• Genesis 1-2 NIV
1:1 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 . . .
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them . . .
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
INTRODUCTION:
Bang! Many scientists believe that the universe started with a bang, a big bang that is. I must confess that I don’t have a problem with the big bang theory because I believe in a ‘Big Banger’ who said, “Let there be. . .” and bang there it was!
This morning we are going to start a series looking at the book of Genesis called, “THE BEGINNINGS OF HOPE.” As we make our journey through this first book of the bible my prayer is like Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you” (Eph 1:18 NIV). In 2008 I pray that you will overflow with hope, that your confidence and faith in God will be unshakable.
And so we look to the opening pages of the Bible. THE BEGINNINGS OF HOPE is found first “In the beginning.” Creation shows us the certainty of our hope. The biblical account of creation shows us that we can have hope through a relationship with God.
ILLUSTRATION: Perhaps you remember the old TV sit-com or have seen it on “TV-Land” staring Carroll O’Connor All in the Family. Archie Bunker often found himself at odds with his meathead son-in-law Mike. In one episode Archie and his wife Edith were having a discussion about God when Mike interrupts with the question, “What God?”
Archie is about to answer Mike when his daughter Gloria chimes in, “Yea, what God?”
Archie can’t believe his ears. He knew his son-in-law was an atheist, but he could not believe his daughter said such a thing. He looks at her and says, “Yous weren’t brought up that way little girl!”
To which Gloria responds, “I know Daddy, but we just don’t see any evidence of God.”
It’s my prayer that as we look at creation today that you will not only find evidence that the God of the Universe exists, but more importantly that you will know with absolute certainty that creation gives you the hope of a relationship with God.
I. The God of the Universe
1. Stop and imagine all the wonders of creation. GOD MADE IT ALL.
• Psalm 102:25 NIV
In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
• Isaiah 40:12 NIV
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
a) Think about how great our God is! The waters that fill the depths of the oceans God measures in the palm of his hand. The starry heavens that stretch across the night sky as far as they eye can see from the north to the south, the east and the west and beyond the horizon, all the wonders of the universe God measures with the width of his hand!
b) As vast as the universe is, and scientists now believe that the universe is getting bigger all the time, God is bigger still. God fills the universe with His presence.
2. Jesus is the God of creation!
a) Imagine; the God Who fills the universe stepped into His creation and became one of us.
• John 1:1-3 NIV
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
b) Jesus not only brought about creation by His powerful word, but without Him creation would fall apart!
• Colossians 1:16-17 NIV
16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
• Hebrews 1:2-3 NIV
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son . . . through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is . . . sustaining all things by his powerful word.
c) We have an amazing creator God. He is not a creator like the watch maker who winds up his creation and then leaves it setting on a table to wind down. God is intimately involved with His creation. He stepped into creation through the incarnation—God became flesh. He is Emmanuel, God with us. But even more God is still involved with His creation sustaining it and holding it together through His power.
3. The God of the universe is revealed through His creation.
• Romans 1:20 RSV
Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.
a) Creation declares with one voice, “God, the creator of everything exists! God is real.”
b) Knowing that creation reveals God to us, lets take a look at the wonder of God’s creation.
II. The Universe God Made.
1. Like a master builder God followed a divine blueprint in the creation of the universe.
a) God brought about all creation in six days. In the first three days God created the form or laid the foundation for His creation. In the second three days God filled the form of creation, or built the frame and house that stands upon the foundation.
ILLUSTRATION: Another way to imagine the days of creation is like how I put together a jigsaw puzzle. The first thing I do is put together the boarder and then I fill in the pieces that make up the fullness of the puzzle’s picture. In the first three days of creation God created the boarders of His creation and then in the last three days of creation God filled creation with its fullness.
b) God’s six days of creation went like this:
FORM
Day 1: Light and Darkness
Day 2: Separated waters between Earth and Sky
Day 3: Dry land with vegetation and seed bearing plants and trees
FULLNESS
Day 4: The Sun, Moon and Stars
Day 5: Fish and living creatures to fill the waters and birds to fly through the sky
Day 6: Living creatures, livestock and wild animals—MAN
2. Man, both male and female, is the pinnacle of all God’s creation.
a) You and I are not the result of natural selection or evolution. Neither the monkey nor the ape is our distant uncle. Man is unique and separate from all the rest of God’s creation because man alone has been created in the image of God.
• Genesis 1:26 NIV
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule . . .
b) The creation of man is unique and unlike anything else that God created. All creation is the result of a DIVINE COMMAND, but man is the result of DIVINE CONSULTATION. God spoke all creation into being. The Lord said “Let there be,” and it was! But God did not create man with a command. Rather God consulted with Himself saying, “Let us make man in our image.” Then God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his being. GOD ACTED IN A SPECIAL WAY WHEN HE CREATED MAN.
c) The creation of man is also unique because man was created in the image and likeness of God. Now for man to be made in the image of God has been interpreted in a lot of different ways. However, the consultation of God in the creation of man tells us one specific characteristic of what it means for man to be created in the image of God. Man was created in the image and likeness of God TO RULE—to have dominion over God’s creation. Thus man acts as God’s viceroy or governor to exercise authority over God’s creation. God set an order within creation that inferior creatures (that is those not made in the image of God) will fear and serve man in the same way that man is to fear and serve God.
3. When we think about the vast universe God has made and the reality that God has made us in His image it points to one undeniable truth. This truth of creation is our hope.
III. Man was created to enjoy a relationship with God.
1. Everything God created was made with you and me in mind.
a) This earth and the universe itself was created to give us life. The fact of the matter is that you and I are the center of God’s universe!
• Ephesians 1:4 NIV
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world . . .
b) Before God thought of anything else, before God imagined the colors of a sunset; before the Lord thought of the mountains rising above the horizon or the oceans stretching out beyond the horizon; before God thought of anything else GOD THOUGHT OF YOU AND ME!
c) That’s why God created man last. Everything else had to first be created in order to sustain man’s life and give him pleasure. The reality that man was created last is also a humbling reality because God did not need our help to create anything. God did it all and then created us in His image so that we can enjoy a relationship with God.
2. How important are we to God? God, the Creator of the all the universe, looked through out all creation and took notice of man made in His image and likeness, of you and me, living here on planet earth.
a) The earth seems pretty big to you and me. The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles (I think it’s fair to round that off to 25,000 miles). Now that seems big—bigger than I can wrap my mind around. I think it would be easier to image our earth as the size of a golf ball. I can get my mind around a golf ball—for that matter I can pick it up and examine all sides of it. (The only thing I can’t do with a golf ball is hit it straight!)
b) So let’s picture the earth as the size of a golf ball. And now imagine yourself shrunk down to the size that you can stand on that golf ball. Can you see yourself on that golf ball making its way through our imaginary universe? God can. He never loses sight of you. He knows exactly where you are in the universe He made.
c) So if the earth is the size of a golf ball then how does it compare to our sun?
1. The earth is 93 million miles away from the sun (that’s a long way). Now if we shrink the sun down in proportion to our golf ball sized earth then we are only 1,642 feet away from the sun (that’s just about three tenths of a mile or about 547 yards—a long par five for you golfers).
2. The sun is 109 earths wide (and is as high as it is deep). That means that the sun could hold 1.3 million earths inside of it. Now to help put that into perspective, if the earth were a golf ball then the sun would be a ball 15 feet in diameter. Another way to think of that would be imagine a school bus filled with golf balls from floor to ceiling. Our sun is pretty big. You and I are standing on just one of those 1.3 million golf ball sized earths. God knows exactly which one and knows exactly where you and I are at on it because we are the center of God’s universe.
d) How does the earth compare in size and space to our sun’s closest neighbor star Proxima Centauri?
1. Proxima Centauri is a red dwar star and part of the Alpha Centauri star system. This closest neighbor is 4.22 light years away or 270,000 times farther than the earth is from the sun. If the earth were the size of a golf ball then Proxima Centauri would be only about 83,966 miles away!
2. Proxima Centauri is a small star compared to our sun, just 1/7th the size. That means at our golf ball size scale it would be a ball about 2 ½ feet in diameter and hold only about 185,714 golf balls. In other words you only need to fill the trunk of your car with golf balls. It’s a lot easier to find the golf ball you are standing on in there compared with the one in the school bus. But the trunk of your car is so far away now! Don’t worry God is bigger and can still reach out his hand to pick you up on that one golf ball sized earth among 185,000 or so others.
e) How does the size of the earth compare to Betelgeuse?
1. Betelgeuse is the second brightest star in the constellation Orion located about 427 light years from earth. (At our golf ball size scale it would be over eight million miles away from earth!) If it replaced our sun at the center of our solar system its circumference would fall between Mars and Jupiter.
2. Betelgeuse is 750 times the size of our sun! Take your golf ball and travel to New York City and set your golf ball sized earth next to the empire state building. Now imagine five more empire state buildings stacked on top of the empire state building. That’s how wide the diameter of Betelgeuse would be in comparison to your golf ball sized earth! Betelgeuse is so enormous that if it too were reduced in scale to our golf ball sized earth then you could fit 262 trillion golf balls inside of it—that’s enough golf balls to fill the Superdome—3,000 times! But our God is still bigger! And once more God knows exactly which golf ball you are standing on. God has not misplaced you in the universe because He wants to have a relationship with you.
f) How does the size of our earth compare to the largest know star in the universe Canis Majoris?
1. Canis Majoris is a red hypergiant star located in the constellation Canis Major. This is the largest known star and one of the most luminous stars known. It is located about 5,000 light-years from Earth.
2. How big is Canis Majoris? If our sun were replaced with Canis Majoris its circumference would extend to the orbit of Saturn! If a human could walk on the surface of Canis Majoris at a speed of 3 miles per hour for 8 hours a day, you would have to walk for 650,000 years to circle the star (compared with 2 years 11 months to complete the same task on the Earth, or a mere 310 years 7 months on the Sun).
3. Canis Majoris is so large that if it were reduced in size in proportion to our golf ball sized earth it would hold 7 quadrillion golf balls (7 thousand million million or 7015)– these golf balls would cover the entire state of Texas 2 feet deep. Can you still find yourself on the golf ball that you are standing on? Me? I’ve completely lost my golf ball among the other 699 (trillion), 999 (billion), 999 (million), 999 (thousand), 999 other golf balls! But God has not lost you! The Lord is bigger than Canis Majoris and knows exactly which golf ball you are standing on. Out of all creation you are made in the image of God—made to have the hope of a relationship with God.
CONCLUSION:
• Ephesians 1:4 NIV
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world . . .
1. The God of the universe has created everything that exists. By His command the universe was made out of nothing.
2. Not by the command of His spoken word but by the consultation of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let Him rule . . .” All of the rest of creation that God spoke into being was made for the purpose of sustaining the life that God would breath into man.
3. You and I are the center of God’s universe. He has not abandon His creation, but remains intimately involved with it. God knows exactly where you are. God loves and cares for you. Creation gives us the hope of enjoying a relationship with God.
• John 15:15 NIV
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
(Potions of the golf ball sized earth were gleaned from a message by Louie Giglio – www.268generation.com)
