The First Gospel Promise
242 | “The Human Satan Crusher” | Seven Sermon Summer Surfin’ Spectacular
Find Jesus in the First Promise
Welcome back to our “Seven Sermon Summer Surfin' Spectacular”! This week, we're stoked to have our good friend Allen Greeley share his sermon: "The Human Satan Crusher." Ever wonder where the gospel story really begins? We go way back to Genesis 3 to find the first promise of a hero who would defeat evil. How does this ancient, "weirdly worded" prophecy point to Jesus's birth? And why was his humanity just as important as his deity in the plan to win this spiritual war? Jump on board with us for a discussion that will build your faith and encourage your heart!
Takeaways
The Big Idea: In the midst of humanity's first curse, God graciously inserted the first promise of a Savior who would crush our enemy.
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Allen: Yeah, I mean, I have Batman in the back of my mind at all times. He's the greatest superhero other than Jesus, of course.
Bryan: Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the Seven Sermon Summer Surf and Spectacular here during our summer break. I- Just-
Ryan: take you got that in! [laughter]
Bryan: I- Trust me, man. I've been practicing the Seven Sermon Summer Surf and Spectacular. Uh, I'm excited about it. And for this episode, we are so stoked to have one of our best friends here on the show. He is a fellow Ponderer. He is from Plainfield, Indiana. He has the Plainfield Ponderings podcast on lock. Welcome to the show, Alan Greeley.
Allen: guys, so happy to be with you. Thank you for asking me.
Bryan: Yeah, I mean, we were thinking about all sorts of people that we know, and the very first one on that list to jump in on the podcast was definitely you, especially with the work that you've been doing there in Plainfield.
How's that been going?
Allen: Good. We actually, just yesterday, marked one year that I've been here.
Bryan: Wow. Chuckles
Allen: yeah, July 10th, we arrived here on a Wednesday night, man, I can't believe it's been a year, but it's been, it's going great. God has blessed us in many ways.
Bryan: Yeah, it's only a little bit, uh, jealousy-inducing that you are now not super far from Ryan. And, uh, I have to be super far from Ryan, but you came from Phoenix, if people aren't familiar, there to Indiana. So, yes, it's been one year without Alan, nearby. So that's, that's been unfortunate, but glad for you.
That's really
Allen: Well, thank you,
Ryan: this has gone fast, and we haven't gotten as many get-togethers as we've wanted, but one of my favorite things to do, one of Bryan's favorite things to do, I know, is to talk Bible with Alan. So this is a treat, and he's also one of our favorite preachers. And so we wanted to get him and his excellent lessons out into the world and then have a chance to talk some Bible about it.
So we're diving into something that ties in with the Square One series that was the feature of our last season. And we talked there towards the beginning about what the Bible is all about, and we traced the theme of Christ through the Old Testament and, of course, into the New Testament.
And Alan has been preaching a series with--we're just taking a few little pieces of it in this summer series--but he's been doing a long series on Christ in the Old Testament, and it just fit right in with what we talked about back there about the plan of God and how it has played out. So how has the study of Christ in the Old Testament enriched your understanding of the way the Bible flows as one story?
Allen: Well, nothing builds my faith more than just seeing how the Old and New Testament come together. And I can't tell you how many times I've received very similar comments after these lessons. So, I've done 14 of them. I completed the 14th this last Sunday. It was about Psalm 22. But over the 14 lessons, people have a desire.
It's really opened my eyes to just how much people want to see scripture as one story, rather than, "Hey, we got some Old Testament laws, and we got some New Testament laws." But seeing it as a story, man, nothing builds my faith more. And I've realized just after the comments of these lessons just how much there is an appetite for it.
So, really grateful that you've chosen these three to use on your podcast. I hope and I pray that someone's faith is built up
Bryan: so we're gonna get into that lesson here. And this, you know, if we're gonna start from the beginning, we might as well start from the very beginning in which we go all the way back to Genesis. And this whole sermon is all about finding Jesus way back in that story long ago, where we learn about the human Satan crusher.
So let's get into that lesson here, and then we'll come back afterwards. Stay tuned. We'll have a little bit of conversation about this great sermon.
Allen: Ponder with me about the importance that God places on defeating Satan. Right here at the beginning pages of the Bible, in Genesis 3, I'm going to be reading verses 14 and 15. This is immediately after Adam and Eve have sinned, and they've gone through their blame-shifting, blame game, and after all of that, God is now going to address the serpent.
He's going to address Eve next, and then Adam last. I'm just going to read what he says to the serpent, but I want you to think about the importance that God is placing on defeating this spiritual enemy. Verse 14, Genesis 3, "The Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all the beasts of the field.
On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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.'" There is so much we can learn from the first temptation and the first sins committed here in Genesis 3.
We learn so much about Satan as well. We learn so much about how he lies, how he thinks, and how he works, which is very subtle. How Satan puts doubt in our mind about God's Word, and even doubt about God's goodness, whether God wants what is best for us or not. We learn so much about how we humans let doubt creep in.
How do humans end up believing a lie? Why do lies grow? Why do lies look and sound appealing? We learn about shame and guilt, that sin inevitably brings us all. We learn about our incessant blame-shifting. We love to blame others for our sin. It can't just be my fault, or can it? But perhaps the most powerful lesson learned from Genesis 3 and the first temptation and the first sins is in God's response.
We learn something about God immediately. God is a holy God. He is pure. He cannot have a relationship with sin. The words "holy" and "pure" don't appear yet in the text, but they don't have to. You can see them in His response. He cannot have anything to do with sin, and yet, what you see just as strongly is that God loves mankind, and He wants to help mankind.
How so? Well, He helps us in endless ways, but the first way God mentioned, after they sinned -- this is so interesting -- the first way that God mentions helping us is a plan to destroy the adversary of mankind. If mankind is going to be clean of sin, God must also deal with this adversary that clearly wants mankind to sin, the serpent Satan himself.
And that is most definitely who this serpent is in Genesis 3, although we don't learn that quite yet in Genesis 3. All we know in Genesis 3 is that the serpent is clearly an adversary to God and an adversary to mankind. The serpent wants nothing to do with God's plan with humanity. He will lie, cheat, steal any way possible to thwart His plan of God and mankind being together.
There's a couple of scriptures that give you a hint that the serpent is Satan himself, but no passage in the Bible is clearer than this one. This is Revelation 12, in verse 9, that says, "And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world."
That verse has more titles and names for Satan than any other passage in Scripture that I know of. He's called five things in one verse. He's called the dragon, which sometimes has different names within the category of dragon, like the term "Leviathan." He is called the ancient serpent, and notice the word "ancient" there, that's the Scripture's way of saying, "You need to go back to the oldest reference to the serpent," which would be Genesis 3, obviously.
He is called the devil, which basically means "slanderer." He's called Satan, which is a more formal name for an accuser, probably better translated with the word "the" in front of it, "the Satan," "the accuser." And finally, he's called the deceiver of the whole world. So five names. I don't know of a verse in the Bible that has more names and titles for Satan in one singular verse than this one.
Dragon, serpent, slanderer, the accuser, the deceiver of the whole world. But my main point is simply this, we know from the rest of Scripture who this serpent is here in Genesis 3. It's Satan himself. Now let me go back and say what I already did, just in a different way, so that we all can appreciate the spiritual battle that is now underway.
We don't just have a problem with sin. We've got a problem with a spiritual enemy that wants us to sin. And if mankind is ever going to be rid of sin, we've got to be rid of the spiritual enemy. This spiritual enemy is as big of a problem as sin itself. And we can be sure of that based on God's response.
When God addresses Satan, and then Eve, and then Adam, and when God hints at the plan of salvation through Jesus, He doesn't bring up the cleansing of sin first, like we may think He would. He brings up the defeat of this spiritual enemy first. In the mind of God, crushing this spiritual enemy, winning the spiritual war against Satan is just as important as forgiving sin.
Look at the text again. He addresses the serpent in verse 14, He tells him he's going to be on his belly, and he's going to be eating dust the rest of his existence. And now note verse 15 again, "I will put enmity between you, Satan, and the woman." This is like God saying, "Alright, I'm declaring spiritual war from here on out.
Alright, Satan, you started it. You attacked the faith of these humans, and I'm declaring spiritual enemy, spiritual war between you and the woman from now on." And this isn't just spiritual war between Satan and Adam and Eve singularly. This is spiritual war that's going to continue throughout the generations.
And you can see that in the text. Your satanic seed and her seed. Between your offspring, Satan, and her offspring, there will be spiritual warfare, there will be spiritual enemies. And then at the end of verse 15, God gives us the first overt prophetic reference to Jesus in the Old Testament. It's not the first reference.
We know that from the Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians, when Paul says that God created marriage, he was actually thinking about Jesus and the Church. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Paul says in Ephesians, "This is incredibly profound, but that is talking about Christ and the Church."
And certainly Jesus was there in the creation too, because He created all things. John 1 points that out, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1. So this isn't the first reference to Jesus at all, but it is the first overt prophetic reference to Jesus, at least that's the case I want to make. Now I'll come back to that in just a moment, but without thinking about Jesus Christ just yet, let's think about what God is saying just in a broad way.
Because I think if we look at the broad message of verse 15, it'll actually narrow us down to Jesus. What God is saying very broadly here in verse 15 is that there's going to be a male offspring from the woman, and He is going to crush Satan's head while this male offspring suffers a blow himself. The last part of verse 15 says, "He," this singular male offspring, "shall bruise your head," Satan, "and you," Satan, "shall bruise his heel."
The English Standard Version uses the same word here, "bruise." The head of Satan is bruised, the heel of the offspring is bruised, and I'm not a huge fan of the same word being used here, because in the Hebrew, it is slightly different. The words come from the same root word, which is why I understand the translators use the same term here, but it is--if you look at the manuscripts, the Hebrew manuscripts, the words used are different.
The best way I can describe it is that both words speak of a strike. One is a crushing strike, and one is a strike that hurts but isn't crushing. If you've ever watched boxing or MMA fights, you know what kind of strikes I'm talking about. There's a strike that hurts, kind of stuns the opponent, but then there are strikes that just knock the opponent clean out.
There are strikes that hurt, and then there are strikes that knock out. And that's the basic way of understanding the difference here. And because of this, some English translations do translate the words differently, and that's my favorite way of looking at it. Some English translations use the first word for "crush" and then translate the second word "bruise."
In other words, the offspring of woman will crush Satan's head, a crushing strike, a knockout blow, while Satan will deal a strike to the offspring that will hurt him, it will sting him, it will bruise him, but it won't crush him. The only one being crushed is Satan. Now a couple of unique things to notice before we move on.
God is going to win this battle against this spiritual enemy using a human. Tuck that in the back of your mind. That's going to become significant later on. Now as God's Word gets more specific throughout Scripture, we realize that this Satan crusher will be more than a human. He'll be God's Son. I don't want to leave the indication here with anyone that Jesus is only a human.
However, we need to be clear, the first image of Jesus in prophecy as this Satan crusher is as a human. His humanity is as important to this prophecy as anything. The other unique thing about verse 15 I want us all to note is how strangely this is worded. Whenever the Scripture words something in such a weird, strange way, it is an invitation to stop and think.
Sometimes Scripture will word something in such a strange, almost an impossible way, you cannot help but pause and say, "Hey, why is that? Why is it said like that?" And this is one of those instances. It all revolves around the use of the word "woman." The first phrase is, "I will put enmity between you, Satan, and the woman."
Now here's what the text is inviting us to ask. Why is enmity between Satan and the woman and not the man? Adam sinned just like Eve did. Why isn't God saying that there's going to be enmity between Satan and the man, or Satan and humanity in general, mankind as a whole? The text is worded in such a weird way, it's an invitation to stop and say, "Hey, that's different.
What's going on here?" To make matters even more complicated, there are times in the New Testament when Paul is talking about how sin and death came into the world, and Paul will only talk about Adam, the man. He won't mention the woman or Eve at all. Here's just a few passages indicating that. In Romans 5, in verse 12, at the beginning, Paul says, "Just as sin came into the world through one man."
And then a couple of verses later, in verse 14, Paul says, "Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam." And then 1 Corinthians 15, 21, and the beginning part of 22, Paul says, "For by a man came death. And by a man also came the resurrection of the dead."
And now note, "As in Adam, all die." So just in those three passages, he talked about sin entering through one man, Adam. He talks about the transgression of Adam, without mentioning Eve at all. And then he says in 1 Corinthians 15 that death came through Adam, as in Adam all die. Where's Eve in those texts? He doesn't mention her at all in those chapters.
Now, he mentions Eve in a couple of other places, but you understand what I'm asking. If Adam is such a central focus in bringing sin and death into the world, then why is the enmity between Satan and the woman? It's intentionally awkward to get us to stop and say, "What's going on here?" The other awkwardly worded statement regarding the woman is this one, "Her seed."
If this word is to be taken literally, it should be read, "Her seed." But women don't have seed. I realize the word is often translated "offspring" or "descendant" in most English translations, and the reason the English translations do that is to lessen the awkwardness of the reading. And yet, it is intentionally awkward to get us to think.
But even if literal seed is not what Scripture wants us to think, even if the idea of offspring or descendant is all that we are supposed to think, you can still see how strange this is in contrast to genealogies. So just listen to this. This is from Genesis 5, just a couple of chapters later. You can see the awkward difference.
This is Genesis 5 and verse 3. "Adam fathered Seth." Genesis 5, 6. "Seth lived 105 years; he fathered Enosh." Genesis 5, 9. "When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan." Genesis 5, 12. "When Kenan lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel." Now, there are others, but I'll stop right there. Notice how all the fathers are being listed and not the mothers?
Why is there no genealogy that says, "This mom mothered so-and-so, and this mom mothered so-and-so, and that mom mothered so-and-so?" You don't see that. You just see dads fathering people, but do you see how different that makes the text in Genesis 3? When it comes to the spiritual enmity, it's just the woman mentioned, and then it's the seed of woman who becomes the Satan crusher.
Why? I'll tell you why. The same reason Scripture does everything. To get us to Jesus. To get us to Jesus. How so? This Satan crusher will have a unique relationship to a woman that he will not have to a man. Let me say that again. He will have a unique relationship to a woman that he will not have to a man.
Who does that remind you of? It reminds you of Jesus, of course, because he was born of a virgin. He was not fathered by any man. He had a unique relationship to his mom that he did not have with Joseph. Do you see why the text would be intentionally awkward? Because Mary's story is proof that this is who Jesus is.
Jesus is the Satan crusher. He's the human that God is going to do that through, and because that's the case, Mary's story and the virgin birth become quite a piece of evidence. Unfortunately, a lot of conservative Christians haven't given the story of Mary a lot of prime time. Because very conservative Christians realize that Christmas is not a religious holiday, I think, historically, we may not have given the story of Mary and the birth of Jesus enough prime time, enough air time.
If you know what I'm saying. And perhaps you are listening to the podcast and you're thinking to yourself, "Christmas is not a religious holiday? What are you talking about?" Well, it's not a holiday found in Scripture. I want to be sensitive to the fact that there might be someone listening to this and hearing that for the first time.
Many people assume that it is without researching it themselves. They just assume that because Jesus is talked about around Christmas and there's images of the birth scene that pop up in people's yards and whatnot, that it's a religious holiday, that it's something found in Scripture. But it's not. It's not found in Scripture at all.
Now let me say this note, please. There are lots of holidays we celebrate that are not found in Scripture. Birthdays, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, none of these are religious holidays, none of them are found in Scripture, and most people have no problem celebrating them to a certain extent. It doesn't bother me to put up a tree or lights or exchange presents.
None of that bothers me because, again, there are many holidays we celebrate that are not found in Scripture. Christmas is just another in the long list of holidays not found in the Bible. But because very conservative Christians, you know, have wanted to separate themselves from the idea of Christmas being a religious holiday, and sometimes they don't even want people to think that they have an association of it as a religious holiday, I think the story of Mary, I think the story of Christ's birth within some conservative circles, has not been given the airtime that it should be given.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her story is just as much evidence that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, as any of His miracles. I'll go one step further. Mary's story is the best piece of evidence tying Him to Genesis 3, because of the point that we just mentioned. He would be uniquely connected to a woman in a way that He was not connected to a man, and Genesis words it in such an awkward and even an impossible way so that we wouldn't miss it.
And then when the New Testament comes around, you see Scripture going out of its way to show that Jesus was separated from Joseph. So the Gospels of Matthew and Luke are where the genealogies of Jesus are found, along with the story of Mary, and both of them make it very explicit. But for the sake of time, I'm just going to give you Matthew's.
If you turn to Matthew chapter 1, if you're following along, if not, just listen along, but in Matthew chapter 1, listen to the beginning part of the genealogies. The genealogy of Jesus Christ, okay? Listen to verse 2. "Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Judah, and Judah was the father of Perez."
You get the point? He's the father of so-and-so. He's the father of so-and-so, and this guy's the father of so-and-so, just like we saw in Genesis 5. Fathered, fathered, fathered, fathered. But when it gets down to Jesus, the text breaks with that traditional way of saying it. Look at Matthew 1, verse 16. "And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ."
Notice something missing there? It never mentions Joseph was the father of Jesus like the rest of the genealogy. Matthew slips in Mary's name, and it says Jesus was born of her, an offspring of woman. But not connected to a man in the traditional genealogical way of saying it. What text does that make you think of?
Genesis 3, doesn't it? And we normally think about the virgin birth prophecy in Isaiah, because that's what Matthew will quote in a few verses later. When Matthew gets ready to talk about Mary and Joseph, the Scripture will say no less than five times, "This baby was not conceived from Joseph." I'm going to begin reading in Matthew 1, verse 18 through 25.
Matthew says, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son. You will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.'
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord spoke by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus."
Did you notice how many times Matthew goes out of his way to say that this baby was not born from Joseph? Just five times. Matthew says in verse 18, "Before they came together," that is, before they had sexual relations, and then twice at the end of verse 18 and in verse 20, Scripture says, "The baby is conceived from the Holy Spirit."
Then he quotes Isaiah 7 about the virgin conceiving and the baby being called Emmanuel, God with us. And then one more time, for good measure, just for good measure, the Scripture says, "Joseph knew her not until she had given birth to the son." Five times! And that's on top of the genealogy where Matthew specifically does not list Joseph as fathering Jesus.
Do you think God is trying to tell us something here? Of course he is. That Jesus was born of a virgin and not fathered by Joseph in a biological way. And yes, the most obvious connection is the one that Matthew quotes from Isaiah about being born of a virgin, but I'm also preaching that it uniquely connects Jesus to the Satan crusher in Genesis 3:15, who would have a unique connection to the woman, the woman's offspring, the woman's seed, that he would not have to a man.
Now, before we leave this lesson, I want us to think, just very quickly, about the crushing of Satan part of Genesis 3:15. There are a few passages that speak about the mission of Jesus in this unique way, as defeating Satan, that that's why he came. Normally, we don't speak about his mission as defeating Satan.
Normally, the New Testament speaks about Christ and his sacrifice for our sins when it speaks about Christ's mission, why he came. Think about John 3:16, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." Think about Jesus telling his disciples, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many."
Think also about the Lord's Supper, when he took the fruit of the vine, he said, "This is the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Those are just three quick references that speak about what he was doing, why he came, Christ's mission, in ways that we're familiar--the giving of himself, the sacrifice of himself.
But there are a few instances that perhaps we aren't as familiar with that speak about his mission as defeating Satan. Think about this one. This is 1 John 3 and verse 8. 1 John 3, verse 8, the last part of it. "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." Whoa! Isn't that interesting?
We would expect John to say something like this, "The reason the Son of God appeared was to give his life as a sacrifice." And of course that would be true too, just like we saw in those other few verses. But John says, "The whole reason he came was to crush Satan," if I could use Genesis 3 language. Remember where we started.
The defeat of Satan was just as important to God as anything. We saw that in God's response. The first thing God brings up is not the forgiveness of sins. The first thing God brings up is spiritual war, and that this spiritual enemy needs to get crushed. And so it makes sense that the Scripture would talk about Christ's mission in such a way.
Last passage, and this one is the most fascinating because it has Genesis 3, 15 all over it. You have to see this one for yourself. This is Hebrews 2, verse 14. Hebrews 2, verse 14 says, "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil."
Hebrews says Jesus' mission, as it were, was to destroy the devil. Destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil. The job of Christ was to crush the head of Satan. But that's not even the most fascinating thing about the verse. Here's the most interesting. What is the context of Hebrews 2?
The humanity of Jesus. And it's even mentioned there in verse 14. He himself partook of the same things, that is, flesh and blood. The whole context of Hebrews 2 is about the humanity of Christ. Now let me ask you, please hear this question. Why would the Hebrews writer talk about destroying the devil in a passage about his humanity?
Because that's how God was going to crush Satan, with a human! The Satan crusher of Genesis 3 would be the seed of the woman, the offspring of the woman. He would be a human! God would destroy Satan with a human! And here, the Hebrews writer is talking about the humanity of Christ, and coincidentally -- oh, there's no coincidence in Scripture.
There's no coincidence at all. Coincidentally, I say that tongue-in-cheek, it mentions Christ as a human would destroy the devil. Now get this. That's not even the last connection to Genesis 3:15 from this Hebrews passage. You know what else is hinted at? The bruising of his heel. How would this human crush Satan?
By dying himself. Through death, the text says. This human, Jesus, would be struck, stunned, hurt, bruised. He'd die. But in being bruised, he'd deal out the crushing blow to Satan through his resurrection. So you have a verse about his mission being to destroy the devil, you have a verse about his humanity, and you have a verse about him being hurt, bruised, struck in the process.
This is Genesis 3:15 if I've ever seen it! And that's the point. That's the whole point of the podcast. The Scripture leaves us with no other option other than to admit God could only accomplish this defeat of Satan through Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God. And I hope, in some small way, this episode helps your faith be even deeper in that fact.
Bryan: Alright, so I don't know if it, if I was the only one here, but in this whole sermon, I'm feeling these like superhero vibes all throughout the discussions of this epic, super, human Satan crusher that we learn about here, it's this epic story, right, of Jesus from long ago.
Allen: Yeah, I mean, I have Batman in the back of my mind at all times. He's the greatest superhero other than Jesus, of course. No, I didn't have Batman in mind when I studied Genesis 3. Ironically, I mentioned his deity in the lesson just very, very briefly. in this particular moment here in Genesis 3, I just love the fact that his humanity, rather than his superhumanity, is actually what is the focus.
And that's why I entitled it, you know, "The Human Satan Crusher." So, yeah, some of that was in the back of my mind, but more about just the fact that God was going to use a regular human.
Ryan: Yeah, that's the most shocking part of the gospel as you're getting through it and you keep thinking, "Okay, God's going to do something only God can do," and then you see, "Wait, it's going to be a baby? A child is born to you?" as you pointed out. And this passage that the whole thing is built around, Genesis 3:15, it's sometimes called the "protevangelium."
Have you ever heard that term? I love that word. The idea--it's the first message of the good news. And isn't it just like God to turn a curse into a blessing, placing within the first curse the first promise of Christ who will break our curse? And one of the things you do really well in your preaching is create momentum with intriguing questions.
And we've talked about this a little bit, and I think you're also great at building a case for your main point. And in this case, you leave no doubt that the seed of the woman is Christ, and you use these questions and arguments to propel the sermon forward and just sort of unveil the truth as we go, I think, as well as anyone I've heard.
And to me, it's clear you're pulling things together that you have just found fascinating, which is part of what sucks you in. But I wonder, how do you decide what points to build a sermon around?
Allen: I would say more often than not, it is something that intrigues me personally. It is something that has built me up. It is something that I need to hear myself. I need to put it on my heart. And, you know, we're so similar. There's nothing new under the sun as humans. So, if I need it, if I need it on my heart, there's got to be some people that need it too.
So, oftentimes, more often than not, it comes from a personal moment of reflection where I've realized just how good this is for me to hear and then just wanting to share that with the audience.
Bryan: How many times when you're studying the Bible do you run across something like you talked about in this sermon where the seed of the woman is being talked about and it's like, wait a second, that's a weird way to put that. Why did they put that that way? Like how many times do you run across that and just have to like write a little note about this has to be a sermon or there has to be something here.
I feel like that's just all over the place in the Bible and sometimes reading it as often as maybe we do, we take some of those strange terms or strange way of wording things for granted.
Allen: Oh, I mean, just about every time I open my Bible, man. I mean, think about how short the Scripture is, like just how few words God is describing thousands of years of history and even eternal history, you know, way back what was in his mind. And to think that that was all compressed in such a short document, I know it's several different books and this, that, and the other, but the amount of words that we have written down, it's just unbelievable how few there are.
And so, it's so awesome to see how strangely God words things just to pique our interest and open up our imagination. And I think it's a tool that God uses to excite us, to make Bible study exciting. So, I see it all the time. I don't always write them down. They don't always show up in sermons, but wow, it is all over the place.
And Scripture is so weirdly written. It's just so awesome, but on purpose, of
course.
Bryan: Weird on purpose, I think is a good way to think about the Bible for
Ryan: Strange and wonderful. It brings us to surprising places that we wouldn't expect to go. And there's so many interesting side points that you bring up in these sermons, and there's a whole conversation I kind of want to have with you about Christmas because you have an interesting conversation around that.
But just moving beyond that for now, at least, into the focus of Jesus and his birth that you bring, I am totally with you on the way so many people have neglected the Bible's teachings on Jesus' birth. And maybe as a way of correcting a perceived overemphasis by some religious groups. I once had a preacher tell me he would never preach on Christ's birth.
Never preach on it. So important.
But I really appreciated that point that you made there. And I was just thinking The thing that I struggle with or think about more than anything else in my preaching is the balance of topics that I preach on because I want to handle not only the truth, but handle the truth in proportion as Christ wants me to, to teach the whole counsel of God.
Do you have any strategies or anything you do to make sure that you're bringing the proper balance to your teaching?
Allen: Yeah. Before I answer that, I just want to make a note about the birth story. You're so right, man. And not only is it ignored sometimes, it's ignored for the purpose of why it was given. So, sometimes if people give it airtime, I say prime time on the lesson or airtime, if people do it, sometimes they just do it as a historical story, but it's there as an evidence.
I think I said in the lesson, you know, it stands as an evidence as much as any miracle. So, thinking about not just as the historical story goes, but thinking about why is it an evidence? I mean, this is why Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are written, so that we might believe, right? So, thinking about each and every story as evidence just helped me so much.
But to answer your question more directly about topics, and I have such a heart, and you can't hear it as much in the three lessons that will come upon your guys' podcast, but I have such a heart for expository preaching, just focusing on a text. It might go to a place over here, a place over there, but if we can just sit in a text and do that every single time we're with God's people, whether it be just a few in a Bible study or a sermon setting, we're going to get to everything.
You don't have to worry about, "Am I giving enough first principles? Am I giving enough end time stuff? Am I giving enough evidence and stuff?" We're just true to the text every single time we get together. Now, you could avoid texts, that's a problem, but if you're just studying a book and just kind of walking yourself through that every time you're with God's people, I think that's the best way to do it.
But it's on my mind too, because I don't want to be one of those preachers that just has a hobby horse or whatever. I do want to be fair and balanced and make sure, "Hey, newer Christians are getting stuff too, and Christians that have been Christian for 40 years and have a deep understanding of the Bible, they're getting something too."
It's hard. It's very, very difficult. But just sitting with the Word of God as it's written, that's the best way I know of. If you know of a better way, I'm ready to listen,
Ryan: just think, like you said, being self-aware all the time and constantly examine it. But yeah, expository preaching, making sure, "Hey, is there a book of the Bible, like you're saying, that I'm neglecting?" And just working through it. That is a really good way to stay faithful.
Bryan: yeah, this has been a great discussion. I know the sermon was great. It's been great to talk to Alan here on the episode and Ryan.
I suppose it's always good to talk to you too. So,
Ryan: I guess.
Bryan: you know,
Ryan: Oh, man, I didn't get to talk about Romans 1620. There's so much to talk about.
Allen: thought you might ask about that actually.
Ryan: Yeah, Do you think that ties in with Genesis 3.15, or you think it's separate because it's a different, it's not the same as
Allen: no, I do. I think there's something there. In fact, in this series, I circle back to that. I'm not sure which one it is. I think it's the third or fourth lesson. I get into Christ being the blessing to all the world, the seed of Abraham that blesses all the nations, all the Gentiles. At the end of one of those, I start transitioning to a, "I hope you're seeing that what we're seeing in Christ in the Old Testament has a lot to do with us.
We become the blessing to all the world." Then I circle back to stomping on Satan. I bring up Romans to say, "Hey," and in fact, I think I even said in the sermon, "You may have even thought I forgot about this in my human Satan-crushing sermon," but I did that to bring it back full circle and say, "A lot of these pictures of what we're seeing in Jesus you see in the church.
We get to defeat death. We get to be the blessing to all the world. We get to stomp on Satan because of us being empowered through Christ." So, man, there's just so much to talk about, so many connections. It's
Ryan: So good.
But this is just another example of how, yes, it's fulfilled in Christ's death. He crushes Satan's head. He is bruised in the heel.
And yet it's an ongoing story, and he's going to defeat him even more fully, and we are his body to defeat him. And there's a future fulfillment. You know, he will—God will crush Satan under your feet. And, yeah, what a cool thing for us to be able to be part of that. So
Bryan: Oh, I always think it's fun with this series Alan's doing is like, it's all of these Old Testament ones are not like self-contained individual lessons. Like they cross pollinate really well together, which I always appreciate. So it's like if you kind of follow the thread long enough, you'll realize that there's a lot of crosstalk and like especially anything related to Psalm 110 is going to be just like sprinkled in everywhere.
I had to throw that in there.
Allen: It comes in next
Bryan: It does
Ryan: Yeah. That's right. That's right.
Bryan: so if you liked this episode in two more episodes, we're going to have Alan back on here next week. We're going to have one of our own sermons again Here in this seven sermon summer surfing spectacular. And that'll be our third discussion.
until next episode, everyone, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
Ryan: Shalom!