INTRODUCTION
• Today, we begin our Core 52 journey together.
• Before we dove in, here are some housekeeping items to cover.
• Each Sunday (except on Faith Promise and for a couple of weeks in December), Jerry or I will cover a chapter in the Core 52 book.
• We will follow the sequence in the book: Chapter 1, then 2, then 3, etc……
• On Monday, you will start the chapter in your book.
• In your book, you will spend 15 minutes a day five days a week.
• You will find your assignments for the week at the end of each chapter.
• On our Website, you will find a memory verse help video that will help you with the memory verse for the week.
• I will show you week one during the announcement time.
• On our Core 52 page on the Website, you will find other resources like memory verse cards that you can print off and a link to the Core 52 site.
• Core 52 is essential for individuals and groups who want to build confidence in God’s Word.
• Think of Core52 as a fast pass to biblical literacy, calling for 15 minutes a day, five days a week, for one year.
• Author Mark Moore identifies the most power-packed passages and distills them into a digestible format for busy people who want to gain proficiency with Scripture.
• This study is not a verse-by-verse study of the Word.
• During the 52 weeks in Core 52, we will examine the mountain-top verses that will give you a fast track to better knowledge and understanding of the Word.
• People are interested in the Bible but do not know where to begin; many feel they are too busy to start.
• Core 52 will allow even the busiest people to master the core of the Bible.
• Instead of one 52-week series, Core 52 is set up as a 12, 4-6-week series within the main series.
• Each message is related to the others, but they do stand alone.
• If you miss a week, you will not be lost, like missing a lesson in Algebra, but I would encourage you to go to our website or YouTube channel to watch any messages you miss.
• With the housekeeping out of the way, let’s begin our journey.
• Today, we start at the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, which will also be your memory verse for the week.
• The author of Genesis has been attributed to Moses both in the Old and New Testaments, including Jesus in John 5:45-47.
• Luke also tells us Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.
Luke 24:27 (NET 2nd ed.)
27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures.
• Moses refers to the first five books of the Bible.
• Moses most likely wrote Genesis along with the Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
• Genesis is a book of beginnings.
• In fact, the word Genesis means beginnings.
• Genesis shows us not only the beginning of our world and humanity as a whole, but we see the beginning of marriage and family. We see the beginning of civilization and culture. (Dan Raymond, Beginnings Sermon)
• In Genesis, we also see the beginning of everything getting messed up.
• Genesis shows us the origins of human failure, death, disease, and natural disaster.
• Ours is a glorious world of beauty and wonder and a world where something has gone wrong.
• We also see the beginning of God’s plan to fix what is broken in Genesis.
• God has a plan to bring people back home to the paradise He intended for them.
• We see the beginning of the hope and help that we most desperately need.
• Genesis 1:1 is a passage that is vital for us to understand because this passage sets up the foundation for the rest of the Bible.
• Genesis 1:1 answers many of the questions scientists spend billions of dollars answering.
• The passage also answers many important questions in life, such as “How did I get here?” and “What is my purpose in life.”
• Genesis 1:1 is simple yet profound.
• Let’s begin our 52-week journey!
Genesis 1:1 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 reveals:
SERMON
I. The priority of God in respect to time.
• Let’s begin by placing our focus on the first four words of Genesis 1:1, IN THE BEGINNING GOD!
• Four words can be so powerful and answer so many questions.
• The implications of Genesis 1:1 are staggering.
• Something must be eternal; something must be an uncaused first cause.
• The question is, what was the uncaused first cause?
• We have a couple of choices: one, matter, or the universe, creation, or two, God.
• That which is the uncaused first cause would, in my estimation, be God.
• Over time, in an effort to discount God, humans have developed various “isms” in an effort to explain away God.
• The first sentence of the Bible throws down the gauntlet to several “isms” that oppose the Biblical worldview.
• Let’s briefly look at six of these “isms” that are the opposite of the truth of God.
• Genesis 1:1 affirms that in the beginning, God EXISTED!
• This fact is in direct opposition to ATHEISM, which teaches from a worldview that God does not exist.
• In the Old Testament, the word for God, ELOHIM, is used over 2500 times.
• This word shows God as one who rouses people’s fear and reverence by His nature and works.
• ELOHIM emphasizes the power and transcendence of God.
• Atheism is all about replacing God with themselves.
• Atheism is an effort to set oneself as the maker and decider of all things.
• Genesis 1:1 also makes it clear that ONLY ONE GOD EXISTS!
• The verb in verse 1 is singular, necessitating the conclusion that the world was created by ONE God!
• This thought takes down another “ism,” polytheism, the belief in MANY Gods.
• The pluralistic unity of the Godhead is suggested by the fact that the word for God (’elohim) is plural while the verb is singular.
• Later revelation will make clear that the one God manifests himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• Thus, Unitarianism is opposed.
• Unitarianism is a theological movement named for its belief that the God in Christianity is one entity, as opposed to the Trinity, which defines God as three persons in one being: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• Unitarians, therefore, believe that Jesus was inspired by God in his moral teachings and he is a savior, but he was not a deity or God incarnate.
• Genesis also teaches us that the universe has a beginning and will have an end; therefore, matter is not eternal.
• The universe is not the uncaused first caused, but rather the creation.
• Materialism teaches that material possessions are of supreme importance; therefore, there is no need for the spiritual aspects of life.
• Thus, materialism is knocked out.
• We also see that God is distinct from nature; God created the heavens and earth.
• Pantheism is the belief that all things are part of a single divine reality.
• There is no distinction between deity and reality.
• Pantheism goes down for the count!
• Since God created the material universe, He is obviously superior to it and, therefore, in control of it.
• This fact slaps down the “ism” of fatalism.
• Fatalism is the philosophical doctrine that states that all events or actions are inevitably determined by natural or external causes.
• Genesis 1:1 affirms that God is the uncaused first cause, the only one that is eternal.
• Let’s look at our passage again.
Genesis 1:1 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 reveals:
II. The priority of God in respect to position.
• IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED…
• Since God has priority in time, it makes sense that He also holds priority in position.
• Put another way, He is God alone, and all else is NOT!
• There is no competition for the position of God; God alone is sovereign!
• Genesis 1 recognizes God’s priority of position in four ways.
• First, God exercised His sovereignty when He named the various facets of His creation.
• He who gives a name is superior to the named.
• In the ancient world, when someone conquered a city, the conqueror renamed the city as a show of sovereignty.
• In Genesis 1, God names light and darkness, the waters and dry land, the sky, etc..….
• Second, God exercised His sovereignty when He delegated responsibility and authority.
• On day four, god appointed the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night.
• On the sixth day, God gave humans dominion over the earth and the animals on the earth.
• Therefore, humans are prohibited from worshiping any creature, for humans are superior to all except the creator.
• As a demonstration of man’s dominion, Adam named all the animals, showing his superiority over the animal kingdom.
• Third, since the lesser is blessed by the greater (Heb 7:7), the three blessings pronounced by God in the creation narrative are evidence of his priority of position.
• God blessed fish and fowl on the fifth day (1:22), man on day six (1:28), and the sabbath on day seven (2:3).
• Finally, God exercised his sovereignty by imposing restrictions on the created order.
• Four times, God ordered various life forms to reproduce “after their kind” (1:11, 21, 24, 25).
• While there is some debate about the boundaries embraced in the word “kind” (min), the word certainly rules out evolution from one-cell creature to man.
• Since God created, He is God; the creation is not to be worshipped; this is why God can prohibit the worship of anything else in the Ten Commandments!
• We also see a glimpse of God in creation.
Romans 1:20 (NET 2nd ed.)
20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse.
• When we look at creation, we see common similarities, indicating a common Designer.
• When we look at the genetic code of DNA, we see a clear picture of a Designer.
• The ultimate proof of creation is the fact that the universe exists and is governed by the laws of nature.
• When we look at creation, we see that the biblical account is true in that each reproduced its own kind.
• Although microevolution may be accounted for in species, the biblical account would discount macroevolution.
Genesis 1:25 (NET 2nd ed.)
25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.
• We also see the trinity was part of the creation process, co-equal, co-eternal with God the Father.
• God the Father was the architect.
• God created the elements out of NOTHING!
• The Holy Spirit was the engineer.
• The breath of God is the Spirit that gives life to all!
Genesis 1:2 (NET 2nd ed.)
2 Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.
• The Son was the builder!
• Jesus was active in creation from the beginning!
John 1:1–3 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.
2 The Word was with God in the beginning.
3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.
• This all leads us to our final but important thought: let’s look at verse one for a final time.
Genesis 1:1 (NET 2nd ed.)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 reveals:
III. The priority of God in respect to your life.
• Genesis 1:1 reveals some major implications for our lives.
• We are all created by God; we did NOT evolve from some other form of life.
• If we are not created, we make the rules for life, and furthermore, there is only this life since we are just a mistake of nature.
Psalm 139:13 (NET 2nd ed.)
13 Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother’s womb.
• Not only were you created by God, you were created in His image!
Genesis 1:27 (NET 2nd ed.)
27 God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.
• You are not a mistake!
• You are made in God’s image, so you are special!
• And because you are made in God’s image, your life has a purpose much larger than living, consuming, and dying!
• Your life is meant to praise God and lead others to Him!
Ephesians 2:10 (NET 2nd ed.)
10 For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.
• Since we are created by God, He also gave us the job of managing His creation!
Genesis 1:26 (NET 2nd ed.)
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”
• You are special, and our life is called to be about Him, honoring Him, and leading others to Him!
CONCLUSION
• Genesis 1:1 is a passage that is vital for us to understand, it answers so many questions!
• The big question is, do you have the courage to accept the answers Genesis 1:1 has to offer?
• Are you willing to re-examine your life based on those answers?
• Humans marred God's creation with sin, and as a result, creation fell; however, there will be a final re-creation through Jesus.
• Jesus is available to all!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NET 2nd ed.)
17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!
• Are you ready to be a new creation in Christ?
