The Great Escape

The Great escape

Genesis 1:26-29 New International Version (NIV)

24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds:the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”

And God saw that it was good.

God blessed them

As a child I loved escape stories from world war two.

My favourite though was the true story of the Wooden horse - Dreaming of a modern Trojan Horse, the prisoners constructed a gymnastic vaulting horse largely from plywood from Red Cross parcels. The horse was designed to conceal men, tools, and containers of dirt.

Each day, the horse was carried out to the same spot near the perimeter fence and, while prisoners conducted gymnastic exercises above, from under the horse a tunnel was dug. At the end of each working day, a wooden board was placed back over the tunnel entrance and re-covered with surface dirt. The gymnastics not only disguised the real purpose of the vaulting horse, but the activity kept the sound of the digging from being detected by the microphones.

For three months three prisoners –in shifts of one or two diggers at a time, dug over 100 feet of tunnel using bowls as shovels and metal rods to poke through the surface of the ground to create air holes. No shoring was used except near the entrance.

One evening in October 1943, Codner, Williams, and Philpot made their escape. And eventually returned to Britain.

These three men escaped the evil world they were in and returned to their starting point in the free world!

In the Genesis reading this morning we discover our starting point - And God saw that it was good.

But there came a moment in a time called the Fall – Where Adam and Eve were deceived into allowing sin to come into the world. The creation was good but sin tainted everything. It’s impact grew so exponentially that all of history was, and is, tainted by it. What was once good and beautiful became distorted and horrible until in this modern world we live in we find ourselves in a prison camp – surrounded by cruel guards who present lies as truth and who mock the truth and call it lies.

How then shall we escape?

2000 or so years ago – God provided an escape route through the cross of Jesus Christ – so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.

What I wanted to explore this morning was to consider, what is available to the person who accepts Jesus as Lord and Saviour – If we have escaped this world through Jesus then, what does the landscape look like for the Christian who returns to the spot where it is good?

1. They escape loneliness. Scientist Albert Einstein wrote, "It is strange to be known so universally, and yet to be so lonely."

Writer Ernest Hemingway wrote, "I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into."

2. Marilyn Monroe said, "Sometimes I think the only people who stay with me and really listen are people I hire, people I pay."

But we escape loneliness through friendship with Jesus:-

Jesus said -Matthew 28:20-Remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.