Untitled Sermon (2)

Good morning brothers and sisters! It is good to be with you celebrating Jesus this morning and meditating on his word together. Annie and I are truly excited to get to know you all through the summer. If we didn’t get the chance to meet you we’d love to stay and talk after the service. I want to do my best to learn all of your names and your passions and as much of your story as I can. If we lived closer, we’d have you over for dinner, but alas. We live in far away Joplin. We have a lot of ground to cover this morning and I want to get to it, so I’ll stop talking about myself now, and we’ll start talking about Jesus.

Over the summer I get to preach 10 sermons with you. In these 10 sermons I’m going to cover as much scripture as I can. Today the sermon is based on . Some sermons, like this one, will go topically and some sermons, like the one I’m going to preach on Revelation or on we will go verse by verse. All sermons will be firmly grounded in the Word and prayed through. Today I want to ask 5 big questions. 1. Who is God? 2. How did the world come to be? 3. Who are we? 4. What’s wrong with the world? And 5. Is there any hope? I’m not obviously not going to read from the pulpit so I encourage you to read it on your own and see how these issues are raised in the text. I’d love to talk with you about the story more if you want to do that afterwards. For now let’s pray and get into it.

God, we praise You for Your Word, for speaking to us and for Your promise by Your Spirit to help us understand it and apply it to our lives. So we pray with anticipation that You would speak to us right now. Open our eyes to see wonderful things in Your Word. We pray that the next few minutes will be a supernatural encounter with You. You know what’s going on in every one of our lives and families and work, and we pray that You would take Your Word and speak directly to our hearts through it right now. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth.”

So, let’s meditate, which means to reflect. Let’s ask questions about what’s happening in what we just read in God’s Word, what He is teaching us about Himself, about us, about Jesus and about what it means to follow Him.

Who is God?

Our first question is who is God? Based on what we just read in this chapter—as well as the chapters that follow, we see that God is the supreme Creator, sovereign King, righteous Judge and merciful Savior of the world. Let’s take these one by one. God is the supreme Creator. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The opening verse of the Bible is a breathtaking declaration that all things begin with God, but God had no beginning. He was “in the beginning...” He was and is, always has been and always will be, which is different from everything else in the universe. All the stars and all the sky, all the oceans and all the galaxies, all the vast expanse—they all had a beginning. There was a time when they were not, then God created them. This is huge!

God is the beginning. He is the supreme Creator of all things. So keep following this. That means God is distinct from creation and He rules over it. This leads right into the next reality: God is the sovereign King, meaning He exercises authority and reign over creation. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, going on in that is outside of His control. There’s nothing that happens in , when sin enters the world, that is ultimately outside of His control. The Author of creation has authority over creation. This leads to the reality that He is the righteous Judge. In we read that God establishes laws that govern creation. Jump down to , where the Bible says, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” This is God establishing His law, giving commandments that creation is responsible for heeding. In , man and woman do not heed His commands. They disobey and disregard them, so they experience God’s judgment. Here in the very beginning of the Bible, we’re confronted with the reality that God is the righteous Judge Who will judge every single person in this room and every single person in the world. Every single one of us will one day stand before God as Judge and He will be just. This makes us all the more thankful, when we realize that He is also the merciful Savior. He is not a creator or judge who is indifferent to us. God loves us and desires our good. Whether it’s in the initial creation of man in before the fall or the grace of God toward man after the fall in , God is a merciful Savior.

How did the world come to be?

Now, before we talk more about God in relationship to us, let’s ask the second question: how did the world come to be? The answer we see from the beginning of the Bible is that the world was fashioned by the word of God and is sustained by the power of God as a display of the goodness of God. There’s so much there.

It’s interesting, as you read through and 2, that we basically have two creation accounts in the book of Genesis. describes creation mainly in terms of the universe in all of its various elements. Then in , we have an account of creation that focuses specifically on people and our relationship with God.

When we put all this together, what do we learn about creation? We learn that creation was fashioned by the word of God. , “And God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’” Creation starts with the word of God. All He does is speak and it is. You see this phrase over and over again. Whenever you see a phrase repeated in the Bible as you’re reading through it, sit up and take notice.

Verse three, “And God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’” Verse six, “And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters.’” Verse nine, “And God said...” Verse 11, “And God said...” Verse 14, “And God said...” Verse 20, “And God said...” Verse 24, “And God said...” Verse 26, “Then God said...” Everything in creation is brought into being by the word of God. He speaks and it is.

Everything is also sustained by the power of God. We can see the omnipotence of God all over the place. The stars are held in their place by the power of God. The oceans stop where they do by the power of God. The sun and moon exist as they do according to the power of God. The plants grow and the animals eat by the power of God. There are no self-sustaining laws in the universe. Everything here is God-sustained. This is not natural selection at work; this is supernatural provision at work. If God were to withdraw His power and His word for a split second, the universe and all that is in it—including you and me—would cease to exist in that same split second. All the order in all the universe—every single detail you and I learn in science class about how plants grow, how climate changes, how bodies work— all of it is because of the sustaining power of God.

And all of it is evidence of the goodness of God. Just look across a snow-covered Metro DC and see the beauty of God reflected in creation. This is something we see over and over again. You might highlight this repeated phrase. In verse ten, God looked at all that He made and what does it say? “God saw that it was good.” In verse 12, “God saw that it was good.” In verse 18, “God saw that it was good.” Verse 21, “And God saw that it was good.” Verse 25, “And God saw that it was good.” Then verse 31 changes it up a little bit, “God saw everything that he has made, and behold, it was very good.” This is not some standard of goodness apart from God; this is goodness that flows from the very goodness of God.

Who are we?

The harmony, beauty, order, loveliness here in are all a reflection of the goodness of God—including you and me. So let’s ask the question: who are we? “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Memorize this verse and as you do, meditate and reflect on what God is saying. We are men and women wonderfully made in God’s image, so that we might know and enjoy God as we obey God and spread His glory in the world.

There’s so much there. You are wonderfully made in the image of God. This is the verbiage we see repeated. In verse 26, God made man in His own image. In verse 27 we see it again. Then turn to where we read, “God made man in his own image.” What does that mean? It means we are created in a unique way, apart from everything else in all creation. Just think of the beauty and majesty of the Grand Canyon, or a stunning sunrise over the ocean, or a sitting lion, or a soaring eagle. In a far, far greater way, you—right where you’re sitting right now—are a reflection of the beauty of God, the wonder of God, the image of God.

It’s kind of like when somebody looks at me and says, “You’re the spitting image of your father.” The reality is that you and I reflect God. Notice, it’s both male and female here. The Bible is speaking from the very beginning about the beauty of gender against absolutely any sense of gender superiority or domination of one gender over another. The Bible is establishing the beauty of both male and female from the very beginning in a way that is obviously questioned across our culture today. So we hear from God in His Word—man, woman, boy, girl—that God created you beautifully, with dignity, inherent dignity, as an image bearer of almighty God, as a man or a woman.

You are a unique, awesome, wonderful reflection of Him, so that you might know and enjoy Him. Do you see this? From the very beginning of our creation, what’s the first word? “God blessed them. And God said to them...” ()? God spoke to them. You and I have been created to enjoy the blessing of God and personal communion with God. God is speaking to us and we’re speaking to God. This is unlike anything else in all creation. Mountains can’t do this. The oceans don’t talk. Animals, birds, sea creatures? No. People speak to God, and God speaks to them.

This is the whole picture we see in . We read the account of man and woman enjoying pure, delightful, enjoyable, bountiful, full, free blessing from the Creator poured out on His unique creation. What did God say to them? , “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” with My glory. We’ve been created to know and to enjoy God as we obey His Word and spread His glory in the world. See the picture of man and woman from the beginning of the Bible. They’re knowing and enjoying God, and they’re knowing and enjoying one another in perfect harmony with the world.

Don’t you long for and 2? We long for it, because it’s not our experience. We experience conflict with God, conflict with each other and conflict with the world in our bodies and in our lives in the world.

What is wrong with the world?

This leads to our next question: what is wrong with the world? The answer comes in . Let’s read the first part together.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

What’s wrong with the world is that we have all sinned against God by rejecting His Word, His authority and His love, causing broken relationships with God, each other and the world, culminating in death—eventual physical death and eternal spiritual death.

Let’s unpack this step by step. What’s wrong with the world is that we have all sinned against God. What does that mean? It means we have rejected God’s Word. This looks different in each one of our lives, but we have all decided at some point—and what Adam and Eve decided—that our ways are better than God’s ways. We’ve rejected His Word and rejected His authority over our lives.

Think about it here in Genesis. God speaks to all creation—to mountains, planets, oceans, clouds—and all creation responds in immediate obedience to His bidding, until you get to man and woman. You and I have the audacity to look at God in the face and say, “No.” In this, we reject God’s love. Adam and Eve doubted the goodness of God. They believed they knew better than God what was best for them and that God didn’t want what was best for them. So they disobeyed Him and doubted His love for them.

The same is true for every single one of us. We actually think we know better than God what is best for our lives—better than the very God Who created us. We think our laws for marriage and family are better. We think our approach to money, finances and success is better. We think our ways of life and work are better than God’s. So we reject His Word, His authority and His love.

The result is broken relationships, first and foremost with God, which is what happens in and following. Man and woman used to rejoice in His presence, but now they’re hiding from Him. For the first time they experience guilt, shame and fear before God, then ultimately separation from God. Man and woman’s relationship with God is broken and their relationship with one another is broken.

Marriage, the most intimate of all human relationships, is now marked by strife, conflict, competition and in some ways separation, affecting all human relationships that are now marked by this quest for power, this prideful pursuit of advantage over one another that leads to anger, hate, gossip, division, racism, injustice, oppression, slavery, war and on and on and on. None of this was part of God’s design. Just four chapters into the Bible, a man murders his brother.

Then it’s not just personal relationships, but our relationship with the world is broken. A perfect creation soon witnesses a flood, which we’ll read about in , that wipes out almost everyone and everything on the earth. This was followed throughout history by natural decay and disaster, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and on and on and on. All of these culminate in the ultimate effect of sin, which is death.

We realize in and 3 that eventual physical death was not God’s design. God said, “If you eat of this tree, if you sin, you will surely die.” So the effect of sin is clear. When you get to this week, notice how almost every paragraph ends with the same phrase: “And he died…and he died…and he died…” That’s not the way God designed it to be.

But more severe even than physical death is the reality that if a man or woman physically dies in the state of separation from God, then the result is eternal spiritual death. Please, please, please do not miss how serious this picture is in the beginning of the Bible. The same serpent that was lying in is lying to people all across our church right now: “You will not surely die.” Right now, he’s trying to convince you and me that there will not be eternal consequences for sin against God, that we’re all okay. When we die, we’ll just go wandering off into a happy hunting ground. At the end of a long black tunnel, there will be a bright light and we’ll go to some wonderful happy place. Or maybe when we die, we’ll just go out of existence. It’s not true. We are guilty sinners. God is a righteous Judge and the just payment for our sin is eventual physical death and eternal spiritual separation from God.

God help us in this world of day-to-day trivialities to feel the eternal weight of this. Stop for a minute amidst the busyness of your life and as a sinner, open your eyes to your eternity before a holy God. Your sin, my sin, is eternally serious before God.

What is our Hope in the World?

This leads to the last question: Is there any hope in a world of broken relationships with God, with one another and with the world?

Atheists and agnostics can’t answer this question. They say, no. there is not. All things are just nature.

Or think about the religions of the world that almost universally say, in different ways, “Your hope is in getting better, in doing enough good, enough kindness—enough to make you worthy. If you work hard enough at the right things, then you have hope. But you’re never really sure how much is enough.”

Let’s just see from the beginning of the Bible a far, far greater hope than anything else you will ever hear in this world; a much, much surer hope than anything this world will offer you. It’s a glorious hope. Follow this—I’m going to take it one phrase at a time. Our only hope in this world is a Redeemer Who will conquer sin and death. In the middle of the saddest chapter in the Bible——God gives a promise of One Who would come, born of a woman, who would have His heel bruised, but He would crush the head of the serpent.

is the first promise of a Redeemer. What’s a redeemer? A redeemer is one who comes to make things new, a rescuer, a liberator, who comes to set people free from the curse of sin and death. Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus is the Redeemer. He came, He lived a perfect life, totally sinless, and He conquered sin completely. Then, although He had no sin for which to die, He chose to die to pay the price for your sin and my sin. Jesus came to die the death we deserve, to die for our sin in our place. And the good news keeps getting better, because He didn’t stay dead for long. Jesus rose from the grave in victory over death.

Our only hope in this world is a Redeemer Who will conquer sin and death, reconciling us to God. The central message of the entire Bible, from the very beginning, is that all who trust in this Redeemer—all who turn from their sin and trust Jesus to save them from their sin as Lord of their lives— will be forgiven of all your sin. It’s not based on what you can do or if you can be good enough. Jesus has already done what is good enough, based on what He has done for you.

So put your trust in Jesus and you will be reconciled to God, restored to a relationship with God like you were originally designed to have, complete with a new heart. Our only hope is a Redeemer Who will conquer sin and death, reconcile us to God and give us new hearts. The story of Genesis, the story of Scripture, is not that we need to be recycled and made better. The story of the Bible is that we need to be redeemed and made new. Jesus did not die to make us better—He died to make us new.

The Bible is not a self-improvement plan. It is a life-transforming promise that when we trust in Jesus, God will give us new desires, new hearts that want His Word, that want His authority and that experience His love. You can be made entirely new through Jesus. And not just you. Our only hope in this world is a Redeemer Who will conquer sin and death, reconcile us to God, give us new hearts and restore God’s creation. Praise God!

In , God does not end the story with a quick snap. God promises there is coming a day when the perfection of and 2 will be restored. Here’s a spoiler alert—I’m going to go ahead and tell you how the Bible ends. There is coming a day when sin and suffering will be no more, when pain and hurt and sorrow will be no more, when disease and death will be no more. And all who trust in the Redeemer will be fully restored to God, fully restored to one another, then this world will be fully restored to the harmony and beauty for which it was originally designed. Our only hope in this world is a Redeemer Who will conquer sin and death, reconcile us to God, give us new hearts, and restore God’s creation. In a word, our only hope is Jesus. From this point forward, the focal point of the Bible is Jesus and it is my prayer that he is the focal point of our days.