Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In many parts of the world today is a special day of shopping! Some places call today “Black Friday”, and many businesses will do all kinds of things to encourage shoppers to spend money with a frenzy! No matter where you are today, it’s likely you’ll begin hearing Christmas music! While our refrigerators have Thanksgiving dinner leftovers yet to be eaten, already we rush on to the next momentous occasion… Christmas! Are you ready my friends? Here we go:
Yesterday I left you with the apostle Peter in about the year 64ad as he was writing his first letter to Christians in the Roman empire during the first century. Yesterday we watched Peter write this profound statement: “…the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of God in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.” (1 Peter 1:10,11)
I wonder if Peter put down his stylus right then, got up from his stool and looked out his window to the busy streets of first century Rome. “The Prophets”… Peter, even though a professional fisherman and disciple of Jesus, was a man who knew what we today call the Old Testament very well. While he likely did not have his own copy of the scrolls, still he had studied them well as a boy and he was very faithful in the Synagogues. The prophets evidently fascinated Peter, perhaps from the time he was a boy. But who are they?‘The prophets’ Peter wrote about were Jewish men who had a deep interest in God. The Holy Spirit of God sometimes anointed these men to speak messages from God to the people. The first of these great spokesmen of God was Moses, and he wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, often called the TORAH.
Moses was followed by many others, some well-known and some only mentioned very briefly in Scripture. Often their messages were futuristic, pointing to events which would happen decades or even centuries into the future. They wrote as the Holy Spirit led them to write, even if they didn’t fully understand what they were writing. Over these next few days, as we journey toward Christmas, we’ll look at several of the prophecies these ‘prophets’ made which were fulfilled in the life circumstances of Jesus. But I wonder if you know when God actually spoke His first words pointing forward to what you and I know as Christmas and the earthly life of Jesus. Way back in the beginning, the Garden of Eden! That’s right, at the very beginning of the human journey. It was in that cataclysmic event in the Garden when Adam and Eve disregarded God’s instructions. As they listened to Satan, the talking serpent, they believed Satan’s lies and they for the first-time doubted God. They replaced God’s instructions with their own plan of action, disregarding God’s warnings. They intentionally ate the fruit of the one tree God had forbidden them to eat. Everything changed that day, for when God came to visit with them, as He apparently often did, they were hiding, do you remember that story found in Genesis 3?
As God called out to them, Adam and Eve cautiously and with shame responded. “I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” (Gen. 3:10) For the first-time emotions of fear, shame, and guilt rose up in Adam and Eve replacing the total peace and perfect trust relationship they’d had with God. Then blame and accusation rose up for the first time in utopia Eden, as Adam said to God: “The woman You put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Gen. 3:12) Eve admitted to having been deceived by the serpent and that she also had eaten of the forbidden fruit, too. The perfection of Eden, the innocence of Adam and Eve’s relationship with their Creator was broken. Evil had entered the world at their invitation. Satan was an intruder and a deceiver, but Satan was welcomed and his strong influence was believed and everything changed in our world, and now all these centuries later, you and I live every day with the horrific results of that single event. Every generation since Adam and Eve have done exactly the same thing… they’ve rejected God and invited Satan’s darkness into their world and their lives.
God’s response to this dramatic event changed the course of the human race and set in motion God’s plan of Redemption which required Christmas and ultimately Easter! The serpent, Adam and Eve all received the promised penalties of breaking trust with God. God said to Satan “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; HE will crush your head and you will strike HIS heel.” (Gen. 3:15)
The offspring of the woman which God spoke of were not only the entire succeeding human race, but in particular one baby boy, born of a virgin, in the town of Bethlehem… Jesus. That boy would grow up and crush the head, the authority of Satan. How? When Jesus lived a sinless life, never once yielding to Satan’s temptations, Satan was dealt a crushing blow to the power of his evil temptations which trap every human being in sin. When Jesus bound and cast out every demon He encountered, Satan was dealt a crushing blow to his power as no demonic force was too strong for Jesus.
When Jesus gave His life as an atonement sacrifice on the cross, Satan was dealt a crushing blow for the power of our sin condemnation was destroyed and the full ransom price paid so God can forgive anyone of their sin as God accepts the payment of Jesus on their behalf. When Jesus rose from the dead Satan was dealt a crushing blow for Jesus defeated the power of death and resurrection to eternal life is offered by Jesus to anyone and everyone who trusts Him to be their Savior. When Jesus ascended back to heaven Satan was dealt a crushing blow as Jesus now reigns in the throne room of God, saving daily everyone who trusts in Him, (Heb. 7:25) rescuing them from Satan’s bondage! And Jesus is the Righteous Judge before whom every person and every demon will eventually stand in judgement. Satan knows there is a hell, a lake of fire, to which he and all his demons will be eventually sent by Jesus for all eternity, in the ultimate crushing blow to Satan.
But who are those God referred to as Satan’s offspring, surely not all the snakes of the world? No God was speaking of the sin nature which would be born in EVERY human being descendant of Adam and Eve all the way to you and me. That sin nature would, in all of us, reject God and try to lead us far away from God in our natural human rebellion. That would especially take on very specific fulfillment when God came to earth in the person of Jesus at what we call Christmas.
As John writes it: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us… The true light that gives light to everyone came into the world. He was in the world and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. Jesus came to those who were His own, but His own did not receive Him... This is the verdict: Light [Jesus Christ, God the Son] has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil.“ (John 1:9-14; 3:19)
By the phrase “…you will strike His heel” God was proclaiming the incarnate truth that God the Son would come to earth experiencing the miraculous incarnation, taking on a human body, including feet and hands, fingers and heels. Satan would be a constant irritation, an adversary of Jesus. But Satan would NOT be victorious! Even though Jesus would be rejected by our human race, despicably abused by Jewish and Roman authorities, hung on a cross to die, abandoned by His disciples and friends, Jesus would remain victoriously, the sinless Son of God and rise from the dead as victorious Lord over sin, Satan and death!!
Oh, my friends, I invite you to join me in celebrating this first prophecy in the Bible which points from the Garden of Eden all the way to Bethlehem and Golgotha hill in Jerusalem. Rejoice with me God that made such a glorious redemption plan and announced it at the very beginning of time. And I call us to especially celebrate the victory of Jesus over Satan and the hope that offers you and me and every person in our world as we “Walk with Jesus” toward Christmas together.
And here’s a song I have found to help us celebrate these great truths!
Today’s Scripture is 1 Peter 1:10-11, Genesis 3:15.
Choose below to read or listen.
1 Peter 1:10-11
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Genesis 3:15
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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