Creation

Tonight, we are going to start a four week focus on the Bible. We will do this by looking at the focus of the story from front to back. The Meta-narrative.

What is the coolest thing you have ever scene? Drones over Olympics. There is something cooler that we breeze over all the time.

Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 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.”

Genesis 1:26-29 “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.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 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.” 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.

It is no accident that God is the subject of the first sentence of the Bible, for this word dominates the whole chapter and catches the eye at every point of the page: it is used some thirty-five times in as many verses of the story. The passage, indeed the Book, is about him first of all; to read it with any other primary interest (which is all too possible) is to misread it.

This is history.

This is a story that we separate ourselves from. We have to understand that this happened on the same Earth we live on.

In this story, we see

Genesis 1 - Wide View

Genesis 2 - Specific View

God is Creator.

We know this, but do we understand and live boldly in light of it?

So God creates and the earth is without form, it’s void, and it’s dark.

What are some things that are without form, order, void, and dark? Right, Its nothing. You can’t think of anything because it is nothing.

I think of Rubik’s Cube. Without form and void. They are chaos. They are not pretty, they are without form and void.

What was created? Use Ipad. If you think about the things he creates, heavens. earth,, water, light, day, night, sky, land, seas, plants, animals, people.

Now think back to the thing you mentioned to be the coolest thing you have ever seen. All of the things you mentioned were either created by God or created by a creation of God.

He created everything as it is laid out in this passage. There are also some things that he creates as a part of the process that aren’t often mentioned. He also creates life in man, gender, marriage.

He secures that he is the only creator/God, He dispels evolution.

God brings form/order. God will bring form to your life if you let him.

Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary (Prologue (1:1, 2))

the six days now to be described can be viewed as the positive counterpart of the twin negatives ‘without form and void’, matching them with form and fullness. They may be set out as follows:

Form:

Day 1 - Light and dark. Day 2 - Sea and sky. Day 3 - Fertile earth.

Fullness:

Day 4 - Lights of day and night. Day 5 - Creatures of water and air. Day 6 - Creatures of the land.

You are written into this story. I want you to put yourself in the middle of this story God presents.

We need to understand that this is our story as well. God is the same God he was then with us now. When your life seems like it’s without form, void, and chaotic. God is able to bring form.

He brings form to the day and night, the human ruling over the food chain, he brings for to marriage between one man and one woman, he brings form to gender that he started with nothing and he led into 2 genders, male and female. He brought forth life. There was no disorder in death. It didn’t exist at this point. There is no confusion or disorder when God originally set things in motion. Now there is. There is disorder in life. People die and people kill. We have a great divide over abortion right now. There is disorder in gender. There are many different genders and views on gender now, and God is clear that there are two, male and female. There is disorder in marriage. Divorce is rampant even though God set forth that it was that a man would hold fast to his wife. The world had no form without God’s order. He formed all of it from nothing into something with order. An empty space to a place that was void to something with form to something with order. It was without form and God formed it into what we see today. Something beautiful, mountains, oceans, etc.

We take for granted the things God has already done. We take for granted the order, but I want you to think about your lives, would you say you have order with all the busy ness you have. Is it it order? or Is it disorder. He is a God of order. Allow him to create order.

He can bring order/form to our lives too. If we will let him.

Will you let him? Follow in obedience.

He brings form/order

God gives purpose.

Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Genesis 1:26-29 “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.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 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.” 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.”

God gave purpose to Adam and Eve. He had jobs for them. What were they? Naming, working, and ruling. He intended for us to be the leaders of Earth. They were given a specific task. Without God they had no task. They had no purpose. It is with God that a purpose was created for us. We are called to live in harmony and honor him. He can give you a purpose just as he did us in the beginning.

Are you allowing him to give purpose? It is when we spend time with him and seek him that we begin to see the purpose he has for us.

Where does this bring us? Things were perfect? Now they aren’t? Why?

I want to take you to one last passage that connects this story of creation to the rest of the story.

Colossians 1:16-23 “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. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

We see that all things were created through Jesus and for Jesus. He also has reconciled all thing to himself by making peace with his blood on the cross. We will look at this need for reconciliation more next week as we look at the fall, but we see here that Jesus brings form and order to disorder. He reconciles things just as he did in the beginning.

Are you actively allowing him to bring order and purpose into your life. He did all of this that we may make much of him and give him the glory he deserves. How are you seeking to do this? Honoring him as creator? Giving him control in the disorder and chaos of life? Seeking to fulfill the purpose he has given us, that we may glorify him.

He is creator and he brings form/order and gives purpose. Are you seeking him to allow him to do so.

Maybe your life has always been disorder. He can bring order today, just as we saw in Colossians, Christ came to reconcile us on the cross, we just have to turn away from our sin and believe in him for that. He can bring order, just as we saw tonight? Will you let him?