Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Church series

Foundation is Christ

Marks of a true church

Marks of a healthy church

The mission of the church

The end of the church

Know as we prepare for Christmas and think toward the celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord and Savior I want us to think about the coming of our Lord in the light of the Biblical truth that He is the Promised King

He is the King of kings

The Promised King has been born

Reminds me of the Christmas Musical, The King is Here that will be sung by the choir next week at 5:00

I encourage you to come an to support the Kenny, the choir, and the orchestra in this.

Your coming will be an encouragement to them and no doubt you will be blessed for being here as well.

Also we will meet this evening as well, encourage you to come this evening

It is a privilege to begin and to end the Lord’s Day with the Lord’s people.

Today as we begin to think of the coming of our King and what His birth means for us one of the things that I hope happens is that you leave from here with a better picture of the overall story of Scripture, this store of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration and how the Kingship of Christ fits into all of this.

Today as we begin to think of the coming of our King and what His birth means for us one of the things that I hope happens is that you leave from here with a better picture

If we are going to understand the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and all that this means for us then we must begin at the beginning of the story and this story begins in the book of beginnings, Genesis

I.

He was Created to Rule

we begin with God speaking things into existence.

One of the things that one will notice on just a surface level reading of is that there is a certain day that is emphasized.

In other words we see what is central in Creation.

Day 1 there is somewhere around 30 words

We are told

Day 2 close to 40

Day 3 about 70

Day 4 about 70

Day 5 close to 60

Day 6 there are over 140 words.

2 times the amount used in any of the previous days.

is a beautiful piece of literature and not only that we have here the beginning of everything outside of God.

The beginning of time, space, all of creation.

Yet for all the concern with the creation of the universe and its creatures this text clearly has a goal to which everything in it is directed, and that is the creation of humanity on the sixth day.

Listen to Stephen Dempster

“Thematically as well as verbally, humanity is crowned the royalty of creation.

Whereas other creations come about by the divine word in a predictable manner (Let there be… and it was so), there is a pregnant theological pause before the creation of humanity.

God takes counsel with himself before speaking.

As von Rad remarks, the origin of humanity springs from the world above in absolute immediacy from the depths of the divine heart.

Human beings have a heavenly origin.

The use of poetry, as well as the threefold repetition of the Hebrew verb for create in verse 27 indicates the importance of humanity.

We see the sacredness of human life, the uniqueness of humanity and you especially see that in v.26 and 27

God created man in His own image, in His likeness.

Man is given dominion over creation

Notice v.28

Man is to fill the earth, to subdue it, to rule over creation.

The terms image and likeness stress the unique relationship humanity has to its Creator but also indicate the exalted, regal role humanity plays in creation.

The man and the woman as king and queen of creation are to exercise rule over their dominion, which is the entire earth.

Words like dominion and subdue clearly are associated with power and authority that man is given over creation

Humans are God’s vicegerents of creation.

The Hebrew word for dominion “rada” is used to describe Solomon’s shalom producing rule

This word is also used to speak of the Messianic King who will emerge from Israel and exercise rule over the Kingdom

Num.

We are told that an Israelite King will one day rule from sea to sea from the Euphrates river to the ends of the earth and all of his enemies will lick the dust

There is more that we could look at here and we will look at some more passages like this a little later,

I am simply trying to prove the point that Genesis paints a picture of Adam and Eve being King and Queen over creation,

They were to rule and reign.

They were to fill the earth and subdue it “cabash” that is they were to bring all creation under control, they were to rule over it.

Psalm 8?

But let’s be clear on this point, they were not to fill the earth and subdue it, to have dominion over creation as independents, filling it with their own kingdom, their own glory, their own laws, their own ideas

They were kings and queens but they were created in the likeness of the great King, they were His representatives

And as His image bearers, as His representatives they were to fill the earth with His glory, they were to advance His Kingdom, His law, His rule, the knowledge of Him as the great King was to fill the land.

So the first point is simply this, as humans we were created to rule over creation, to have dominion over creation

A couple of points here, I listened to a podcast that Kenny mentioned to me last week and in the podcast as they were talking about these very things one of the individuals said that they original readers would have wandered within the context here, if Adam and Eve are royalty where are their royal garments?

As King and Queen they need royal robes, royal robes of righteousness to cover them but they do no earn the royal robes of righteousness and instead they try to cover themselves with leaves.

Another interesting thing that I have read about and noticed before is that we see in the first six days this phrase again and again

And there was evening and there was morning the first day and the second and so on until the sixth

But notice in chapter 2:1-3

There is this open ended rest that man is invited to enter into.

The question is there, will man obey?

Will he enter into the rest of God?

II.

He Chose to Rebel

The second point simply carries the story along.

Created to rule but what happened?

He chose to rebel

There are many theological and philosophical questions that we could get into here but now is not the time.

Let’s just understand the event because that is what Genesis presents to us in chapter 3.

As the king of creation who is given the task of ruling and reigning to advance God’s Kingdom through the earth there is this desire to be independent

Look at

What is the heart of the rebel?

What is the heart of the rebellious teenager?

I am ready to get out of this house so that I can do my own thing.

Right?

I know what is best for me and my parents don’t.

Rebellious teenagers think that they know everything, right?

They don’t want someone over them telling them what to do and telling them what is best for them.

That is what we see here in

This desire to be independent, to be out on their own, to have their own kingdom and to make up their own rules.

Instead of advancing God’s Kingdom and enjoying God’s rest man is exiled.

Cast out of God’s Kingdom and into the wilderness.

There is no rest, there is no enjoyment of the kingdom instead there is toil and heartache, there is bondage, there is slavery.

The interesting thing is that this is a theme that we see through the scriptures

When Israel disobeys God where do they have to wander?

In the wilderness

Where does Jesus go when He is tempted?

In the wilderness

This theme that man has been cast out of the Kingdom of God, He is in exile.

Again and again as we see the disobedience of Israel in the OT and Israel being taken into exile because of their disobedience that is a picture for us of all of humanity who has been sent into exile because of rebellion.

This gives us the reason for all that is wrong in humanity and in our lives