God Story: Humanity

INTRODUCTION

Why are you here? I’m not asking why did you come to this building today. But why do you exist? Why are we here? Why do we exist? What is our purpose?

The mystery of existence has plagued the greatest philosphers and the simplest minds for millenia. Why are we conscious? Why are we living and breathing?

Every now and then, I have a fleeting moment, when I shockingly become aware that I am actually living. I am existing in real time and real space in this matter, called a body! My heart is beating without me making it! It’s such an amazing moment. But why?

We all have these questions and we rabidly search for answers, anything that will give us purpose.

The Bible calls that worship. Whatever we look to for purpose and is what we worship.

I know you may think that is a little overblown. You may think you don’t worship anything, or you may think you worship only on Sunday mornings.

Well the renowned musician Harold Best has described it well, “we are continuously outpouring, perpetually worshipping something. At this very moment, and for as long as this world endures, everybody inhabiting is bowing down and serving something or someone - an artifact, a person, an institution, and idea, a spirit, or God through Christ.”

Even before his suicide, atheist novelist David Foster Wallace wrote these staggering words, “Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship… is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things - if they are where you tap real meaning in life - then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough… Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you… Worship power - you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart - you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out… Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings.”

And further, an old church catechism says “The chief end of Man is to glory God and enjoy Him forever.

You see, our purpose is to worship God. That’s why we were made.

After he had prepared the earth God said, “Let us make humans in our image, to be like us. They will be in charge of the earth and the plants and the animals that live on it.”

So God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed his own breath into him, giving him life. This man would be called Adam. Later, God created the first woman, Eve, from one of Adam’s ribs, to be a companion and helper for Adam. So God created both the man and the woman in his own image.

God blessed the man and the woman with the ability to continue creating through having children. The humans were given the job to develop the hidden potentials of God’s world. He told them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over everything on the earth.” He placed the humans in a beautiful garden. The garden had a river that turned into four rivers that brought flourishing to everything. This garden was a place where they had everything they needed to live life to the fullest.

In the center of the garden God placed two special trees. One was the Tree of Life which allowed people to live forever. The other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, which gave people the right to decide between right and wrong. God commanded Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, except for one—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” He warned them not to eat from this tree or they would surely die.

Daily, God would come and spend time with the humans, walking with them in the cool of the day. He showed them how to live in the best possible way—a life lived close to God, under his protection, doing the work he gave them—a life that is full and complete. And Adam and Eve loved being with God. As God looked over all of his creation he thought, “this is VERY GOOD!” After creating all of this God rested, and he set aside a day of rest each week for his creation.

And You see, our purpose is to worship God. That’s why we were made. Today I want to show us how we do that by Representing God, Serving God and Depending on God.

REPRESENT GOD - Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 2:5-7

Exposition - Here we see the Creator of the Universe making people. He has created everything, the universe, the earth, plants and animals. Now at the climax of his creation, He does something different. Instead of saying “Let there be...” as He has up until now. It says “he formed.”

You may have seen Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Creation of Adam” fresco. It’s a beautiful masterpiece, in the truest sense of the word. However it is fairly inaccurate. The Lord God did not stretch out His hand to barely touch man with His finger, though He easily could have. And the fresco illustrates His power in that way. No, He got His hands down in the dirt!

Just imagine, God picking up a pile of newly formed fresh clay, and He starts molding it into a specific form. You can take this or leave it, but I imagine the process we see in a baby’s development within the womb being the exact same process by which God formed the dirt into Adam. Strecthing, adding, molding internal organs, until everything is just right.

But he doesn't form a small baby. He forms this beautiful, fully grown man and their lives. Adam on his back. And again, I love to step into this part of the story. All of his brain capacity, fully functioning, waiting. He has been formed by the hands of God. And instead of God speaking this part of creation like a master sculptor, he actually forms what we still cannot understand to this day. Things like the brain, how the entire physical body works together in Think of the eyes, the have you studied humanity? He forms from the dirt, but waiting, their lifeless is this fully grown man. And God, once and for all, declares his intimacy with man. He gets down face to face, and he kisses the dirt. And he begins to breathe. And as the life of God comes into Adam fully functioning, Adam's eyes open. An electricity shoots through his being, and he becomes alive, face to face with the beautiful God of the universe. 18 inches from his eyeballs. He knows nothing else except what he is seeing right there. I've often thought about this, that everywhere Adam would go in creation was new. Feeling water for the first time, observing the beauty of creation. Nothing would ever compare to the first thing that he saw. That's what happens when we have babies. That's the first thing they look for. That breath out into air. And the first exhale is not oxygen, but is very God. For God holds your life breath, and man becomes a living being. For we were made to receive God in and to exhale God out to the world.

Now close your eyes. Imagine you have no frame of reference, no history, no knowledge, no experience. You have no awareness of consciousness. You have nothing. You don’t exist. You are like Adam. Then God comes and bends over you… now take a deep breath. God breathes life into this man. Now open you eyes. What do you think Adam saw? He saw God! Was He sad, mad or glad? I believe God was overjoyed. He had made an image of Himself!

Now thinking about that word image/likeness, what does it mean?

Old Testament Scholar Gerhard von Rad says “Just as powerful earthly kings, to indicate their claim to dominion, erect an image of themselves in the provinces of their empire where they do not personally appear, so man is placed [on] the earth in God’s image as God’s sovereign emblem. He is really only God’s representative, summoned to maintain and enforce God’s claim to dominion over the earth.”

Our purpose is to worship God by representing Him.

Illuatration -

I'll never forget when my sons were born, I had a glimpse of this first moment of life. When they were born,I was shocked and almost passed out each time. And then I saw their eyes open. I'm like, oh, my God. God sent electricity go to this newly formed man’s body. And his eyes opened. There were many times I would just look at my sons when they opened there eyes and blinked. It would shock me! There glimmering eyes made me realize that they were not baby dolls after all. And they looked like me.

I mean, did you see that? When Adam opened his eyes, God saw himself. And I'm like, they look just like me. I don't know if that's a good thing. And God is moved in his dad heart. For these children represents me just like we represent God!

Application -

What this means is that in every area of our life, we are to represent the Lord God. Our conversations, the tips we leave, how we discipline our children, how we plan out our wills, should all represent God. We are to give people an image of what God looks like in our lives and actions. When people see you, do they see God? We want to do this so we can worship God by representing Him!

SERVE GOD - Genesis 2:15

Exposition - Now after creation man, God placed him in the Garden of Eden, where His temple was, to work it and keep it. Adam was created for relationship with God. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east. In Eden, which means delight.

Don't you love that? It says God's a Gardner. That's one of the first things we see them do. Plant a garden wild in a place named Delight. You were created to live in relationship with God within the realm of His delight. That is why you exist. And in this garden, he put the man that he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grew out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye, good for food. In the middle of the garden, there was the tree of life.

There are two very important ideas in this line “to work and to keep”, or as another translation states “to serve and to guard”. They point to two aspects of Adam’s responsibility.

First, ‘work’. Adam was to steward the physical features of the Garden. He worked. Before the fall and sin and curse, humanity worked. It wasn’t difficult. It was art, good, true and beautiful. In many ways, he was simply beautifying the replace where God would come and meet with him.

Second, “serve”. It’s important to note that the only other place in the Old Testament where this word combination is found is seen is where the Israelites serve God by keeping His law and the priests service to God in the Tabernacle and later Temple. Literally, the liturgical work of the the priests is what it means to ‘serve’. Additionally, the phrase was used by the ancient Greeks to refer to a person’s public service, much like our jury duty today.

So you put it together and quite simply it shows us God created humanity to worship Him as priests by the work we do! Adam was created to serve the Lord as a priest who had the responsibility for the care of the Temple of the Lord. God created human beings to serve Him in a spiritual capacity.

Our purpose is to worship God by serving him.

Illustraiton - I’ve seen this play out in a number of ways in my life, specifically where my work and worship have come together. As a new Christian trying to find how to integrate my work with my worship. For a while, they had been split. I had my worship in the church building on Sunday and then I had my work in the public places every other day of the week.

Well one day, I decided that before I go into work, I would pray and dedicate this entire work shift to the Lord. I wanted to serve every customer as if it were the Lord Jesus Himself. Well I did that and it was really good. I had a good attitude about most of my grueling work. Until I had to go clean the restrooms! I didn’t want to do that. I mean, how could the sacred act of worship be conducted scrubbing a toilet.

So I went into the restrooms, and I started cleaning. And I was all alone, wiping down a toilet seat. And I realized, in that moment, that every act, every spray, every wipe was an act of complete worship to the Lord God!

I was serving God while scrubbing toilets. That’s what we were made to do. To worship God by serving Him!

Application - This means that all our work matters. Every single act of service is actually an act of worship. Every button we press, contract we sign, floor we sweep, patient we care for, deal we close, and diaper we change is out act of worship - ultimately to God. Whether we feel it or are aware of it or not. We are simply participating with God’s provision of His world! Our work is simply the channel by which God loves the world and provides for people! Think about that. And it’s our worship of God!

As Tim Keller has said in his excellent book “Every Good Endeavor”: “we are continuing God’s work of forming, filling, and subduing. Whenever we bring order out of chaos, whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and “unfold” creation beyond where it was when we found it, we are following God’s pattern of creative cultural development.”

And so this also means we are to do whatever work comes our way in excellence as to the Lord. Martin Luther once said, “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” Even more, this means that we must live like priests in all that we do - that was our first and primary vocation. That means we gather here on Sunday’s to worship but it also means we have set times of prayer and worship with our families and by ourselves. We were made to worship, in our service and work!

DEPEND ON GOD - Genesis 2:16-22

Exposition - After placing man in the Garden, to serve Him, the Lord gives the man His first command: “eat from every tree, but one tree - the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.” In doing this, God was establishing the posture of relationship between Him and mankind. He doesn’t just leave humans alone to learn thing based on their experience, which is the knowledge of Good and Evil. Instead, He wanted them to depend on Him for knowledge.

You see, in this, Adam was saying “I will not operate on my own for my life comes in relationship to You God. I am dependent on the one who gave me breath. I find my identity from the voice outside.”

None of you were created to find your identity from your own voice, but from the one defining voice outside of you. And the voice that created the heavens and the Earth was creating in Adam his identity. The voice of God was telling him his worth and value in relationship to God. This was his life.

This is played out when God says it is not good for man to be alone. Now consider this, Adam didn’t know that. He wasn’t suddenly aware of loneliness, no God lead him into that realization. All Adam had to do was depend on the Lord to teach him, guide him and awaken emotions inside of him.

So what did God do? He brought the animals before Adam who named them. This is a powerful image. God was giving humans dominion over creation. God's glory was revealed through the lives, thoughts, actions, words of humanity as they brought the whole creation under the rulership of God. They were blessed to be fruitful in relationship with God. Blessed to multiply and fill the Earth with his family image, and blessed to bring creation into the rule of God. That was their beautiful delegated responsibility.

But it isn’t so much about humans demonstrating authority over animals as it is about God teaching Adam something. Just think about it, as the animals pass by two at a time, Adam realized that they were in pairs… and that he was alone. And at the end of the day, Adam's exhausted. Giraffe.. Okay, next... And the whole time, he's mounting frustration of not good. Adam is beginning to feel there's really no one for me. This wasn’t good. And God came to him and says, I want to make a helper suitable for you. And he puts him into a deep sleep. This word for deep sleep is as if he were dead. And God put Adam on his back, resting and God goes into his side, the place that defends the heart. And he takes from Adam his very part of his very being.

It was then, and only then, that God put him asleep a formed a woman from his side. God didn’t take the woman from the man’s head to rule over him. He also didn’t take the woman from man’s foot for him to rule over her. Instead, from his side she came, powerful image displaying the unity, equality and neededness of them both.

God has been withholding a part of his image, not just made of the ground, nor spoken to existence, but made from a part of his creation. In the image of God taken from the man. And God begins to weave from Adam's side this beautiful creation in the image of God. And we don't know how long God enjoyed being with Eve before He walked her back. I love to imagine what they were doing and talking about while Adam was knocked out. What's so beautiful is God wanted to be with his daughter on a date. What were they talking about? And when he made Eve, he split the qual human into different complementary parts, the femininity of the image of God burst on to God. And he thought, Beauty, elegance, Grace. These are from me. Don't you love that? And then check this out. The Father takes Eve by the hand and walks her down the aisle to the waiting son. Eve gets to see this one before he wakes up.

And so the Lord God touches him and Adam’s eyes open the second time. And now he sees God and Eve… And he burst into the first poetry in scripture. Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. The bones of the Hebrews meant symbolism of the core of the being. He explodes, and he says, this is my very being out of me. She has come and taken from him! And they were naked without shame.

From then on, she would be on a quest back into Union and oneness with him. And the two would become one. As humanity taken from God, we are on a quest back into Union with God. And when Adam saw Eve, it would be his continual reminder to return to his source. That he was designed to be one with the one he was taken from, as the one taken from him was designed to be one with him. And this is Covenant. And this was marriage, God’s own ideal from creation. And throughout the Bible and history we truly do see a variety of relationships and households. But this was the original intent.

Our purpose is to worship God by depending on Him.

Illustration - But in today’s world, we base our purpose on our experiences and opinions and emotions, instead of depending on God.

Applicaiton - That is why we have this book, the Bible - the Word of God to read and obey. It’s not just a book, but the inspired work of God which He’d given to teach us, guide us and correct us. That’s why the most important thing we can do is to read it, mark it, study it, and inwardly digest it until it transforms our way of thinking. Are you reading the Bible? Are you delighting in the words of God or relying on your own knowledge and experience?

Adam eventually relied on his own experience and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of that bite has been poisoning our race for thousands of years. We no longer base our purpose on God and His word, no we create our own purpose and identify ourselves base don our desires and experiences. Or if we do look to God through His word, we are inclined to read it as religious duty that makes us good.

We don’t represent God! You see, we are like a mirror that has been cracked. We are broken and shattered images of God. Mankind’s first sin has shattered us and we keep covering it up with further sin.

But that’s exactly why Jesus came. He is the Last Adam, the Second Man who came too fully reveal God to us. He’s the perfect image of God.

Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Jesus came in the perfect Image and Likeness of God to ultimately be shattered and broken on the cross, so that we might be made whole.

And our service it not pleasing to God because of our sin. We don’t pray because we are self-reliant. We see our work as meaningless. We are lazy and unproductive. Or we are obsessed with productivity. We find our purpose in what we do and over-work, serving our ambition or hunger or wealth.

That’s why Jesus came. Here in genesis we see God as a gardener, and in the New Testament we see Him as a carpenter. Jesus is the greater Adam, our Great High Priest. He sanctified and made holy every area of life and work. He spent His first 30 years in absolute obscurity - just working, just the son of Jospeh and Mary, just the carpenter that people would meet at the village well.

But those years were full of worship and service. He then started His short-lived ministry before being crucified. Yet even in that, He, too was worshipping and serving. You see, Hebrews 4:14 says Jesus is our great high Priest and John 1:29 says Jesus is our sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Jesu sis the Great Priest who laid Himself on the altar of the cross and was sacrified that we might be cleaned of our sin and able to serve God the Father truly.

We don’t depend on God! But Jesus came, fully obedient and dependent on His Father. He is the faithful Adam, perfect in every area. In fact, in John 5:19 “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”

And just like Adam who was put to sleep for His bride to come from His side, Jesus, another man, went to the sleep of death on a cross naked and shamed. And the soilders pierced his side, where His ribs were. And from his side flowed water and blood which would cover the sins of His people, His bride. Jesus was obedient even to the point of death on a cross. And the amazing thing is that faith in Him, will give us, give you, His perfect record of obedience and dependence.

You see, dependence on Jesus and Him alone, the Word of God, will give you the truth… for He is truth!

This is why we are here! This is why you exist! This is our purpose! And hanging over His creation of humanity is the words of new creation, very similar to “It is very good” but with a whole new meaning as Jesus died on that cross: “It is finished!” Amen.