In the Beginning... GOD
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Thoughts to begin with as we study the Bible:
How do we approach the Bible?
How do we approach the Bible?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
1. We come to the Bible knowing there is a God.
1. We come to the Bible knowing there is a God.
a. The Bible does not make elaborate arguments for the existence of God. However, it does tell us how we can know God exists.
b. The Bible tells us we can know God exists because of what we see in creation.
i. (Psalm 19:1-4)
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,
ii. (Romans 1:20)
For his 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. So they are without excuse.
c. Though many seek to deny the effectiveness of the teleological argument for the existence of God (the understanding that there must be a purposeful intelligence Who created this world), it still remains unanswered by the atheist or the agnostic.
2. We come to the Bible believing it is the place where God has spoken to man, perfectly and comprehensively.
2. We come to the Bible believing it is the place where God has spoken to man, perfectly and comprehensively.
a. We believe 2 Timothy 3:16-17:
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
i. We can study God, but we can't put Him under a microscope. We can only confidently know about Him what He chooses to reveal to us. What He chooses to tell us is profitable and useful for us.
b. We believe the Bible must be understood literally, that is, as straightforward and true according to its literary context.
i. The Bible is much more than a book; it is a library of books, and books written in different literary forms.
Some give a historical account
Others are poetic
Some are prophetic.
ii. We must understand the Bible literally according to its literary context.
For example, consider what David wrote in Psalm 6:6
I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.
David used a poetic literary form. We understand he didn't literally mean he cried so much that he flooded his room and set his bed afloat.
What what he trying to convey?
iii. But when the Bible speaks in a historical narrative, we understand it as literal history, not as make-believe fables and myths meant only to tell a spiritual story.
Much of it is historical
History of Creation
History of Covenant People
Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/Israel, His sons which became 12 tribes of a nation
Deliverance from Slavery to the promised land
Story of Judges
Kingdom to Captivity
iv. If we don't approach the Bible this way, then how will we approach it?
Then it is all up to how anyone "feels" about the text. Though the teachings of Scripture may have infinite applications, they only have one true interpretation.
v. "The only proper way to interpret Genesis 1 is not to 'interpret' it at all.
That is, we accept the fact that it was meant to say exactly what it says." (Morris)
c. We believe the Bible is not a book of science; yet where it touches science, it speaks the truth. After all, if the Bible is false in regard to science or other things that we can prove, then we cannot regard it as reliable in regard to spiritual matters that we cannot prove.
3. We come to the Bible knowing the copies we have in our hands are reliable duplicates (though not perfect duplicates) of the exact writings, which God perfectly inspired.
3. We come to the Bible knowing the copies we have in our hands are reliable duplicates (though not perfect duplicates) of the exact writings, which God perfectly inspired.
a. We can know this about the Old Testament by seeing the incredible care and reliability of the ancient Jewish scribes, demonstrated by the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries.
They knew the number of lines per page
They knew the number of words and letters.
They copied and then counted
If it didn’t tally correctly, they set it aside to never be circulated.
Many of the manuscripts we have discovered are from such repositories.
1 manuscript will read differently in one passage (that was the scribal error) everything else is identical.
b. We can know this about the New Testament by knowing that because of earlier manuscripts, and a greater number of ancient manuscripts, the New Testament is by far the most reliable and exhaustively crosschecked ancient document we possess. Really, no more than one one-thousandth of the New Testament text is in question.
More evidence verifies NT than any other book.
If you just used letters written between believers which quote scripture, you get most of the NT.
4. We come to the Bible knowing the unique importance of the Book of Genesis.
4. We come to the Bible knowing the unique importance of the Book of Genesis.
a. The Bible would be incomplete and perhaps incomprehensible without the Book of Genesis.
It sets the stage for the entire drama of redemption, which unfolds in the rest of the book.
It tells our origin as a species
It documents the origin of sin
It sets in motion redemption’s story.
b. Almost all important doctrines and teachings have their foundation in the Book of Genesis:
the doctrines of:
sin
redemption
justification
Jesus Christ
the personality and personhood of God
the kingdom of God
the fall of man
Israel
The promise of the Messiah
Many more.
i. Genesis shows us the origins of the universe, order and complexity, the solar system, the atmosphere and hydrosphere, the origin of life, man, marriage, evil, language, government, culture, nations, religion.
It is precisely because people have abandoned the truth of Genesis that society is in such disarray.
If we are mere cosmic accidents no different than any other form of life, our purpose changes.
We are created for fellowship with and to glorify God
We have been given stewardship of this planet.
Apart from that, we are the top animal for now and have no more right to earth’s resources.
Why should we be able to eat other living things?
Why is it right for us to change the environment by building and heating and cooling.
c. Genesis is important to the New Testament.
There are at least 165 passages in Genesis either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New Testament; many of these are quoted more than once, so there are at least 200 quotations or allusions to Genesis in the New Testament.
i. Jesus declared the importance of believing what Moses wrote:
(John 5:46-47)
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
We can't say we believe in Jesus if we don't believe in the Book of Genesis.
d. "I beg and faithfully warn every pious Christian not to stumble at the simplicity of the language and stories that will often meet him there [in Genesis]. He should not doubt that, however simple they may seem, these are the very words, works, judgments, and deeds of the high majesty, power, and wisdom of God." (Luther, cited in Boice)
5. According to the New Testament, Moses wrote the Book of Genesis (Luke 24:27, Luke 24:44).
5. According to the New Testament, Moses wrote the Book of Genesis (Luke 24:27, Luke 24:44).
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
We can surmise that he did this with help from actual written records from the past God had preserved.
There are indicators of where these records begin and end.
Note the phrasing of Genesis 2:4, 5:1, 6:9, 10:1, 11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, 36:9, 37:2.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
These are the generations of Shem. When Shem was 100 years old, he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.
Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.
These are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham.
These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac,
These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom).
These are the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.
These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
a. "Thus it is probable that the Book of Genesis was written originally by actual eyewitnesses of the events reported therein.
Probably the original narratives were recorded on tables of stone or clay, in common practice of early times, and then handed down from father to son, finally coming into the possession of Moses.
Moses perhaps selected the appropriate sections for compilation, inserted his own editorial additions and comments, and provided smooth transitions from one document to the next, with the final result being the Book of Genesis as we have received it." (Morris)
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
I look forward to retelling these stories.
I grew up on hearing the stories of the Bible.
Momma would read these to us every night.
We heard them in Sunbeams and Sunday School
We retold them in VBS.
They are more than just stories.
They are truth!
There are lessons for us to learn and apply in each of our lives.