Genesis: Beginning the Beginning
Genesis 1
I. Intro: Good Morning everybody. My name is Travis Connick. I’m one of the Pastor’s here at FCBC! Before I begin I want to say two things. First off, many of you know, I officiated a dear friend’s memorial on Thursday and then drove back to Boise on Friday with my older daughter’s horse, and many of you were praying for those things...I greatly appreciate it.
a. Second, hopefully, you all know this last week, our Men’s ministry, Women’s ministry and AWANA program launched—and it was a great success. So thankful for Michael’s ministry with the men, Christie’s wonderful ministry with the ladies, and Sara’s work with all of our kiddos...please continue to pray for those ministries.
b. If you have your Bible’s, you can turn to page 1 of them. Genesis 1. We’ve just started a series in the Book of Genesis. Last week we did an overview of the entire book. And we need to remember the purpose of Genesis is to trace the themes of Creation, Fall and Redemption.
c. It’s telling the true story of God and humanity. That the One True God, sovereignly and purposefully formed and filled the world, and everything and everyone in it was subject to Him, but humanity screwed it up, by trusting the word of another, over and against the Lord’s Word, and humanity has been doing it ever since, well, this introduced sin and evil into the material world, which had devastating effects on humanity and the creation….but the Lord in love determines to redeem all of it, both humanity and the creation itself…this is the story of Genesis; it’s the story of God.
d. And this morning, we’re going to look at just the first section of it – the story of creation. And here’s the deal—Genesis 1 is not so much explanation as it is exaltation. It tells us how the Lord’s Word, Ways and Work bring forth life, order and rest....so with that, lets read Genesis 1, and when I say Genesis 1, the section actually goes to verse 3 of chapter 2.
II. Genesis 1:1-2:3
III. Preliminary Thoughts:
a. Now before we dive into what the text teaches us, let me make some preliminary remarks on Genesis and science because some of you already are thinking about it. Let me offer three pieces of pastoral advice before we look at what the text is teaching us...
b. First, recognize that Genesis 1 has always been a battleground within the church. I hope we would all affirm the inerrancy of Scripture—God’s Word is inerrant and true...and God’s World is the product of God’s creative power and that there’s nothe fundamental difference between the world and the Word. Where there’s a conflict, the conflict is between our interpretation of the world, which is in the realm of science, or it’s in our interpretation of the Scripture, which is in the realm of theology. When there appears to be a conflict, it’s because either our science is wrong or our theology is wrong....and lets be honest, mistakes are made in both groups....
c. So first, recognizes that Genesis 1 has always been a battle ground within the church.
d. Second, Be Careful How you Approach Genesis: Don’t come to Genesis 1 and impose whatever view you have onto it, whether that view is literal 6 day creation view or the evolutionary view....don’t try to make Genesis 1 fit any type of theory...when you do, you’re practicing Eisegesis, which is when you come to a text and rather than letting the text speak for itself, you impose a meaning to it...
e. And exegesis is when we try to “draw out” of the text what is actually there.
f. Gordon Wenham, one of the finest Old Testament scholars, who just recently passed away says this... “The Bible-versus-science debate has, most regrettably, sidetracked readers of Genesis 1. Instead of reading the chapter as a triumphant affirmation of the power and wisdom of God and the wonder of his creation, we have been too often bogged down in attempting to squeeze Scripture into the mold of the latest scientific hypothesis or distorting scientific facts to fit a particular interpretation.
g. When allowed to speak for itself, Genesis 1 looks beyond such minutiae. Its proclamation of the God of grace and power who undergirds the world and gives it purpose justifies the scientific approach to nature. Genesis 1, by further affirming the unique status of man, his place in the divine program, and God’s care for him, gives a hope to mankind that atheistic philosophies can never legitimately supply.”
h. Here’s the last piece of pastoral advice before jumping into the text: Whatever position you hold, and there’s at least 6 different views—hold it with humility---and don’t make your view a litmus test for orthodoxy—After Charlie Kirk’s death, I was listening to a debate he had, and he was asked what is one of his core beliefs, and Charlie Kirk said, “Always come into every conversation believing that you might be wrong.” That’s a heart posture of humility and one this church needs.
i. Because for centuries---long before the theory of evolution came about—for centuries Christians have differed over the interpretation of the six days of creation. Some highly faithful and highly educated theologians believe that the Bible teaches that creation took place in six twenty-four-hour solar days—people like John Calvin, William Henry Thrownwell and Louis Berkhof—by the way, because, I know you’re wondering, that’s the position I hold, but I don’t argue about it, and I don’t make it a test for orthodoxy.... because other highly faithful and highly educated people, like Augustine, Aquinas, Charles Hodge, Donald Grey Barnhouse and Francis Shaeffer believe the six days of Genesis did not limit God’s creating actions to 144 hours of six days....so whatever view you hold, do it humbly, with love for others who disagree with you, and don’t make it a litmus test for orthodoxy....is that fair?
j. Transition: Now make no mistake, Genesis 1 is all about God—God is the subject of the first sentence, and He dominates the whole chapter, with His name appearing 35 times in all, catching the readers eye again and again. This section, and really the entire book of Genesis is about God from first to last and if you read it any other way, you misread it...
IV. The First Thing This Section Tells us is that God’s Word Brings Forth Life! The opening words of the Bible tell us that before there was anything else, there was God...and the earth was without form and void...and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters...and God begins to speak...
a. We hear again and again these words, “And God said...” Verse 3, verse, 6, verse 9, verse 11, verse 14, Verse 20, verse 24, verse 26...and God’s Word Brings Forth Life...
b. Remember, Moses writes Genesis after the Exodus; after leaving Egypt...and he wants to assert who their covenant Lord is...by doing this...Moses...
c. Slide Up: Develops Israel’s Understanding of the True God: Well, how does He do that? First of all, Moses embeds the trinitarian nature of God in the very first line—the name for God there in verse 1...”in the beginning God,” is Elohim, and that’s in the plural form and the verb created is singular.
d. So on the one hand the Bible teaches that God is a unity—Deuteronomy 6:4, ‘Hear O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.” On the other hand, it is equally explicit that God is three persons—and all three persons were active in the creation account, because we see here that God the Spirit is fluttering over the face of the waters and we know from John 1 and Colossians 1 that God the Son was active in the creation...so in the very first line, Moses introduces the Trinitarian nature of God to Israel....
e. But then Moses affirms that God alone is eternal and everything else owes its existence to Him! This is why Psalm 90 says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” You can stretch your minds eye, as far back as time can go, and before time began, God was there.
f. And that their God is the Creator God: Moses is very deliberate in what he does here. He uses specialized vocabulary here. You see the word “created” in verse 1? That word “created” is only used of God in the Bible. Only God creates. And its used only for the most crucial items in God’s---verse 1, the universe; verse 21, animate life and verse 27 for humanity....God created everything there is an all of creation...He’s the Creator God...God created the sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, plant life, the animals....and all of these things are to serve the Creator...
g. now Moses by asserting this is also....
h. Slide Up: Dismisses Egypt’s False gods: Chapter 1 is a polemic against Egypt’s and the surrounding nation’s idolatry. Kent Hughes in his commentary points out, “Each day of creation attacks one of the gods in the pagan pantheons of the day and declares that that they are not gods at all.”
i. Moses is making a clear distinction between the God of Israel and the gods of the nations, because all the nations that surrounded Israel had multiple gods—you had the god of the sun, god of the moon, god of the stars, god of the seas, god of the produce and Moses is saying, “the God of Israel is the one true God and He created all these things, and they were created to serve Him.”
j. This is why Jeremiah in Jeremiah 10 says, “Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’
k. So Moses lays out the days of creation very deliberately and by doing so he develops Israel’s understanding of the One True God, He dismisses the false gods...and third....
l. Slide Up: He Dismantles Other Creation Accounts: One of the ancient near eastern creation myths from around the period of Genesis is the Enuma Elish-- I spent some time this week reading the Enuma Elish, and like other near east creation accounts it shared a singular thread—that there was competing gods and out of the carcass of the defeated foe, the world emerges. In the Enuma Elish—the god Marduck defeats his mother Tiamet to become the supreme god and out of her carcass creates the world… and humanity came about by the blood of another god, Kingu and humanity was created to do the menial work that the gods didn’t want to do...so the world and humanity come about by a struggle...
m. The Genesis account is striking in its difference...the universe is not the result of cosmic conflict, but is created intentionally by a single, Sovereign and wise God. And humanity is created in His image, not as a byproduct of a struggle, and entrusted to govern his creation on His behalf....Moses wants Israel to know that the Biblical creation account is a better answer to how the creation comes about then the polytheism and pantheism that they had just escaped from...
n. And by the way, it stands as a better answer than philosophical naturalism. Naturalism is what we’ve been swimming in since the enlightenment. Naturalism asserts that only natural laws and forces operate in the world. The ultimate reality is nature. The quick and dirty way to think about naturalism is “Nothing is before, behind or beyond nature.” Or as Carl Sagan so famously put it, “The Cosmos is all there is, or has been, or will be.”
o. The Bible asserts that God is there and he alone is eternal. The existence of God is the presupposition that makes the most sense of the cosmos and of our shared life.
p. It answers the One Big Cosmic Question: Why is there anything at all, instead of nothing?
q. If anything at all exists, something must have always existed. That something then is either person or impersonal.
r. It makes much more sense that a Person created stuff, than stuff created a person....it makes much more sense that Mind created Stuff than that Stuff created a Mind….So the Creation account answers the One Big Cosmic Question…
s. But it also answers the four big human questions. (Ravi Zacharias Material)
t. The Question of Origins—The Creation account tells us that the Lord sovereignly and personally Created and that we’re made in His image. Naturalism says we are complete accidents—and so is our ability to think, to appreciate beauty, and love one another…So the creation account has a better answer to the question of Origins…
u. The Question of Meaning- What’s meaning and how do I find meaning in my life?
v. The Biblical answer is that we’re created to know, love and glorify God. When Jesus was asked what’s the greatest commandment, He said, ‘You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s meaning.
w. Naturalism says, “Well, you’re just accidents, but there is meaning, but you’ll just have to make meaning for yourself…so the Bible provides a better answer.
x. The Question of Morality- Where does morality come from and who gets to determine it? The Biblical answer is that humanity was created in the Image of God, and therefore we’re to reflect His character which gets revealed in His word…and what you find when you read His Word is that goodness and righteousness is His character and that’s to be expressed in community.
y. Naturalism says, “Oh there’s morality—and then what they do is they hijack all the morality that’s taught in the scriptures while trying to divorce it from the Scriptures.
z. The last question of the big four human questions is the question of Destiny. The Creation account tells us that we were created for a perfect world with the Lord at the center and the Bible tells us that Christ’s people are destined for a re-created universe where we will stand upon a renovated earth, with redeemed humanity and experience permanent rest in Christ…Naturalism says that we will cease to exist as will the universe…
aa. You see the creation account and the Bible has better answers to the 1 big cosmic questions but also to the four big human questions…
bb. Now listen, if you’re going to reject the Biblical account of Creation and stay in philosophical naturalism, than to be consistent you must agree with what Bertrand Russell said nearly a century ago. Russell states, “That man is the product of causes which had no pre-vision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of all the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system and that the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins---all these things are so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.”
cc. Now listen, you can stand on “an accidental collocation of atoms”, which is utterly depressing, I mean seriously pass the Prozac, and by the way, it gives you no meaning or purpose in the here and now, nor any hope for the future or you can stand on “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” His word brings forth life....
dd. How powerful and transcendent is God? He speaks forth His Word and the universe is formed and it starts teeming with life! God’s word is incredibly powerful and brings forth life....
V. Slide: The second thing this section teaches us is that God’s Way Brings Forth Order. In verse 2 we read, “The earth was without form and void...” And what happens is God begins to form it and then fill it...and out of the chaos He brings order.
a. The six days of creation are perfectly divided, so that the first three days describe the forming of the earth and the last three days is filling the earth. Kent Hughes again, “The two sets of days are a direct echo and remedy to the opening statement that the earth was “without form and void.” The earth’s formlessness was remedied by its forming in days one to three, and its emptiness by its filling on days four to six. This is exactly what happened, and Moses was at pains to make sure his hearers (and us) do not miss it.”
b. Our God is a God of order...which means God’s ways are intentional; He’s not a God of disorder, but of order. And you and I are created in His Image, which means there’s to be an orderliness to our lives, as we come under God’s word and His ways....
c. If you life is always chaotic; if it is always out of control, could it be that you’re not submitted to God’s Word and coming under His ways? If you’re not coming under His word and ways, you’re actually trying to do life against the warp and the woof of the universe....the very structure that your life is to be built upon....and it’ll always therefore be chaotic...
d. but the very same God who flung the stars out into the unfathomable, expanding universe, while at the same time orchestrating life in the irreducible complexity of the cells of the human body will act on your behalf, as His word and ways shape you....
VI. Slide: The third thing we see here is in chapter 2:1-3, and that God’s Work Brings Forth Rest. Look at verse 1 in chapter 2
a. Read Verses 1-3: After the first three days of forming the creation and the next three days of filling the creation, capped off by the creation of man, which we’ll talk about more in the days ahead, the Creation lacked nothing...there was a completeness to it—"the earth spun perfectly in its orbit around the sun in majestic twenty four hour rotation. The well-ordered planet swarmed with life under the joyous watch of the first couple” (Waltke).
b. And God rested! Why did He rest? It wasn’t because he was tired! He didn’t need a breather, like you and I do...His rest was one of deep satisfaction and joy at the fruit of His labor.
c. He blessed it and made it holy—one day per week is to be given over to the Lord....
d. Slide: Bruce Waltke in his commentary on Genesis says, ‘In the first six days space is subdued; on the seventh, time is sanctified. It summons humanity to imitate the pattern of labor and rest of the King and so to confess God’s lordship and their consecration (devotion) to him.”
e. The sabbath is a gift to God’s people—one day per week to cease striving, to cease working to remember that their God is their sustainer, to meditate upon His word, to celebrate and worship Him as their Creator and Redeemer...He rests from His Work and He calls His people to enter into the rest He provides....
f. Look at what the creation account tells us—God’s word brings forth life; His ways bring forth order, and His work brings forth rest...and the beauty and spiritual symmetry of the Bible’s opening chapter becomes even clearer in light of Jesus Christ, because Jesus the source of new life was present when creation was spoken into existence....
g. In John 1 we read these words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men...
h. Jesus is the Word made flesh—who will create new life in you, when you come to Him in repentant faith; you’ll pass from death to life... and more than that, just as God brought forth order by forming and filling creation, He will form a new heart within you, and fill your life with incredible purpose—the purpose of bringing glory and honor to God by embracing His Word and His ways, and when you embrace Christ as your creator and savior, rest comes to your soul because the burden of your sins is lifted.
i. This is why Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls....”
j. And these realities are present at the Lord’s table—we rest and rejoice that God became flesh and went to the Cross where His body was broken and His blood was spilled so our sins could be paid for, and we could receive new life in His name and the reordering of our hearts so Jesus Christ is our supreme treasure....
So I’m going to ask the worship team to come back up---and if you’re a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ the table is open...if you’re not, however, let me say this, we respect you completely, and we would ask that you would respect us and this meal—as this is a covenant meal for believers in Christ.....so the Lord’s table is open...