Where Do I Come From? Series

Daddy. Where do I come from?

There are few questions that teach a parent that they are not ready for parenting more than that one. For many of you that question was asked of you in a time before all the wonderful Christian resources that help answer that question existed.

This morning I am not really interested in how you answered that question, but I want to focus on the question itself. When a child asks "Where did I come from?", what is it that they are asking?

How did I get here?

How do I connect to the world and family around me?

In some sense even a child knows that if they are going to function in the present situation then they need to know the answer to where they came from.

The same is true for all of us. It is also true for God’s Word and his plan of salvation.

Let me give you an example.

New Tribes Mission used to begin their work in pioneer ministries by immediately translating a Gospel so they could immediately give the plan of salvation. In recent years they have changed their approach because they found that the Gospel needed its Old Testament roots as foundation. Now they take an approach that begins with Genesis in order to explain where this glorious salvation comes from.

So we need to go back and see where we came from to put all this in perspective.

1. The context of Genesis

after the Exodus

Sitting around Mt. Sinai

Where did we come from?

How did we get here?

2. Start at the beginning

Genesis 1

preliminary - seven literal days - day one he creates and names night and day

- each day - morning and evening

- people at Sinai

structure verse 2

formless -- days one to three

empty -- days four to six

3. The theology of Genesis one

Who is God?

A. God is great

God created Hebrew bara’ - only used of God

Some people make the comparison of our creativity and God’s. Only God creates out of nothing

The diversity of God’s creation

verse 14-18

verse 20-22

B. God is good

Seven times in 31 verses - God says it was good

perfection - everything was perfect in its order and substance

C. God is sovereign

Who is the real God to be served?

All the other gods of the nations are just created things to the sovereign God. Notice in verse 16 how the names for the sun and the moon aren’t even used. Those names were the names of gods in Moses day. And God says to him they were just lamps He hung in the sky.

This is why Genesis 1 is attacked so strongly. If Genesis 1 is true then God made everything including us - therefore we are obligated to Him.

Isaiah 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me,

6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.

7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.

8 "You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it.

9 "Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ’What are you making?’ Does your work say, ’He has no hands’?

10 Woe to him who says to his father, ’What have you begotten?’ or to his mother, ’What have you brought to birth?’

11 "This is what the LORD says-- the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?

12 It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshalled their starry hosts.