Sunday School Preview: December 1, 2013

This week in our Children’s classes we’re going to be talking about how even the book of Genesis (beginning a mere 3 chapters into the Bible) points to Jesus as the centerpiece of God’s story. We’ll talk about the three promises from the lesson briefly to see why each is important and supports Jesus as the Messiah. Here’s a link to Pastor Viars’ Sermon from June which explained that the whole Bible is about Jesus.

The first promise in the lesson comes from Genesis 3:15, which says [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.” Revelation 12:9 indicates that this serpent was indeed Satan, and we know that the ultimate seed of the woman who would bruise Satan’s head (vanquish him, Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14-15) is Jesus (whom Paul identifies as the offspring in Galatians 3:16). Therefore what we have in verse 15 is what theologians call the “protoevangelium,” the first Gospel. God delivers the first “good news” to His creation indicating to them that He wasn’t switching to plan “B,” but rather, God indicates that the plan [A] All Along had been that Jesus would become incarnate to atone for His sheep (Revelation 13:8, the book of the life of the lamb that was slain written before the foundation of the world).

The second promise is that which God gives to Abraham, in Genesis 12:7, saying, “To your offspring I will give this land.” We already mentioned Paul’s identification of the singular “offspring” as Jesus. It is clear then that after the flood, God still intends to send Jesus into the world.

The final promise come from Genesis 49:10, which is Jacob’s blessing on his sons. In this verse God tells us through Jacob that there will always be a reigning king from the line of Judah. Jesus is again the fulfillment of this promise (see Matthew 1:1-16).

These promises touch the surface as to the ways in which Genesis is all about Jesus! The biggest takeaway is clearly to trust Jesus to save you from your sin, and proclaim Him your Lord & treasure. If this is something that you have never done, please consider that the whole Bible stands ready to testify to the fact that Jesus is God come down to be with us, and He alone is mighty to save. If you have trusted Christ and savor Him as your supreme treasure, then your takeaway is to share these awesome promises which Jesus fulfilled with others, sharing the good news. This concludes the thoughts which I wanted to share for this week’s children’s lesson. Have a great holiday, and a blessed Sunday!

David Christensen
David Christensen is a pastoral intern at Faith Church. He is married to his wife Kelly of more than 3 years. He regularly attempts to blog at http://HisGloryYourJoy.blogspot.com, and can be followed on twitter here.