Let There Be Light

Let there be Light

Genesis 1:1-5

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis 1:1-5, NIV

Light and darkness is contrasted all throughout Scripture. In Genesis these terms refer to the light of day and the darkness of night but in the New Testament these terms refer to the spiritual darkness that comes from being in a fallen state of deprivation and separation from God (Romans 3:23, 6:23) versus having the spiritual light that comes from being born of the Spirit (John 3:5-8) and adopted as His children (John 1:12). For many spiritual light and darkness are not easy terms to understand. For example, since God is pure light and in Him there is no darkness (1 John 1:5) does this mean that those who are born again no longer have the darkness of sin inside of them? Since we know this is not true of anyone (1 John 1:8-9) then how can a person say that they are truly born again? And since the cross is foolishness to those perishing in their sins (1 Corinthians 1:18) then how can the Spirit of God hover over and convict anyone to be born again when God cannot look on sin (Habakkuk 1:13)? In today’s sermon I am going to answer these questions by drawing an analogy between what we do know physical darkness and light to what we struggle to understand, spiritual darkness and light.

God Created the Heavens and the Earth

Before we get into the analogy I want to first turn your attention to the very first statement in Genesis: “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” While this statement seems straightforward it is the subject of great debate in philosophy, theology and metaphysics. While these debates are beyond the scope or intent of this sermon there are a few points that I would like to make. First, while Genesis 1:1 could refer to an extended period of time prior to the seven days of creation, the seven words of this verse were most likely intended to be not only a literary introduction to the Creation story but also an anticipation of the end of the universe when the new heavens and earth will come (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22). Until God spoke nothing existed but Him. Since something cannot be created out of nothing, Creation of all things between the heavens and the earth, which encompasses the entire universe, is to be seen as a divine activity in which all things seen and unseen owe their existence to Elohim. While the Creation story is not intended to prove or disprove scientific theories, given amble evidence of miracles in the Bible one can say with confidence that Genesis accurately teaches the origin of “matter, life, values, evil, grace, the family, nations, and other things—in a way that unites us all.”

Illustration – The Darkness and the Light

To help us better understand how much physical darkness and light affect our ability to function, I did the following illustration at church. I first constructed a cave out of some two by fours, plastic and a tarp. I placed a giant stuffed spider on the outside roof of the cave and spider web all throughout the inside to make it a little scary. I then took a black marker and wrote on the inside roof of the cave the following phrases from Genesis 1:3-5: “formless and empty darkness,” “Spirit of God was hovering,” “Let there be Light,” and “Separating the light from the darkness.” I then asked if any children wanted to volunteer. They got to choose one adult to accompany them so that they might enter and feel safer in the cave. I gave each child a glow stick. Once inside the cave the adult and child were to look for one of the above phrases and were permitted to use the glow stick if they wanted too. It was hard to find the phrases that were written in black on a blue background and even more difficult to interpret them for many words were written backwards. To make it more exciting those who participated and did not find a phrase a small prize, those who found a phrase with using the glow stick got a bigger prize and those who found a phrase without using the glowstick got the biggest prize. To make sure everyone got a turn each team was given a maximum of two minutes in the cave.