s Mary’s son, conceived in the womb of a virgin…
But if you read the lineages carefully, we find out in Matt 1:11 that Jeconiah is in the lineage of Joseph, which means that there was a legal claim to the throne through Joseph, but a spiritual curse that would disqualify the Messiah…
But in Luke 3, we find out that Jesus’ blood lineage splits and instead of being traced through Solomon whose line would continue through a cursed king, God in His infinite wisdom chose the unexpected line through which to bring the messiah, the line of Nathan, son of David…
So Jesus was a natural dependent of David through Mary, but had a legal claim to the throne through the adoption of Joseph…
What seemed like an impossible situation turned out to be in the plan of God all along…
In fact, God revealed time and time again that He would use the unexpected choice to bring forth the “seed.”
He favored Abram’s offering over Cain’s… He chose Isaac over Ishmael… He chose Jacob over Esau… He chose Joseph over his brothers…
He set out to deliver a seed that was promised in Genesis 3 and through all the events of the Old Testament, He arranged circumstances and generations in order to protect the lineage that would produce the “seed”…
But what about that “seed” being attributed to Eve?
All throughout the generations, the “seed” is attributed to men, but the seed is directly attributed to Eve in Gen. 3:15
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
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Some scholars say this is a veiled preview of the fact that the Messiah would come through a virgin birth…
The “seed” came all the way through the lineage protected by God until He saw fit to bring it forth in the womb of Mary…
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth,
27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
29 But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.
30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.
31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
36 “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month.
37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
So the seed is promised by God in Genesis 3, traced through the generations until Mary, and brought forth by a supernatural encounter.
And if that’s not clear enough, the author of the gospel of Matthew points out:
22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
The reference here is to Isaiah 7:14
14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.
So in Acts 3, when Peter makes the reference:
25 “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’
The “seed” promised to Abraham, is the same “seed” promised to crush the head of the serpent in Genesis 3, is the same “seed” traced through the Old Testament, that was supernaturally conceived in the womb of Mary whom Jesus called “Woman.”
The Life of Christ: A Study Guide to the Gospel Record Fulfilled Prophecy
The odds of unerringly selecting, from the entire earth’s population, just the right line of men who would ultimately give birth to the Messiah are astronomical, yet the Old Testament did this with unerring accuracy for nearly a millennium.
Even in the face of impossibility.. Even up against the wall of a seemingly insurmountable obstacle…
Even through the failure of mankind throughout the generations…
God still made a way where there seemed to be no way…
And Jesus is the fulfillment of every prophecy about the “seed” from the very beginning up until His birth to a virgin.
We will see over the next few weeks more ways Jesus fulfilled prophecy after prophecy, how God arranged things so at just the right time…
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
At the right time…
He’s an ON TIME God!
He’ll make a way.
Even in the midst of our failure… Despite our shortcomings…
Even when it seems all hope is lost…
Even when it seems like the answer may never show up…
One of these days, you’ll look back and see God’s hand has been in this all along…
He’s been guiding and protecting and delivering so that at the RIGHT TIME, His promise will burst forth….
He’s the seed of the woman.. The fulfillment of promise.. The deposit of our hope..
If He can bring forth the seed promised in Genesis 3, after thousands of years and so many generations… He can fulfill His promise to you…
Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy… The evidence of a promise kept…
Altar Call: Salvation, Promises