Paradise Created

Genesis, which is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, the original Hebrew, which means

in the beginning. And so what Genesis does for us, it gives us the beginning of the doctrine of God

is what the beginning is. It's the beginning of the doctrine of God, of who God is, but also of

his creation. That is what we know about God, what we know about creation, about ourselves and about

salvation, it all begins right here in Genesis. What I'm saying is that if you read the Bible

correctly, it is not fundamentally about us. It's about God. And it's about who he is and what he

has done and continues to do. It's no accident that God is the very first sentence of the Bible.

And the name of God is referred to 35 times and dominates the first chapter. God is the subject

of the first chapter of the Bible. That's not often how we read it. The storyline of the Bible,

which is a single storyline, is a storyline that moves from creation to the fall, what God has done

to rescue it and renew his creation through grace, which takes us eventually to the end where he will

renew all things. It's a single storyline of the whole Bible. It's a storyline that has its foundation

in Genesis 1-11. And it's our focus, as Jess has said, in the lead up to Christmas.

Genesis 1-11 gives us the earliest of history of the world. It gives us this early history by relating to

us five stories. In Genesis 1-11, consists of five stories that all have the same structure.

The five stories are the fall into sin, the story of Cain, the sons of God marrying the daughters of men,

the flood and the tower of Babel. And the five stories have a fourfold pattern to them that's repeated.

Sin is described. God speaks, announcing the penalty for the sin. God then brings grace to the solution to

ease the misery that sin has caused. And then God punishes the sin. And the amazing thing, as you see in the first

11 chapters, is that as sin increases, so grace increases more and more.

And so therefore, Romans 5 comes to fruition in its very first chapters of the Bible. It's a foundation,

if you like, the pillars of the rest of the Bible, the message of the rest of the Bible.

And so today we're starting in the beginning of creation. And as we have just declared in the

Apostles' Creed, we believe in God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth. So three things. If you've

got the St. Paul's outline there on the app, you'll see I've got three things there. Understanding creation,

practicing creation, and lastly, experiencing creation, or I've sort of thought this morning, might even call that

enjoying creation. But we'll get there. Okay. Understanding creation. Now, us modern people, especially those of us

with a Western heritage, when we read Genesis 1, we immediately think of the question, how?

How? That's the immediate thing. That's the very first question we impose upon this text. How? And Darwin's

theory of evolution springs to mind. We have questions about dinosaurs and the age of the planet and all

that sort of stuff. One of the crucial issues when we read the Bible, in fact, when we read any text,

is to ask the question, what is the author's intention in writing this?

And the key is to understand his intention in order to understand the meaning. And so as we open

Genesis, there is one thing we can be absolutely certain of. When Genesis was written, the author

wasn't thinking about Darwin's theory of evolution. At all. Not even remotely.

They weren't thinking about the cultural wars of the West. At all.

But since it's often on our minds, as Westerners, and particularly, and we want to impose something on the text,

I want to say something very briefly about it, and then I'm going to park it. I'm not going to mention it again.

Historically, there are at least six different views on what is meant by the six days of creation

in Genesis 1. Through the centuries, there have been Christians who have had a very high view of the Bible,

who have considered the reference to days in Genesis 1 as literally 24-hour periods as we know them today.

And there have been plenty of Christians also with an extremely high view of the Bible,

who have not seen it that way at all.

And to this day, friends on both sides still exist as friends.

The people who have not seen it that way have a variety of different...

They see the Bible as a variety of different types of texts.

They see that there's historical narrative, there's prophecies, there's poetry, there's songs.

Historical narrative makes itself clear with references to things like world events, people, times, eyewitness testimony.

Poetry, on the other hand, makes itself clear by things like repetitiveness and parallelism.

There are a few places, in fact, in the Bible where it's not entirely clear what it is that we're dealing with

when we read the text.

Genesis chapter 1 is one of those places.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 2 is not one of those places.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Genesis 2 is historical narrative.

It reads like an account of what...

exactly what happened.

But Genesis 1 has quite a repetitive pattern.

Over and over again we read,

He said,

He said, and it was.

He saw, and it was good.

It was evening, and then it was morning.

Over and over again.

It has a repetitive pattern that is not the way that historic narrative is written.

I think Genesis 2 is a history of what God did,

but Genesis 1 is a song about God and what God has done.

Another example of...

is in Exodus 14 and 15.

Exodus 14 is a historical narrative about the crossing of the Red Sea,

and it's put alongside Miriam's song about the same event in Exodus 15,

which is clearly a song.

It is clearly poetry looking on the event of Exodus 14.

The key thing, though, is that wherever you land with this,

it's important to remember one key thing.

It is established fact that godly, Bible-loving people

who have given their lives to God's Word

have differed over the opening chapter of the Bible.

Faithful Bible scholars have landed differently on this issue,

and they got on.

It would seem over the last 20 years or so,

there's been much more of a war over these issues.

There are people who disdain those who hold to the literal reading of Genesis 1

as being primitive fundamentalists.

Likewise, there are those who regard as enemies of truth,

those who don't think these are literal 24-hour days,

as if Genesis 1 is the test for orthodoxy.

There is a harshness to the debate

that doesn't present gospel humility,

and it's not the kind of church that I want us to be at St. Paul's

as we discuss these matters amongst ourselves.

We have a great deal of humility towards one another.

If you want to know where I stand on the issue,

then I'm with the people who interpret Genesis 1 as a song.

Now, that does not mean that I give in to the theory of evolution,

because I don't.

It's a theory that has dominated the sciences

for just a little over 100 years.

That's all.

And it's a theory that is currently, to our day,

amongst physicists and philosophers,

as increasingly discredited

and losing its prominence due to flimsy evidence

and dubious hypothesis.

While Genesis 1 is poetry,

I'm certain that Genesis 2 and onwards is history.

But wherever you stand with this,

our goal should be to read this text

and notice what God is saying.

And what we know is that when God speaks,

the chaos becomes cosmos.

To come under God's word

is to move from disorder to order.

And our key job

is to do the hard work

of coming under what the Bible actually says.

And that's it.

I'm not going to talk about evolution there again.

Going to move on,

because I don't think it's the issue of Genesis 1.

So let's move on to my second point,

how it is that we practice the doctrine of creation.

And there are at least four things

about this that I think have very practical outcomes for us

as we look at the doctrine of creation.

First of all,

we see the goodness of creation.

Notice the repetition of God

and he saw and it was good.

God made it,

he said it,

came into existence

and it was good.

Eastern religions say

that the physical world is an illusion

and at one day it's all going to fade away.

Western religions,

coming off the back of the Greeks and the Romans,

say that fundamentally the world is bad.

The body and material world are bad,

but the spirit is good.

And only biblical,

only Christian faith,

Christian faith of the Bible,

has a high view.

In fact, the highest view

of the physical creation.

The storyline of the Bible,

the plan of God revealed in time and space,

is a movement entirely from creation to new creation.

It begins with,

the Bible begins with creation

and it ends with a new creation.

The plan of God is to resurrect bodies

into a new heaven and a new earth,

a new perfect physical reality.

Only the Christian faith speaks of that kind of reality.

Only the Bible has a vision of spirit and matter

existing in integrity forever.

And that has many practical implications for the Christian.

The Bible is filled with prophecy

that say the natural world that we live in

is but a shadow of what it is going to be like

when the Lord comes back.

That is great news.

We're not going to be going to clouds

and floating around as spirits.

We will be as alive,

in fact, even more alive than what we are today.

Isaiah refers to the coming of the Lord

of all creation as a great party.

Jesus reveals that he is, in fact,

the Lord of creation

and enjoys a party at his very first miracle.

where he turns the water into wine.

He's there at a wedding celebration.

The wine's drying up.

It's about to dip.

Everything's about to go bad for the wedding.

Jesus comes along and kicks it up a notch.

He's the Lord of creation.

He's the Lord of the party.

Jesus produces so much wine

it would have been impossible for them to consume it all.

Such is his abundance.

Jesus is not who religion has made him out to be.

God's work in Jesus to recreate his broken world

is centered on joy, celebration, and festivities.

The goodness of creation

is a profound Christian motive for playfulness.

Profound Christian motive for playfulness.

A great kiss.

A fantastic sunset.

A satisfying meal

is but a dim picture

of what we're going to eternally have

in the new heavens and the new earth.

And we have a fantastic foretaste of it now.

We can receive life gladly

and cherish it now.

The second thing we learn

quite practical implications for us

and I think it points to a balance.

And that is the finiteness of creation.

Again, something unique

about the Bible's creation account

and that is that there's only one source

of the creation.

All other ancient accounts of creation

have multiple deities

where the world is created

because they've been killing each other.

It's some kind of battle.

And the humanity was created,

the world was created

to serve the deities

who were trying to kill each other.

Here is an ancient account of creation

where all of the elements are created.

No element of creation

is divine in and of itself.

God alone is divine.

None of the creation is divine.

God alone is infinite

and to be worshipped.

Virtually all of the ancient religion

worshipped parts of the creation

because they saw them

as sources of divine power

linked to different deities.

So in the ancient world,

there were some who were

anti the created order.

It was all about appeasing the angry gods.

That's why creation existed.

They were therefore against pleasure.

They were against enjoyment.

They were against playfulness.

On the other hand,

in the ancient world,

there was the materialists,

which like modern secularists,

who said that it's all that we've got

and so we better make sure

that we worship it,

you know,

and worship physical pleasure

and wealth and power.

The modern secularist says

that this is all that we have,

this created order,

so consume as much of the material world

in possession and experiences

as you possibly can

before you die.

The Christian worldview

doesn't say that the material world is bad,

nor does it say it's all you've got.

You can do without it

because God is the most important thing.

When the Christian grasps the goodness

alongside the finiteness of creation,

then you are able to truly enjoy it

but also walk away from it.

That's why our holidays

are so quickly forgotten

because they're not the ultimate.

They're not meant to give you

the rest that only God can give you.

They're good

but they're not ultimate.

So the Christian is neither an ascetic

nor a hedonist.

The third thing we learn

is the unity of creation.

This is an interesting point.

Well, interesting to me anyway.

Way back in Greek philosophy,

there was this tendency

to a dualistic view of creation.

I've already mentioned it

where there's good gods and bad gods.

The material world was bad.

The spiritual world was good.

We see this thinking in fact.

Some of this thinking

is behind the New Testament book

of 1 Corinthians.

Some Greek religions believed

that there were two gods,

one good and one bad.

The interesting thing is

that this dualistic view of the world

has for some reason

always hung around the Christian church.

There's elements there

that have always hung around

the Christian church

despite the fact

that it's actually not in the Bible.

So many Christians

these days

are dualistic

in their thinking

and therefore

they are consistently fearful.

Fearful of world events.

Fearful that Satan

may get the upper hand on me.

Fearful of the spiritual realm.

They consistently pit

the spirit

against the material world

and therefore

live in fear.

And therefore

they view the world

in both

you're a good person

if you have the Holy Spirit

and you're a carnal person

if you

don't have the Holy Spirit.

Have the Holy Spirit

I'm good

if you don't

then everyone else

is wicked and terrible.

God creates both the body

and the spirit.

Everything

is his

or wisdom is his

or truth is his.

And so

a great deal of humility

those of you

who are in Christ

because you can learn

an awful lot

from those who are not.

The last thing we learn here

is the importance of creation.

God so loves the cosmos

that is why

John chapter 3

John 3:16

verse 16

says that

he sent his son

Jesus Christ

to save it.

God so loves

the cosmos.

He is so committed

to his creation

that he was willing

for the eternal son

to take on human flesh

and to dwell here

amongst us.

He is so committed

to the cosmos

that he will someday

resurrect us

and create a new heaven

and a new earth.

It means that

when the Christian

sees everything

that has gone wrong

in our world

God's perfect creation

we ought to be committed

to renewing it

in the same way

that he is committed

to renewing it.

When we see

the goodness of creation

we have a great deal

of motivation

to enjoy it.

When we see

the finiteness of creation

we can handle

not having a lot of it.

When we see

the unity of creation

we can humbly learn

from everyone

and everything in it.

And because

of the importance

of creation

we join in

with God's

renovation project

through the proclamation

of the gospel

and works of mercy

and justice

in our world.

So lastly

how therefore

do we

experience creation

or

potentially

enjoying creation?

creation.

This is the last

final point.

I think it would be

a mistake for me

just to end it there

where it was

encourage you to go out

and build a life

around the biblical

doctrine of creation.

The last point

is how do we

actually truly

experience

God

not just as

our redeemer

but as our creator.

Job chapter 38

Job 38 · chapter mention

God

asked Job

were you there

when I laid

the earth's

foundation

while the

morning stars

sang together

and all

the angels

shouted joy.

Psalm 19

says

the created

order

declares

the glory

of God.

The reason

why

nature

and the natural

world

is so

moving

for us

is because

it is doing

what Job 38

says

is doing

what Psalm 19

says

it is speaking

to us.

That's

its job

it is speaking

to us

it is proclaiming

something

it is

what it's doing

according to Psalm 38

it is

praising God

and speaking

to us

consistently

about the

magnificence

of God.

God

but Romans

Romans 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1

tells us

that even

though creation

reveals God

a God of

eternal power

and divine

nature

humanity

in our

rebellion

against God

has suppressed

that truth.

It's like

we're putting

earbuds in

as the

creation

sings to

us.

every human

being

knows God

but no

human being

glorifies God

or gives

thanks to

him

is what

Romans 1

tells us.

We don't

acknowledge

our dependence

upon God

our creator

and we claim

independence

of him

instead.

But here's

the thing

again

from Romans

1

because

we are

primarily

made

by God

to worship

God

when we

reject God

we don't

just simply

stop worshipping

we don't

just simply

stop believing

as an atheist

will want you

to believe

we don't

stop that

we just

shift our

allegiance

to something

else

and worship

it instead

another object

our purpose

is worship

and so

there must

be something

that captures

our attention

and becomes

our hope

and our security

and our identity

and our meaning

we give

ultimate affection

to a created

thing

a good thing

made by God

rather than

the God

who alone

is worthy

of our

ultimate

affection

so rather

than worshipping

the immortal

we worship

what he has

made

and what

the Bible

tells us

is that

everything

that's wrong

in the

created world

is linked

to that

issue

alone

that issue

and the

Bible

tells us

that God

will hold

us accountable

for it

but the

Bible also

tells us

that God

has done

something

about our

biggest

issue

I'm not

sure if

you ever

noticed

this

for those

who have

read

in the

New Testament

and John's

Gospel

which we

finished last

week

but John's

Gospel

begins

in the

same way

that Genesis

begins

in the

beginning

was the

word

in the

beginning

was the

word

the Greek

word that

John uses

there

for word

is the

word

logos

and the

Greek

philosophers

the word

logos

had very

important

word

in Greek

philosophy

at the

time the

first century

and John

was writing

this in

Greek

culture

the Greek

philosophers

looked at

nature

they looked

at the

created

order

they saw

balance

they saw

harmony

they saw

design

in the

world

and they

concluded

that there

was a

cosmic

principle

of order

behind

the

created

world

and they

called

that

principle

of order

the

logos

of the

world

the logic

of the

world

the logos

is the

purpose

the reason

the logic

behind all

things

it's the

thing that

makes sense

of all

things

and so

as John

begins his

gospel

he comes

in with an

earth

shattering

category

the

logos

is not

a

principle

it's a

person

the

person

is the

designer

the

source

of all

life

the

one

who

we

are

to

align

our

lives

with

in

order

for

life

to

be

lived

well

by

us

and

we

are

told

five

things

in

John

chapter

one

about

the

logos

the

principle

the

person

behind

the

universe

firstly

the

logos

is a

person

secondly

the

logos

is a

divine

person

thirdly

the

logos

is an

eternal

divine

person

fifthly

the

logos

is an

eternal

divine

person

who is

the source

of all

life

and

did I say

fifthly

fifthly

the

logos

is Jesus

Christ

now

walking

amongst

us

at

his

baptism

you

notice

this

in

Genesis

one

God

saw

and

it

was

good

and

then

down

in

when

he

creates

humanity

made

Adam

God

saw

and

it

was

very

good

very

good

and

then

the

John

says

the

logos

is

here

at

his

baptism

the

Holy

Spirit

descends

and

we

read

that

he

heard

a

voice

the

voice

was

God

the

father

saying

this

is

my

child

this

is

my

son

with

whom

I

am

well

pleased

do

you

know

that

is

the

first

time

since

the

garden

of

Eden

that

any

human

being

has

ever

received

the

blessing

of

God

it's

the

only

other

time

it's

happened

where

God

looked

and

said

I'm

really

happy

with

this

one

this

is

good

this

is

my

son

it's

the

only

time

you're

reading

the

Bible

since

the

garden

of

Eden

Jesus

Christ

God

the

son

had

the

delight

and

the

love

of

God

let

me

fast

forward

to

Easter

but

on

the

cross

he

cries

out

my

God

my

God

why

have

you

forsaken

me

on

the

cross

Jesus

Christ

was

getting

the

curse

the

word

of

condemnation

that

we

deserve

for

us

worshipping

the

created

order

turning

our

backs

on

our

created

God

Jesus

took

the

curse

so

that

we

could

get

the

blessing

he

became

bad

so

that

we

might

become

very

very

good

and

receive

the

benediction

of

God

the

blessing

of

God

Colossians

1

21

once

you

were

alienated

from

God

and

were

enemies

in

your

minds

because

of

your

evil

behavior

but

now

he

has

reconciled

you

by

Christ

physical

body

through

death

to

present

you

holy

in

his

sight

without

blemish

and

free

from

accusation

you

see

if we

believe

the

good

news

of

Jesus

Christ

God

the

Lord

God

coming

into

the

world

to

rescue

us

from

our

rejection

of

not

just

our

redeemer

but

of

our

creator

if we

believe

the good

news

of the

Christian

gospel

then it

becomes

God's

recreative

word

to us

where he

declares us

as very

good

much

loved

the word

of the

gospel

is what

we

receive

from

God

because

of what

Jesus

has done

for us

in

Jesus

and

only

Jesus

do we

get the

blessing

of God

we

finally

hear the

affirmation

of our

creator

you

are

very

good

you

are my

much

loved

daughter

you

are my

much

loved

son

with

you

I

am

well

pleased

forever

you

know

what

the

doctrine

of

creation

means

the

doctrine

of

not

just

creation

but

redemption

in

Christ

it

means

that

none

of

us

because

of

the

affirmation

we

receive

in

Jesus

none

of

us

needs

to

squeeze

that

affirmation

out

of

our

partners

or

out

of

our

children

or

out

of

our

vocation

or

out

of

our

travel

blogs

or

our

assets

or

our

education

or

our

culture

it

is

the

affirmation

that

only

our

creator

can

give

us

and

it's

the

affirmation

that

we

all

need

the

recreative

word of

the gospel

goes

deep

into

our

hearts

and

it

heals

us

from

our

innermost

deepest

hurts

and

it

drives

us

out

from

there

to

be

people

healing

God's

world

in the

beginning

was

God

in the

end

will be

God

he

created

the

universe

and

he

can

make

you

new

now

have

have

you

accepted

Jesus

Christ

into

your

life

not

just

as

your

redeemer

but

also

as

your

creator

it

will

have

profound

impact

on

how

you

live

tomorrow

season

of

park

the

underneath

Idaho

is

you

can

you

imagine