06 December, 1998
INTRODUCTION
Promises! Promises! Promises! People make promises everyday. A best friend will promise to keep another's secret. A son or a daughter will promise to call home. A husband will promise his wife to be faithful until they are separated by. A person will man will promise God that he will never make that mistake again. The soldier will promise God he will follow His ways if God will just get him home safely.
Promises matters very much. When you make a promise you are telling someone that you are going to do your very best to fulfill the thing you said you would do. Sometimes promises are made carelessly - only to be broken later. The Bible tells us that a wise person never makes a promise he or she isn't willing and able to keep. Proverbs 20:25 says that "it is a trap for a man to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider his vows."
God has made promises throughout His Word and they are all promises that we can stand on because He never goes against His Word. But the promise that means the most to us is one that God made very long time ago. It was a promise that came in a surprising context for it came in the midst of the curse and the sentence that was passed on the serpent in wake of the fall of man. It is here that we see the very first promise and mention of God's plan of redemption. Here we see the beginning of a plan that would develop throughout the pages of history and that would be seen throughout the pages of scripture.
Though Satan had taken mankind captive to sin, the promise came of a coming Redeemer. This is the first glimmer of the gospel - this was the promise of the One who would come to remedy the problem of sin. Here we see the promise that would find it's fulfillment in a little baby who was born in Bethlehem - a little baby who would grow up to die for the sin of the world.
Within this judgment that was passed on the serpent, there are two specific promises made about the coming Redeemer. These two promises are found in the statement made to the serpent when God said, "And 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 NIV)
The first promise we can see is that of......
1. The Suffering and Death of Our Savior
From the very beginning when Jesus came into this world, Satan pursued Him for the purpose of destroying Him. Satan was obviously the one who prompted Herod to seek for the Christ-child to kill Him. It was Satan himself that pursued Jesus when He was in the wilderness - tempting Him in hopes that His ministry and purpose of redemption might be destroyed. It was Satan who obviously prompted Peter to try and deter Jesus from the cross and then eventually deny his Lord. It was Satan who entered the heart of Judas to betray the Lord Jesus and it was Satan who caused the religious leaders to rise against Him. And it was Satan who caused Pilate to hand Jesus over to be crucified.
In all these ways, the serpent would bruise the heel of the One who was to come. He would cause the Redeemer to suffer in so many ways and eventually die on the cross. All that Jesus suffered on the cross was prompted by the work of Satan but it was all part of God's plan of redemption. Because it was through His sufferings that man would be set free from the curse. If Jesus had not suffered we would have no hope. Charles Colson said it well that "when God wanted to defeat sin, his ultimate weapon was the sacrifice of his own Son. On Christmas Day two thousand years ago, the birth of a tiny baby in an obscure village in the Middle East was God's supreme triumph of good over evil." (Charles Colson in A Dangerous Grace)
The second promise we can see here is....
2. The Definite Defeat Over the Satan
The declaration that the coming Redeemer would crush the head of the serpent is speaking of the definite defeat He would have over Satan. And that defeat would come at two intervals in the history of mankind.
a. Initially - On the Cross - Heb. 2:14
When Jesus died on the cross He would crush Satan's head. Listen to what the Biblical writers tell us about that event and how that came about. The writer to the Hebrews writes in Hebrews 2:14-15 "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the devil--and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."
And the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
When Jesus died on the cross, he dealt Satan a fatal blow. He had paid the penalty for sin once and for all and destroyed Satan's claim to those whom He had come to redeem. It was there on the cross that Jesus initially defeated Satan and crushed his head.
But that is not where it ends. This promise also speaks of the defeat of Satan....
b. ltimately - At the End of the Age - Rev. 20:7-10
Satan might be winning a few battles but he has already lost the war. He was basically defeated from the very beginning. And when it is all said and done - when the end of the age comes to pass, he will be defeated once and for all. Listen to what the Apostle John writes in Revelation 20:1-10
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth-- Gog and Magog-- to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (NIV)
One day, Satan's work of scheming and deceiving and destruction will all come to a final end. One day, a final blow will be dealt to Satan's head when he is cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. His days are numbered and have been since the very beginning. And that is our hope.
Sometimes it seems like we are being overcome by the darkness. Sometimes it seems like Satan is winning. There is so much destruction. There is so much evil in this world. There is so much that finds its source in Satan himself.
But we have this hope that one day his work will come to a final end as God throws him into the lake of burning sulfur where he will be tormented forever. Why God does not go ahead and bring it all to an end - I don't know. But one thing for sure, Satan's end will come. Because he is a defeated foe.
Conclusion: Ever since the time that sin came into this world, God had in His mind a plan. It was a plan to redeem those who had been taken captive to sin. And it was a plan that would be fulfilled in that little baby boy that was born in Bethlehem. God had come near. God had come to rescue His people from the curse of the fall. And that is what Christmas is all about. And that is what we celebrate as we gather around the Lord's table to share together in communion.