“And God Said…”
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Big Idea: God creates by His Word with order, purpose, and goodness.
Genesis 1:3-31
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Introduction:
Last week, we stood on the very first words of Scripture:
“In the beginning God…”
We learned that before anything existed, God was already there—eternal, sovereign, and distinct from creation.
Now in verse 3, something new happens.
For the first time in the Bible, God speaks.
Creation does not begin with a struggle.
It does not begin with conflict.
It does not begin with chance.
It begins with a command.
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Genesis 1 answers a foundational question:
What kind of God made this world?
And just as importantly:
What kind of world did He intend to make?
I. GOD CREATES BY HIS WORD (vv. 3–25)
I. GOD CREATES BY HIS WORD (vv. 3–25)
Read - (Vs. 3-25)
Over and over again, we read the same phrase:
“And God said…”
Not once.
Not twice.
But again and again.
Light appears.
The sky is formed.
Land and seas are separated.
Plants grow.
The sun, moon, and stars are set in place.
Creatures fill the sea and sky and land.
Creation responds to God’s voice.
6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
God does not build creation with His hands — He creates it with His Word…
“Light did not argue. Darkness did not delay. The universe did not hesitate. When God spoke, reality appeared.”
God’s Word has creative power — it brings into existence what did not exist before.
Lazarus – God’s Word Brings Life Out of Death
📖 John 11:43–44
43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
“Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth…”
Jesus does not touch the tomb.
He does not move the stone Himself.
He simply speaks.
“Four days dead, wrapped in grave clothes, and one sentence brought him out.”
God’s Word has resurrection power — it calls the dead back to life.
The Storm – God’s Word Brings Peace Out of Chaos
📖 Mark 4:39
“Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”
The storm that roared one moment bowed the next — because it recognized the voice of its Creator.
“The wind that howled in rebellion became silent in obedience when Jesus spoke.”
God’s Word has commanding power — it rules over chaos and fear.
“In Scripture, God’s Word creates worlds, raises the dead, and stills storms — and that same Word is still at work today.”
Convicts hearts
Saves sinners
Transforms lives
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
If God’s Word can create galaxies, it can speak into your marriage, your fear, your future, and your sin.
II. GOD CREATES WITH ORDER AND PURPOSE (vv. 4–25)
II. GOD CREATES WITH ORDER AND PURPOSE (vv. 4–25)
Genesis 1 is not chaotic.
It is structured.
Notice the pattern:
God speaks
Creation responds
God evaluates
God moves forward
God separates:
Light from darkness
Genesis tells us that light, day, and night each existed before the sun and the moon were created on the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-19). This shows us that light is more than a physical substance; it also has a supernatural aspect. In the new heavens and the new earth, there won’t be any sun or moon. God Himself will be the light (Revelation 22:5
5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
The darkness God later sent upon the Egyptians (Exodus 10:21
21 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
had a tangible quality to it, far beyond what we usually think of as being associated with darkness; it could be felt. This demonstrates a certain supernatural element, which can be related to light and darkness.
Notice the phrase at the end of verse 5 - “… and the evening and morning were the first day.”
God established the pattern of creation in seven days, which constituted a complete week. “Day” can refer to (1) The light portion of a 24-hour period (vv. 5, 14) (2) an extended period of time (2:4); or (3) the 24-hour period, which basically refers to a full rotation of the earth on it’s axis, called evening and morning.
“Day” with numerical adjectives in Hebrew always refers to a 24-hour period. Comparing the order of the week in Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Comparing this with the creation week confirms this understanding of the time element. Such a cycle of light and dark means the earth was rotating on it’s axis, so there was a source of light on one side of the earth even though the sun was not yet created…
“Since light existed before the sun, and since Scripture later teaches that God Himself is light and can be the source of light, it is reasonable to conclude that the light of Day One came directly from God.”
Before God appointed the sun as the bearer of light, He Himself supplied the light.
Waters above from waters below - (Vs. 6-8)
The Firmament = Expansion. The portion of God’s creation named “Heavens,” that which man saw when he looked up, that is the atmospheric and stellar heaven.
The idea is an expanse or space… The waters of the land are separated from the water vapor in the sky.
Some commentators and scientists believe that here the Bible recognizes the existence of significant water vapor in the sky. Such a vapor blanket would greatly change the ecology of the earth, and Henry Morris suggests several effects of a vapor blanket:
i. “The waters above the firmament thus probably constituted a vast blanket of water vapor above the troposphere and possibly above the stratosphere as well, in the high temperature region now known as the ionosphere, and extending far into space.” (Morris)
ii. It would serve as a global greenhouse, maintaining an essentially uniform, pleasant temperature all over the world.
iii. Without great temperature variations, there would be no significant winds, and the water-rain cycle could not form. There would be no rain, as we know it today.
iv. There would be lush, tropical-like vegetation all over the world, fed not by rain, but by a rich evaporation and condensation cycle, resulting in heavy dew or ground-fog.
v. The vapor blanket would filter out ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays, and other destructive energies bombarding the planet. These are known to be the cause of mutations, which decrease human longevity…
Ex. Images
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
vi. A vapor blanket would provide the necessary reservoir for a potential worldwide flood…
God could do whatever God wanted to do…
Land from seas (Vs. 9-13)
The idea is that before this, the earth was covered with water. Now the waters are gathered together into one place, and dry land appears.
Let the earth bring forth grass: All this happened before the creation of the Sun (the fourth day of creation, Genesis 1:14-19). This means the plants must have had sufficient nourishment because of the light God had created before the sun and the moon (in Genesis 1:3).
Those who propose these days of creation were not literal days, but successive ages of slow, evolutionary development have a real problem here. It is hard to explain how plants and all vegetation could grow and thrive eons before the sun and the moon. No modern evolutionist would argue plant life is older than the sun or the moon, but this is what the Genesis record tells us.
(Vs. 9b) And it was so: This is the beginning of life on planet earth, directly created by God, not slowly evolving over millions of years.
Umberto Cassuto, says repeatedly “This little phrase (and it was so) indicates that it was so and remained so through all the life of the universe. It’s a way of saying something was fixed. And it militates against the idea of What is progressive creationism, that God made something that started some evolutionary process. He made it, He fixed it, it was firm, it was established.”
Creation unfolds with rhythm and direction.
This tells us something about God’s character.
33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
The universe is not random.
It is arranged.
Even time is structured:
Evening and morning
Day after day
Season after season
When life feels disordered, remember—
The God who ordered creation is still at work ordering lives.
III. GOD DECLARES HIS CREATION GOOD (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25)
III. GOD DECLARES HIS CREATION GOOD (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25)
After each creative act, God pauses and evaluates His work:
“And God saw that it was good.”
The world was not created evil.
Work was not created evil.
The body was not created evil.
Creation was originally good.
Then in verse 31, God makes His final declaration:
“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
Not just functional.
Not just impressive.
But very good.
24 O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: The earth is full of thy riches.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
This matters because many people believe:
The physical world is bad…
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Work is a curse
15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
The body is a burden
We live in a society that approaches their physical body as a burden or a mistake…
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvellous are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well.
But Genesis teaches:
Creation is God’s good gift
Life has dignity
Existence has value
God does not regret creation.
And He does not regret making you.
IV. GOD CREATES MAN IN HIS IMAGE (vv. 26–27)
IV. GOD CREATES MAN IN HIS IMAGE (vv. 26–27)
Everything slows down in verse 26.
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”
This is not said about stars.
Not said about animals.
This means there is an unbridgeable gap between human life and animal life. Though we are biologically similar to certain animals, we are distinct in our moral, intellectual, and spiritual capabilities…
Only about humanity.
Being made in God’s image means:
There are at least three aspects to the idea that we are made in the image of God.
It means humans possess: knowledge, feelings, and a will. This sets man apart from all animals and plants. personality
It means humans possess: we are able to make moral judgments and have a conscience. morality
It means humans possess: man is made for communion with God. It is on the level of spirit we communicate with God. spirituality
Human value is not based on:
Intelligence
Strength
Productivity
Age
Health
It is based on creation.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, And hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet:
There is vast dignity attached to being made in God’s image, though marred by the fall.
Every person bears God’s image:
The unborn
The elderly
The disabled
The poor
The sinner
You are not an accident.
You are not meaningless.
You are not disposable.
You were created in God’s image.
V. GOD GIVES HUMANITY RESPONSIBILITY (vv. 28–30)
V. GOD GIVES HUMANITY RESPONSIBILITY (vv. 28–30)
God blesses humanity and gives them a mission:
“Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…”
God also gives man a job to do: fulfill God’s intention of man’s exercise of dominion over the earth. Inherent in this command is that man should be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Man cannot fulfill God’s plan for him on the earth unless he populates it.
i. Additionally, God gave mankind a desire for sex, which would make the populating of the earth quick and likely.
Before sin entered the world:
There was work
There was responsibility
There was purpose
Work is not a curse.
Responsibility is not punishment.
Purpose is part of God’s design.
"no instruction was given to exercise dominion over other men but only over the earth and the animals. Had man not rebelled against God's Word, all would have remained in perfect fellowship with God and, therefore, with one another. There was no initial need for the so-called social sciences and technologies, but only the natural sciences and their implementation. This situation was radically changed at the Fall, and God's commandment accordingly expanded officially after the Flood." - Henry Morris
“God's purpose in creating human life in His image was functional: man is to rule or have dominion (1:26, 28). God's dominion was presented by a "representative." (Egyptian kings later, in idolatry, did a similar kind of thing: they represented their rule or dominion by making representative statues of themselves.) However, because of sin all things are not under man's dominion (Heb. 2:8). But Jesus Christ will establish dominion over all the earth (Heb. 2:5-8) at His second coming.” - Allen Ross
We were created:
To steward
To cultivate
To represent God on the earth
Sin will distort this calling, but it does not erase it.
You were not created to drift through life.
You were created to live on mission.
CONCLUSION
Genesis 1 teaches us:
God speaks
God creates
God declares His work good
And when sin enters, God does not abandon His creation—
He redeems it.
The God who said, “Let there be light,”
still speaks light into dark hearts.
If God is Creator:
He has authority over your life
He has purpose for your existence
He has power to make you new
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
And that same Creator now says:
“Come unto me…”
TRANSITION TO NEXT WEEK
TRANSITION TO NEXT WEEK
Next week, we move from cosmic creation
to personal formation.
Genesis 2 answers a new question:
What does it mean to live in relationship with our Creator?
From God creating the world…
to God forming the man.
