The Seed - Sermon on January 4th, 2009

People pass down a lot of things to their children. They pass on their appearance, their attitudes, their property, their businesses, their money among other things. That is why some businesses have been in the family for years, why people in certain professions also have had dads, granddads and even great-granddads in the same profession. Scripture is also full of things being handed down through the generations, things being given to their seeds. Land in the OT was one big thing that was handed down. The biggest thing that was handed down though was the Promised Seed. I am not talking about plant seeds here but human seed, offspring would be another way to put it. What we are talking about here though is not just any offspring but the one offspring that had been promised clear back in the Garden of Eden. Immediately after the fall God pronounced judgment on Satan. That judgment would include the seed of the woman crushing Satan's head and Satan's offspring striking his heel. God does not reveal who that seed is at the time, just that he will come from the woman. We of course know that Seed as our Savior Jesus Christ.

What we have here is the greatest promise ever given to mankind bar none. Man had just lost everything and had been kicked out of the Garden of Eden and was told that now he would die. The ground was cursed because of him and he was forced to work it. Nothing would ever be right again. Because of that sin we now have death and disease, conflict you name it. But in the midst of it all God made a promise that one day paradise would be restored. The people were to look for the Seed of the woman which would bring it all to pass.

Well Eve did not have that promised man herself instead generations of people came and went and time passed on, but God had not forgot. The next major time we hear of the promise is in Genesis 17 and 22 where God promises Abraham that he will be the Father of many nations and that all people on earth will be blessed through him. The seed was going to pass through Abraham. Then in Genesis 49 we hear Jacob blessing his children and when he comes to Judah he tells him that the scepter will not pass from him until the one to whom it belongs comes. This messianic prophecy was fulfilled in two ways. David fulfilled it in the short run as the first king of Israel who was after God's heart. Ultimately though it would be fulfilled again in Jesus.

The next big mention is in 2 Samuel chapter seven where David is promised by God through the prophet Nathan that his throne will be established forever. The final inheritor of that throne is of course Jesus who came from the line of David.

Paul takes up the prophecy of the Seed in Galatians 3:16 where he says, "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ." This was the Seed that Adam and Eve had been promised. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of that promise. He was the one who would crush Satan's head by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.

In conclusion, the promise that was given to Adam and Eve that their seed would crush Satan's head was fulfilled at Christmas when Jesus was born to Mary. Eve would not have the promised seed, instead her descendant Mary would literally thousands of years later. It is the most important promise ever fulfilled in all of Scripture. People pass down a lot of things to their descendants. Adam and Eve passed down sin and death to us. But thankfully God in his mercy had his Son Jesus Christ, the promised Seed, passed down to us. Through his life and death and resurrection he brought forgiveness for those sins and he brought us back to life with him. That is truly something worth inheriting. May it be yours in Jesus Christ. Amen.