FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT - GENESIS 3:1-15 - The Serpent's Venom

Introduction

This past summer Jodee and I got a lot of pictures and videos of rattlesnakes. Levi’s summer internship took him up to Cameron County, where he spent a lot of time in the woods around Emporium—and a lot of time finding and avoiding snakes! So one of the most important pieces of equipment that he had with him was a pair of “snake chaps”—ankle and shin guards that wrap around the lower portion of your legs that will protect you from getting struck by a rattlesnake should you stumble on one in the thick brush.

The rivalry between man and serpent goes, as we see from our text, all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Within a few chapters of the beginning of the Bible we already see the image of a snake biting a man:

Genesis 3:15 (LSB)

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.”

It’s clear from the context of this verse (which we will explore this morning) that this verse isn’t just describing why men and snakes don’t get along. This account from the Garden of Eden—and this verse in particular—sets up the entire story of the Bible. In some very significant ways, everything that happens throughout all of the Old Testament and into the New Testament flows from this verse, because this verse is the first promise of salvation in all of the Scriptures.

And so this verse is a wonderful way to start off our Advent sermon series, because it is the verse that points ahead to God’s promise to send a Savior. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival”, and in the context of the church calendar it refers to the four weeks leading up to the celebration of Christmas Day, when Christ arrived on earth.

In his first epistle, the Apostle John gives us the reason Jesus appeared:

1 John 3:8 (LSB)

The one who does sin is of the devil, because the devil sins from the beginning. The Son of God was manifested for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

At the very beginning of history, the devil appeared in the Garden in order to destroy the Creation God had made by tempting Adam and Eve to sin. And how did the devil go about tempting them? By his lies. Jesus Himself says that the devil is a liar:

John 8:44 (LSB)

“...Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

That is the work that the devil does, and that is the work that Jesus came to destroy. The lies that the devil spat out there in the Garden were like deadly venom that poisoned our First Mother’s mind and heart and soul, deceiving her and leading her and our First Father into sin against God. By disobeying God’s command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, our First Parents plunged themselves (and all of us ever since) into rebellion and hatred of God:

Romans 5:12 (LSB)

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

One of the things that Levi and the crew he was working with had to keep in mind last summer was how difficult it was to get an antitoxin in time if one of them got bitten by a rattlesnake—it is very rare, very expensive—one vial at Brookville, and one vial at DuBois. And getting to one of those hospitals from Emporium could take hours, if someone got bit. (This was not fun for Ellie or Jodee to think about, so they tried not to…)

As desperate a plight as it would be to be bitten by a rattlesnake in the remote forests of Cameron County, hours away from a vial of antitoxin, the peril of the poison of the serpent’s lies that defeated Adam and Eve is far more dangerous. His lies are still destroying lives, deceiving the hearts and minds of countless people and drawing them down into eternal damnation.

But it would be easy to carry this illustration too far—after all, when someone is bitten by a snake it is almost always inadvertent. The victim is just that: a victim who did not want to be bitten or choose to be bitten.

But ever since Adam and Eve plunged the whole of humanity into sin and rebellion against God, we are not victims of this poison; we love those lies. Jesus said as much in John 8:44:

John 8:44 (LSB)

“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

My father-in-law always claimed that he could tell if a person had ever been bitten by a rattlesnake—he always claimed it was something in their eyes, some way that their metabolism or something had been permanently altered. For the rest of their lives they would carry around the signs that they were snake-bitten.

When Jesus tells the Pharisees that the devil is their father, see how He is echoing the words of Genesis 3:15—they are “the seed of the serpent”; they are not only snake-bitten, but they are lovers of the Serpent’s poison lies—they want to do what the serpent does: Lie about God (to others and to themselves), run from the truth instead of standing in it, seeking death instead of life.

What I aim to do this morning is walk us through the account of the Serpent’s lies in the Garden to identify those lies so that we might recognize them today. I want you to be able to recognize where the venom of those lies is poisoning your heart. Because only when you recognize how desperately you have been poisoned by the serpent’s venom can you really rejoice at the Advent of Christ, who came to destroy the works of the devil. I want you to see this morning that

The BLOOD of Christ is the only ANTIDOTE for the VENOM of the serpent

In order to understand the glory of Christ’s appearing to destroy the devil’s work, we need to understand first of all

I. The TREACHEROUS TOXINS of the serpent's lies (Genesis 3:1-5)

Look back at the beginning of Genesis 3 with me—Verse 1:

Genesis 3:1 (LSB)

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

This “crafty” serpent—this deceptive, lying creature—begins his attack on Eve with what is still his most effective lie: “Did God really say…?” The serpent’s first attack is the lie that says

God has not SPOKEN to us (v. 1)

Part of the chemistry of rattlesnake venom is made up of neurotoxins—a toxin that causes paralysis in its victim. Can you see how easy it is to become “paralyzed” by the doubt injected by the lie that says, “Did God really say this?” That toxin can be delivered by the scoffing tone of the internet atheist keyboard commando with his list of a thousand so-called “contradictions in the Bible”, or it can come in the form of the wise and enlightened “modern” Christian who says, “Well, the Apostle Paul was the product of his culture, and so his views on women are outdated—if he were living today, he wouldn’t have said those things...” Or it can even come in the form of a timid evangelical desperate to be accepted by the “cool kids” who knows that God’s Word is inspired but is afraid to admit it. He comes across one of those sharp-edged verses that run against the grain of our culture’s besetting sins and says, "Guess it’s time for a Greek word-study...”

That first paralyzing toxin of the serpent’s lie to Eve in the Garden was to cast doubt on whether God really said what He said—whether His word can be trusted or not. And once that little element of paralyzing doubt is introduced, the serpent injects the next toxin into Eve’s heart—the lie that says

God will IGNORE our sin (v. 4)

In verses 2-3, see that Eve answers the serpent quickly when he questions what God said:

Genesis 3:2–3 (LSB)

And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, ‘You shall not eat from it, and you shall not touch it, lest you die.’”

But then, because he has already planted the doubt in Eve’s mind, he comes straight out and says in so many words that God is a liar:

Genesis 3:4 (LSB)

And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!

See how the treacherous toxins of the serpent’s lies spread—from doubting that God has really said what He said to saying here that God lied about what would happen if Adam and Eve ate the fruit of that Tree.

This lie is still whispered everywhere down to this very day, isn’t it? The word “sin” is a joke to us—we use it to describe a sugary dessert, or joke about fornication as “living in sin”. We sin fearlessly because we believe the lie—willingly and enthusiastically believe the lie—that says God will look the other way, that He doesn’t really mean what He says about punishing sin; that there is no Hell below us, above us only sky…

The treacherous toxins of the Serpent’s lies to Eve in the Garden begin with questioning whether God actually said what He said. Then comes the lie that God doesn’t care what we do; if we disobey His commands there are no consequences. And in verse 5, the Serpent adds one more toxin to his venomous lies—he goes on to slander God’s very character:

Genesis 3:5 (LSB)

“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

“See Eve? See what is really going on here? He wants to scare you into not eating from this Tree because He knows that if you do, you’ll become a threat to His reign!” This is another one of Satan’s ancient lies that echoes down through the centuries to this day—that

God is an INSECURE being (v. 5)

“What kind of God insists on being praised all the time?” C. S. Lewis, before his conversion, said that one of the greatest annoyances for him as he read the Psalms was that God seemed so needy; that He insisted on being constantly praised—in Lewis’s words, it reminded him of “an old woman seeking compliments.”

This lie is still whispered (and gleefully repeated) by the mockers and scoffers of our day: “What kind of monster insists you worship Him and threatens to throw you into eternal torment if you don’t? I could never worship an insecure, petty God like that!” The first toxin says that God’s words can’t be believed, the second lie says that God’s warnings can’t be trusted, and the third lie says that God’s character doesn’t deserve to be worshipped.

All three of these treacherous toxins were first spat out by the Serpent in the Garden when he attacked Eve. And all three of these lies continue to poison all of her children to this very day. Not only are we poisoned by these lies, we enthusiastically repeat them. We are lied to by Satan, yes—but we are eager to believe those lies about God.

Consider in verse 6

II. The EVIL EFFECTS of the serpent’s lies (Genesis 3:6)

Genesis 3:6 (LSB)

Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

The serpent’s treacherous toxins start going to work in Eve’s heart and mind; we can see the effects in the way she reacted to his lies. She “Saw that the tree was good for food”, and yet God had forbidden them from eating this good-looking fruit. This is the first effect of the serpent’s venom on us—we begin to believe the lie that says

God will not PROVIDE for us (cp. Psalm 73:3-5)

This is how those toxins go to work in our hearts—making us believe that obedience to God will impoverish us. This is the temptation that so struck Asaph in the Psalms:

Psalm 73:3–5 (LSB)

For I was envious of the boastful, I saw the peace of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men, And they are not stricken along with the rest of mankind.

You look around at your friends and family and neighbors who take no thought for obeying God or following Him, and you see that they always have so much more than you? They have no constraints on their behavior; they can do what they want to do to get what they want, and they don’t have to answer to anybody for their actions. When you look at your unbelieving neighbor’s wealth and possessions and comfort and think to yourself that you could have all of that as well, if only you didn’t have all these Christian scruples, that is the sign of the serpent’s lies working in your heart.

There was this tasty-looking fruit that would fill her belly that God said she couldn’t have. She believed the lie that God will not provide for us, and in the next part of verse 6 see that she began to believe the lie that says

God denies BEAUTY to us

She saw that the fruit was good for food, and she saw that it was “a delight to the eyes...” Here was this nourishing, beautiful thing—but God says “No!” How often we hear this lie, over and over again in our day, that says “Why are you Christians so afraid of love? Love is love—it doesn’t matter who wants to love who; it’s all beautiful!”

“Why are you Christians so afraid of nudity? The human body is beautiful, it’s natural; all you want to do is shame a woman for celebrating her beauty! What you you people have against beauty??”

“You Christians are all about family values—then why do you hate gay marriage so much? These people just want to have a family! Look at how beautiful these families are, how much they love each other—why do you hate beauty so much?”

And closely related to this accusation—that God hates beauty—is the slander that

God demands IGNORANCE in us

I take this from the next phrase in verse 6, where Eve saw that this fruit she had been commanded not to eat “was desirable to make one wise...” The ancient venom of the Serpent’s lies still courses through the hearts of the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve to this day, doesn’t it? Why else are Christians constantly being accused of being “ignorant” and “bigoted” and “superstitious”? Why else are Christians constantly being accused of “denying the science” or being “brainwashed”? How many times have you been suspected of homeschooling your children because you want to “keep them ignorant?”

You see, the treacherous toxins of the Serpent’s lies still poison us today—we see the evil effects of his lies everywhere we look in our culture: God will let you down when you need Him because He wants you to be poor and destitute and empty; God forbids beauty or joy or happiness and denies His hapless followers any joy or light in their lives, suppressing their human spirit and desire for wisdom so that they live their whole lives as ignorant, superstitious idiots.

The end of verse 6 and verse 7 go on to describe the result of the Serpent’s lies. Eve’s deception was complete:

Genesis 3:6–7 (LSB)

...she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

Never forget, beloved, Eve took that fruit and ate it, and her husband stood by and watched her. And when she had eaten, he loved her more than he loved his Creator; he decided to join her in rebellion rather than prevent her fall, and having seen her fall he joined her in it. They were both carried away and enticed by their own lust for power and independence from God, and when that lust conceived, it gave birth to sin, and that sin brought death to all mankind.

We are a race snakebitten, lie-loving, death-bound sinners: It shows in the way we walk, in our affections, in our attitude toward God and each other—as the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2--

Ephesians 2:1–3 (LSB)

[We] were dead in [our] transgressions and sins, in which we formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath...

But the Good News of the Advent season is that Jesus Christ was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil—see in verse 15 of our text the first of many promises of

III. God's DECISIVE DEFEAT of the serpent (Genesis 3:15)

Starting in verse 8, we read of Adam and Eve’s encounter with YHWH as He came to walk with them in the Garden:

Genesis 3:8 (LSB)

Then they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God in the midst of the trees of the garden.

The guilt and shame that had assaulted Adam and Eve after their sin now caused them to do the opposite of what they used to do when they heard their Creator approaching. They used to run to Him in delight and love; now they ran from Him in horror and shame. Their whole world, their entire existence and everything they had known about themselves and their Creator had been utterly undone as the venom of the Serpent’s lies had its full effect.

In verses 9-14 Adam and Eve are both called to account for their behavior; confessing sin (but at the same time blaming each other—Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the Serpent). YHWH immediately turns to the Serpent (without bothering to ask it to explain itself—the Serpent is a liar after all, there’s no point in asking it anything!) and curses it to a life of humiliation and contempt from the Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. And see here that in the midst of the curse on the Serpent God delivers the promise of the blessing of salvation:

Genesis 3:15 (LSB)

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.”

The entire course of the story of salvation is set here, from this verse. The rest of the Old Testament is the story of the people God chose for Himself and His sovereign protection and providential care for them—from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph to Moses and Joshua and David and Solomon and Jehoshaphat and Elijah and Josiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and Esther and Zerubbabel and Nehemiah and Ezra and Malachi—the entire sweep of the Old Testament begins right here in this verse where YHWH promises that a descendent of the woman would crush the Serpent himself.

When the time was fulfilled, when the days were accomplished, at just the right time that Serpent-slayer finally appeared—lying in a manger in Bethlehem, born of a woman who had never known a man. The Seed of the Woman appeared that night, heralded by the same angelic hosts that had sung at the first moments of Creation rejoiced again to see the fulfillment of the Promise made millennia before in that long-lost Garden.

Christ was manifested in order to destroy the works of the devil—He came to destroy the Serpent’s lies. And so consider with me three things that this Serpent-slayer came to do. First, the Scriptures tell us that

He SUFFERED the serpent's STING for us (1 Cor. 15:55-57)

When Christ appeared, the Serpent immediately went to work to destroy Him—Herod’s troops rampaged through Bethlehem slaughtering children, he whispered his same lies to Him in the wilderness for 40 days, he incited the hatred of the Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees against Him until even His own hometown synagogue tried to throw Him off a cliff to His death; and finally that day came when the Serpent thought he had finally won, and Christ was nailed to a Roman cross to suffer the curse that had been brought on by Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden: Death.

Though He had not ever committed one sin of His own—Isaiah says “there was no deceit in His mouth”; He had never partaken of any of the lies of the Serpent; He did not believe the lies of the devil in the wilderness, He did not inherit the poisoned, rebellious nature of Adam. And three days later, He did what no other Son of Adam had ever done—He rose from the grave to break the power of death forever for those who place their faith in Him:

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 (LSB)

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Christ was manifested in that manger in Bethlehem in His first Advent so that He would destroy the works of the devil—He suffered the serpent’s sting for us on the Cross, and

He CRUSHED the serpent's POWER over us (cp. Heb. 2:14-15)

The writer of Hebrews says that Christ’s resurrection destroyed the Serpent’s power over those who put their faith in Him for salvation:

Hebrews 2:14–15 (LSB)

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

For those who have placed their faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, He promises that death has no more sting, the grave has no more victory, and there is no more terror in death because it is the doorway to everlasting life in His presence. Listen to the extravagant promise Jesus makes in John 8:51:

John 8:51 (LSB)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death—ever.”

Think of that, Christian! Think of all of those fanciful descriptions of the Grim Reaper coming to collect the souls of those whose time has come to die—Jesus promises you here that you will not see anything like that! When Death comes for you, you won’t be terrified of its arrival or dismayed at that moment—all you will see will be Jesus Himself! The Serpent’s power to horrify you over the prospect of death has been crushed by the resurrection of Christ!

Jesus was born in Bethlehem—the seed of the woman—to crush the head of the Serpent. Christ suffered the serpent’s sting for us, He crushed the serpent’s power over us, and Revelation 12 tells us that when Christ came,

He SILENCED the serpent's ACCUSATIONS of us (Rev. 12:9-11)

In the very first book of the Bible, the Serpent casts Adam and Eve down into rebellion and sin through his lies; in the last book of the Bible, we see the Serpent himself cast down:

Revelation 12:9–11 (LSB)

And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witness, and they did not love their life even to death.”

That old Serpent has been a liar and a murderer and an accuser from the beginning (the name Satan literally means “prosecutor”). But when the Serpent-slayer came, He cast Satan out of the throne room of Heaven forever. He can no longer accuse you before God, Christian; he can no longer bring charges against you for your sin because Christ Himself has paid your ransom! He has been disbarred; his law license has been revoked, his courtroom privileges have been permanently cancelled. All that old Serpent can do now is stand across the street from the courthouse with a bullhorn and a homemade picket sign accusing you; God does not admit his testimony in His court anymore.

Because your Advocate before the throne of God is the One Who has Himself borne your punishment!

1 John 2:1–2 (LSB)

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

The price has been paid, the debt has been cancelled, your record of offenses has been wiped out:

Colossians 2:14 (LSB)

Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us, He also has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Do you know how the antidote for a rattlesnake bite is produced? It is made from the blood of an animal that has survived the venom. A horse or a sheep is injected with the venom, and then its body produces the antibodies to fight its effects.

Beloved, your dear Savior took your place on that Cross; He received the sting of death from the Serpent—and so it is only His blood that will deliver you from the Serpent’s venom:

His blood is the cure for the lie of the Serpent that says, “Has God really spoken?” because Jesus is the Final and complete Word of salvation from God that freely invites you to repentance and faith.

His blood is the only cure for the lie of the Serpent that says that God ignores sin and doesn’t care if He is obeyed, because Christ’s blood flowed from that Cross as a demonstration that God will not allow sin to go unpunished.

His blood is the only cure for the lie of the Serpent that says that God is an insecure being that does not want His children to live forever in the full wisdom of goodness and holiness, because His blood washes us clean and makes us new creatures in Him that will live for eternity growing in knowledge and wisdom and understanding of His riches toward us.

His blood is our complete and total provision for all that we can ever want or need for life and godliness; His blood turns the ugliness of our wicked rebellion and shameful past into the beauty of holiness that will never fade or fail; and

Ephesians 1:7–8 (LSB)

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace which He caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight...

Beloved, what does God’s Word reveal in you this morning? Do you recognize the signs of the Serpent’s ancient lies working their venomous deception in your heart? You happily entertain all the questions and doubts about the reliability of the Scriptures— “Did God really say…?” because it gives you an out and you don’t have to render obedience to Him.

You allow apathy and laziness about your spiritual condition to have free reign in your life; you don’t take any thought toward fighting sin because you really don’t think God will punish sin—He’ll let you slide, He’ll understand why bitterness or complaining or lust or envy or anxiety or strife run free in your life. Screaming at your kids or lying to your wife or humiliating your husband or coasting at work or abdicating your parental duties or cheating on your exams or disobeying your parents—those aren’t sins, really; they’re just “imperfections”, and after all— “Christians aren’t perfect; just forgiven!!”

Beloved, that is the venom of the Serpent coursing through your veins. There is only one remedy for disregarding and doubting God’s Word; there is only one antitoxin for apathy towards sin; there is only one way to escape the effects of the Serpent’s lies, and it is found in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Do you see the effects of that venom in your life and tremble because you find yourself ashamed in the presence of God this morning? Have you come to realize that you are naked and defenseless in your shame and guilt before His holiness and righteous demands? You see that you have broken His commands and realize that your own pathetic attempts to cover your shame have failed, and you have nowhere to hide before His sight?

Then look here to see the beautiful Good News offered in these verses. When YHWH God came walking in the cool of the day and Adam and Eve were cowering in terror because of their shame and guilt, what did He do? Look at verse 9:

Genesis 3:9 (LSB)

Yahweh God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And in verses 10-13, He goes on to ask them what they had done; why they knew they were naked, whether they had eaten the fruit of the Tree. Have you asked yourself why the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing God had to ask them questions? It wasn’t because He didn’t know, it was His grace to draw them out to repentance! He could have walked into the Garden and blasted the boulder or bush they were hiding behind into smithereens, couldn’t He? He could have immediately declared their guilt and pronounced sentence on them without asking them anything—and yet He delighted in mercy toward them! He invited them to come to Him, He drew them out of their shame. And He Himself replaced their flimsy coverings of fig leaves with durable garments, crafted by His own loving hands:

Genesis 3:21 (LSB)

Then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

But you see, don’t you, that the covering YHWH provided for Adam and Eve meant that blood had to be shed—God Himself slaughtered innocent animals who had never disobeyed His commands so that His children could be covered.

Beloved, see here one more picture of the great grace offered you in the blood of Christ! The only way to be clothed in His sight is to be clothed in the righteousness purchased by Christ’s death. The only way to be delivered from the deadly toxins of the Serpent’s lies is to be washed in the Blood of the One Who suffered the Serpent’s sting and then crushed his head under His heel. The only way to have peace with God that goes beyond all of your proud self-righteous fig leaves of good works is to rest in His work.

He is not chasing you down with vindictive anger this morning; He is not standing in the midst of your life to scold you or humiliate you; He is not dragging you out from behind the facade you are hiding behind. He calls you with tenderness and with compassion, and He calls you to be done listening to the Serpent’s lies. It doesn’t matter what has been ruined in your life (it doesn’t matter what you have ruined) by those lies—all that matters is that here is all the remedy you can ever need when you come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Jude 24–25 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION:

What does the term 'Advent' signify in the context of the church calendar? How does Genesis 3:15 relate to the coming of Jesus Christ and the promise of salvation?

What are the three treacherous toxins of the serpent's lies identified in these verses? In what ways do we see the ongoing effects of the serpent's lies in contemporary culture?

How does the idea of being “snake-bitten” relate to the idea of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Fall and its effects on mankind? How does this passage connect the Fall with the necessity of Christ’s sacrifice?

Reflect on a time when you felt tempted to believe one of the serpent's lies. What happened? How does this passage help equip you to reject those lies in the future?