Sermon Tone Analysis

What is the earliest reference in Scripture to the Incarnation?

This text, I believe, finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ.

The seed of the woman who will bruise or crush the head of the serpent is Christ.

And it is the reference to the woman’s seed or the woman’s offspring where we see the first glimpse of the Christmas story.

We see so much of the purpose of the Incarnation here in .

What is the immediate context of this verse?

What is taking place at this moment when God is giving this prophecy of Christ?

The curse!

To Eve:

To Adam:

Gen 3.

But notice in , this wondrous prophecy, that the cure to this horrible curse, the curse that dooms man to die and return to dust, the remedy for this curse in found in same breath and the curse is enacted.

Do you see the remedy?

It (the serpent) shall bruise thy head… What is this a reference to?

The cross!

What is the ultimate remedy to the curse of sin?

It is the cross of our Savior.

Listen to

This is the joy and the peace and the gladness of the incarnation.

You see, before our Lord could become a curse for us and hang on the tree of Calvary, He first had to be made of the seed of the woman.

First, there had to be a Christmas.

This is why the angles sang aloud that Christmas night:

This is why Simeon took the baby Jesus and lifted him up in his arms and blessed God saying:

Luke 2.29

It was the Incarnation, that moment of great peace and joy and gladness, that made it possible for the seed of the woman to be bruised by the serpent.

And it was Christ willingness to be crushed on the cross, to be our curse, that provided a way for our curse to be lifted.

There is one more part of I want us to think about

It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The seed of the woman, Christ, will bruise or crush the head of the serpent or the devil.

Has the devil been crushed yet?

No.

He his power has been destroyed or canceled out by Jesus’ death on the cross.

(We will talk about that tomorrow), but he is still very much alive and at work in our world today.

When will Christ crush the head of the snake?

When He comes again!

Rev 19.11-

All the way back in God had a plan.

He had a plan of sending His Son to earth to become of the seed of the woman in the Incarnation.

He had a plan to allow the serpent to crush the heel of the Christ by putting Him to death on a cross, and God has a plan that one day Christ is coming again and He will crush the head of that old serpent the Devil, and Satan will be forever locked away in the lake of fire and brimstone.

And all of this is made possible because of the season that we call Christmas.

I am reminded of the words of a favorite Christmas carol - Joy to the World.

You have probably heard that the song Joy to the World is more about Jesus’ second coming than His birth.

Yet the two are inseparably linked.

Listen tot he words of Mr. Isaac Watts in v. 3

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found,

Far as the curse is found,

Far as, far as, the curse is found.