Creation - Why Are We Here?
(You can listen to this sermon on audio on my podcast at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/697261/2432831)
Intro:
• [SERMON BUMPER VIDEO] - Apollo 8 astronauts reading from Gen. 1 - found on Youtube.
• Noteworthy that humanity’s reaction to being in space was to search for the answer to the fundamental question of existence.
o First time we see our beautiful planet we’re motivated to ask how all this got here.
• The answer offered wasn’t science but scripture. The “origin story” is as old as mankind.
• The origin question the astronauts struggled with on a cosmic scale is the same question nearly every small child recognizes and asks of her parents: “Where did I come from?”
o From mommy and daddy. This answer will suffice for a short while but eventually we seek more fulfilling explanations.
• In the 21st c. it is unfashionable and “simplistic” to say that everything exists because God made it. But that is precisely the answer given over 5,000 years ago in the beginning of God’s revelation to mankind. His words to His creation. We call this collection the Bible.
• It makes sense to begin in the beginning to study the Bible with the goal of being transformed.
Core 52 Verse for this week:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Engaging the Text
Genesis 1:1–2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
• In the beginning - We orient ourselves to the world by time and location, beginnings and endings. Space.
• God - The agent of creation. Unlike the pagan origin stories, God exists before anything materializes.
o the pagan stories have the material world first and gods created from the struggle between chaos and order.
• Created - God is over and supersedes anything in the universe. He is eternal, matter is temporary.
o God has ultimate control over the creation. Bringing order from chaos.
• Heavens and the earth - a simple way to say “everything.”
God is the True Origin
Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
• This means that everything we experience in this world is an extension of God. Not the other way around.
• Practical implications: the environment (world) we live in is a mirror designed to reflect the glory of God (but is not God.).
• By acknowledging the God created everything, we also realize that he made it “good.”
God Made it Good
• God, who is the definition of good, looks at His creation and repeatedly declares it “good.”
o Light: 1.4; Water & dry land: 1.10; plants: 1.12; Sun, moon, stars: 1.18; Fish & birds: 1.21; Animals: 1.25; Man as epitome of creation, summation of his work, very good: 1.31.
Psalm 148:3–10 Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! 4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. 6 And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. 7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, 8 fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! 9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! 10 Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!
• He made it good to say something about Himself.
Romans 1:20 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
• He originally made it good for us to manage.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
• While “good” was cursed by the Fall, God still has a plan.
God Has a Plan
• In two weeks, we will cover the Fall of creation from goodness. Enough to say right now that everything went badly in Gen. 3.
Ephesians 1:8–10 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
• This isn’t just for humanity but for all creation.
Romans 8:19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Conclusion:
• Why are WE here?
• To be Christ’s agents in the plan.
• But we have to start at the beginning to know where to go and why.
