Genesis 1:1—Jesus, Our Center
As you would hope, we can see Jesus in the very beginning. In fact, it’s the very first few words: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, NIV). The Gospel of John begins the same way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus was there in the beginning, and in fact, as Colossians 1:16–17, Jesus created the world: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” From the very beginning, we see Jesus, the Logos. The Logos is the organizing principle of the universe around which everything finds its place. It’s the center of the universe. Why does this matter? From the beginning, God has always been the center of our identity. Today, there’s a major search for identity, and we have the ultimate answer. Our ultimate center of our identity is not in our work, it’s not in what position we have in society, and it’s not in our possessions or how much we have. Our source of identity is not found inside of ourselves; it’s found in Jesus Christ, who is from the beginning and who created the world. So we read Genesis to ground ourselves in the center of our identity in God. The next signpost I’m calling “our victory,” and this is a messianic prophecy about Jesus in Genesis 3:15.Genesis 3:15—Jesus, Our Victory
Genesis 3:15 provides for us the first messianic prophecy on record. It says:“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.” —Genesis 3:15This passage is sometimes called the “first gospel” or “the mother prophecy” because it’s the first widely recognized messianic prophecy in the Bible. It’s an important prophecy, so let me tell you what it means in bullet point format:
- There’s enmity (or hatred) between the woman and the serpent, who is Satan.
- There’s also enmity between each one’s offspring.
- But someone of her offspring will crush his head, even though he will strike (or bruise, some translations have it) his heel.
- Incite Herod to kill Jesus as a baby.
- Tempt Jesus in the desert through dangerous feats.
- Work through Judas, who handed Jesus over to the Romans, who flogged him.
- But in a turn of events, Jesus, our victory, offers a definitive blow to Satan: “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” (Hebrews 2:14).
Genesis 12:1–3—Jesus, Our Blessing
In Genesis 12, we receive another great prophecy about Jesus the Messiah: God calls Abram, to leave his land and go to a new place. God said, “I will make of you a great nation . . . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1–3, NRSV). God would make Abram into Abraham, the father of many, into a great nation, but it goes further: through his lineage, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Jesus was a descendant of Abraham, who through his gospel has blessed not just every nation but also every family unit. Isn’t that cool? I wonder if that changes things for you. If you struggle to trust God, take heart in this: that in the beginning God had a plan to bless the whole world—every nation, not just one nation. Jesus said, “Go make disciples of all nations,” and thus ushered in the beginning of fulfilling this prophecy. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. God has always had a plan for our blessing through the gospel of Jesus. The next passage today is not an explicit prophecy, but it’s a clear and strong foreshadowing of Jesus, “our sacrifice.”Genesis 22:8—Jesus, Our Sacrifice
In Genesis 22:8, we see one of the most incredible foreshadowing examples of Jesus in the Old Testament: “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” This quote of Abraham comes in the midst of his almost sacrificing Isaac on Mt. Moriah. Isaac questioned him about the sacrifice, and Abraham trusted God to provide. We actually have a picture of Isaac’s face in that moment: That day, they saw a ram stuck in the thicket by its horns. Rams are male sheep, and Jesus became the ultimate sacrificial lamb outside of Jerusalem. This is where it gets really cool: Mt. Moriah became the mountain upon which Jerusalem was built (2 Chron. 3:1), so on the very mountain where Abraham said this, Jesus was sacrificed. God has always planned to be the sacrifice. God has always had a plan, and Jesus was always the sacrifice. Why does this matter? Salvation doesn’t come without a cost. In our world today, everything is free and now and convenient. We’re reminded that there’s always a sacrifice; our work, our sacrifices, and even giving up what we treasure the most doesn’t cut it. What we bring to God, as important as it is, is never enough to save us. It must be God himself, who provides our sufficient sacrifice. The fifth signpost in Genesis is another direct prophecy about Jesus, “our king.”Genesis 49:10—Jesus, Our King
When the patriarch Jacob blesses his sons, he gives Judah a blessing that prophecies the messiah:“The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.” —Genesis 49:10God chose to place Jesus in the Lion’s tribe because Jesus as Messiah would come through the lineage of Judah, as a son of David, as a powerful king over God’s people. Catch this: The obedience of the nations belongs to him. This is exactly what we find in Matthew 28, when Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18–20). Jesus came as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, ready not to destroy but to fight for them. He came with power and authority, and he demands our obedience. From the beginning, God has planned for Jesus to command the obedience of the nations. Why does this matter? Because Jesus didn’t come just to give us a path toward “self-fulfillment” or a way to discover ourselves or become enlightened. He came to establish a kingdom, and we’re invited to join it. We’re invited to not just give our tithe, or our attendance, or even our mere mental ascent to his existence; we’re invited to join his kingdom and give our full obedience. We don’t get privatized religion with Christ; we get something beyond ourselves that we get caught up in. It’s called the kingdom of God, and we find King Jesus at the center of it, even in Genesis. So Harpeth Christian Church, let’s get excited about this series we’re going through in Genesis because:
We need this text to ground our identity in God—which starts at the beginning We need this text to root our victory over Satan in Jesus—from the beginning We need Genesis because it reveals God’s plan for the world—from the beginning We need Genesis as a reminder that salvation comes from God—a plan from the beginning We need Genesis because it reminds us that our gospel is the Good News of a kingdom; it’s about Jesus who came to redeem the world, rule with a staff firmly fixed between his feet, and command obedience over the universe. We need Genesis because Genesis is a story about the gospel of Jesus.
Download “The Story of the Kingdom” here.