Hearing Creation

Call to Worship: Psalm 19:1-2 // Prayer

Adoration: Our God, the sky above proclaims your glory; the world below reveals your eternal power and divine nature. We see a dim reflection of your glory in the beauty of fruit trees and horses, pine forests and songbirds, snow-covered mountains and stormy oceans. In all the vast reaches of space—though they are small in your sight—we see an illustration of your infinity. We see how small we are compared the vastness of your infinite and eternal nature. All creation declares your endless glory, and we would join her!

Confession: And yet, in this past week, we’ve often acted as though non of this was true. We’ve set our hearts on many other things aside from you; we’ve chosen the glory of created things above your infinite glory; we’ve treated those you’ve placed in our lives with selfishness instead of love. Father, forgive us, for in all these things we have sinned against you.

Thanksgiving: But your grace, also, is infinite: You have called us by your own name. You have given us your Son to redeem us, who you judged and condemned in our place. In him, you have forgiven us forever. And you have raised him from the grave and enthroned him in heaven as our king. We praise you, Father, Son, and Spirit: your mercy to us is infinite, loving, and glorious.

Supp: And as your people, we bring our hearts before you: Father, we lift up to you the Stanley family. We remember their strong faith in you, and all the love they have poured into this congregation, and all of the work you have done here through their willing hands and hearts. We mourn for all they have suffered these past couple years, and beg you to send supernatural comfort for them from on high. We remember their fellowship, and thank you for all of it. We ask you again to pursue them with lovingkindness and blessing in every place they go. And we morn, also, for our own loss at their leaving: please comfort our hearts, and help us to trust in you in all of this // and we ask for Cross Creek, as they also walk through this weary world, that you would fill them with light, truth, and love from your gospel—as we also ask that you would fill us—and equip our hands for the fight, for your glory // now for our community, we bring before you our state’s court system: we ask for integrity in the decisions of each judge, that we might live peacefully and have freedom to spread your gospel // and we pray for our brothers and sisters in Mexico, that you might deepen their joy in your gospel and their courage to spread it in their own communities, for your glory // and now, as we open your Word, we ask that you would show us your glory and increase our wisdom for life in this world...

Family Matters

Scholls Family movie night:

Riot & Dance: what National Geographic would look like if the read nature as a book of God’s glory

6 pm hotdog feed, 6:30 movie start time

Family, friends, and neighbors welcome!

Still looking for volunteers to show up at 5 to help setup the hotdog feed + one person to bring a grill—talk to me if you’re able to do that

Contributions to Uganda—beef jerky and candy; bibles (ESV) - to be picked up last week of June (Fay)/last Sunday (Brian)

Benediction

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon

Read: Romans 8:18-25

Intro

The world around us—the created world—speaks. And if we do not hear what it has to say, we will be far short of the wisdom we need for life in this age. But there’s a problem: it is possible to hear something, and completely misunderstand it.

If you were to attend a performance of Schostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1—just out of the blue—you might come away thinking that Schostakovich’s music is strange and discordant and should never have been published or performed. That’s what I would have thought. But fortunately for me, Kyleigh was there with her knowledge of music history, to fill in the blanks. As it turns out, Schostakovich lived through the siege of Leningrad during WWII, and watched as 800,000 civilians around him died around him of hunger, cold, and axis shells and bombs. Add in soldiers, and the death toll was 1.5 million. Once you know this background, it transforms your experience of hearing the Concerto from discordant nonsense to something haunting and unforgettable. It is as if Schostakovich turned the biblical book of Lamentations into sheet music for an orchestra. But the thing is: you need that background story in order to understand what his music is saying. You need the background story to make sense of it.

In the same way, the natural world is like a great symphony performance, with is trees and cattle, whales and swans, mountains, songbirds, and stars. But what is the message of this symphony? What should our hearts gain from hearing it?

Just as with Schostakovich’s Cello Concerto, you probably won’t hear the full message of the natural world unless you know the story behind it. And that’s what we’re going to look into this morning: we’re going to learn the story of creation so that we can understand the voice of creation. And that story goes something like this:

First, a very good beginning

Second, a day when corruption was introduced

And third, the arrival of the firstborn of a new creation

And once we’ve examined this story, we’ll be able to hear Creation speak in two ways: declaring God’s glory and groaning eagerly for redemption.

1. The Old Creation: Very Good

So first, the beginning of the story. Turn to Genesis 1:1, the first verse in the Bible. The Bible opens with these words:

Genesis 1:1 ESV

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

Now, most of you are used to hearing that verse—and what does it tell us? That the whole universe was created by God.

But it says more: “In the beginning God created...” meaning, before the beginning, there was nothing but God himself. God, eternally blessed and happy in himself, containing all life and joy within his perfect being.

Yet, in his wisdom, he chose to create. And notice, this means that God didn’t just shape stuff that was already there. Rather, He brought the whole universe into existence out of nothing.

Now, keep that in mind as we look at some highlights of the creation account:

In verses 3 and 4 we have the creation of light:

[Genesis 1:3–4] “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good...”

Notice: he’s not just making light where there was darkness; he’s inventing the very idea of light. In scientific terms, you could say, he’s bringing the very first ray of photons into existence—not from some other source, such as a bulb or a start; not as a copy of any ray of light that had existed before, since this was the first light ever to shine—but from the infinite wisdom and beauty of his own mind

And so, the beauty of light comes from God, and points back to God’s own endless beauty

Well, after this, you have the creation of land and sea and everything above it; of plants and stars and birds all creatures in the oceans; and then God says this:

Genesis 1:24–25 ESV

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Notice that last phrase: “God saw that it was good.” So he viewed everything that he had made, and in his perfect wisdom said, “this is good.”

But once again, where did it get its goodness? It wasn’t copied from anything before it. It wasn’t made from something that was already there. Both the blueprints and the bodies of all of these fascinating animals were brought into existence by God from nothing. So their goodness is directly from him.

The delicate wing of a swallowtail butterfly, the frightening sinews of a wild tiger, the incredible design of an elephant’s trunk. All from the infinite wisdom of God, reflecting his glory.

And so the creation account ends with these words:

Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good...”

It was very good. It all reflected his glory perfectly—no scar, no decay, no corruption—perfect beauty, reflecting the infinite beauty of God.

That was the nature of the Original Creation. Keep that in mind for a moment as I read a couple verses to you:

Psalm 19:1 ESV

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

So the sky declares God’s glory. Now listen to this:

Psalm 148:7–10 ESV

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds!

So then, also the earth and all its creatures proclaim God’s glory. Now, listen to this verse:

Romans 1:20 “For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made...”

What is Paul saying there? That God’s eternal power and divine nature are obvious if you just look at what he’s made. In other words, if you will look at the natural world and listen to what it is saying, you’ll “hear” it giving praise to God, and you’ll learn something about God’s glory.

Now, of course this doesn’t mean that there’s a literal song that the created world is singing. It’s poetic language. But think back to the creation story we just looked at:

We saw that all creation reflects God’s glory in its own beauty; reflects God’s wisdom in its design; reflects God’s sovereign power in its creaturely power.

In that sense, by reflecting those things, it glorifies God. And so we can speak of all creation as though it were joyfully giving praise to God with one voice. All creation, right?

I know many of you own animals: pygmy goats, turkeys, horses, dogs… take an extra look at them when you go home today.

Observe the plants in your garden. Sit and listen to the hum of the bees, and watch them drink nectar and spread pollen.

Go out at night and look at the stars, and contemplate the vast distances from here to there.

Creation declares God’s glory. And if we will hear its voice, it will draw us into that song of praise as we also delight in the One who made us.

But now, to fully grasp the story of creation, we need to understand our own part in it.

This begins in Genesis 1:28, where God explains the design of the human race. Speaking of the first two people, Adam and Eve, it says:

Genesis 1:28 ESV

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.”

So our design is what?

First, to fill the world with life—new human life—which is a small reflection of how God himself has brought the world itself to life.

And Second, to rule over the created world as a reflection of God’s own kingship over all things.

And so at first, Adam and Eve took their place as Mother and Father, as King and Queen in God’s very good creation. They ruled over creation, and cultivated it, and nurtured its life.

And really, that’s what it means to be human: we’ve been created to know God and to reflect his glory to his creation. And that’s important to remember in a culture which has mostly forgotten these things:

In a world that values easy money, to see the value of working, of cultivating, of serving, of bringing order—the things we are to do as the kings and queens of earth

In a world which devalues children, to say, “No”—children are a gift from the Lord, and even the very act of giving birth to a child displays the glory of God

In a world which either abuses material things or declares them evil, to say, “No”—but we will enjoy the good gifts that God gives us, and we will enjoy them for God’s glory

Another way to say this is that we’re supposed to live out the design God gave us—to be fruitful and multiply and to rule over creation. And when we do this, we join with all creation in declaring God’s glory.

2. The Fall: Corruption

But most of you know what’s coming at this point in the story: we’ve got a very good creation, with the glorious first man and first woman living in it. But then the Enemy shows up. The Enemy, also, was originally created good. But now he’s rebelled, and hates God. And he can’t stand the idea of a very good creation giving glory to God. And so he comes lures Adam and Eve into sin.

And most of you know the story: the Evil One came in the form of a snake, and convinced Adam and Eve to turn against God and break the one rule he’d given them.

And as soon as they’d rebelled, they realized something was wrong. They were filled with shame.

But how does this fit into the story of Creation? Well right after this first sin, God comes to confront Adam and Eve about what they’ve done. And then, he pronounces a curse in response to their sin, which changes the nature of the created world. And this curse comes in three parts:

First, God curses the Evil One—he will eat dust, which is a sign that he will eventually be defeated.

Second, he curses the woman’s task: giving life. Childbirth will still happen, but the whole world of motherhood will be surrounded by pain, sorrow, and loss.

And third, he curses the man’s task: ruling creation. To Adam he says:

[Genesis 3:17–19] “...cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you...” and a little later, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Now let’s stop and think about that. How did the created world change with this curse? Before it, everything was in total harmony, including Adam and Eve. The whole of creation was all beauty and peace and goodness.

But now we read that thorns and thistles have been introduced into creation, and Adam will have to struggle against them as he cultivates the ground.

And we read that Adam and Eve will now eventually return to the ground. They will die. So death, also, has entered a world that once only held life.

And these things imply much more: this curse brought death, decay, and violence of every kind into the natural world:

The violence of a lion killing an antelope

Or go stand in a cemetery and look at all the graves. Grave after grave. All the generations that came before us, dead.

Or even just the effect of hardships and of age on our bodies.

Creation was not designed to be this way. We were not designed to end in death. But with the sin of Adam came the divine curse, which has filled the world with death and decay.

But what does this mean for us, as we try to hear creation’s voice? This curse added a new note to the song creation sings. To see this, turn in your Bibles to Romans 8:20. (repeat) This is the Apostle Paul, reflecting on the curse we just learned about:

Romans 8:20–21 ESV

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Notice something in those verses. Creation was cursed IN HOPE. In what hope? That the curse would some day be completely reversed, with creation itself completely set free from all corruption into the glory it was originally meant to have.

Now, with that in mind, listen to what Paul says next:

Romans 8:22 ESV

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

So here’s the new note in creation’s song: groans. Ever since the curse, creation—the natural world—has been groaning. And these are groans from the what Paul calls, “the pains of childbirth.” Now again, this is poetic language. These are not literal groans from literal labor pains, but they are now part of the message that creation gives, if we will listen.

But there’s something critical to see here: the image of groaning in childbirth is NOT an image of despair, or of pointless pain. Instead, it’s an image of enduring terrible pain while anticipating new life!

So when we talk about the groans of creation, we’re thinking about all of that death, decay, and violence. But now we can see those things in a new light: it’s dark, but it’s not meaningless darkness.

These groans do remind us of the horror of sin, and the tragedy of the curse.

But they also point us toward something glorious that is coming: a day when even the natural world itself will be set free from corruption and enter into glory.

And so from this we hear the whole song that creation sings today: she declares God’s glory and groans eagerly for redemption.

And all this has a direct effect on us as well: we were designed to live as Mothers and Fathers, Kings and Queens in creation. And we still should live into that design. But now:

As we attempt to bring life and nurture, we will experience decay and sorrow and death.

As we attempt to rule and cultivate the world around us—to build and plant and harvest and serve—we will experience hardship, pain, and failure.

And in all these things, we also groan, along with creation, waiting eagerly for the day of redemption.

3. Christ: Firstborn of the New Creation

But how exactly will creation be redeemed? Look at Romans 8 again, at vs. 19:

Romans 8:19 ESV

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

OK. So when the Sons of God are revealed, creation will also be set free. But what event is that talking about?

Verse 23 makes it clear:

Romans 8:23 ESV

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

So it’s “the redemption of our bodies”—meaning, the resurrection of all who belong to Christ by faith.

=> And by the way, the reason it says “sons” is not to exclude women. It’s to emphasize the connection of both men and women to THE Son of God, Jesus Christ. Our redemption is all tied up in union with him: a few verses down, Paul calls Jesus, “the firstborn among many brothers.” Our place in God’s family is a glorious echo of his eternal sonship.

But here’s the point of all this: creation isn’t waiting for its own redemption—it’s waiting for our redemption: the day we ourselves are finally set free from death. It seems that rulers of creation—the human race—must be restored and glorified before that can happen to the wider creation.

But if you just consider that by itself, it’s a problem: if Adam’s sin caused Adam’s death, how can that death be reversed while the sin is still here. And we are all guilty of sin, right? So how can the curse ever hope to be reversed, while creation sits under a sinful human race?

We need a new Adam, don’t we? A new head of the human race. An Adam who will stand up against the Evil One, unlike the first Adam, and glorify God through perfect obedience.

If we could have a new Adam like that, and if that Adam could also live and die under the divine curse in our place… perhaps we could be forgiven and destined for glory, and creation itself could be redeemed

And isn’t that exactly what Jesus did? As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” — That’s talking about resurrection from the grave, into a life which is free from death. So, anyone who joins with Christ by faith is “in Christ” and so is destined to be raised to life on the last day.

In Colossians 1:18, Paul calls Jesus, “the firstborn from the dead.” Think about that. Jesus has already been raised from the grave, and that makes him what? The firstborn. The firstborn brother of many, many more who will be raised from death to eternal life when he returns. And that is when the groans of all creation will be transformed into a song even more glorious than the first song creation sang: a song in which all sorrows melt into joy as the glory of God’s redeemed children is revealed. A song of God’s glory in both creation and redemption.

Current State: Declaring and Groaning

But that song is for the future, not for today. So today, when we step outside and listen to the world of nature, what do we hear? Both joy and groaning.

The curse, while devastating, has not erased the way that creation displays God’s glory: from a microscopic flagellum motor to a nebula light-years across, all creation gives praise to God:

Psalm 148:3–6 ESV

Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.

=> all creation declares God’s glory.

And yet, creation also groans: strong animals prey on the week; disease and death are everywhere. And seeing these things can bring a lot of sorrow. But to really hear creation’s message, we must remember that these groans are from birth pains—which means that even the tragic and brutal parts of nature are pains suffered in hope, pointing forward to the day when death itself will be overturned as the new creation is born.

So then, today Creation both declares God’s glory and groans eagerly for redemption.

And These two notes in creation’s song—praise and groaning—are actually the reason for the title of the movie we’ll be watching together this Friday—the Riot & Dance. In the movie, Dr. Wilson describes the more disturbing things he finds out in the wild, ‘the riot’—the disorder of creation from the curse. But all the beauty of various animals he encounters he describes as ‘the dance’—a dance to the glory of God.

=> BTW, I highly encourage you to come and see the movie—it’s what a National Geographic documentary would look like if it read nature as a book of God’s glory

Final State: Made New

But what will nature look like when it’s all dance, and no riot? All praise, and no groaning? In Revelation 21:4-5, we have this description of God bringing in the New Creation:

Revelation 21:4–5 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.””

Brothers and sisters: if you have turned from sin to Christ, and trusted him for redemption, this is your guaranteed future. One day, you will be raised to eternal life, and all creation will enter that glory with you. And with Christ at our head, we will once again take our place as the glorious rulers and live-givers in God’s world, for his glory.

Until that time, as we live in this age, let us hear creation’s voice: both declaring God’s glory and groaning eagerly for the day of redemption.