God the Father: Maker of Heaven and Earth

God the Father: Maker of Heaven and Earth Our Scripture this morning is Genesis 1. Its page one in our bibles. Right at the very beginning. Open up the front cover, and it’s just past the title page and table of contents. I won’t be reading all of the Scripture this morning. It is rather long. Instead, I’m only going to read verses 1-5, and 26-31. I invite you to follow along as I read select portions from Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. 1 26 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.” 27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 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.” 29 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. 30 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. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.2 This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Prayer of Illumination: Lord God, at the beginning of time your Spirit moved over the waters. So send your Spirit to us now to open our hearts and minds to receive the re-creating power of your Word. Through Christ. Amen. This morning, we are beginning a new series looking at the Apostles’ Creed. The Apostle’s Creed is one of the oldest professions of faith. We don’t know who wrote but we know it wasn’t the Apostles who wrote it. This is a summary of the Apostles’ teaching as found in Scripture. Its origins are in the 4th century and it was regularly used when someone wanted to join the church. There was an incredibly length process to join the church in the first couple of centuries. It wasn’t a short simple meeting with the pastor. It took months of that person meeting with the pastor, being taught the basics of the faith. Then, usually on Easter morning, all of those who had been preparing to join the church would publicly profess their faith and they would do so by stating this creed. We recite the Apostles’ Creed each month before we take the Lord’s Supper. We believe the Supper is reserved for those who confess Christ as Lord and the Apostles’ Creed is a historic summary of that confession. In doing so, we join with millions of Christians around the globe in professing the historic faith. It unites us. For the next two months, we will be looking at one part of the creed in worship. This morning, the part that we will be looking at is God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth. As we look at Genesis 1, we’ll see that God is maker, he is creator, and we’ll see that he is lord, he is the almighty. God the Creator of Heaven and Earth In verse 1 we read, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”. The very first thing we see is that there is a definitive beginning to creation. The created world, the heavens and the earth are not eternal. They began at a particular point. This is commonly accepted today. Science agrees with this point. Scientists, particularly astrophysicists, agree with the Bible when it says that there is a definitive beginning to creation. Science and faith are not opposed to one another. I’ve heard people say that scientifically minded people can’t believe in the Christian faith because it’s illogical. And people say the opposite about Christians that we can’t believe in science. That’s just simply not true. Science and Christianity are not opposed to one another. In fact, some of the earliest advancements in science came because of Christians. Gregor Mendel was a monk in modern Czech Republic. He is also credited as the father of genetics. Jonathan Edwards, one of the most renowned American pastors, almost didn’t become a pastor. As a child, he was interested in natural sciences. He loved walked in the Connecticut fields and forests and examining the various animals and insects. When he was 11 years old, he wrote an essay on spiders and it was published in the leading natural science journal of the time. Even as a pastor, his love and fascination with science never left him. His scientific thinking was undergirded by his faith, a faith that stated that God created the heavens and earth with an order and logic. So science and faith are not opposed to one another. So God has created. But what exactly has he created? We’re told that he created “the heavens and the earth”. That’s a way of saying everything. God created everything that we can see, everything we can’t see; everything near us, everything in the furthest reaches of our galaxy; every valley, every mountain. The Apostle Paul puts it like this in Colossians 1:16: For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.3 Are you not moved? Are you not in awe, wonder, and praise that the God of the universe has created all of this? A couple of months ago when we had that first snowfall in December, I was driving to Andrews and I could see the snow covered mountains. And my heart was moved with the beauty of that scene. I’d seen mountains before that day. I spent some time in Switzerland on a trip and saw some beautiful peaks rising out of the valley. And yet seeing the mountains leading toward Asheville covered in snow, my heart was moved to praise. This is the God we worship. He creates all that can be seen, all that is unseen. That should move us. We should be amazed at the brilliant reds and purples when the sun sets over the mountains. We should be amazed at the snow covered mountains. We should be amazed when there is a solar eclipse. Those are wonderful things. They’re beautiful things. Our hearts should be moved to praise at those sights. But we should be in awe of the fact that God created the universe to do those things. We should be in awe of God the Father who created the heavens and the earth. That should move us to praise him for his creation. The rest of the chapter depicts God’s creative acts. They depict God forming and ordering his creation. And what does God say after each creative act? He says it was good. His creation is good. Unfortunately for most of human history we haven’t thought creation is good. The ancient Greco-Roman philosophers, like Plato, taught that creation was bad and the soul good. Plato taught that the material world was a prison for the spirit. Self-denial was an important practice for those who held this view. Since the material world was bad and a prison, physical pleasure was to be avoided. They would deny themselves pleasure because it was a virtue in and of itself to deny those pleasures There are Christians who have adopted and adapted this view. They may not come out and say what Plato said about the material world being a prison but they don’t value the physical creation. But they think it’s virtuous to deny themselves and others physical pleasure. They think it’s virtuous to downplay the physical world in favor of a spiritual realm. But that’s not what God says. God says that physical creation is good. Six times he says that it is good. And on the seventh time, he says that it is very good. Plato and others might say the physical world is bad but God says it is good. In the next chapter we read that God actually puts his hands in the dirt to form Man. In John, we’re told the same God who created the heavens and the earth took on human form, he became part of his creation and is redeeming it through his work on the cross. The physical world is good. That’s why it’s ok to enjoy creation. It’s ok for us to enjoy the physical world and find pleasure in it. We can enjoy the sun setting over the mountains and say with God that it is good. We can hike the mountains and see the various wildlife and say it is good. We can enjoy a nice meal with friends and family and say it is good. The God we worship created the heavens and the earth and it was good. He is the creator. God the Almighty Lord This passage also shows us that God is the almighty lord. It shows us two aspects of God’s lordship. It shows us that he forms and orders his creation and that he has placed his representatives in his creation. First it shows us that he forms and orders his creation. In verse 2 it say, “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.” At this point, the heavens and the earth have been created. But the earth is without form and void. What that means is that the earth isn’t ordered yet. The earth has been created but the mountains and oceans haven’t been placed. The way this reads is like the earth is just a giant soupy mess of water. So it is without form. It isn’t ordered. But notice that last sentence, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”. Most of the time when we read this, we imagine that the Spirit of God is just kind of floating above the earth mindlessly. But that’s not the sense of the phrase. Eugene Peterson translates it like this in The Message, “God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.”4 When you read it like that, there is a sense of action, a sense of drama. The Spirit of God is brooding over the watery abyss. What is he going to do? He is going to form his creation; he is going to order it. God speaks into the formless earth and begins to form it; he speaks into the disorder and begins to order it. The first three days of creation, God is forming and ordering his creation. He forms light on the first day. He forms the sky to separate the earth from the heavens on the second day. He forms land, sea, and vegetation on the third day. He is forming his creation. He is ordering it. But there is still a problem. The earth is void. It’s empty. Days four through six, God fills his creation. First he fills the sky with the greater and lesser lights, the sun, the moon, and all the starry hosts. Then he fills the air and the oceans with birds and fish. And finally, he fills the land with every beast and insect, and his crown jewel, humanity. God has formed and filled his creation. But notice, it wasn’t random; it wasn’t haphazard. God the almighty lord formed and filled his creation intentionally. What does he do? First he forms and orders the various realms, light and darkness, the sky, and dry land and sea. Then he fills those realms with the sun and moon who fill the light; he fills the sky with birds and the seas with fish; he fills the dry land with beasts and humanity. It wasn’t an accident; it wasn’t random. It was intentional that God formed and ordered creation the way he did. That cuts against idea that creation is random and haphazard; that creation is an accident. In the Ancient Near East, many of the creation myths said that creation was an accident caused by the result of a war between the gods. Today it might take the form that says the creation is the result of atomic particles accidentally colliding billions of trillions of years ago. As a result, those who hold to the view that creation is an accident say that life has no purpose. But Scripture says, “Creation wasn’t an accident. God intentionally formed and ordered his creation. There is an underlying purpose in it”. It’s only when we recognize that God is the creator, that he is the almighty lord who formed and ordered creation, that we see there is a purpose to life. God, the almighty lord, forms and orders creation. Secondly, in this passage we see that God has placed his representatives in his creation. Look at verses 26-27. God says: 26 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.” 27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.5 In the ancient world, when king ruled vast empires they would routinely have an image of them set up in the city square. That was how the king would let his people know who was lord. There weren’t TVs where the king could have a segment on the nightly news. Placing a statue or an image in a city’s square was the way he could let people know who was in charge. And God does the same thing. He makes an image and places it in the midst of his creation. Mankind, male and female, both bear the image of God. We are a reminder to creation that God is the lord; he is the one who is ultimately in charge. But it doesn’t just stop at mankind being an image of God to remind creation that God is lord. Scripture says in verses 28-31, “28 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.” 29 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. 30 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. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”6 God gives us the task of cultivating and caring for his creation. He is the king, we are his vice-regents. We represent him here on the earth. Who has someone represent them and their interests? When I worked at Starbucks, no one was sent as my representative. Why? I wasn’t the person in charge. The person who has someone represent them is the one in charge. God is the one in charge, he is the almighty lord. That’s why it’s wrong when we do not care for or cultivate creation or we misuse it for our own sinful designs. As Christians, we should be the ones who are leading the charge on caring for creation. That isn’t a political statement. That isn’t a liberal statement; that isn’t a conservative statement. That is a biblical statement. As Christians, as those who recognize that there is a God who created all that is seen and all that is unseen and that he is the almighty lord and that our job is to care for and cultivate creation, we should be the ones speaking out against abuse of creation and the ones seeking to care for it. That doesn’t mean we have to agree with this political statement or that political statement about creation care. We can disagree about those things. But as Christians we should be the ones caring for creation and seeking its cultivation. One of the ways that we could do that is by supporting renewable energy sources. Wind turbines, solar panels, and hydroelectric dams are excellent sources of renewable energy that generate energy and power without as much damaging effects as coal and gas. Another way we can care for creation is by watching how much coal, gas, and electric we use. Being conscience about how much power we use to heat and cool our homes can allow us to better use our natural resources. This is an important topic. It is important for us to confess that God is the creator; that he is the one who made the heavens and the earth and that it is good. Otherwise, we will fail to give God the glory, honor, and praise that he deserves for it. We will fail to enjoy creation and instead demean it; saying it is less important than the spiritual. It is important for us to recognize that God is the almighty lord over creation; that he is the one who forms and orders creations. Otherwise, we will say that life is an accident and nothing matters. We will fail to care for and cultivate the earth as God’s representatives. Let all things their creator bless; and worship him in humbleness. O praise him. Alleluia.