Sermon -- Mid-week Advent, Week 1 (December 6, 2023)

GENESIS 3:15

OLD TESTAMENT PROMISES OF THE MESSIAH:

ADVENT ANNOUNCED.

In the name + of Jesus.

     The Apostle John wrote, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).  We live on the fulfillment end of that statement.  The Lord Jesus Christ has come and has rescued us from the devil’s claims and power.  By his death and resurrection, he has crushed Satan underfoot.  And if the devil’s work has been destroyed, we are free from everything he has done to corrupt us and the world.

     Adam and Eve did not live to see the fulfillment, but they were the first to hear the promise.  The promise must have been astounding to them.  They did not ask for it.  They did not seek from God mercy or understanding or tolerance or anything.  They were good at excuses and blame casting.  They chose to engage in cover-ups, not confession.  They were terrified of God, and for good reason.

     Adam and Eve had been given everything they needed to live in joy and peace.  God withheld nothing from them.  The command regarding the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was not given to withhold anything from them.  It was to be a blessing.  By not eating from the tree, they would honor the Lord’s word.  By honoring the Lord’s command, they would demonstrate their loving obedience to God, and they would be strengthened in their holiness.  The tree and the word attached to it were an opportunity to worship. 

     All of God’s commandments are like that.  When God commands us to do something, it is because doing it is good—both for God’s honor and for the good of our neighbor, even if those things are hard or costly.  When God forbids us from doing something, it is because doing it is evil and harmful.  To do what God forbids is disrespectful to God and destructive to our neighbor, even if it seems to enrich us.  Every day presents multiple opportunities to worship God by observing the Ten Commandments God gave.  Adam and Eve were given just one.  To keep it would bring blessing and life.  To violate it would bring shame and death.

     In slithers the devil.  He convinced Adam and Eve that God’s commands were restrictive.  He claimed that God’s word prevented Adam and Eve from advancing in wisdom.  He deceived them into thinking that divine glory and knowledge could be stolen from the Lord, even though the Lord would have given them for free.  “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). 

     The devil’s kingdom had been established.  He conned Adam and Eve.  He overcame them through deception and outright lies.  Like an anaconda wraps itself around its prey and drags it beneath the surface of the Amazon River, the devil wrapped himself around their hearts, their minds, and their desires, and he dragged them down to death.  They were spiritually dead, having forfeited all the spiritual blessings and the favor of God.  They were bound to physical death.  Although the grave came much later, death infected their bodies which were now susceptible to weakness and sickness, aches and pains, toil and frustration.  Finally, they were destined for eternal death—total and endless separation from the God who is the source of life and blessing and peace. 

     This cursed condition has been passed down to us all.  As a result, the devil’s deceptions and distortions of God’s word influence our thinking and corrupt our wills.  The devil still persuades us to believe that God’s Commandments are restrictive and unreasonable.  Every motive is reduced to, “How does this benefit me?  What do I gain by this?”  We end up being like Adam and Eve as we tell God that our sins are someone else’s fault.  Either circumstances or other people forced us to do what was wicked because that’s what we had to do to preserve our comfort or our cash.  We are better at the cover-up than confession.  Repent.

     Adam and Eve had been made in the image of God.  But their perfection and love for God and neighbor were lost.  Now we all bear the image of Adam—sinful from birth, sinful from the time our mothers conceived us.  We even take advantage of our loved ones, hoping our laziness will force them to do what we are responsible for.  How have we become so self-centered as to con our loved ones?  Moses wrote down this account for us so that we can see how it can be that our minds and our motives have become so corrupted and so self-centered. 

     What Moses wrote down has been copied for centuries by scribes.  The scribes were very conscientious about copying these words so that we have not inherited a corrupted Bible.  When the scribes finished a column of Scripture, they would count the letters to make sure they had not added or omitted even one letter from the text.  (The Hebrew word “scribe” means “one who counts.”)  If they were off, they burned the scroll.  Then they had to start copying all over again with a blank sheet.  They refused to pass down a flawed copy of the word of God.  Perhaps it makes you wonder why God did not do the same thing.  Why not wipe out Adam and Eve and just start over like the scribes did?  Ezekiel answered that.  He wrote, “I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God” (Ezekiel 18:32)—not even the two in the Garden who brought in ruin and death.

     Rather than kill off anyone, the Lord made a promise.  God’s mercy is astounding.  He did not wait for Adam and Eve to show remorse or beg for mercy.  Who knows if they ever would have?  Instead, God took the initiative.  God declared the promise.  The promise of the Messiah goes back to mere moments after he was needed.  Advent was announced.

     God spoke to Satan in the form of a serpent, although the promise is for all mankind: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).  Adam and Eve knew that their innocence and righteousness had been destroyed because of the serpent.  Had they trusted God’s word, they would have retained their blessings and life.  But they had trusted the devil’s word, and it brought a curse and death.  There was no going back, either.  They were under the devil’s realm now.

     But Advent was announced.  The Messiah would come to rescue them from the devil’s grasp and from sin’s curse.  At this point, however, he was not called the Messiah.  He was called the Seed of the Woman.  The term is both a prophecy and a taunt.  The devil was taunted by the Savior being called “The Seed of the Woman.”  All that meant was that the Savior would be born into the world through a woman.  That is hardly specific, is it?  If the devil had hoped to destroy the Messiah, where would he begin to look?  Who was this child?  When would he come?  The devil could not know. 

     But it was also a prophecy.  “The Seed of the Woman” is strange terminology.  Adam fathered his children by implanting his seed into Eve.  They are the seed of Adam.  That is how all children are conceived—by the seed of the man.  But the Messiah would not be the seed of another man.  So, the Messiah would be born of a woman, but not fathered by a man.  The first promise of the Messiah, therefore, already suggests a virgin birth.  When Advent was announced, the Lord included more details than meets the eye.

     The child to be born would be a specific person.  The Lord declared, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).  The Messiah would be a “he.”  Since sin and death came into the world through a man, it would be a man who would bring remission of sins and deliverance from death.  He would do it by crushing the head of the serpent.

     The danger of a venomous serpent is in its mouth.  From its mouth, a viper inflicts pain and death.  This is the case for Satan, too.  He caused Adam and Eve to sin through his words.  He still inspires arguments which cause us to embrace temptations, to defend our sins, and to celebrate wickedness.  Such phrases as, “God just wants you to be happy.  Don’t get mad; get even.  All religions are the same and lead to the same place,” do not come from the Bible.  They are lies, but they are often repeated and believed by many.  All of them deny any need for Jesus.  Anyone who lives by such creeds will perish.  The devil’s lies kill.  If you would not stick your hand into a cobra’s nest, you should not grab onto the devil’s words, either.

     But the Messiah has come to crush the serpent’s head.  A serpent with a crushed head cannot harm anyone.  His power has been undone.  He does not even pose a threat.  But in crushing the serpent’s head, he would have his heel struck.  When a viper strikes, it inflicts pain and death.  So, the Messiah would suffer and die in order to deliver us from the devil’s grasp.

     For Adam and Eve, this was great news.  They knew that their life, their world, and their relationship with God had all been ruined by the serpent.  To hear that the serpent would be crushed meant that the Messiah would rescue them from their sinful condition, reconcile them to God, and restore all things to their pure and perfection condition.  The sin that coursed through their veins would be taken away.  The death that marked them would be undone.  The grave which taunted them would be rendered powerless.  The devil who had claimed them would be destroyed.  The blood of Jesus Christ is the antivenom which saves us.  The God who created us and saved us is now recognized as the source of love and life and blessing.  His word is confessed as true and good, and the lives of the redeemed are dedicated to keeping it once again—for the honor of God and for the good of our neighbor.

     Advent was announced to Adam and Eve.  From the very first promise, God’s plan was firm.  As time went by, details were added, but God was steadfast to his plan.  Advent was announced at the very beginning of the Bible.  Its results are recorded at the end of the Bible: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).  The Lord Jesus Christ has put away sin and death.  He has rescued us from the devil’s grasp.  He has reconciled us to the Father.  The kingdom of the devil is undone, and Eden shall be restored. 

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.