Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

Introduction

Beginnings matter.

You cannot learn to do algebra until you learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide.

In the complete and full revelation of God in Christ, there are foundational truths that are laid out in the opening books of the Bible which help us to better know Christ and understand His work.

Because of that, this morning, we will begin a new series that looks to the very beginning, the foundation of God’s revelation to us – the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch.

The Pentateuch, sometimes called the Torah or the Books of Moses, is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

If you hear that and you’re thinking, “Bro.

Geoff, that is a lot of books to make a series out of.

Are we going to be in the Pentateuch for the next 50 years?”

You’re correct, it is a lot of material to cover, but it will not take us 50 years.

As we worked our way through Philippians, we did it verse by verse and took an up-close view of Paul’s letter, and doing that is very important and helpful.

But at the same time, we also need a birds-eye view of Scripture to help us see the big picture themes and points – to help us understand the overall narrative.

So that is what we are doing with our Pentateuch series – hoping to get a big picture of the narrative of these foundational books of the Bible.

So, why are they called the Pentateuch, Torah, and Books of Moses?

I’m glad you asked!

Pentateuch simply means 5 – penta- scrolls or books.

Makes sense!

Torah is a Hebrew word which simply means “law” or “instruction” and refers to those same five books.

Finally, often the first five books of the Bible are called the Books of Moses because they were written primarily by Moses or under his leadership.

Now that I have introduced our new series, I want to take just a minute to introduce Genesis briefly.

It is not every day that we get two introductions in one sermon, this is exciting!

Genesis is a book of beginnings.

The beginning of creation, man, sin, Israel – this is why these books are sooo foundational.

The book of Genesis breaks down into two large sections.

Chapters 1-11 deal with the earliest of human history – the accounts of creation, the flood, Babel are all in those first 11 chapters.

Chapters 12 – 50 narrows the focus on Abraham and his family.

With all of that being said, now that our introductions are over, let’s turn to the text of Scripture.

Scripture

Our passage this morning is , but we will only read the first 2 verses together for the sake of brevity and so that you do not have to stand the entire time, but we will refer to other verses in .

If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these are the most important words we could hope to hear today.

says this:

Thank you, you may be seated.

Thank you, you may be seated.

Sermon

The creation account of is one of the most discussed passages of the Bible.

One of the reasons this passage creates so much discussion is not because of the passage itself, but because of the cultural baggage that we bring to the text.

What I mean by that is that so often, when we approach this text, because of our culture and the time we live and our background, because of all that, when we come to this text, we tend to ask the wrong questions of the text.

Moses is not primarily explain to Israel how everything was created, but instead Who did the creation.

Think for a moment about when Moses would have been writing Genesis – He would have been writing this, probably during the 40 years of wandering, maybe just before that started.

Prior to the Exodus, the people of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt and would have been exposed to a very different understanding of the creation of everything.

In the prevailing view of the time, each part of creation was a god.

The sun was a god, the moon was a god, etc. etc.

And the creating gods of Egypt and the surrounding cultures didn’t create out of nothing, matter was co-existent with the god.

So Genesis is written as a rejection of the surrounding ideas about the beginning.

Those gods didn’t do it, God did.

The sun isn’t a god, there is only one God and He created that sun which those other cultures worship.

See, the question isn’t how, but who.

Who is this God who has created everything?

That’s going to be our focus for this sermon.

What does Genesis tell us about our creative God?

The first thing we should notice is that God is powerful.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

That is to say, everything that exists (other than God Himself), God created it.

The Latin phrase for this is ex nihilo – out of nothing.

The God which we worship with infantile Israel is a God who was not co-existent with matter.

Our God created that which was not.

This is the testament of many New Testament passages as well.

talking about the Eternal Son says,

“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.”

Now obviously, that is an important passage about Jesus, but it also tells us about creation itself – all things were created by God.

All things.

So if isn’t clear enough, is explicit.

God created all that there is from nothing.

The amount of power required to make all that is from nothing is unimaginable.

It is difficult to talk about because it is so, very amazing.

And to add to that, God does it merely by speaking.

As easily as you and I speak, God exercises His awesome power in creation.

God’s power to create all that there is, out of nothing, is connected to another important truth about God.

God is transcendent.

When I say that God is transcendent, I mean that God is wholly and totally other.

God is separate from His creation.

Again, we can see how this is different from the surrounding cultures of the Israelites where each of their gods were actually part of the creation.

The God of Israel is different.

Different than everything because He totally other.

There is another word we use regularly to express this idea – holy.

Usually we think of holiness as moral purity, and that is a major aspect of holiness, but the reason God is holy is because he is entirely separated from sin – God is holy, separate, other, transcendent.

Another aspect of God’s transcendence is the fact that God is self-existent.

All of creation is upheld by God, but is not God.

God simply is.

He doesn’t rely on anything to exist – he exists in Himself.

That means that God doesn’t need anything because He is self-existent and self-sufficient.

What on earth could we give God who created the earth!?

This also wars against the ideas of the surrounding cultures who believed that the gods created humans to feed and provide for the gods.

But the God of Scripture – the God of Genesis isn’t needy.

He does the providing.

He provides man with a garden, food, a spouse – and everything else mankind needs.

We can see this clearly in which says,

“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.

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.”

God is transcendent, and therefore does not need anything, but instead provides for his creation.

In the creation account of , we also learn that God is creative.

Ultimately, we learn that by looking at creation itself and seeing all of the amazing diversity in the universe.

Think for just a moment how creative and awesome of a mind it takes to create everything from galaxies to atoms, sunsets to snowflakes.

Looking at creation, we cannot help but to recognize that the creator is creative.

And tells us that it is God who created. is a hymn about how the created order tell us about God.

It says,