1. Creation and Science
An astronomer named Allan Sandage was an atheist until he was 50. He said he was nagged by mysteries whose answers were not to be found in the stars. One of those mysteries:
Why is there something rather than nothing? Sandage began to despair of answering that question through reason alone, and so at age 50, he willed himself to accept God. "It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It is only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence." (an article by Sharon Begley in "The Saturday Evening Post" Jan/Feb 1999)
Allan Sandage (and others like him) have had questions that science can't answer. But the Bible can: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2. The Bible is the story of God for man
* It explains some things about God and creation; as well as the God of creation
* God chose to include man in his story and we have the revelation of some of his activities in the lives of people
* God declared the origins of temptation; sin; death; and Satan as well as the coming of the savior -- the coming of God as a man
* The bible is a book of books -- 66 in total; divided in the English Bible into two testaments of one story (OT/NT);
3. The bible begins with the basics -- God creating all things
4. The Bible Answers how we got here
5. Consider some Beginnings from Genesis 1-6
I. The Beginning of the Heavens and Earth
A. The Creator --
1. God -- Genesis 1.1
2. The Spirit -- 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. Genesis 1.2
3. The Son -- Genesis 1.3 (3 And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. ) John 1.1-3 ( In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.)
B. The Created -- Order from Chaos
1. The Days:
Places of Creation: 1 -- Light and Dark; 2 -- Sky and Water; 3 -- Land
2. Purposes of Creation: 4 -- Sun, Moon, Stars; 5 -- Birds and Sea Creatures; 6 -- Animals and Mankind
3. The Sabbath -- Created or Designated in the beginning -- for rest -- 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation. Genesis 2.2-3
II. The Beginnings of Man and Woman
Maybe you've heard about the gorilla in a zoo holding a Bible in one hand and Darwin's Origin of Species in the other. He looked confused, so someone asked, "What are you doing?" The gorilla answered, "Well, I'm trying to decide if I'm my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother."
A. Both in the Image of God with Differences in Temperament (Ish and Ishah; YHWH)
1. Adam -- Formed outside of Eden; Eve Formed inside of Eden
2. Essentiality of Male and Female
B. The First Command (Genesis 1.27-29)
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." 29 And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.
ABORTION VS. ENDANGERED SPECIES -- which is a crime?
III. The Beginnings of Temptation and Death
Why is NYC called the "Big Apple"? -- So much Temptation
A. An Adversary to Test Us
A woman bought a extravagant dress, and the husband asked why did it have to be so extravagant, She said the devil made me buy it, The husband asked, why didn't you say get behind me Satan?, The woman said, I did and he said it looked as good in the front as it did in the back, so I bought it
B. An Appeal to the Basics of Our Being
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2.15-17
1. Eve and Adam
2. Yeshua (Jesus) in the wilderness -- Matthew 4; Luke 4
3. Us on a daily basis
C. Punishment -- Death -- The day you eat, you shall die
1. Adam did not die immediately -- lived hundreds of years; was separated from God by sin
2. Reminder of Grace
IV. The Beginnings of Salvation
A. A Sacrificial System -- a Response to God
In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster writes: "Worship is the human response to the divine initiative. ...Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father." (pp.158 and 159)
1. Adam and Eve -- skins to wear -- God showed them how to sacrifice
2. Cain and Abel -- proper/improper sacrifices -- necessity of blood (a place for plant offerings -- not here)
3. Noah offered sacrifice to God after the flood -- God saved mankind by his grace and with a flood
18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 3.18-21
B. The Sacrifice of the Son -- (start ANYWHERE in the Bible and come to Yeshua (Jesus))
1. First reference -- I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel." Genesis 3.15
2. God's Plan Embedded in the Names of Genesis 5
* Adam -- Man
* Seth -- Appointed
* Enosh -- Mortal
* Kenan -- Sorrow
* Mahalalel -- Blessed God
* Jared -- Shall Come Down
* Enoch -- Teaching
* Methusaleh -- His Death Shall Bring
* Lamech -- The Despairing
* Noah -- Rest (Or Comfort)
Put together as a sentence:
"Man has Appointed Mortal Sorrow, (but) the Blessed God Shall Come Down Teaching; His Death Shall Bring The Despairing Comfort.
1. God is the Great Initiator -- we respond to him
2. Some years back as you traveled along I-10 in Louisiana there was a large billboard which would catch your eye. It stood high above the city just as you started up the Mississippi River Bridge. On it was a picture of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross of Calvary, head bowed. The caption underneath said in bold letters, "IT'S YOUR MOVE!" What a powerful thought. God has already taken the initiative in salvation. Christ died for you. Now--it's your move! --
