Our Emmaus Road: The First Gospel

Genesis 3 NKJV

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust 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 your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” 16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” 20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Prayer

Introduction

BOTTOM LINE: "If Genesis 3 were not in the Bible, there would be no Bible as we know it. Why? Because the rest of Scripture documents the sad consequences of Adam’s sin and explains what Gog in His grace has done to rescue us.” - Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary

Opening Line: Many a sermon has been preached from this text. Most of them regarding the original sin of Adam. Today will be different. But in order to get to the main point of today’s sermon, which is the presence of Jesus in the Old Testament, I must first walk you through the beginning of this text.

Satan: Genesis 3:1 LSB

Revelation 12:9 “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

Man was already like God.

Genesis 1:26–28 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Jesus was present with Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3:8 - LSB

Genesis 18:1-15 - LSB

Genesis 19:24-25 - LSB

Transition in:

Now with that background, let’s dig into verses 15-24 and see where Yahweh God has shown us grace and mercy the prophesied Jesus from the very first book of the Bible.

I. Forgiveness was in the heart of God before sin was in the heart of man!

Ephesians 1:4–5 presents God’s choice of believers and their predestined adoption through Jesus Christ as occurring “before the foundation of the world.”

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:9 that God’s grace “was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,” framing salvation not as an improvised solution but as an eternal intention.

First Peter 1:20 describes Christ as “foreordained before the foundation of the world,” emphasizing that the Messiah’s redemptive role predates creation itself.

Revelation 13:8 refers to “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” suggesting Christ’s sacrificial death existed in God’s eternal counsel before it occurred in history.

Titus 1:2 speaks of “eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,” anchoring the promise of salvation in God’s pretemporal nature.

Romans 8:29–30 traces a chain of divine action—foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification—that unfolds from God’s eternal purposes.

Matthew 25:34 describes the kingdom as “prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” indicating that God’s redemptive plan encompassed the entire scope of creation.

II. God promises that the seed of Eve will crush Satan and redeem mankind!

Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise [crush] your head, And you shall bruise His heel.””

Luke 3:23–38 “Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, … the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, … the son of Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, … the son of Shem, the son of Noah, … the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

Sacrifice of animals to clothe Adam and Eve prefigures the Passover lamb which points to Christ.

John, “Behold the Lamb of God...”

It prefigures the Levitical sacrificial system, which points to Christ.

That prefigures the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Culminates in John seeing the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who comes to open the seal and appears as a lamb who has just been slain.

III. The Bible tells the history of God miraculously preserving the lineage of Christ to redeem the world!

Struggle throughout by Satan to kill the seed of Eve.

Cain kills Able, but God gives Eve Seth.

Genesis 6, Satan has driven the wickedness of man, but God preserves Noah and and his family.

The sons of Ham, the Canaanites, displace the Shemites (Semites) from the land, but God calls Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans back to the land of Canaan.

Esau threatened to kill Jacob after Isaac blessed Jacob, but God preserved the son of the promise, who would go on to father the twelve tribes of Israel.

Laban, under the influence of Satan, tricks Jacob, and it leads to the elder sons of Jacob being born of Leah and the concubines, but God miraculously saves Joseph, who is a type of Christ, and the firstborn of the promised wife Rachel to not only save the Egyptians but the entire nation of Israel from the famine.

Pharaoh intends to crush the Israelites at the Red Sea, but God uses Moses, another type of Christ, and parts the sea to save His chosen people.

Saul tries to kill David, the man after God’s own heart, and the anointed future king through whom the Messiah would come, but God saves him on numerous occasions and promises David that he will have a king on thrown ruling for all eternity.

The rulers of Israel killed Jesus of Nazareth, but God redeemed creation and granted everlasting life that whosoever believes in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead would have everlasting life.

Because when Satan bruised his heal by getting Jesus nailed to the cross, God crushed his head when Jesus rose early that Sunday morning defeating death, Satan, and sin once and for all for those who believe in Him!!!!

IV. One day God will renew creation and restore our access to His presence, the garden and the Tree of Life.

Revelation 19:11–16 “11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS”

Revelation 20:2 “[The angel] laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;”

After the Great White Throne Judgement:

Revelation 21:22–22:5 “22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. 27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”

Conclusion

Jesus Christ is pictured in the first book of the Bible.

And He is pictured in EVERY book ot the very end.

Creation was started in a garden created by God, where food abounded and Adam and Eve ate from every tree and had the fruit of the Tree of Life life available at all times.

Creation will come full circle, where those who are in Christ, whose names are written in the Book of the Lamb of God, will live in His presence just like Adam and Eve did.

This time it will be for eternity.

Because God had forgiveness in His heart before man had sin in his heart.

Because God promised that the seed of Eve would crush the head of satan, and He did that when Jesus hung on a cross for you and me.

Because God miraculously carried out His plan of redemption for all who would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And because God will one day renew His creation in the New Jerusalem.

The question is what is your response to the free gift of God, prophesied in Genesis 3?

Prayer and Invitation