Meaning and Purpose in God
Genesis: Foundations of Our Faith • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I missed the mark last week. I did not fully understand Charlie Kirk’s impact on people I know. But that has become evident in conversations with them this week. The common theme for almost all of them has been, “I am learning I have a calling, God made me for a purpose. I have something to share with others and I need the courage to share it.” For several of these guys, it is sharing what God has done and is doing in their life through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
What gives your life meaning and purpose?
Genesis 1 was written very intentionally to draw attention to the order God gave to His creation through His words. That order is reflected in the literary structure. God speaks 10 times. There are 7 words in the first sentence, 14 words in the second sentence, highlighting the number 7, that will structure time for humans, resulting in Sabbath, which we’ll learn in two weeks. God speaks 3 times in the creation of humans, which added to the seven days of creation, takes our focus back to the 10 words of God. God’s word gives structure, meaning, and purpose to our lives. I hope you and I can begin to answer, “how is God speaking to me that clarifies the meaning and purpose He has given my life?”
I hope what we learn today is that God’s word forms our meaning and purpose, teaching us to glorify God as His kingdom partners. Are we listening?
God’s Word Fills Our Physical World with Meaning and Purpose
God’s Word Fills Our Physical World with Meaning and Purpose
The secular worldview that dominates our society says the physical world we inhabit has no deeper meaning or ultimate purpose. So, we have to create that ourselves. How do we do that? If you believe the marketing, it’s “make lots of money, get into perfect physical shape (whatever that is), have a long, healthy life, live without boundaries, and fulfill all your desires for food, sex, and pleasure.” Those are self-centered views of our meaning and purpose. God’s word shapes a different understanding.
Genesis tells us that everything we see, touch, and measure, the physical world, comes from the Ever-living-God-who-is. It is a temple for His glory, in which He speaks to us.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (the skies and the land).
As we said last week, this means God created everything over your head and under your feet, and your head and your feet too. “The skies and the land” was a way of saying, “everything you can see”.
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Science will never be able to tell us how the universe came into being in the first place. The Big Bang Theory simply confirms for us that the universe had a beginning. Where the matter and energy came from is taken on faith, no matter whether you’re a scientist or a theologian. We take it on faith that God created our universe “ex nihilo”, out of nothing. Our statement of faith says, God has “limitless knowledge and sovereign power”. He can create something from nothing.
How is that theology helpful in knowing our meaning and purpose? For Israel, as Moses speaks the Torah to them, they are weak and helpless former slaves, untrained in the skills it would take to build a nation and defend themselves against enemies. They will have to trust that God can make them into something when they are still nothing. Do I trust the God can form something good out of my weakness and disordered life?
God loves to shape order, life, goodness, meaning and purpose out of barren waste. Moses tells us that when God first created all the raw material of our universe, it was all,
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
“without form and void, and darkness”. Other words we could use for without form and void would be “barren wilderness”, or “lifeless and empty”, or “wild and waste”. The meaning and purpose are not yet clear. Everything is darkness. God will fill His creation through His word. And the Spirit is present. The imagery here is a mother bird hovering over her young, nurturing their life. The Holy Spirit gives us life and breath. With the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the creation waters, we anticipate life about to be born.
So, God speaks over the elements He had created. Someone only speaks when there is meaning and purpose to convey. There is a deliberateness to this account of God’s creation. The One who created all matter instantly, now takes six days to craft His masterpiece. He creates order out of disorder, life out of barrenness. He creates habitations first, then inhabitants to fill those habitations. (Slide)
The order of creation in Genesis 1 will not satisfy a twenty-first century view of science, although it doesn’t contradict science either. The ten words of God in a certain order communicates that God has a greater meaning and a good purpose for His creation. He will use the physical world to speak a message to us. For example, the creation of light and its separation from darkness as physical properties in verses 3-4,
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
will be used later in Exodus to demonstrate the spiritual reality of God’s judgment on Egypt and His favor on Israel. God gives light in the darkness for His redeemed people.
Then heaven and earth are separated.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
The separation of heaven from earth is the only part of creation that is not called good. The rest of the Bible is the story of how heaven and earth are reunited in Jesus.
Next, God’s word shapes the barren wilderness of a watery earth into a land that is filled with life.
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.
God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so.
The meaning here is to give Israel hope. As they listen to this account while sojourning in the wilderness, God tells them that He has prepared a land filled with goodness, to dwell with Him and partner with Him in His kingdom.
The sun, moon and stars are not described according to their orbits, alignments, and gravitational properties.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.
Moses instead describes their meaning and purpose. They are for appointed times, separating day and night but also “signs and seasons”. We’ll talk about this in a few minutes, but basically God will use the sun, moon, and stars to distinguish a rhythm of life for Israel, and for us, in our relationship with Him.
They also partner with God in His kingdom rule over creation in the heavens.
And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
God’s authority to rule over His creation is written in the heavens. The heavens declare the glory of God.
Then we see God’s word give meaning and purpose for creatures with breath in their lungs in each earthly habitation, sky, sea, and land, i.e. birds, fish, and humans. God speaks a blessing over them as a priest would. God’s blessing produces life.
And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
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.”
A blessing is a “good word”. This is the refrain of Genesis 1. All of God’s work and words are good. God’s good word fills His good world with abundant life. And the capstone of God’s creation on day six is very good,
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
The physical world God made is good. There is meaning and purpose to your physical nature. The meaning of our physical world, filled with order and life, is to glorify the Ever-living God who brings order, life, and goodness to barren wastelands. The purpose of our world is to be a temple in which we worship Him. When we worship God, we offer the disordered pieces of our life to Him so He can order them toward some good for His glory.
Our most prized possession, and often our most disordered area of life is our time. What is God’s purpose for our time?
God’s Word Fills Our Time with Meaning and Purpose
God’s Word Fills Our Time with Meaning and Purpose
God created time. It is a good gift. And He has a purpose for it.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
After this, God creates within time. This teaches us that the limitations of time are not a hindrance to our fruitfulness, as much as it feels that way sometimes. Who wouldn’t want more than 24 hours in a day? Rather, God creates time as a framework for His activity. He uses time to accomplish His work.
How many of us have been frustrated with how long God takes to do things? If He’s going to save us and sanctify us, remake the world as a good place, filled with the peace of His presence and glory, why doesn’t He just do it now and get it all over with? Why allow us to continue through the brokenness? But he chooses to take time to do His work. This is a foundation of our faith too. God uses processes that take time to accomplish His plans. And it is never according to our own time tables.
God gives meaning and purpose to time. God created chronological time. But He also created kairological time, appointed times.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.
“Signs” means God wrote a message into the stars and their movements for those willing to pay attention and study it. The Magi decoded that message and it led them to Jesus. The gospel is in the stars.
And “seasons” does not mean Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. It is the word for “appointed meeting times”. Later in the Torah, in Leviticus, Moses will explain that God determined seven appointed times for Israel to gather to Him in thanksgiving and worship. The six feasts and one fast (the same pattern of six plus one from creation) of the Hebrew year were opportunities to gather at the tabernacle or temple to hear God’s word read and taught, which would shape the people according to God’s meaning and purpose for them.
God took His time to carefully craft a world in which you and I would meet with Him in a regular rhythm to let His word shape us, to learn how to partner with Him in His kingdom. What is shaping your rhythms, the way you spend your time? Is it God’s word, or the demands of business? What are the appointed times God has established for you to meet with Him and let His word shape your life?
God’s Word Fills Our Humanity with Meaning and Purpose
God’s Word Fills Our Humanity with Meaning and Purpose
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.”
If the universe is a temple to God’s glory and God has established times to gather for worship and the teaching of His word, you would expect to see an image of the God you’re worshipping. That’s exactly what we find in verse 26. Humans are God’s image in HIs temple world.
Your meaning and purpose come from your identity in God. The meaning of life is not to create the most perfect image of yourself that you can. It is that we bear the image of our Creator in this world. The image of God is not your physical characteristics. It is not even your intellectual or emotional characteristics. It is your very being. Even people without the capacities for physical or mental wholeness bear God’s image in their being.
Verse 26 also links the image of God (our meaning) with our partnership with God in His dominion over creation, which is our purpose. Our purpose as image-bearers is to learn from God’s word how to partner with Him in His kingdom on earth. We will deal with this more in depth next week. For today, we should recognize that all the other creatures are enslaved to instinct. We are the one creature God created with the choice to obey His word.
As Israel hears Genesis for the first time, God has delivered them from slavery in Egypt. But following Moses in the wilderness, they were still learning to be delivered from the slave identity. God’s word was re-forming their identity according to His original purpose.
We all need that same experience. We enslave ourselves in our sin and attach our identity, meaning and purpose, to money or achievement, or physical perfection, or our own desires. It is only through redemption in Christ that Gods image is restored in us. Jesus gives us this invitation.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
We can once again bring God glory as His living word shapes us. In fact, in Christ, we have become God’s temple.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants/slaves of men.
Your meaning and purpose are to be the new temple, the new meeting place of heaven and earth. When I struggle to know my meaning and purpose, I meet God at an appointed time and allow God’s words shape me the way they shaped the world we inhabit, to be a temple for His glory. His word spoken in Christ restores God’s image in us, and we can once again partner with God to bring some good into the world for His glory.
Communion
Questions for Discussion
How did you respond to our passage last week, Genesis 1:1, in which we learned that when the world feels like chaos, we can hope in God’s plan of redemption, established before creation, and fulfilled in Jesus Christ?
When are you most confident of your meaning and purpose in life? What keeps some of us from discovering meaning and purpose?
What do we learn about God in Genesis 1:1-26?
What is the meaning and purpose of the universe God created? In what ways does your physical life bring glory to God?
What are the appointed times you meet with God to give thanks and hear His word?
How is God’s word shaping your life?
What is your ultimate meaning and purpose?
How will you respond to this passage this week?
Who is someone you can share this passage with this week?
