The Curse Broken
Joy to Your World • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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***Sermon Series Slide***
Just a few more weeks before Christmas. Next week, Aaron will preach and then we’ll finish up this series the week after…just a few days before Christmas.
I know we mentioned it during announcements, but I wanted to plug our Christmas Eve Candlelight service. This service is children friendly and will be less than one hour long. We’ll end the service with singing Silent Night by candle light. This is a great service to invite family or friends to.
Our current series is Joy to Your World. It is very easy for me to make Jesus coming a familiar thing. It’s something others need. I’ve had Jesus for so long that I don’t often take the time to make it personal for me. I like to make it about others…about the world. When we sing the song Joy to the World, I often think about the world and not about me being included in that world.
Don’t get me wrong I can think about myself and what I get a lot. That’s called being selfish. I can be pretty good at that. I’m not talking about that kind of mindset. I talking about making Jesus coming personal. I want to take a bit of time and impart to you what joy there is for you in Jesus coming.
***Sermon Title Slide***
We are going to take a couple of different passages this morning than is normal for Christmastime. We are going to start in Genesis 3 about the reason Jesus needed to come. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Genesis 3 and we are going to read the entire chapter this morning.
As you turn there, I want to let you know about a new group starting in January that will be studying the creation story in Genesis 1. We’ll have a few leading this group and I’m told this group will get some insights into the original Hebrew and the nuance in some of the words that we just don’t have English. We’ll have more details in the coming weeks.
Some of the story we’ll read today will be familiar, but I’m guessing some of it will be news for most of us…some of it was new to me.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Their first instinct after they sinned was to try to cover up their shame. They tried to do so in their own power and in their own way. Quickly…what happens to leaves not long after they are removed from a plant? They shrivel up, they dry up and then the crumble. This is just a very short term solution. Let’s keep reading.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The first interrogation happens and God asks a question he already knew the answer to. Parents, we do this with our kids, right? We are looking to see if they will come clean or not. Will they take responsibility or no…let’s see.
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Nope…neither of them took full responsibility. The man blamed his wife and the wife blamed the serpent. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. I’m not talking about other people…I’m talking about me…I’m talking about you.
If I’m honest, this is my reaction when confronted with something…Well, you see…what had happened was…and then I want to pass blame onto something or someone else. Blame is a crazy game to play, one that might work temporarily, but I’d like to suggest another course of action.
Accept responsibility for your part without condition. For Adam it would have been - Yes, I knew you told us not to, but I ate it. I’m sorry. You see, God already knows the whole story. He knows the circumstances behind your sin. He doesn’t need you to point the blame to someone else. He wants you to accept your wrongdoing, ask forgiveness and repent.
If I had to guess, there are some of you who are in a cycle of sin where you’ve made excuses for it, you’ve blames someone else, or the circumstance you are in and as a result, you are still in bondage to that sin. To be free from sin requires a no excuse, no exceptions policy. Short of that, you’ll find yourself being deceived into thinking it’s ok and you’ll partake. Just like Eve.
Alright…let’s keep reading...
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
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.”
God starts with the consequence for the serpent. It is within this consequence that we get our first glimpse into the baby Jesus who would be born.
Verse 15 is a clear word about a man who would come to crush the serpents head while the serpent would only bruise his heel. Jesus is this offspring. His birth we celebrate as the coming of the one who will accomplish this.
This verse shows us a glimpse into God’s character and his power. First, we see that while he is dealing with disobedience, he is also making a path for grace to come. While there has to be a punishment, ultimately, God is making a way for redemption. He is foretelling the ultimate defeat of the serpent, of Satan.
Let’s see what he has for Eve and Adam…
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Let me go back just a bit and lay a foundation for what just happened and the long term consequence for mankind…including us.
God created Adam and Eve and together in the garden, they were in perfect relationship with one another. They had one command - Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they did, the consequence was death.
Death didn’t occur immediately, but the healthy life they lived eating from the tree of life was no more. They no longer had access to eternal life. They also no longer had direct access to God. Because of their sin, they were no longer in fellowship with God.
So, he tells them of what life will be like now that they have done this thing. It’s going to be hard for them both. This is the world we were born into. This is our inheritance from Adam and Eve. We weren’t born in the Garden of Eden with access to a perfect place and access to the source of all Love, God.
We were born into a broken world. A world that is hard and difficult a world full of sin. Fortunately for us, we live in a time and place where we’ve been able to hear about Jesus…before we get to that, I want to show you something God did for Adam and Eve...It says in verse 21 that he made them clothing out of skin.
There was this shame of nakedness that needed to be covered. They tried to use leaves, but that wasn’t sufficient, so God killed an animal and used the hide, or skin to cover their nakedness.
Sin will always result in death. ALWAYS. For Adam and Eve, their sin required the death of an innocent animal in order to cover them. This would foreshadow the sacrificial system under Abraham and Moses. This covering God made would foreshadow the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus would make in order to cover our sin and shame once and for all.
When a baby is born, at least for me, I can’t help but feel a sense of joy, love and hope for the new life that has come. When I think about the baby Jesus, I have those some emotions of joy, love and hope, but then my thoughts go to the ultimate reason he was born. He was born to die on a cross for my sins, for your sins…then my thoughts turn to sorrow about my part in that. That is one of the things that happen when you know the end of the story.
But that’s not the end of the story. In a few short months, we celebrate the resurrection! But that’s not even the end of the story.
This message series is about a longer lasting joy that even that. Now that we’ve read the beginning of mankind’s story, let’s read about the ending of the story for those who have placed their faith in Christ. Turn with me to Revelation 21...
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
This is God’s promise of a return for mankind to the communion and fellowship with God that Adam and Eve had once. This is possible by our trust in Jesus. This is a result of Jesus being born. This is what is proclaimed in the song Joy to the World. We have this to look forward to…skip ahead to chapter 22...
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.
We see here that the tree of life is restored in the place where we will be. This is a return to life in the Garden that Adam and Eve knew. A garden with a tree of life, a tree that provides healing. And look what the beginning of verse 3 says. No longer will there be any curse.
The debt is paid. The things that Adam and Eve were told would be difficult will be no more. The curse is broken through Jesus.
***Sermon Title Slide***
I know there are difficult things that this life now offers and requires of us. Imagine what Adam and Eve felt. They had the perfection of the garden and then bam - life in a very harsh world. They were removed from God’s presence, but then God came in the form of a baby who would be called God with us. That was Jesus.
We have a future to look forward to when God brings us back into the garden again with him. Not because of anything we’ve done, but because of what Jesus has done.
I’ve had a few surgeries in life. I was willing to go through the pain of surgery in order to get to the promise of a better back, a better knee. My back surgery was so successful that before surgery I could barely touch my knee, but after, I could touch my toes.
That success has been temporary. At times it’s ok and other times, it hurts. The promise in Jesus is for ever. It’s not temporary. It’s a complete healing of all hurts, not just physical, but all hurts. The promise in Jesus is eternal life in the presence of the source of love.
That is hope and joy that is in the birth of Jesus. This is what the angels proclaimed when they said “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
