Genesis: Part 4
Genesis 3:15
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We’re excited to be continuing in a series. We just finished up our "We Are The Church" series. If you've been around for the last few weeks, you've heard that three-part series. "We Are The Church," if you've missed it at all or any part of it, we would really encourage you to go back and listen to those. It really helps unite us in our mission and vision here at Spring Valley Church to hear each week of those different aspects of church life. Again, we encourage you to go back on YouTube or podcasts, however you listen to sermons, and catch up on those. But we're going to jump back into a series that we started before "We Are The Church," which is our Genesis series, where we're looking at different patterns and themes that are repeated throughout Scripture that find their origin here in Genesis. And so far, we've looked at the themes of the power of God's Word, where he brings order out of chaos and creation. We've talked about Imago Dei being made in the image of God, and how we are called today to reflect that image to the world around us. We've also talked about the Fall, where sin entered the world, and then the human tendency that we see throughout Scripture, where humans rebel against God and choose their own way. You may be wondering, "Well, if I remember correctly, we only got through Genesis 3. Are we going to cover all of Genesis?" No, we're not. We're not going verse by verse in this series. We could be here forever, and I would love that. But this series, we're just highlighting some of these main themes. And again, the work that the biblical authors did in writing Scripture the way that they did was extremely intentional, as they weave these themes into the fabric of the text that we can notice them. And so that as we read more and more of Scripture, we're going to see these themes play out. And so that's part of our goal, is to help equip you with the tools that as you read the Bible on your own, as you study the Bible on your own, you're going to notice some of these patterns, like, "Oh, I've seen that before. I've seen this motif, or this theme, or I kind of know what happens here. This is a good thing." Or, "Maybe this is a bad thing that happens." There are so many, yeah, we won't have time to go into all of the reoccurring patterns, but the big ones happen here at the beginning of Genesis, and so that's what we're highlighting in our series.
Now that we're all caught up, jogging your memory of our series, I want to ask you a few questions as we begin our morning. First one is this. Can you think of the first time, do you remember the first time that you heard the gospel? So you think of that time, were you a child? Was it when you were an adult? A student? Where were you when you heard the first gospel message presented to you? Who did you hear it from? Was it a parent, a friend, a co-worker, a pastor? All right, you got that memory up in your mind. Follow-up question, can you think of the first time you knew that you had sinned? A little bit different. Can you think of the first time you remember feeling guilty over something? The first time that you recognized that I am responsible for the wrong that just happened? The last question, did these two experiences, the first time you remember hearing the gospel, the first time that you knew you had sinned, did those two experiences coincide with each other? I would say probably not. Maybe they did. Maybe the first time you sinned someone was like, "By the way, let me share Jesus with you right now." That would have been really cool. I think oftentimes we know that something's off and something's wrong and we're doing something we don't want to do. I think that comes along usually first, and then at some point someone brings about Jesus and the gospel. Everyone's experiences are a bit different, but again, you've probably had that moment. You can remember where I remember doing this in my life or this pattern in my life, and it just wasn't good. And then hopefully you can also remember the first time that you heard the gospel address that problem of sin in your life. Today we're going to revisit a passage that we've covered a couple weeks ago in our Genesis series. We're going to take a deeper look at a moment where sin entered the world for the first time and the first gospel message of hope was given, all in one.
So we're going to be in Genesis 3. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there now, Genesis 3. It'll be on the screen for you in a second. But just to give some context of what's happening in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve are in the garden, the snake is there, he tempts Adam and Eve and they sin. They take the fruit from the tree, and this is what is known as the fall. And sin is introduced into the world. Adam and Eve rebelled against God, thinking that they could live life without God. They didn't need God, we're going to do this on our own. And so now, because of that, all of humanity since then deals with the problem of sin. And we learn from that moment what sin did in the garden. On a human level, it's us thinking that we have the wisdom to run our own lives without God. But all that leads to is selfishness, pain, murder, abuse, slavery, failure, and the list goes on and on and on. It does not end in anything good. It's where we act out of our own selfish desires and urges that compel us to act for our own benefit at the expense of others. Sin always affects us, affects us with God, and it affects us with others. Between God and humanity, sin put a distance where there was no distance. There was, it was relationship, God was walking in the garden with Adam and Eve, and it was great, but now sin put a distance between humanity and God. Paul writes that humanity became slaves to sin. We can't help it. Sin is this failure to be the humans who fully love God and others like God intended. And it's this inability to judge whether we are succeeding or failing. It's a deep and selfish impulse that drives much of our behavior. And this problem of sin, it's a problem that humanity cannot address on our own. We cannot save ourselves from sin and the consequences of sin. But something must be done. If humanity is to be with God and dwell with God forever in heaven as God desires, then something has to happen. And thankfully, just as we find out in Scripture that we have a sin problem, we also find out that God is going to intervene and do something about that sin problem. After the fall, after that moment, God and Adam and Eve and Satan, they have a conversation. And he tells Adam and Eve that life is going to be different. He talks about the pain and toil, that working and childbearing and the death that they will have to face. And so their reality is flipped upside down overnight, banished from the perfect garden of Eden to enter into the world marred by sin. And then to Satan, he says this in Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”
It's one of the most important verses in the Bible. Because in the midst of judgment, this is a very heavy scene where God is handing out the judgment of sin. In the midst of that, God promises that one day someone will come, a descendant who will do what Adam and Eve should have done, just crush the serpent and destroy him. And this promise that we get from God right here cuts through the darkness of death and sin and gives a glimmer of light, a little bit of hope in this moment. It's a promise of redemption. The first gospel message, the first glimmer of hope that would be found in Christ is here in Genesis 3, 15. So today, we're going to be focusing on redemption, redemption that is promised here in Genesis 3 that comes later and is woven throughout all of Scripture. We're going to talk about that today. I want to answer this question, what does it mean to be redeemed? Because understanding this will really truly affect so much of the story found throughout the Bible. Redemption comes up over and over and over and over again. So we want to make sure we understand what does biblical redemption mean. We don't often use the word redeem in our everyday language. I think most often we're talking about coupons. When we say the word redeem today, I have a coupon, I'm going to redeem it for a free burger or 20% off. Things aren't really free anymore, so it's like percentage off. You get to redeem a code, right? That's pretty much what we use, but that doesn't, if we were to just take that and put that over the Bible's definition of redemption, that's not the full picture. That's not the whole thing of what's happening. In the Bible, it describes something being transferred back to its rightful owner. So when you have something, when you own something, it belongs to you. And somewhere along the line, someone else ends up possessing that thing that was yours, whether they stole it, took it, whatever, however that happens, but they have something, someone else has something that was yours. So that's why already the way we use redeem does not really work fully with the Bible definition of redemption. We never had the burger, then gave it back to the restaurant, and then we're going to redeem that burger. No, it doesn't work like that, right? So in the Bible things, it once belonged to someone, someone else ends up with it. How do they get it back? Well, they can show proof of ownership, say, "Hey, this is mine. I have proof that that belongs to me. Can I have it back, please?" You can purchase it back. "Hey, you have that. What is it worth to you? I'm going to pay you. I want to get that back." Or you can take it back by demanding it. "That's mine. Better give it back to me right now." However it happens, the transferring of that thing back to you, to the rightful owner, is what the Bible calls redemption.
The Bible Project says this quote, I think it's really helpful, it says, "The story of the Bible begins with the idea that all creation, and especially humanity, belongs to God. But tragically, humans have been corrupted and enslaved by death. God wants humanity back. And the story of the Bible is about how God transfers us back into his possession. He redeems us." You may have heard those Christian phrases before, maybe in songs, but something like, "Purchased by the blood of the Lamb," or "Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb." This is referring to exactly that quote right there, where God is getting what was his back. What sin and death and Satan took, he's getting it back and it belongs to him. So we're talking about humanity being redeemed. This is about God taking humans back from evil and sin, redeeming us out of that into the life that he created us for.
Being redeemed by God is our only hope. The salvation that he gives is the only hope to the problem of sin. There is no other way. The world around us says that there's a lot of ways to deal with the pain and sin, and there is only one, and it's through Jesus Christ. And while we don't get all of that here, that huge definition of redemption and Jesus Christ, we don't get all of it per se in Genesis 3:15, we get the first building block of God's plan of redemption. We have the fortune of knowing the rest of the story. We can look back on this verse and understand that all that God is saying and implying in Genesis 3.15. But what's said right here is just a glimmer of faint hope. "He will crush your head and you will strike his heel." And if you know the Bible, you're putting together already, when you hear that, you know. We're talking about Jesus, we're talking about Satan, and we're talking about the death on the cross. So God is already saying, "I know what just happened here and how unfortunate this is, how devastating this is. I've got a plan. I've got a plan." Well, as we've also been doing in our series, I want to take time this morning to show how this theme shows up throughout the rest of Scripture. And just again, highlighting things, this is kind of just an overview, because each of these things I'm about to bring up could be its own sermon series in a way. But I want to show us how redemption is woven throughout Scripture. And it's a slow reveal. More and more of the plan becomes known over time. But what do we know right now? God tells the snake, despite this apparent victory in the garden, it's destined for defeat. The snake will be crushed. But the snake will deliver a lethal strike to the crusher. And so we have this mysterious future victory, but it gives us a clue to God's rescue plan.
He's got a plan to take what's His back. And the next part where we get more is Genesis 12, 15, and 17. You see, Genesis is divided up kind of into two sections. Genesis 1 through 11 is God interacting with the entire world. Genesis 12 through the end of Genesis is God interacting with one family, Abraham, and his plan to redeem, this plan of redemption being put in place through Abraham and his family. And so in Genesis 12, it kicks off with a covenant made to Abraham for a people, a land, and a blessing. It says in Genesis 12, 2 through 3, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So again, if we put on our lens of knowing the whole story, we look back at this and we say, "We know that God is talking about Jesus right here." And then in Genesis 15 and 17, he expounds more on that promise to Abraham. But God is saying, "Through your family, Abraham, I will bring a Savior that will be a blessing to the entire world." So now our picture of God's redemptive plan is filling out some more.
Now are you ready for even more? I got a lot of information. If you're a note taker, I'll let you know when to write something down. But I want to show some specifics here. So the first thing, this is God unveils this redemptive plan and there's a lot of different aspects. I don't know if you guys have ever played like Cranium or is it... Is it that game that you have little pie pieces and whoever gets the... It's like a trivia game? Anyways, this is Trivial Pursuit. Thank you. And if you ever played Trivial Pursuit, there's different categories. And if you get it and you fill out your little pie, that's kind of what's happening here. Don't... a little bit. So we're giving all these different pictures and pieces of God's redemption and how it works in the Bible. So the first one is this. First specific of redemption plan is redemption from enslavement. If you've read your Bible, you know that pretty soon after Abraham and his family gets going, they're in Egypt and they become enslaved. Exodus 6, Deuteronomy, God establishes a pattern of redemption by rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and bringing them back into his family. This is the part of the framework of redemption. It's not his entire plan, but he's letting the people know, he's letting us know more about him, about God, and his plan is he reveals this piece that, "Hey, when you get in trouble, when you are in some stage of consequence of sin, which is slavery, I have the power to redeem you and bring you out of that." So the redemption from enslavement.
We also have the redemption of the firstborn. Another part, Exodus 13 and Numbers 3, after the tenth plague, so where Israel is in Egypt and Moses has been sent and he says, "Hey, you got to get my people," and Pharaoh's like, "No," and so then the plagues happen. That's God saying, "Hey, I have the power to bring my people. Will you let them go?" And he sends the plagues and the tenth plague brings death of the firstborn of Egypt and Israel. Israel was not exempt. It wasn't just the Egyptians' firstborn. It was everyone in that land. All their firstborns were going to die, and God instructs Israel to redeem their firstborns by sacrificing a perfect lamb, painting that blood over the doorpost, and when the Holy Spirit would come through, he would let the firstborns live. If those people who show that they believe in God and trust in God, this is where Passover comes from. So he knew who to let live, and this is the redemption of the firstborn. This is another sign of where certain death is there. God is saying, "I have the power to redeem you from that situation and bring you back into life.”
The next one is redemption of land and enslaved relatives. It's found a lot in Leviticus, and this is where this happens because Israel experienced God's rescue and redemption from slavery. So now we're fast-forwarding in our story. Again, if you haven't noticed, we're just working our way through the Bible here in order. And God has brought them out of Egypt, and he's giving them instructions about how to be a nation. This is why I want you, Israel. This is how I want you to run as a people. Because of their past experience and being redeemed from slavery, God calls Israel to do likewise by redeeming family land and relatives sold as slaves due to poverty. So what would happen is they had a seven-year cycle. I'm just going to give you a little history and context here. And if your business was going so bad or your crops were going bad, you'd have to go to someone and say, "Hey, I need to borrow some money. It's not going well." And if that happened so much, you would give of yourself. You'd offer yourself into slavery and say, "I'm just going to work for you." But God said that's not going to be forever. We saw that happen in Egypt. We saw how bad that was and how the selfishness of humanity would take over and just run that slave into the ground and just use them and abuse them. And so he says, "We're going to have what's referred to as the year of Jubilee." Every seven years, the land was restored. Slaves were set free. Debts were forgiven. It's this amazing system that God created. And he said, "Look, we're going to put a cap on these unfortunate situations and give back." If you had to give up your land to make it, you get that land back at the end of seven years. If you had a debt that was racking up and you're working, it's just not working out, well, that debt is forgiven at the end of seven years. And so there's a redemption of land and enslaved relatives that's built into God's plan and God's people. The Israelites receive these commands from God. Again, they likely had that fresh and painful memories of the brutalities related to their experience in Egypt. And so God calls them to never perpetuate that kind of oppression again. Instead, they are to live according to his own pattern of redemption, refusing to let any Israelite stay trapped in poverty or bondage forever. Beautiful. Again, another piece in our pie puzzle of what redemption looks like and God's plan of redemption playing out in the people and in the Bible.
The next one is the redemption of blood. This is found in Numbers 35. And the Hebrew Bible describes not only the redemption of land and people, but also the redemption of blood in the wake of a murder. So what God instituted were these cities of refuge. Where if someone accidentally killed someone, accidentally killed someone, they could go to this city and be safe until they stood trial before the assembly. And these regulations about the redemption of blood are about preventing the spiral of violence. That people, when even if it's an accident, people get angry. And they might want to act out and say, "I don't care if it was an accident. I want to get back at you. I want to take your life." And God says, "We're going to have moments where we have opportunities for people to escape that, go to have a safe place to be until they stand trial, and we'll see what happens then." But it's about preventing the spiral of violence and upholding the supreme value that God puts on human life. So another piece of our puzzle. God continues to reveal more about his plan of redemption.
And we see it next in the Bible in Boaz's redemption of Naomi and restoration of Ruth. If you've heard of these people, you know the story. If you haven't yet, these are Israelites except for Ruth. And you should read the book of Ruth. It's really short. But it's all foreshadowing what God is doing in this bigger picture of redemption. Boaz acts as a kinsman redeemer for his relative Naomi, buying her land and restoring her widowed daughter-in-law Ruth back to the family through marriage. And so we see again, this is all the... In the book of Ruth, they follow the laws that God had instituted. And it creates this beautiful scenario. And it also foreshadows what Christ will do through his sacrifice. Redeeming us back into his family.
We next have the redemption from distress or death. The Hebrew Bible describes many situations where people are redeemed from situations of distress or death. That first Samuel passage is a passage in the Old Testament where Jonathan, who's the son of the first king of Israel, King Saul. Jonathan is his son. And he goes against his father's words. And the punishment for going against the king's words was death. If you disobey the king, you die. But he's saved from that outcome because of his character. And he follows God and all the men vouch for him. And he was not put to death. And again, this just foreshadows. This is a moment of redemption where he was bound. He should have died. But God has the power to do something about people who should die. That's foreshadowing the power that God displays through Jesus on the cross. And the eternal punishment we should face for our sin but that God saves us from.
Continuing on, if you know the story of Israel and through the Bible after the kings, the kings were not a good thing for Israel. And they get into exile. And other nations come and they take Israel. And so then we have this theme of the redemption from exile. And a lot of the prophets talk about this, but specifically Isaiah 43.1 says, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you." So God is telling the people through the prophets, "I have a plan. I will bring you back." God promises to redeem the Israelites from Babylonian exile, just as he earlier redeemed them from slavery in Egypt. And when God redeems his people, he not only frees them, but also forgives their sins that led to their exile in the first place. God says their wrongdoing will be removed like a heavy mist that vanishes. That's Isaiah 44 and 22. And as he redeems them from exile, God is also inviting them back into loving relationship with him. I love this picture, how loving God is in the prophets. When you read it, it's very dark, it's very heavy. It's a sad message because Israel's reality is so broken. But on God's side, it's such a picture of love. He's saying, "I forgive you, come back to me, and I love you." We know, having been in life where people have wronged us, how hard that is, we know we often want to say, "Sure, we can come back." But there's going to be some stipulations now. And we got some distance now, we got to build some trust again. But God in his infinite love says, "I forgive you, come back into my family. I love you just the same." I hope that we're getting the picture. All these pieces and the parts of redemption that God is playing out. All that sin has distorted and the pains and tragic realities that sin has caused for humanity, God has the power and his redemption redeems all of it. In the end, at the end, God will redeem all that sin has touched. Sin touched everything in the world, from the earth that we work with, to our lives, to the death that we face. That's all the cause of sin. And God is going to redeem all of it. God is doing work to redeem his people.
Then we get, at the end of the prophets, now in our Bibles, we're in the New Testament. And so we have redemption anticipated through Jesus. And this is going to be through his ministry, through his life and ministry. Israel awaited the fulfillment of the prophetic promise of redemption for centuries. But Jesus' way of fulfilling that promise surprises everyone. We've talked about this in many series. At this part in Israel's time, they're expecting a certain king. A king that would free them from the political landscape, that would bring them up to be a kingdom, an earthly kingdom, where they could rule over the other kingdoms in the world. But the way that Jesus fulfills the promise of redemption is so different than what the people were expecting. I want us to hear this today. We need to hear this today. Jesus is trying to tell the world at the time that the people's real enemies are not Romans, or other flesh and blood people, but the cosmic powers of sin and death. And Jesus redeems people from those powers so that he might restore them to life with God. That's what Jesus' mission was. I want to read this again. This is so important that we hear this, and I want to let you apply this in our context today. Jesus is trying to tell the world at the time that the people's real enemies are not the Romans, or other flesh and blood people. The enemy is the cosmic power of sin and death. And Jesus redeems people from those powers so that he might restore them to life with God. Church, we need to understand who our enemy is today. The word enemy is thrown around a lot, and we need to remember the words of Jesus and who he says our enemy is, who his enemy is, and therefore as Christians who our enemy is. And it's Satan, it's the enemy. It's the enemy. And the way that his sin and the power of death works in life, that's what we are fighting against. He did not speak into and affirm the people's desires to have an earthly king, to see their earthly enemies, who they thought were enemies, destroyed or killed. He doesn't do any of that. He doesn't speak to that. He redirects them to the real enemy, the cosmic power of sin and death, Satan. And we too need to be reminded that the flesh and blood people in our world are the ones that we need to love, that we need to reach with the gospel. Your enemy today is still Satan. Jesus is the only one who can redeem from those powers and restore us to life with God. If you are a Christian and you believe and you are in the family of God, then you too have the same enemy as him.
In the New Testament, we anticipate the redemption at the end of the gospels, the redemption is accomplished through Christ. And that's the final piece of our puzzle here, as we filled out what redemption looks like through scripture, we come to redemption accomplished through Jesus. Jesus redeems people from the corruption of sin and death. And there are so many passages, I only listed three here. I want to read Romans 3, it says, "The righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are all justified freely by his grace through redemption that came by Christ Jesus." God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. All are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. After the gospels in the New Testament, every letter, every book in the New Testament talks about the redemption found in Christ. 1 Peter says, "Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, so your faith and hope are in God." There's just so many more. But it talks about the accomplished work of Jesus. So by teaching us to relate rightly with God and neighbor, Jesus restored us to the kind of people God made humanity to be. He repossesses, he redeems us back into God's family. So we have a slide of everything listed up here. This is all the full picture of redemption throughout the scriptures. And all of it helps us understand the power of God, who he is, different aspects of how we see redemption. Even today, we can see some of these happening. All of these fill out God's redemptive rescue plan. They all show a different facet of God's redemptive work in the world and in our lives. There's another quote I want to share with you. It says this. I think we have a slide. Maybe we don't. "God's redemption aims for his people to be restored to his family, living as his children. Ultimately, God's redemption aims at healing people, making them whole and setting them free to be truly human so that they can live in ways that bring life for themselves, for others and for creation." He's bringing you back to the garden and say, "This is what I meant you to do. Do this now. I'll bring you back to the purpose that I created humanity for." Healing people, making them whole, setting them free to be truly human in the ways to bring life to others, for ourselves and for creation. All that sin touched, the ground that Adam had to work, the death that Adam and Eve and humanity faced, the pain, perversion, the slavery, the stealing, all the sin, God's plan of redemption rescues it all. So hearing all that with the context of all this in the Bible, we read Genesis 3.15, and it means so much more. "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers, and he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”
We understand that God had an incredible rescue plan from the beginning. I just want to have some very brief exhortations for us today in light of our message. The first is this, trust in God's redemptive plan, even when it unfolds over time. This book covers thousands of years, and the moment that hope entered is in the first few pages, and we don't get the fulfillment of that redemption until way over here. Trust in God's redemptive plan, even when it takes a long time. It can be hard to wait. It's so hard to be in the waiting, to not have everything restored and rescued right away, when we know that God has the power to do it right away. Some of us want to be perfect, we want to be better. And so we're like, "God, just make me, like, do the work quickly. Can you just microwave this whole process and, like, make me perfect?" But the work of the Spirit is a slow one, and it takes time. And it goes on for our entire lives. And so how does this affect your day-to-day faith with God? God's redemptive plan taking place over time? Where in your life do you need to rely on God, even in the waiting, and trust in his redemptive plan and work? Whether for you or for someone else in your life, how can you trust in God's redemptive plan?
Next is, remember God's redemption plan covers everything. Nothing and no one is beyond God's redemptive plan and power. We may not understand how that's possible. We may see someone and be like, "There's no way that God can save them. They are way out there." But God has outlined in his Word that his plan of redemption reaches everything that sin has touched, including the person that we don't know how they're going to get to God, but God has a way to get to them. How does that affect the way we view others? How does that affect the way we view the tragedies and chaos of the world? Remember the power of Christ's sacrifice in his heart to see everyone come to be restored into his family. And that leads us to the last one. Desire God's redemptive work in the lives of others. Pastor Chris, last week at our celebration Sunday, introduced the new vision for this next year, which was the 167. We have 168 hours in our week. One of them is spent here at church every week, hopefully at Sunday here in Spring Valley. And so what are you going to do with the other 167 hours to be intentional in partnering with God in his redemptive work in the world today? Who in your life would you love to see God's redemptive work take place in? Are you a part of God's redemptive plan for that person then? If you're like, "Hey, I know that I would love to see this person come to Jesus." Are you partaking with God and pushing that along in that plan that's taking place? Who do you need to talk to about Jesus or invite to church?
We need to be people who desire to see God's redemptive work in the lives of others, to take joy in it, to be eager to partner with God and say, "God, put me in." Is this the conversation you want? Spirit, are you prompting me right now? God, I'm going to keep praying. There's no conversation. I'm just going to keep praying for this person. Trust in God's redemptive plan. Remember his plan that covers everything and desire God's redemptive plan in the work of others. I hope that this pattern of redemption in scripture is more visible to you now, that when you read scripture, you go to your Bible, you see this plan of redemption more clearly, and that you can rejoice in the work that God is doing.