God's First Promise Series

God’s First Promise

Date: November 27, 2011

Scripture: Genesis 3:1-24

Introduction

I came across a story/man/very qualified TV meteorologist

 But for Some reason he did a terrible job when it came to actually forecasting the weather.

 In fact, he became/local joke when a newspaper began keeping a record of his repeated faulty predictions.

They did a feature story/showed he had been wrong almost 300 times in a single year.

 Thanks to all this bad press, the poor meteorologist was fired.

 After living off his unemployment for a few months he moved to another part of the country and applied for a job as a weather forecaster at another TV station.

The job application asked him to state the reason for leaving his previous position.

Do you know how he answered that question? This is what he wrote, "The climate didn't agree with me."

Predicting the weather can be a very difficult thing.

We could say the same thing when it comes to predicting other things like:

• how our kids will turn out

• who will be elected to the presidency in 2012

• What your wife wants for Christmas, etc.

A noted physicist once commented on this frustrating principle and said, "Prediction is a very difficult art...especially when it involves the future."

I bring all this up because today we are beginning this year's advent sermon series "Christmas B.C."

With these sermons we will study the predictions in the Bible concerning

o The birth of Jesus

o prophecies indicating/Christmas began long before that night when Jesus was born

o and divided time itself into "B.C." and "A.D."

As most of you know, Jesus' coming had been predicted for thousands of years.

o In fact, OT contains/300 specific predictions about/Messiah.

o Advent isn’t long enough to look/300 Messianic prophecies.

o So this Christmas we'll study just four of the major ones.

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Today we begin with the first prediction of Jesus' coming-a prophecy that is found in the first book of the Bible.

Before we read/text I want you to grasp the significance of all these Messianic predictions.

 Most/them/written hundreds/even thousands/years before Jesus was born and He fulfilled all of them.

Did you hear me?

All predictions came true in Jesus Christ, so it would be ridiculous to say that this was accident.

 Nature of Jesus’ birth/life/death was not some sort of Messianic coincidence.

 Probability of just 8/predictions fulfilled in one person is:

One in one hundred million billion.

Let’s take it up a notch and calculated/probability/one person fulfilling 48/300 Messianic predications/OT would be:

one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion. 14,000,000,000,000 to one.

• And Jesus fulfilled not 48 but all 300 of them!

• I don't know about you, but for me that goes a long way toward helping me know that the Bible is completely trustworthy.

• No committee of authors could have made this up.

• It tells me my faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah

• my belief that He/One Who gave His life so I could be forgiven

• I can enjoy eternity in Heaven

• These fulfilled predictions tell me my faith in the babe of Bethlehem is well-placed.

• There is still faith involved, but I think it takes more faith to believe Jesus wasn't Who He claimed to be than to simply trust what the Bible says!

God didn't waste any time telling us that Christmas was coming.

He began predicting Jesus' appearance in the very first book of the Bible.

So, let’s take a look at Genesis-chapter 3:1-24. See if you can spot the verse where the first Messianic prediction appears.

Sermon

Before we go any further, I want you to note a few things that are found in this ancient but familiar text.

 First, notice how Satan appeared.

 He appeared in the form of a serpent.

We don't need to assume that he was some slimy snake crawling around on the ground hissing up his temptation at Eve.

o Apparently at this very early point/history serpents didn't crawl.

o Otherwise it wouldn't have made sense for God to punish them by making them do so.

o So, originally a serpent could have been an upright being, possibly graceful, beautifully colored-very appealing.

o Perhaps before the fall, the serpent was the most magnificent of all the animals.

o Why else would prideful Satan choose that particular animal form?

In any case, I want us to look at this text and note that Satan never appears as himself.

o He always shows up as something attractive

o Giving mankind grand and glorious predictions

o Giving mankind promises that he does not intend to fulfill-even if he could.

Remember Paul warned in 2 Corinthians 11:14?