This morning I want to just kind of guide your thoughts to Christ for a few moments. This isn’t kind of a classic sermon, so to speak, just some kind of devotional thoughts. We will be flipping through the Bible a little bit. A little bit of a brief Bible study this morning. But I want to—I’ve been kind of—had my heart set on this topic for about a month or so. I’ve known I wanted to do this topic and kind of guide your thoughts here on Christmas morning. And the reason I want to guide your thoughts here to a passage in the Bible you wouldn’t normally expect to be a Christmas passage is because of the ease of being distracted by so many things during Christmas—even good things. Right?

I’m not just talking about, you know, rock and roll and drugs and things like that. I’m talking about being distracted by even good things. Even family, friends, cooking, things like that. Even snow, the beauty of snow. There’s so many things that we can talk about that distract us from Christ, if we’re not careful, on Christmas. I think we had some little ones distracted by stage fright this morning, just to give you an example. But there’s so many things which can distract us from Christ, even good things. So, I want to be careful this morning as we begin our day celebrating the incarnation of Christ that we don’t forget about the incarnation of Christ throughout the rest of the day. That is, after all, why we celebrate.

If you think about some words associated with Christmas and the incarnation, you can think of words like joy, salvation, baby, manger, Christ, shepherds, angels, glory, light. You can think of words like that. There are also some other words associated with the holidays, with Christmas specifically. Pain, loss, hardship, family dynamics. There are all sorts of words associated, some more pleasant than others even. And really that idea that something that should be celebrated comes with joy but also pain is not a new idea. That happened way back in the Garden of Eden.

There should be joy and communion with God, walking with God, enjoying God, and then sin comes in. And the Lord does something about that. Out of love, he does something and promises something—actually someone—who would come to fix the curse of sin. And so in the pronouncement of joy and something that should be joyful and exciting, there is pain and loss and separation. There’s nothing new. So if you’re experiencing some of both of those emotions today, that’s nothing new from what people have experienced ever since human history began, even going back to Adam and Eve.

So, I want to go back to the Garden of Eden this morning and I want to show you Christmas in the Garden of Eden. I’m not making this up. There’s actually Christmas prophecy in the Garden of Eden. So, I’d ask you to turn to Genesis 3. Genesis 3.

In seminary they would give us exams where we had to identify what chapters in the Bible were all about. What is Isaiah 40 about? What is Jeremiah 31 about? What is Galatians 1 about? We had to identify what those chapters are all about. We had to know those things. Well, if you were studying for an exam, a theological exam, on Genesis 3, you would immediately think, ahh, the fall of man. Sin enters the world. But I want to encourage you to think of Genesis 3 a little bit differently. There’s more to the story in Genesis 3.

In the most horrendous chapter in light of all that God had done in the Bible—so perfection, creation, communion with God, and then we get the sin of man. So, in a sense you could call that the most horrendous chapter. But there are other horrible ones. But in that horrible depiction of sin entering the earth, there is—surprise, surprise—the grace of God that immediately comes on the scene.

Why? Because that’s our God. That’s what he does. He created a perfect world, dwelled with men and women and really created them to enjoy him forever. They quickly, quickly rebelled against him, and that could have been the end of them and he would have been just and right to do that, but he extends grace and gives them promises. Some of those promises point to Christmas.

So, if you want a little title for our little devotional this morning, it’ll be called “Merry Christmas from the Garden of Eden.” “Merry Christmas from the Garden of Eden.” I want to do this: I want to show you three prophecies of Christ found in an environment of pain. Three prophecies of Christ found in an environment of pain.

So, I want to read Genesis 3 for you and these prophecies will start in verse 15. But just to get an idea of where we’ve been and what’s been going on here, the story’s not a new one to you, many of you, but it is the story of the first sin of man and woman. And then we see the grace of God come, which we’ll focus on in a little bit. But for now, Genesis 3:1-14:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

And we’ll stop right there. Curse brought into the world because of the sin of man and woman, and immediately the man blames the woman and the woman blames the serpent. And so, God, kind of going along with it, maybe Adam thought, oh, he believed me; okay, he’s focusing on Eve. Then Eve thought, oh, he believed me; he’s focusing on the serpent. So, he goes to the serpent, but he’s not done with Adam and Eve. But the Lord gives grace, starting in verse 15, and this is the first prophecy about Christ that I want you to see.

The great prophecy of Christ in the midst of pain. Christ will destroy the works of the devil (verse 15). Christ will destroy the works of the devil. God speaking to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is the first mention of Christ in the Bible, in human history. The first mention. And when does it come? After the first sin. Sin. Cure for sin. That’s the character of your God. That’s how he operates because he’s by nature a savior and a gracious God.

But he goes right to the cause of the sin and, in a sense, the serpent, the tempter of Adam and Eve, and he tells them that between his offspring and the ones who would come after him, and the ones that would come after the woman, there would be constant enmity. He shall bruise your head. One from the lady, one from Eve would one day bruise the head of Satan. That’s a crushing blow. That’s a bruise of finality there. The end of Satan. And you shall bruise his heal. I’d rather get hit in the heal than get in the head. So the bruise to the heal is not near as great as the bruise to the head or the wound to the head. So Satan’s wound is fatal. So is Christ’s, but not forever because he’ll rise again.

So, God the Father, Yahweh, in this sense, makes a promise about a coming one from the woman. Christ will crush the head of Satan one day because he’s been an enemy of God. Now, it’s interesting to note that this isn’t the offspring of Adam. He doesn’t say one from Adam’s seed will be at enmity against you. Why? Because the Holy Spirit conceived Christ in the virgin’s womb. This is one coming from the female. This is one coming from Eve. One from her line will crush the head of the serpent.

And we see that Christ—one thing he did at Christmas, one thing he did in the incarnation was, he came to destroy the works of the devil. Now, we know that the works of the devil still exist. Look at temptation in the world. Look at the world system. Look at what Satan does even in spiritual warfare against us. The works of the devil are real and are constant. And one day they’ll finally be done away with. But in the meantime, ever since Christ came—was born, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, rose again—the penalty of that sin, that wickedness, being like Satan in that sense, the penalty of that, the actuality of that has been taken away. So we don’t experience the—we still experience the works of the devil, the pain of it all, but there’s no payment for that that we have to do.

So, Christ accomplished something when he first came to earth. He will really accomplish something in the sense of freeing us from the curse at the end of human history as we know it. His second coming.

I want you to turn—I told you this would be a little Bible study—turn to 1 John 3. If you’re a Christian, here’s one of the things God did in terms of the works of Satan in your life. Christ destroyed the works of the devil in us. 1 John 3:4-10:

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared [Christ] in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

Now, this is John telling the church: Listen, if your normal pattern is righteousness, that proves that you know the righteous one. If you’re normal pattern of life is sin, then don’t claim to know the righteous one. So, when he changes your heart, he changes it. It’s talking about the patterns, the two possible patterns. And he came to take away sin. Verse 8, again:

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. [Now notice] The reason the Son of God appeared [so the reason for the manger, the reason for the traveling to Bethlehem for the census, the reason for all of that, is this:] was to destroy the works of the devil.

Can you see the echo of Genesis 3 in that passage from John? To destroy the works of the devil.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God [he’s been changed]. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

So, John is talking about what it looks like to be changed, to have in your own life God destroy the works of the devil. Now, raise your hand if you are actually perfect every single day. Okay, got it. But if I asked you to raise your hand if you’ve seen the Lord destroy sin in your life over the years since you came to Christ, every Christian’s hand would go up, because you’ve been changed and made to be more and more righteous.

And here’s the good news: If you died today without finally accomplishing your own personal perfection, don’t worry because that’s the beauty of salvation. Christ came to be righteousness for you today. God the Father looks at all Christians as perfectly righteous in his Son. That’s the beauty of the righteousness of Christ being put on our account.

1.  Christ Will Destroy the Works of the Devil.

So, Christ came to destroy the works of the devil inside of us, but he also came to destroy the works of the devil in the entire world. Romans 16:20—Paul writes the Roman church and he encourages them. He says this. If you’re experiencing pain, temptation, frustration, sin, chaos, broken relationships, whatever it may be, Paul says this to the church and it’s an encouragement for us as well: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

You hear that first century encouragement from Paul to the Christian church and you hear echoes of Eden. The God of peace—by the way, God and Adam and Eve were not at peace at our part so far in Genesis 3. There is sin and they haven’t been reconciled yet. And he tells the serpent that you’re going to be crushed one day and later on that’s a prophecy for the church to enjoy. Hey listen, it’s happening soon. Hang in there. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

So, what do you do going away from a truth like this? Christ will destroy the works of the devil. I would encourage you to rejoice in how Christ has changed you. Take a little bit of time today, as a believer, just to say, Lord, where have you brought me? I was once this; you’ve made me more and more like this—and that’s all of you, not because I’m so wonderful. You have continued to destroy the works of the devil even in my life and one day you will finally destroy them in this earth. No more child molestations, no more conflict in marriage, no more cancer, no more pain. One day he’s finally going to destroy. But he has begun destroying those effects in our lives.

2.  Christ Will Cover the Shame of His People’s Sin.

Second truth, second evidence of the grace of Christ in the midst of pain: Christ will cover the shame of his people’s sins. You see that back in Genesis 3, verse 21. Genesis 3:21. He will cover the shame brought about by his people’s sins. Verse 21: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” Now remember, Adam and Eve didn’t know evil. They didn’t know what it was like. They didn’t know what shame was. All they knew was, God was their friend. They’ve got a perfect world and they love it. And then they sin and now they know evil.

And not only do they know evil as just a thought or just some reality out there, they know it personally. They know the effects of their own sin. That’s why we’re told earlier that they start hiding themselves; and God says, Where are you? I was naked; I didn’t want you to see me. Adam’s never said that to God before, because he now knows what shame feels like. And God, who could have said: You’re going to continue to be ashamed the rest of your life—God doesn’t do that. He comes to Adam and Eve and says, I’m going to cover your shame. Not only am I going to forgive you, I’m going to cover your shame. You don’t need to be embarrassed around me anymore.

Think of that. God telling Adam and Eve, you don’t need to be embarrassed around me anymore, even though you’ve done things to be ashamed of. And so God kills an animal to cover Adam and Eve. I think it’s this passage and maybe in Acts where Peter is told rise, Peter, kill and eat. These are like the hunters’ favorite verses in the Bible. Going and killing an animal for a purpose, for a reason. Well, that’s what God does here.

Adam and Eve are ashamed. They’ve got these leaves covering them. They feel bad because of what they’ve done, and God kills someone else—something else—to ease their pain. Right then, I don’t know if that was a lamb or goat, what it was, but it wasn’t fair to the lamb. Wasn’t fair. The lamb didn’t do anything wrong. Adam and Eve did. Slaughter the lamb; cover the person. It’s an echo of the cross. Christ didn’t do anything wrong, but he was executed. Actually, he pursued execution for you, if you believe in him. That’s not fair to Christ, but that’s who he is by nature.

William Smith said this: “When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.” When you look in the manger, and today the world can even recognize a cute, little baby in a manger. Even Starbucks and the music they have playing can recognize that baby in a manger. Oh, that’s nice and sweet. But when you look on that baby and you know he’s going to grow up, live a perfect life, and the reason he came is to die for me on a bloody cross in a horrendous way, that brings it home. It’s not just some distant reality that happened in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. This has effects for my life. That baby did something for me. That baby was born to die, willingly, for me. Why? Because that’s who God is. That’s what he does.

3.  Christ Will Qualify Us to Live Forever with God.

So, Christ will destroy the works of the devil; Christ will cover the shame of his people’s sins; and thirdly, Christ will qualify us to live forever with God. Christ will qualify us to live forever with God. You see this in verses 22 through 24.

Now, it’s interesting . . . we skipped over the parts where he pronounces the curse on the man’s work and the woman’s childbirth and the pain they would experience even in their relationships, but he’s talked to the serpent, he’s talked to Adam, he’s talked to Eve. Now, the Trinity begins a conversation together. So they’ve told all the players who are wrong: Here’s what’s going to happen because of what you’ve done. And then the Trinity goes and has a meeting about what they’re going to do about all this. Fascinating. Verse 22:

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Now, you hear this and you immediately think: judgment. He drove out the man. That’s a strong Hebrew word. Out of here! Get out! You hear: judgment, angry God, maybe no second chance. That’s not what this is. This driving them out is the most gracious thing that God could do at this point. Why? Glad you asked. Because the worst thing in the world for Adam and Eve to do after this moment would be to eat of the tree that gave them eternal life, because they were not reconciled back to God the Father yet. They would have had eternal life in a sinful state, still not reconciled back to God. That’s the worst thing that could happen. So God drives them out. Drives them out of the garden, east of Eden.

But what did he leave them with? A promise. A promise of one to come. A promise of one to come that would defeat the curse of sin, free them from the tyranny of the devil. He drove them out, but he drove them out with a promise. That’s what God does. Now, isn’t it amazing that you can almost see, although God is spirit, you can almost see the Trinity, knowing that they’re in the garden driving Adam and Eve out. I don’t know if they had things to take with them or they’re bringing some fruit out of the garden. Whatever it was, they’re moving. They’re out. God’s not going to give them access back to the Tree of Life.

So, he drives them out, the Trinity is in the garden, Adam and Eve are going out, and Jesus comes, born in a manger, and the pronouncement about Jesus is that he is to be known as, according to Matthew 1, Immanuel—God with us. God’s in the garden. God’s in perfection. God’s in heaven. But because he loves the people he’s driven out who are sinful and rebellious toward him, he goes to them. Every other religion in the world says, you get back to the garden. Not Christianity.

Christianity says the God of the garden goes to you. And he doesn’t deserve what he’s going to go through, but he goes to you. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), which means God with us. And that meant something to the people that first heard it. Jesus alone can qualify us to live with God, because the people who lived outside of the garden, which is everybody else in all human history, the people who lived outside the garden cannot get back to the garden on their own righteousness. They cannot get back to eternal life in a reconciled fashion with God because of something that they do. They need God to come to them.

Isn’t it interesting that Adam and Eve lost some things when they left the garden? They lost the same communion they had with God. And they lost the eternal healing that would happen from God. The eternal healing that would happen from God. I want you to turn to the end of the Bible—Revelation 21. Adam and Eve lost communion with God because of their sin. We have been separated from God. We’re born dead in transgression and sin—Ephesians 2. We’re born alienated, hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds—Colossians 1. No one is good, not even one—Romans 3. We’re born outside the garden. That’s where we’re born. That’s where we live. That’s what we want. Adam and Eve were driven out. They didn’t have the communion with God.

But look at what trusting in the promise of Christ gives us. Revelation 21:1-4. This is prophecy about the future eternal state.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [Notice, heaven comes down. Man doesn’t work his way up.] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying [Of course, it’s loud; this is a huge announcement.], “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

He will walk with them in the cool of the day. There will be nothing between him and them. That’s what this announcement is all about. We get to experience the garden, not because we’re better than Adam and Eve, but because he’s a gracious savior. That’s what we’ll experience.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

I can see Adam and Eve walking out of the garden, crying: Look what we had and look what we wasted. We know something better. We know something better. Look at Revelation 22. They lost communion with God; we gain communion with God. They lost eternal healing from the tree; we gain eternal healing. Notice chapter 22:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb . . .

Now, there’s a lot in there, but let me just say, for the purpose of this morning, God is the one, the Lamb is the one, God is the source of the blessings that come to us. Again, we didn’t earn it. We didn’t make a river back to God and the Lamb. We’re benefiting from the water that flows from them. Verse 2, this river from God and the Lamb . . .

flows through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river [notice], the tree of life [the tree of life is there in heaven] with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

The same tree that Adam and Eve were no longer able to eat or else they would live forever in an unconverted, unreconciled way, we get to eat of for the healing of not just us, but all the nations.

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

Adam and Eve lost communion with God. Adam and Eve lost the tree, lost healing from God. We get them both because of God himself. We get them both. And that would not have happened without Christ coming to bring us back. Christ coming out from the garden to this earth that we live in to bring us back to the garden. Better yet, maybe said better, to bring us back to the New Jerusalem.

Go back to Genesis 3 as we close. So, what do you do with all of this if you’re Adam and Eve? You hear about these curses. If you’re Adam, I mean you’ve got to go to work tomorrow. If you don’t go to work, you’re not going to eat. With Eve, there’s pain coming in childbirth. You know that when Adam comes home from work, it’s not always going to be roses and kisses at the door, it might be pain and arguments. They know that’s coming.

So, what do they do? Suicide? Pretend they can fix everything themselves? Numb themselves with hobbies or alcohol? What are they going to do? Well, they do the only thing that they should do: they believe. They believe in that promise. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of this or if you’ve known anybody that’s thought this, who’s thought, I don’t want to have children because I don’t want to bring children into this world. If there’s any couple that ever thought that, it’d be Adam and Eve. We know what we had. Now we know what’s happening, we do not want children to go through what we’re going through right now. And if they wouldn’t have believed, that’s how they would have lived.

But in chapter 4, the very next chapter, time to have babies. Why? Because they believe in the prophecy of Christ. They believe that one coming from someone in the future perhaps, maybe it’s Eve, maybe it’s not—we know now that it’s Mary—someone coming from the future can alleviate all the pain that Eve caused and Adam caused. They believe in the promise of the coming one, the seed. They don’t know anything else about the promise other than what they learned in chapter 3.

We know a lot more about it. We know he came from the line of David. We know he was born in Bethlehem. We know all that. They don’t know all that. All they know is someone’s going to fix this. Let’s start having babies. That’s what they know. And so then having babies is a huge act of believing God. This is their salvation moment—chapter 4.

“Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.’” She even names him “acquired.” That’s kind of funny. You might name kids after uncle who was just a saint of a man, or you might name them after something else that has this great meaning. But to name him—what’d you name your son? Acquired. Why? I’m glad you asked. Because God is going to give me someone who fixes the pain I’ve gone through and the sin I’ve gone through.

So, even naming Cain is an act of faith. She knows what’s coming. And by the way, she’s not the only one who believes. Go back to verse 16 of chapter 3. I’m sorry, verse 20. “The man called his wife’s name Eve,” because it sounded nice, because it rolled off the tongue? No. “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.” He’s saying, aha, I’m going to name her Eve. Eve wasn’t named before this. Eve was named after because Adam was saying, someone’s coming from your line; I believe God; you’re named the mother of all the living.

Adam believes. Eve believes. And what are they going to do? They’re going to hold onto that belief and they’re going to have kids and they know it’s not going to be pretty. It’s not—life is not going to be easy, but they’re holding onto a promise. I wonder if that’s anybody in here this morning. Life is not easy. Pain. Family hardship. Sickness. Job loss. But what does a believer do? They hold onto the promise of the second coming of Christ. That’s what Adam and Eve did. That’s what we should do. We believe. We wait. We long for. And in the middle of all that, we enjoy the relationship that we have now. The promised one, the one—the seed of the woman, the one born in the manger. He is our God. The spirit dwells within us. We know more than Adam and Eve ever knew. We’ve experienced great grace from Christ, the grace which covers our own sin.

The prophecies about Christ at Christmas are meant to give us hope in the midst of pain, and it’s meant to give us an understanding that this isn’t the best. We’re longing for him to return. We sang about that in almost every song this morning. About him returning. Even “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” we’re celebrating the first coming, but we’re calling for him to come again and to dwell with us permanently, physically.

There’s a picture—you can google it—it’s an old painting. Two women. One woman is Eve and you see the snake curled around her leg. She’s holding an apple and her head’s down in despair. And the second woman is comforting her. It’s Mary. Mary’s pregnant, has a hand on Eve; she’s comforting her. That’s the message, that’s the message of Genesis 3:15 and beyond.

Listen, you’ve experienced sin and the curse, because of you. Don’t blame it on anybody else, like Adam and Eve. You’ve experienced that. Trust in the promised one who comes to cover your shame, forgive your sin and will one day dwell with you permanently forever. No more curse.

That’s the message of Christmas. So, if there’s any pain you’re going through now, even pain caused by your own doing, Christians hold onto a promise of Christ. They know they’re forgiven of their past and they have a future to look forward to. In the meantime, they enjoy the presence of Christ with them spiritually. Let’s pray.

Father, you are unlike any other. Lord, you not only gave us forgiveness of sin, you did it by coming here to be the curse for sin. You experienced what we should experience. You’ve given us only the status that you deserve. We swim in your grace. We bask in your grace. Father, would you allow your grace to become exceedingly precious to us and start it today. Lord, as we think of all that you’ve given us in your Son, we pray this all in his name.