Bible Passage: Genesis 3:1-15
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: February 22, 2026

Bulletin – February 22, 2026

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Our text today from Genesis 3 is often called the story of “The Fall.”  Right here we are confronted with a question.  How bad a “fall” is it?  I mean, not all “falls” are the same.  Some falls are rather minor and some are rather major.  Falling and skinning my knee is not the same as falling off the rim of the Grand Canyon.  So what is the story before us today?  Is it the story of humanity skinning its knee or of humanity plunging off a cliff?

I think you know the answer.  This is bad, really bad.  It is difficult to find a word to describe the magnitude of the Fall.  Catastrophic.  Disastrous.  Devastating.  Cataclysmic.  Dire.  Fatal.  This is the day the universe broke!  There is no way to paper over this scene and minimize it.  It is in every way a great Fall.

But tucked at the end of our text is hope.  It is the hope of fallen mankind.  It is God’s answer, it is God’s promise, it is God’s “fix” for the brokenness sin has brought.  The remedy for A Great Fall is A Greater Savior.

Before the Fall in our text, there was another “fall.”  We don’t know much about it.  But a number of angels rebelled against God and were thrown out of the presence of God.  The “ranking” angel of this rebellion we know as the Devil or Satan.   It is this fallen angel who possesses the body of a serpent and comes to the man and woman.  Has God really said, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden? (v. 1)  So benign.  So harmless.  But he is a snake.  If a snake can get his head into an opening, he can get his whole body in.  The devil wants more!

Eve takes the lead.  She clarifies.  They can eat from the trees in the garden.  But the tree in the middle of the garden, the one called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that one is off limits.  Says Eve to the devil, God has said, “You shall not eat from it.  You shall not touch it, or else you will die.” (v. 3)  Here we want to say, “Good, Eve!  If you’re not going to eat it, don’t even touch it!”  And Eve was very clear on the consequences of disobedience:  death.

Now the serpent moves in for the fatal strike.  You will not certainly die. (v. 4)  Alarm bells should be going off now!  Wait!  Stop!  That’s a lie!  That is the complete opposite of what God said!  This is no longer a question of interpretation, “Did God really say…”!  This is a lie!  Little wonder that Jesus once declared, [T]here is no truth in him [the devil].  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44-45)

The devil is not done lying.  God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (v. 5)  There is the big lie!   There is the lie that stands back of the devil’s temptations to this very day.  Kids, teens, this is the BIG LIE.  The devil wanted Eve to believe, he wants you to believe, that disobeying God is liberating!  God’s “rules” are holding you back.  They are keeping you from being happy.  They are preventing you from being “all that you can be.”  Life gets better if you do what you want!  This is THE lie Satan tells over and over and over again.  And we keep falling for it.

Just like our first parents.  Eve glances at the tree.  Wow!  That fruit is really plump and juicy.  It looks delicious.  It’ll be yummy, and it will make me like God!  It’s a two-fer!  She picks a piece and sinks her teeth into it.  She shares with Adam, who was with her.  We wish we could talk to Adam.  “Adam, why are you silent this whole time?  Why do you say nothing?  Why do you stand there like a cow staring at a new gate while bone-of-your-bone and flesh-of-your-flesh is deceived?”  He finishes chewing his bite and swallows what will kill him.

“The Fall.”  Adam and Eve are broken.  Immediately, they are aware they are naked.  Why is this an important detail?  Because what they feel is shame!  They hadn’t felt shame before!  After their wedding in Genesis 2 we are told, The man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. (Genesis 2:25)  Shame is the immediate by-product of sin.  Shame is that feeling that we will be seen “naked” and what we truly are.  They cover their nakedness with fig-leaf loin-cloths.  Worst of all, they try to hide from God!  They flee from him!  They want none of him!

They, we, need help.  We need rescue.  We need a Rescuer.  Enter the LORD God.  He calls.  He seeks.  God listens as Adam throws his dear wife under the bus.  “It’s her fault!”  He listens as Eve blames the devil.  And then he promises to fix everything.  Speaking to the serpent who is still on the scene, the LORD promises to send the Seed of the Woman.  “Seed.”  Adam and Eve knew about seeds.  Seeds are the next generation of plants.  People also have “seeds.”  We call them babies.  The Lord says a woman is going to have a baby who will crush the devil’s head.  Mary had a baby who did just that!

The meta-narrative of the entire universe is the story of God undoing the Fall!  The meta-narrative of everything is God sending a Savior to defeat the devil and restore life in Paradise.  This is what Jesus did.  He is the Seed of the Woman.  John tells us, The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1 John 3:8)  And he did!  We see it in the Gospel lesson today.  Adam fell when tempted; Jesus does not fall when tempted!  Every demon from hell obeyed and submitted to Jesus’ commands.  With his death on the cross for sin, Jesus took away Satan’s leverage to accuse us!  With his resurrection from the dead, death is defeated!  The serpent’s head is crushed!  Game, set, match to the Seed of the Woman!

The Fall into sin was indeed great.  It made this world a dystopia of sin and and death.  We long for relief and rest.  We long for, we ache for, our original home:  paradise.  The work of Jesus Christ restores an eternal paradise to us!  The Fall was great, but Jesus is greater!

Amen.