Genesis 1:26-31, “Kings and Queens in America”

We’ll start a new series of messages today with a simple question. How should we live as Christians in America in 2024? Simple question, but think about the implications. This is another election year. There are voices all around us trying to get you to vote a certain way. They will stoke your fears. They will provoke you to anger. They will try to get you to mistrust or even hate your neighbor. They will make it appear that the destiny of our world hangs on a certain candidate or political party. We have choices to make. We have responsibilities as Americans.

But what are our priorities as Christians? We say we believe the gospel.

As a starting measure, how does the gospel impact our priorities as Christians in 2024 America?

We learned in Colossians,

Colossians 1:13–14 (ESV)

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The gospel is about the kingdom of Jesus, God the Son. Jesus offers us a new life, a new creation, if we will repent of our sin and believe in Him, make Him our king. The gospel Paul and the other Apostles preached is that Jesus is Lord. Jesus lived a perfect life, was crucified for our sins, raised from the dead, and has authority to forgive sins and give us eternal life.

But saying “Jesus is Lord” had political overtones in the first century Roman Empire, in which Caesar was Lord. How do we translate the same counter-cultural and transformational message into our context? If Jesus is King, and we are His subjects, how does that impact the choices we make as Americans? What should be our priorities in an election year, or at any time? Whose voice should guide us? What is His voice saying right now?

If we go back to Jesus, He preached the same message Paul was preaching. The gospel of God is about HIs kingdom.

Mark 1:14–15 (ESV)

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

When people heard Jesus preach the gospel of God, what did they hear? Apparently it is good news that the kingdom of God is “at hand”. It is accessible. It is within reach of all of us. So what is that kingdom and how do we live in that kingdom if we already live in a country with its own laws and systems?

If we are going to understand all of that, we will need to go back to the beginning. The gospel is universal because every human being was created by God for the same purpose. To know God and make Him known on the earth. We were to partner with God in His kingdom over heaven and earth. But that purpose was broken when we sinned against God and decided we would make our own choices about how to live on the earth. And the brokenness is universal too. Jesus came to restore us to our purpose.

Your Were Made to Rule

Our glory and our problem are one and the same. We were created in God’s image to partner in His king-dom. We were created to be kings and queens under the King of Kings, the King of the Universe. When we rule on the earth under the authority of God in heaven, all creation flourishes. But when we rule outside of His authority, all creation groans.

Genesis 1 tells us that we were created in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26–28 (ESV)

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,

and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The word used here, “dominion”, is the same as to have “kingdom”. Being created in the image of God means that we were created to share in God’s kingdom, His rule and reign over creation. But when we think of dominion, we may think of one of two things. Either we think of a specific geographic place. Or we may think of words with negative connotations like “dominate”.

But we’re looking back at this passage through the eyes of fallen mankind. What kind of dominion is God’s kingdom? For one thing, it is universal. Genesis 1 makes clear,

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Everything is God’s. He created it. But also,

In the Kingdom of God, Ruling is Cultivating Fruitfulness

Genesis 1:31 (ESV)

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

God loves His creation. He called it very good. His kingdom, His dominion cultivates fruitfulness and life for His creation. So, when God creates humans in His image and gives them a partnership in His kingdom, our dominion over creation should look like His.

Genesis 2:15 (ESV)

The Lord God took the human and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Then, when God creates the female out of the human, she is called a “helper”.

Genesis 2:18 (ESV)

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Being created in God’s image, male and female, is a beautiful and glorious calling. We were created with a purpose. To image God, to reflect Him on earth. To rule over the earth as God rules. To help one another lovingly cultivating a good creation, so that everything flourishes.

Scientists have pointed out that if we start at the bottom of the food chain, and care for the green plants on earth and under the sea, you can cultivate life for all creation. And you can see this reflected in our passage.

Genesis 1:29 (ESV)

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

If we cultivate and care for creation, all the rest of God’s creatures flourish,

Genesis 1:30 (ESV)

And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Our dominion over the earth was intended by God to cultivate fruitfulness and flourishing. When we live under God’s authority and partner in His kingdom, we cultivate fruitfulness by being farmers and builders and fishermen and gardeners and architects and ranchers who care for creation. But we also cultivate fruitfulness in our relationships with others by being teachers and mentors and husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and friends and who care for neighbors. And at the center of everything, when we cultivate our relationship with God by listening to His voice and obeying His word and surrendering to His will in prayer, this is the way that we flourish.

Let’s make one observation about kingdom and ruling at this point. In God’s plan, kingdom, dominion is not to control and dominate us, but to care for us. When God created us in His image to be His partners in His kingdom rule, His plan was that we would cultivate fruitfulness and flourishing for one another. We serve God, we care for creation, and we love one another.

This is the creation as God intended; the creation He calls “good”.

Genesis 1:31 (ESV)

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

The question then becomes, what went wrong? The world is not as it should be. We are not as we should be. Our relationships with God and with others are broken. We have broken everything. How did this happen?

You are Broken in Your Sin

On page three of the Bible. On our first day on the job, we decided to put ourselves at the center. Instead of serving God and caring for one another, we want everyone and everything to serve ourselves. But if everyone is doing that at the same time, there are obvious problems. We break everything. Now we need more than farmers and gardeners and architects and builders and teachers. We also need doctors and social workers and soldiers and police and firefighters and lawyers and repairmen, who do their best to tend to the brokenness. But it never fixes the root problem, only some of the symptoms.

Jesus Restores Us to God’s Kingdom Purpose

So, this is why Jesus came. We had turned the world upside down. He came to put it back to rights. He was God the Son, who took on a human life and lived it according to God’s plan. He became the new human who would restore the kingdom of God for the rest of us. He began by recognizing our broken reality.

Matthew 20:25–28 (ESV)

But Jesus called [his disciples] to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,

even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In the kingdom of Jesus, leaders serve. They cultivate fruitfulness in others. Even in America, we can take our rightful place as kings and queens, but not to dominate others. Our royal calling is to partner with God to seek flourishing in His creation.

What are some ways we do that here in America in 2024?

The world is operating in an upside down way. Everything is broken by our sin. Our flesh tries to dominate and control for the sake of self. Jesus lived differently, loving God the Father with His whole being, loving as a servant. Then He died to serve all of us. His death was overturning the system of sin and brokenness and the kingdom of sinful man. He was restoring the kingdom of God, in which we can flourish and be fruitful again. In fact, the New Testament writers call His resurrection from the dead a “first-fruits” of a harvest of humans who will repent of their sin and unite themselves with Jesus to become the new creation with Him.

The gospel is that the kingdom of God is at hand for all who will repent and believe in Jesus. The kingdom of God is the world as it should be. The kingdom of God is a new creation life, in which we flourish, not by taking from others, taking from creation, and taking from God to serve self, but we flourish by serving God by caring for others and creation. What would this look like in your work, in your school, in your neighborhood, in your family?

You will flourish only as you put God first, others second, and self in last place. It is completely contrary to everything your sinful self will tell you is right.

So, this happens only as we are united to Jesus by faith. He puts us right again. We need to die to the self dominated by sin. But we can be raised to new life with the resurrected Jesus. And He lives His life in us and through us.

Communion

Questions for Discussion

What are some reasons you are thankful for our country?

What are some ways that we are blessed as Christians in America? What makes it difficult to be a Christian in America?

What do we learn about God in Genesis 1:26-31?

What do we learn about ourselves in our passage?

What are some implications for our lives of the fact that we are created in God’s image?

How do we partner with God by caring for one another? What about caring for creation?

What are some obstacles to partnership with God in the ways He intended?

How does Jesus restore us to God’s kingdom purposes?

How will you respond to this passage this week?

Who is someone you can share this passage with this week?