Cited in sermons
John Sailhammer
6 sermons · All people cited
The Promise of the Messiah
Genesis 3:14–24 contains the first announcement of the gospel — the proto-evangel — in which God promises that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, though at the cost of his own suffering and death. The sermon traces four observations from verse 15: the Redeemer would be a man born of a woman, would accomplish victory through suffering, through death, and in total victory over the devil. The latter half of the passage is then examined for the hope that extends beyond the fall: Adam's naming of Eve as 'mother of all living' as an act of faith in God's promise, and God's provision of tunics of skin as a typological foreshadowing of blood atonement. The hearer is urged to cast faith upon the seed of the woman — the Lord Jesus Christ — who has done what Adam and Eve, and what every sinner, could not do for themselves.
Genesis 29:1-30
Genesis 29:1–30 narrates Jacob's arrival in Haran, his meeting with Rachel, and his marriages to both Leah and Rachel through the fraud of Laban. The passage is examined in three movements — arrival, meeting, and marriage — with particular attention to the irony that Jacob the deceiver is himself deceived by his father-in-law. The overarching application is the doctrine of divine providence: God works sovereignly through morally disordered and even perverse circumstances — the switched brides, Leah's unexpected marriage, the messianic line through Judah — to accomplish his redemptive purpose in Christ.
Genesis 10:1-32
Genesis 10, the 'table of nations,' traces the seventy nations descending from Shem, Ham, and Japheth after the flood — but Moses is doing far more than recording ethnography. The genealogy is a deliberate theological narrowing: from all nations, to Shem's line, to Eber's son Peleg, and ultimately to Abraham, identifying the family through whom the promised seed of Genesis 3:15 would come. The chapter also grounds the later Gentile inclusion in the covenant promises of God, confirming Noah's prophecy that Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem — a reality James cites at the Jerusalem Council from Amos 9.
Genesis 2:4-14
Genesis 2:4–14 introduces the man placed in the garden, and this study draws out two interlocking themes: the creation of Adam from the dust as both image-bearer and creature, and the Garden of Eden as the first temple-sanctuary. The garden is shown to be the original holy mountain of God — the unique place of his presence — with Adam functioning not primarily as a gardener but as a priest called to tend, guard, and expand that sacred space. This priestly vocation, forfeited by the first Adam, is traced through the tabernacle, the Solomonic temple, Mount Zion, and ultimately fulfilled by the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose work brings the garden-temple theme to its consummation in the new Jerusalem of Revelation 21–22. The study closes with a call to prize corporate worship as the present Mount Zion and to live as faithful priest-servants of the God who has purposed communion with his people from the beginning.
The Testing of Abraham
Genesis 22 presents one of the most demanding tests of faith in the Old Testament — God commanding Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, on Mount Moriah. This exposition works through three movements in the narrative: the presentation of the test, Abraham's obedience, and God's approval, before turning to the rich typology the passage contains. Abraham typifies God the Father who spares nothing in giving his Son; Isaac typifies the willing, obedient Son of God; and the ram caught in the thicket typifies the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ at Calvary, where no angel intervened and the knife of divine justice fell on the Son of God's love. Read your Old Testament as a believer in Christ — Genesis 22 is about Jesus.
Abraham's Faith and God's Promise
Genesis 22 presents the supreme test of Abraham's faith: the commanded sacrifice of Isaac, the son of promise. The passage is expounded under three headings — the presentation of the test (vv. 1–2), the obedience of Abraham (vv. 3–10), and the approval of God (vv. 11–19) — with close attention to the three-day journey, Abraham's silent faith, and his confession that 'God will provide.' The sermon moves from the historical narrative to its Christological typology: Abraham foreshadows the Father, Isaac foreshadows the Son, and the substitutionary ram of verse 13 foreshadows the Lamb of God, so that Yahweh-Yireh finds its ultimate fulfilment at Calvary. Hearers are called to the same contrary-to-hope, unwavering trust in the promising God that marked Abraham's life.