In the Beginning - Genesis 1:1-3

Outline

The Bible if we are honest is filled with what can seem to be phenomenons that are rarely explainable through human articulation and contemplation.

We see throughout the Bible miracles that have no explanation other than God did it. We see a God who parts sees, sets people free, heals of leprosy and other diseases that may have existed in one’s body for a long period of time.

Most times when we see such phenomenons we never truly stop to contemplate their profundity. But a true student of the word of God learns to ponder specifically and careful no matter how many times you’ve looked at a text in the Bible.

Then in Genesis we see God who our Sunday School understanding teaches us puts the world together in 6 days.

Certainly it is a phenomenon that God places the world together in 6 days. But it is rarely if ever questioned because He is just God like that. He can do what would seemingly take you and I years or decades to complete in mere moments and seconds. You can attest to the fact that there are somethings that happened in your life that should have taken years to do God did it suddenly.

But a journey into this creation narrative begins to challenge our understanding of what really happened.

We live in a society that tells you that God is contrary to science and for some scientists that may be true… Science is not contrary to God if and only if it places God at the beginning.

As we journey through this text you remember:

Day 1 - Light was created

Day 2 - the firmament was created

Day 3 - dry land, seas, plants and trees were created

Day 4 - the Sun, Moon and stars were created

Day 5 - creatures that live in the sea and that fly in the air were created

Day 6 - land animals and humans

Genesis 1:14 ESV

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,

Days, seasons, and years weren’t created until Day 4

The sun, moon, stars: days are marked by the rising and the setting of the sun and the rotation of the moon

The text indicates days in creation before days were even created

Day does not indicate 24-hours

2 Peter 3:8 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The reality of this text is to show us there is an evangelical focus of the writer

That is a focus to get somebody to believe in God

In the beginning God

The message of the writer of Genesis (Moses by the way) is trying to convey before there was anything else there was God.

Before there was light there was God…

You’ve got to learn to get God in the beginning.

Sometimes in our own strength...

Created

there was chaos (v 2)

there was no order (without form)

there was no light

Where there was chaos the spirit of God was hovering over it

God does not run when there is chaos - He hovers over it

Not only does He hover but He creates in the midst of chaos

Aren’t you glad when there was nothing God stepped in and created something out of nothing?

Aren’t you glad that He’s got the power to make something even when its dark and gloomy!

There was vision to see the heavens and the earth before it was formed… (not until day 3) Genesis 1:8/10

before God started moving on what was chaos He saw what it would be

In the midst of darkness and utter chaos God created light

darkness can’t stop light

since God has willed there to be light, light has no choice but to show up

when God says let there be the Bible says there was.

It doesn’t matter how dark it was

It doesn’t matter that things were out of order

You’ve got to remember God from the beginning…

Amid all that is happening in the world you’ve got to remember that God dealt with darkness and utter chaos in the beginning

God showed darkness in the beginning - you won’t win.

God says I’ve got a remedy for darkness!