Genesis 3 - the first gospel

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Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 7:40-8:23 8:53 - 9:34

Genesis 3:14–15 CSB

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Opening Illustration:

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made? I remember one time- it was one of the biggest expenses, and I just forgot to record the pension expense. It turned out alright, but I remember having to go to my boss, and that sinking feeling - like what’s going to happen. Am I going to get fired, did they pay out bonuses? They hadn’t and I didn’t but it was a lot of pressure. My failure feeling was peak.

Now they were surprising cool about it. The Lord really helped me out because I felt horrible. I remember sometime later I got publicly yelled at for something I didn’t do. And thinking, that’s ok. They were cool when I messed up, so I’ll just take it this time!

But I want you to think about that time. Because today we are going to look at the worst mess up ever, like the real bad one. And we are going to see God’s grace.

Christ’s first coming gives us hope we can look back on, Christ’s second coming gives us hope we can look forward to.

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Getting into the Sermon

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So let’s set the stage for Genesis 3:15 and to understand how it is a hopeful passage.

In Genesis 1 and 2, God created the world. He created everything in it and he says that it was good. That’s the repeated phrase in Genesis 1. He created the land - and it was good. He created the animals - it was good.

He created man and it was good. Actually, the only thing that wasn’t good is that it isn’t good for man to be alone. So he created Eve.

Now Adam and Eve were living as the first husband and wife and they were relaxing in a beautiful Garden.

Jungles of panama - so beautiful - but you got to imagine a paradise untouched by sin. It’s hard to. But it was perfect. No animals to bite them. They had no fear. Imagine that.

But they did have one rule - one command. Look at chapter 2 verse 15-17

say the underlined word

Genesis 2:15–17 CSB

15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

So God gave them a pretty clear plan. They can live in the garden, look over it, watch it, enjoy it all that fun stuff - just don’t eat of a specific tree. One rule. That’s it.

But then Satan came in the form of a snake

Genesis 3:1–5 CSB

1 Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3 But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 “No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So the serpent is crafty and he wants to destroy them. The serpent here is always been connected with Satan.

Now one of the things I say is that God has a plan for your life - but so does the devil.

God’s plan was for you to have a paradise but that wasn’t Satan’s plan. Satan’s plan was to destroy what God created and to gain control over humanity. He was trying to lie and cheat and when they sinned and fell, he would have victory over humanity.

So what happened?

Genesis 3:6 CSB

6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

So they ate it. They both did. This was the moment. This was the thing. They had one rule and they broke it.

Genesis 3:7–8 CSB

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

So then, they had a reaction. This is when their hearts dropped. Their eyes opened and they realized they were naked. The unity and connection that they shared before sin was broken.

Then they hear God coming and they realize they are in big trouble. They remembered the promise that if they sinned they would surely die. Imagine, they didn’t even really no what that was. Now they are facing that - so they hid.

Just put yourself in their shoes for a moment. You are the first two humans. Everything is perfect - then in a moment of craziness, a moment of madness a moment of rebellion - you ruin everything.

Can you imagine the guilt and shame they must have felt?

Some of you can imagine it. Maybe there is something in your past, a time where you made some bad decisions. You were caught up in a fog of sin and then when the fog clears you look around and think, “Oh no, what have I done?”

Maybe you even think, I’ll never recover from this. My life is essentially over.

Some people hide from God. They are so filled with shame and guilt, that they hide. They think, it’s over, I’m dirty and I can never be clean again. I’ve messed everything up.

Some people continue in their sinful lives not because they want to but because they don’t think they deserve anything better. They are so broken by shame and guilt, that they just think, this is what I am, this is who I am, I deserve this and I can never be better.

Some of you have felt that. Some of you may still feel that. Some of you have never felt that, but you may in the future.

Look, if that’s you, I’m glad you are here so you can here about the hope we can look back on and the hope we can look forward to.

If you have never messed up like that, I hope you don’t. We all sin, you will mess up, I hope you never have a soul crushing, self-hatred moment. But if you do, I want you to remember this-

God forgives even your worst sins. He has grace for all your sins.

Maybe you a sitting there thinking, but pastor you don’t know what I’ve done. - even that one, even that sin. Even those years of sin. All of it.

See the trick is this - we fall into sin and we think we are under Satan’s power. We think he won. It’s easy to look at the story and think, well Satan’s plan worked! He got what he wanted - he ruined man, he ruined women, he ruined the world.

Satan is not as powerful as you think and he didn’t win.

Let’s look back at the main passage. God has discovered the sin and everyone is standing around and God is punishing them for their sin.

Genesis 3:14–15 CSB

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

So the serpent was possessed by Satan and snakes were cursed because of that. That’s basically 14.

But look at 15. It says that there is going to hostility, a war between man and Satan. Satan will strike the man’s heel and the man will crush Satan’s head.

The imagery there is this, Satan will be able to make some passing blows. He can cause some harm.

We have a snake that lives in our yard, he’s not venomous so we like him there because he kills rodents.

But, I know he might be there so when I trim the bushes I have to be careful. Why? He may not be venomous but he still has teeth! He can still bite my heel and I don’t want to be bitten!!

But if I am - it’s not big deal. It’ll hurt, there will be pain, but it won’t cripple me. Sermon illustration It won’t destroy me.

See, Satan thought that he was going to have the power - but he is limited. He can injure you, he can bite your heel, but he can’t destroy you. He doesn’t have control over you. He is limited.

I mean just think about it. Satan is not all knowing, he’s not all powerful. He none of those things. He was cast out of heaven when he tried to rival God. Now he can’t even really rival man. He only has the power that God allows him - he can bite your heel. That’s it.

He thought he was going to have power - but he is on a leash.

So don’t let him trick you into thinking he is more powerful than he is. He isn’t. He doesn’t have the power. He doesn’t have the control.

Satan is not as powerful as he hoped or as you think. See we can think he is, but if he was, would he ever allow anything good to happen? We he allow thanksgiving food to taste good? Would he allow babies to be born or laughter to exist? No, if he was let lose he would crush all things, destroy all things, ruin all things.

The fact that there is any joy in life is proof that Satan is on a leash.

Now, that’s good news. I hope that’s good news, but it isn’t the best part of the passage and it isn’t why I chose it. The best part is that he will have his head crushed. That’s the best part.

Snake story

They would throw it at the snakes head. They would literally try to crush it. When will told the magic snake story, it was about the head.

What he is saying is this - while Satan can cause pain, the man will totally crush satan.

This is called the Protoeuangelion - the first gospel. The proto gospel. The first gospel.

For all history - they were looking forward to the one who would come to crush the serpent. Satan was looking fear, Mankind looking in hope.

It’s promising that there will come a time when a man will come who can crush Satan’s head. And that is the hope that we now look back to and forward to.

For Adam and Eve, they had to look forward to both hopes. But here is the hope: the gospel - when the baby was born, it was the beginning of the end. he defeated Satan’s power. He changed everything.

But he promises to come back. He promises to change everything.

I was talking to someone about Hell this week he was an unbeliever and had a lot of questions. It was a fun conversation. For me, I enjoy talking to people who have strong opinions if they are willing to engage respectfully, and I felt like this guy did. But he had concerns about Hell. There are a lot of people who are uncomfortable with hell. Its certainly sad that it exists.

But one thing that we need to remember is that hell was prepared for Satan. That’s who it was prepared for. The Bible references others going there, but it was prepared for him. It is going to be his final and eternal humiliation.

So not only Satan kicked out of heaven, not only did he not get the control he wanted over humankind, he is going to be cast into the lake of fire - and he knows it. He knows his end.

And here’s the deal, Jesus came and died and crushed the serpent’s head for you. So that you don’t have to join him. Its what we’ve all done. But Jesus made a way for us to be forgiven and reconciled with him.

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Now today, when we are feeling hopeless, we get to look back and remember Jesus’ first coming. The one where he gave us victory. And when when we are feeling overwhelmed we get look forward to his second coming, when he will finally defeat the enemy for good. Then there will be no more pain and nor more suffering.

But I want to point one more thing out. Something that I think is pretty significant.

Let’s go back to the garden. How do you think Eve felt when their eyes were open? She knew that she was the first one to make the mistake. She knew it. I’m sure she carried that guilt with her for the rest of her life.

Remember that she was alive still when Cain killed Abel, if you don’t know those are both her sons. Abel wouldn’t have died if she hadn’t been deceived.

Then there was the day that Adam died. We don’t know the events of that. It’s not in the Bible. We don’t even know whether he died first, but just imagine what she must have felt.

Now we know it wasn’t all her fault. Adam ate too. She was deceived first. How would you feel if you ate first? You would know it wasn’t all your fault but would feel like it was all your fault? Of course, that’s the way guilt and shame work.

So imagine, she’s there with her husband when he dies and she knows, she knows they weren’t created for death. If she just hadn’t given in, maybe everything would be different.

So I want you to think about that that feeling and see how God gives her dignity in the future hope.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Do you see it? Probably not, so let me explain - the one to crush the serpent is said to be her offspring. Not adam’s. Of course, Jesus is connected to Adam in other places. But she gets to hear this.

Satan tried to destroy humanity through her, God is going to destroy Satan through her. He is connecting her to the serpent crusher.

You see, jesus doesn’t just defeat Satan. He doesn’t just win the victory. He doesn’t just crush his head. He gives her back her dignity. He is restoring her honor. The one who messed up first. He gives her back her honor. He takes her shame.

Some of you may be here and you may be feeling like you’ve been beat up pretty bad by Satan. You may be filled with shame when you think of your past, your present. You may be thinking, I’m glad that Satan is going to be defeated but I made a royal mess of my life.

When you look back at Christ’s first coming for hope, I want you to look forward to his second coming too. You may be down now, you won’t be then. Your heel may be bitten, but you won’t walk into eternity with a limp. That’s not the story. That’s not how this thing ends.

Our God doesn’t just forgive, He restores. He gives us back our honor and our dignity.

Listen, imagine this scene with me, every time you feel beaten down and abused by the enemy. Every time shame comes back to whisper you were defeated and you are worthless. Remember, Christ give us dignity and close your eyes and imagine this.

Imagine the final judgment. Ok, so Jesus is there and it says he has these books. The book of deeds, the book of all the things you’ve done, how you’ve lived your life. And look, that’s not a good book. You don’t want to read that.

But there you are, and you feel the shame and defeat of sin, but he closes that book. It’s closed. And he opens another book. The Book of life. And he opens just to the right page and he reads your name.

He smiles and says well done, my good and faithful servant! the gates open and you start walking into eternity, eternal joy. You were bit in your heel, but you won’t limp you will run into paradise.

When you are there, you won’t bother to look back. But just for now, in this life, let’s imagine you look back.

Where is the enemy going to be? Where is the one who tormented you and reminded you of your sin? Where is the one who tricked you and deceived you. Where is the one who thought he could replace God only to be put on a leash. Where will he be - he will be watching you from the lake of fire. His final and eternal humiliation. That’s where he will be.

All the shame you feel today, all the guilt, and remorse, will be forgotten in the eternal joys of God’s presence. that’s what we have hope for.

The enemy has no hold of you. Don’t let him accuse you. Don’t let him rob your joy. Don’t let him keep on bringing back your past. Let’s look forward.

And so today, this week. This year, during this life, don’t look back at your sin. Look back and see Jesus’ birth, coming to redeem you. Look forward and see his second coming, coming to make everything right.

And let’s live this life with that in mind. Let’s be a church that only looks back to Christ’s birth not to judge your past. Let’s be the church that looks ahead, to see that day when we will all be reconciled and restored.

We don’t want to be a church that judges people by their past. We don’t even want to judge people by where they are now. We want to look at people and see the hope of Christ, his first coming and his second, made real in people’s lives.

I don’t know about you, but that’s the way I want to live, so Mercy Hill, this holiday season, let’s live that way together.

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.