In the Beginning

Introduction

It is a pleasure to be here this morning.

I am honored to begin this role of serving you as your pastor.

My hope is to build a ministry that focusses on walking with you through the scriptures building upon your love and understanding of God’s reveled word.

I believe that passivity in the Christian faith is not an option.

The current speed at which information moves in our world means that we are constantly being indoctrinated by something or someone.

If we are not careful, our understanding will be altered by unbiblical influence.

We must realize that the beliefs and values that many of us hold are being attacked, not only from the outside world but from within the church as well.

We live in a world that has rejected God's design.

This rejection of God’s design can be traced to a rejection of what we see in the beginning chapters of Genesis.

This rejection is not new; in fact, Satan has been pushing this rejection from the beginning.

Over the next several weeks we are going to be studying through the first few chapters of Genesis.

We will be addressing a topic called worldview.

One’s worldview will determine the lens through which a person sees the world.

I believe its important that we re-establish our foundations for what God has said regarding His creation so that we can strengthen our Christian worldview.

We will be looking at the book of Genesis because, here we can see how God originally created the world, what went wrong, and the beginnings of God implementing His plan to bring about restoration.

I have entitled this series "Beginnings".

What better way to consider the beginnings of God's creation than to do so at this beginning of a new year and new ministry.

Our Scripture reading this morning will be on the first 2 verses of Genesis chapter 1; so if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Genesis chapter 1 and if you can, please stand as we honor this reading of God's word.

IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Lets pray

Father, we come to you today asking that you do a mighty work in this service today. Our prayer is that as we consider this passage, that we will be enlightened by the truth that we find in it. We are thankful that you have chosen to reveal yourself to us in this way that we may know you better. God I pray that you would use me as your vessel that others may be drawn closer to you. I pray these things in Jesus’ name

Amen

You all may be seated.

We must note that the main focus in the creation narrative of the Bible is not the creation itself but the Creator.

The writer of this passage constantly draws the attention of the reader to God.

Any study of the creation narrative should lead us to a greater worship of our creator.

As we look upon the creation itself we should be drawn to amazement for the one who created it.

The feeling of awe that we get gazing at the stars of the night sky or casting our eyes upon a beautiful landscape should drive our worship of God, not a worship of the creation.

This study of Genesis will be geared toward focussing our attention to our Creator.

We must use this study to reestablish our worship to God.

With these two verses we can see a few timeless truths regarding the origin of the universe. Many people speculate about the origins of the universe, but any theory of the beginnings of all things must be submitted to the timeless truths found in these verses. The first timeless truth we can see is...

God’s Pre-Existence

For this timeless truth, we will consider the first part of verse 1

1 In the beginning God...

God’s Assumed Pre-Existence

Looking at the first few verse of Genesis, it’s important to note that the writer assumes the pre-existence of God.

Many of the origin narratives of the religions in Moses’ day would not have begun with this assumption.

In ancient near-eastern religion, many of the gods that were worshipped had beginnings themselves.

In our day, one of the favorite questions of skeptics is “if God is the creator of all things, then who was the creator of God?”

The first few words of this chapter cut through both the pagan beliefs of Moses’ day that claim that their gods have a beginning and the skeptics question regarding the origin of God.

God Has no Origin Story

These words in Genesis 1 begin with the assumption that God does not have an origin story, He is the origin of ALL THINGS and does not Himself have an origin.

He is the uncaused cause, the beginning of ALL THINGS, God needs no origin story because He has no origin.

This concept is difficult for us to comprehend.

Our world is consumed with understanding the origin of things.

Entire fields of study are devoted to understanding the origin of the universe from a materialistic perspective, documentaries are published explaining how different companies got their start, and in fictional works, people crave to know the origin story of their favorite characters.

In super hero stories, one of the most popular story tropes is the super hero’s origin story. People will go to extreme lengths to theorize what any particular hero’s origin is leading up to the release of the official version of the story. As we consider the origins of the universe, it’s only natural for us to wonder about the origins of the hero of the biblical story— that is God— but the Bible is clear, God has no origin.

The Importance of God’s Pre-Existence

God’s preexistence is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith.

To believe that something or someone came before God is to place something as greater than He.

The Mormons believe that God was once just a created man like we are.

Their belief is that humans have the ability to gain god-status and therefore, the is an infinite number of gods just like God of the Bible.

They claim that since they only worship the God of the Bible, they are not much different than we.

This belief is incompatible with the Christian faith.

The primary purpose for our worship of the biblical God is that He is the ultimate source of power and authority Everywhere at all times.

Any system that rejects God’s existence in eternity past cannot be compatible with biblical Christianity.

We can also see that the whole Trinity was present in eternity past.

Verse two mentions that the Spirit of God was present in the beginning.

His activity in creation is made known almost immediately.

Then if we look over at John 1:1 this shows us that the Son was also present with the Father and the Spirit.

John 1:1 KJV 1900

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John’s use of the phrase “In the beginning” would have drawn his readers’ attention to the first words of Genesis. John drew a correlation between God’s pre-existence and the Word’s pre-existence.

It is helpful for us to know that God has always existed.

The reality of an uncaused Cause answers philosophical questions that go unanswered in other theories.

Philosophers who reject the existence of an eternal God have no satisfactory answer to ultimate origins.

The Christian view of an eternal God answers the dilemmas that go unanswered in other worldviews.

We must recognize that God has always existed in 3 persons. Any theory of the origins of the universe must submit to this truth.

Genesis 1:1 gives no argument for the pre-existence of God, its simply assumed to be true. This is telling because it supports the argument that man is without excuse for not knowing God. We have everything we need to know who God is. Our rejection of Him is a result of our own stubbornness and disobedience. The next timeless truth that we draw from this passage is...

God’s Creativity

For this timeless truth, we will consider the remainder of verse one.

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

What Does this Mean?

Verse 1 says that God created the heaven and the earth.

This terminology is a creative way of saying that God created the whole universe.

Look to the sky and what you see is God’s creation, look to the earth around you and what you see is also God’s creation, look in the mirror and what you see is God’s creation.

God has made all of these things as a testament to His power and majesty.

What we see in this verse stands as an argument for giving all worship to God alone.

The False Beliefs of the Creations

Worship of the sun, moon, and stars was popular in the days of Moses.

Moses pointing to Yahweh as the creator of all things eliminates any inclination to worship these created beings.

In our own day we can see remnants of this sky worship in the different practices that utilized the positioning of the starts to understand the future or to get answers to deep meaningful questions.

We also see other types of creation worship (I.e. materialism, climate activists, and even an over emphasis on politics can turn to a form of creation worship)

Genesis 1:1 cuts through these false practices.

Moses makes clear that God is the Creator.

Worship should be given only the the one who brought the whole of creation into existence.

Psalm 8:3-4 is a beautiful consideration of God’s creative activity over the heavens.

Psalm 8:3–4 KJV 1900

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?

The identification of God as creator also eliminates any idea that different gods represent different geographical regions.

A popular belief existed in the days of Moses that held that each nation had their own gods.

Moses’ identification as Yahweh as the Creator of all things removes any notion of geographically distinct gods.

In our own society, we can see the newer concept of COEXIST.

This concept of COEXIST is basically a repackaged version of geographical gods.

The idea is that people who grow up in different cultures have the right to worship whatever god they want and that everyone’s religion should be considered equally valuable.

Genesis 1:2 eliminates any delusion of the COEXIST mentality.

The Clear Teaching of Scripture

What we have here in Genesis 1:1 is the undeniable claim that one God created ALL things, thus this one God is owed worship by all people.

Romans 1:20 indicates that through His creation, God has revealed His invisible attributes to ALL people.

Romans 1:19–20 KJV 1900

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

How wonderful it is to have intimate knowledge of the Creator of the universe.

The fullness of God’s word gives progressively more understanding of who God is, and how He relates to His creation.

As Creator, God has not simply made all things and then left it to itself.

He has from the very beginning involved Himself with His creation in an intimate way.

God’s most complete revelation of Himself was in His Son Jesus who, as Creator of all things, inserted Himself into His creation.

Jesus came as the one to bring about the final redemption.

We can see a beautiful description of this in John 1:1-3; 14

John 1:1–3 KJV 1900

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John 1:14 KJV 1900

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

John’s explanation of Jesus’ incarnation is a reminder to us that God (our Creator) gave up his heavenly home for a time so that He might walk with us.

We owe all worship and honor to God, because He is the reason we are all here. No other being deserves our worship.

So we see in verse one that God is the eternal Creator of all things. Beginning in verse two, we see the final timeless truth…

Chaos and Order

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

What Does this Mean?

Verse two states that the earth was without form and void.

There have been different understandings of what this statement means.

Some have said that the formlessness and void is a result of some pre-Genesis race lead by Satan that brought destruction on the earth creating the chaos.

Others have wondered if God somehow created something less than perfect; that God needed to somehow fix an early mistake of His creation.

I believe both of these views fall short of the biblical evidence.

Progressive Creation

I believe that we see in Genesis 1:2 is a description of the earliest phase of God’s progressive creation.

Initially, God created the “space” that He would ultimately fill, and the rest of His creative process is Him giving the space its intended purpose.

So when verse 2 speaks of the earth being formless and void, what it is saying is that God’s full intended purpose had not yet been brought forward in His creation.

To understand this better, I think of an artist who works on a piece that cannot be truly understood until the work is finished. Someone looking on while the artist works may be confused by the perceived chaos of the art, but once the artist reveal his finished product, it becomes clear that the artist never lost control of his creation. He knew exactly what he was doing.

In the same way that the artist never lost control, we must recognize that God did not lose control of His creation.

We know that God does not do anything that is less than perfect, but He does often work in a progressive manner.

What we see in verse two is a description of God’s uncompleted work rather than His imperfect work or some destruction of a previous creation.

God’s Intention for the Chaos

God had no intention of leaving His creation in this incomplete state.

What we see in the rest of verse two is that even in a state of what we might perceive as chaos, the Spirit of God remains present hovering over the surface of the formless and void Earth.

As God plans to move forward with His planned order, He is there, continuing to maintain what He has already done.

This is comforting to know as believers because we see from the very beginning how God often works in the form of process rather than completing something immediately.

God begins with preparation then moves to completion.

How Does this Apply to Me?

Can you remember a time in your life when you were in the midst of what seems like total chaos; all control over your situation has been lost?

What we see in the creation process should bring us comfort to know that God may still have you in the preparation process of His work.

You may look back on that chaos and realize how God had used that time to bring you where you needed to be for his completed plan.

Philippians 1:6 tells us that God will always complete the work that he has begun.

Philippians 1:6 KJV 1900

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Conclusion

From just these two verses, we glean a wealth of understanding about God and the origin of all things.

We learn that God is Pre-existent; that is God has always existed and has no origin Himself

Next we learn that God is the Creator of all things; He alone is worthy of our honor and praise.

Finally, we looked at the chaos and order that was in the beginning of creation; God’s creative work is progressive, and just when we thing that all order is lost, God’s process is reveled to show that God was always in control.

Maybe you are here today and you can affirm all that we have discussed this morning.

Hopefully we have been able to firm up some of your existing understandings of these things.

Or maybe this message has caused you to question some of your understandings of God and creation

My hope is that you would prayerfully consider these things to see if they do align with the teachings of Scripture.

If you are here today, and you have no relationship with our creator, I pray that you would be drawn to your Creator and savior today.

I mentioned that Jesus is the most complete revelation of God to His creation.

Jesus came to offer himself as the savior from our sins.

We have not given our creator the worship that He deserves and we have been given over to our sin.

Jesus resolves that conflict through His sacrificial death and resurrection.

You can accept Jesus’ sacrifice today and be in relationship to Him today. My prayer is that you would do that and join us in our worship of the Creator.