04-19-2026 The Gospel Gardens

Text: Genesis 3:15; Matthew 26:36; John 19:41-42

                   We have just experienced a week of beautiful weather, and I hope you all have had an opportunity to go out and enjoy it and maybe do some work in your gardens.  Did you know that gardens play an important role in the Gospel – the good news of Jesus?  Gardens reveal the love of God to us.  The beauty of a garden reveals a loving designer, and the bounty of a garden reveals a loving provider.  This morning we’re going to look at three of God’s gardens:  the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Garden where the tomb of Jesus was.

                   After Creation, we know from Genesis 2:9 that God planted a garden.  It was a garden of beauty and pleasant to the eyes.  It was also a garden of bounty that provided food for those who lived there.  It became the home of Adam and Eve where all their needs were supplied.  God also met them in the garden for fellowship.  Genesis 2:3 tells of the one restriction God had for Adam and Eve while they lived in the Garden of Eden as we learn in 2:3:  They couldn’t eat the fruit of the forbidden tree.  But they gave in to the temptation of the serpent (who is Satan) and it caused them to be expelled the Garden as told in 2:4-13. 

                    Our first text this morning is found in Genesis 3:15 where we read:  “And I will put enmity [which means hostility or hatred] between you and the woman, and between your seed; it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”  This is where God revealed His plan of redemption for sinners and told Satan that he would be destroyed.  Christ, the Promised One, would bruise Satan’s head but Christ would have His heal bruised by Satan.  Satan is our enemy.  He will do anything he can to get us to follow his evil, deadly path.  The phrase “it shall bruise his heel” is a reference to Satan’s repeated attempts to defeat Jesus during his life on earth.  The phrase “it will crush your head”  foreshadows Satan’s defeat at Christ’s resurrection.  The head bruise would be fatal for Satan but the heal bruise would be nothing more than an inconvenience for Jesus.  So, we see that at the beginning of creation in the Garden of Eden God was revealing His plan to defeat Satan and offer salvation to the world through His Son Jesus.

                   This brings us to our next Garden that we learn about in Matthew in 26:36 where he wrote:  “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and said unto the Disciples, “sit you here, while I go and pray yonder.”  We know that this was just before arrested and shortly after He would be crucified.  Jesus went to the garden to pray because He knew the time to bruise the head of Satan was close.  He took Peter, James, and John with Him as He poured out His anxiety and sorrow in prayer to God, His Father.  Luke 22:42-43 tell us that an Angel came to strengthen Him as He was agonizing over what was to happen Jesus was so distraught that He sweat blood as He prayed.  Even though He asked God to take away from Him what was about to happen, He also said “Thy Will be done.”  Think about how hard that must have been for Jesus to tell His Father that His will was more important than what He was facing on the cross.  How many times do we pray for God to do what we want, but do so with the complete understanding and acceptance that we will let God’s will be done even if it means not getting what we want from Him? 

                   The third garden we will look at this morning is the place where the tomb where the body of Jesus was placed after He died by crucifixion.  John writes in chapter 19:41-42:  “ (41) Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never a man yet laid.  (42) They laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulcher was near at hand.”  The crucifixion is now over.  Jesus carried out the will of His Father in dying to defeat Satan and allow salvation for sinners like you and me.  He was placed in the personal tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin that was the Jewish Counsel.  Now the prophecy of Isaiah 53 telling of the suffering servant, Jesus Christ - our Messiah, had now been fulfilled because He was placed in a tomb that hadn’t held anyone before Him.  As they buried Jesus, Nicodemus, a Pharisee along and Joseph knew they had to hurry to avoid working on the Sabath, which began Friday evening at sundown.  This tomb was probably a cave carved out of the stone hillside.  It was large enough for two people to walk into because Joseph and Nicodemus placed Jesus’ body there. 

                   This borrowed garden tomb became the scene of the Resurrection.  John wrote in chapter 20, verse:1 that the stone closing the tomb was rolled away, revealing the linen clothes that wrapped the body of Jesus were there but not the His body of Jesus John tells us in verse 5.  Death could not hold our powerful Savior.  Satan’s power over mankind was now defeated.  And because of what He did on the Cross, death can never hold all who believe and trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord of their life.

                   Everyone I know that plants a garden receives a sense of accomplishment and peace.  Each  of God’s gardens is a revelation about our promised, prayerful, and powerful Savior Jesus.  Jesus didn’t live a human life that was easy or without problems or even temptation.  But He never gave into to Satan or wavered in His mission of coming into our world as a man or carrying out the will of His Father, God.  The next time  you are working in your garden, think about what God has done for you through His Son and that no matter how many problems and disappointments you may experience in your earthly life, you can never be defeated as long as you have Jesus in your heart and God in your life.  Yes, our world has a lot of ugliness in it, but nothing compares to the beauty God provides for us in the gardens.  When you make the decision to focus on the beauty and not the ugliness of this world, you will open your heart to the peace and joy that only God, through faith in Jesus can give you. Jesus will guide you through all your problems if you are willing to let Him.

                   Until we meet again, may God bless you and keep you, may He shine His light on you, show you grace, and give you peace in all the days ahead.