From the Start - Part 1 (A Genesis Sermon Series Part 2)

I would encourage you to turn to Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

It is literally found on page one if you're using one of our

Bibles. If you're using a different

Bible, I don't know, it's probably somewhere in the area

of 1. But you never know how they

number Bibles these days. So 21st century Christians

neglect to consider the context in which Scripture was written.

Scripture wasn't written in a vacuum.

Genesis was written well before recorded history began, actually

nearly 2000 years after the beginning of recorded history in

Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization.

Now, when we neglect to remember the culture in which the word

was written, we start to impose our own ideas onto the text

rather than allowing the text to communicate to us.

But Frank Turek and Norman Geisler, in their book I Don't

Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, set forth the notion

that the Bible isn't trying to answer questions of math and

science. It doesn't aim to answer

technical or mathematical descriptions of natural

phenomena. Scripture is more concerned with

life's bigger questions of origins, purposes, morality, and

destiny. So would you please stand this

morning as we read from Genesis 1 verses one through 13.

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

The earth was was over the and the Spirit of God was hovering

over the face of the waters. And God said, let there be

lights and lights. And God saw that the light was

good. And God separated the light from

the darkness. God called the lights day and

the darkness he called nights. And there was evening and there

was morning the first day. And God said, let there be an

expense in the midst of the waters and let it separate the

waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and

separated the waters that were under the expanse from the water

or above the expanse. And it was so.

And God called the expense heaven.

There was evening, and there was morning the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered

together into one place, and let the dry land appear.

And it was so. God called the dry land earth.

And the waters that were gathered together he called

seas. And God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation yielding seed

and fruit trees bearing fruit, and which is their seed, and

each according to its kind on the earth.

And it was so the earth brought forth according to their own

kinds and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each

according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

And there was evening, and there was morning the third day you

may be seated. Now, if you do the math, you see

that we're doing 13 verses this morning and you start counting

chapters in Genesis. You might not like what how that

looks. We're not going to be in this

for two years, but we will be in it for a while.

Last week I mentioned being confronted by my humanities

teacher regarding the Epic of Gilgamesh.

This encounter had left me dumbfounded because I was

completely ignorant of the reality and context in which

Genesis was written. I couldn't fathom that other

people had flood stories. I'd never heard that before.

In the years since then, I've come to realize that many, dare

I say most, peoples of the world have flood stories as part of

their origins. Many ancient Near Eastern

people's stories have accounts with some similar ideas to

Genesis. However, that is not to say that

Genesis is stealing from the Babylonians or their other

neighbors. Rather, in Genesis Moses is

taking a pre-existing genre that that of the origin stories and

he's writing of how creation really came to be.

It's sort of a rebuttal to the creation mythologies that

existed in the ancient Near East.

And it all starts with the first few words and verses one and

two. 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.

So here we are at the beginning. This is the foundation of

creation. This is seemingly before even

time has begun. There's the earth.

No one knows how long the earth has has been in this state.

The text actually doesn't tell us, but it's empty and wild in

the Hebrew indicates that it's chaotic.

The ancient Babylonians and Egyptians believe that

everything was in a chaotic water state before the ordering

of the universe. The act of creation is about

bringing order to the chaos, to what God has already put in

place. And we look at this version of

of the earth, it doesn't resemble what we think of today,

right? There's no form to it.

It's empty, it's dark, and there's a deep abyss.

But God's spirit is hovering over the water.

The earth has already been formed, but the spirit is

standing by. He's on call to to finish this

work. Now, who was there at the

beginning when it says that God created the heavens and the

earth? What exactly does that mean?

First of all, the word Moses used for God is elohim, which to

be honest, is a fairly complicated word, but we're not

going to go into all that this morning.

At its most basic form, Elohim means that means God, and it's

plural. There's been thousands of years

of debate over this, but the fact that Elohim is a plural

word doesn't seem accidental to me.

As God is a plurality, 3 persons in one Godhead, we naturally

understand verse one to refer to the Father.

Then in verse 2, we're told that the ruach of God, the the breath

of God, the Spirit of God was over the face of the deep.

Psalm one O 430 corroborates interpreting this breath to be

the actual Holy Spirit. Psalm one O 430 reads when you

send forth your spirit, they that is God's various creations,

they are created and you renew the face of the ground.

So there and then there are three passages that people hold

up as excelling all others in terms of Christology.

That is the study and learning about Jesus Christ.

Those passages are John 1, Colossians 1 and Philippians 2.

Well here we see that Jesus is mentioned in two of those 3

passages as being part of the creative creating process.

John One says all things were made through him, and without

Him was not anything made that was made.

The Colossians 116 reads 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. So these two verses plainly tell

us that Jesus created all things.

And then Paul expands on the statement to say it wasn't just

the physical world, the things that you can see that Jesus

created, but it was also the spiritual world that Jesus

created. He created that which is in the

invisible realm as well. So Jesus was there at the very

beginning, complicit and involved in creating.

I think it's important to say that even the word creation

denotes intentionality. This isn't randomness, things

magically and without intention popping into place.

The word Bara speaks to the creative act.

It's like an artist creating something and it denotes

creating out of nothing. Creation, ex.

Niolo. When this word is used, it's

always used to speak of God's activity.

When God acts, he acts with intention.

And when we talk about the creation of the world and the

cosmos coming into existence, a system of thoughts has has

arisen in the sciences. Intelligent design.

Now, most people who hold to intelligent design believe in

God, but there are some who hold to intelligent design but don't

believe in God. How that is, I don't truly know.

But intelligent design sets forth the notion that this world

was not brought into into existence simply by chance, but

someone or something with intelligence intentionally

created it and designed it. You look at the world and it

doesn't look random, but it looks intentional.

In the 4th century BC, Aristotle set forth the notion of the

unmoved mover. The unmoved mover is the one who

who brings it all into being, the force that causes all things

to move to function as intended. And the unmoved mover is not

himself moved or changed. The unmoved mover is the

necessary first cause of all that is in the world.

And we understand who the unmoved mover is.

Of course. It's God.

He's the one who caused and brought it all into being

because He was there before it all began.

So God had set the foundation for the creation.

The earth was ready to be formed.

So then, so then God frames creation.

Now, as with anything you do, you need a structure to to build

upon. There must be a foundation,

something on which everything else is dependent.

So here on day one, we see the very beginnings of the

framework, and on day one God created light.

I know everybody's like we learned this in Sunday school,

but there's so much stuff here. God said, let there be light and

there was light. And God saw that the light was

good and God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day and the darkness He called night.

And there was evening and there was morning the first day.

Now remember the previous verse, Darkness was over the face of

the deep. There's there's no light at this

point in time. Everything was dark, but God

spoke into the darkness and he said let there be light.

At his very word the light came to be and I'd venture to say it

was probably God's glory as the sun wasn't even created until

the 4th day. Now if you're like me, you

learned in I think it was high school, unless it was in that

same humanities class that the Egyptians worshipped the sun God

RA or Ray, whichever pronunciation.

As Yahweh creates lights, he's setting himself up as the object

of worship. The ancients worship celestial

objects, but here Moses is showing that there's no

autonomous sun or moon that's worthy of worship.

God's sovereignty over creation should drive people to worship

Him instead of the objects of creation.

This is only appropriate when we consider what John writes in

Revelation 22 verses 3 through 5.

Revelation 22:3–5

Time as we know it has come to an end and and the vision John

has is this. No longer will there be anything

accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it.

This is where we're in the new heavens, the new earth.

And his servants will worship Him.

They will see his face and His name will be on their foreheads,

and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp

or sun, for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign

forever and ever. So here God is the source of

light in the new heavens. God is the source of light and,

and this seems to be what's happening here on day one.

God is the source of light and, and God saw this and he said

that it was good. Now as God separates the light

from the dark, He gives them names or or labels, day and

night. When we label something or give

it a name, it helps to take away its power over us.

The dark is no longer seen as a threat, but now it has a name,

night. And with the night comes the

arrival of the first day of all time.

The Jewish day, you will recall, begins as sundown.

Hence, Moses writes, there was evening and there was morning

the first day. But now we get to a sticky part.

What's a day? Is it 24 hours?

That's our understanding of it, right?

Or is the text speaking metaphorically of an epoch of

time, a long period of time for each day?

Well, people have been discussing this for a long time,

and there are two basic thoughts on on what a day is.

First of all, not surprisingly, there's the literal 24 hour day.

This is what we would call the the plain reading of the text

over and over again throughout the creation process.

We see there was evening and there was morning, and then an

ordinal number is assigned to that day, first, second, third,

and so on. And the belief here is that when

scripture says the first day, it means it was literally the very

first time that the earth spun around completely around its

axis. And then by the end of the week

you would naturally have the Earth having completed 7 full

rotations around its NS axis. Obviously if one holds this

viewpoint, then there are other beliefs that necessarily go

along with a literal 24 hour view, such as the age of the

earth. The literal approach posits that

the earth is approximately 6 to 10,000 years old and this

position is known as Young Earth Creationism.

Today's biggest advocate for this position is Ken Ham and his

organization Answers in Genesis. If you have been to the Creation

Museum or to the Ark, you are no doubt familiar with Ken Ham and

his work. The second idea in which we call

a theory is the Day Age Theory, the day age theory.

Now, the day age interpretation posits that God created over a

much longer period of time than than six days, and within this

framework, each day is interpreted to be an epoch of

time. At a basic level, there's an

attempt to reconcile what the observer views in the world of

science with what they read on the pages of Scripture, although

of course, scientists will lie on both ends of the spectrum.

Most day age theorists believe the Earth is anywhere from 5 to

14 billion years old. To be honest, I don't know how

we really measure that stuff. I can't comprehend that.

However, this does not necessarily mean that the day

age theorists holds to an evolutionary view of humanity's

origins. They will always come back to

the fact that God created it all, regardless of the means

that he used. Even the fossil record does not

indicate an actual transitional form between apes and humanity,

and this position is somewhat obviously referred to as Old

Earth creationism. Today's biggest advocates for

Old Earth creationism are Hugh Ross.

I think he catapulted it into popularity a couple decades ago.

A few decades ago, as well as the website biolagos.org.

Now when we talk in theology circles, we'll say something

like he's an old earther or he's a young earther.

It's important to say that throughout history, both sides

have garnered the supports of committed and highly revered and

respected Christians. This may rock your world, but

that's the reality. Each side has their arguments

and both positions have issues that they need to overcome, but

contention for each viewpoint is that God created and what we

read in Genesis is true. Now I hadn't planned to do this,

but I know people are going to be like, so Pastor, where are

you? So I grew up in a staunchly 24

hour view, held on to that for a long time in seminary.

I did a research paper on the day Yom, read some books,

started to make a shift when I was ordained, I was ordained

defending a more day age position then earlier this year.

And I've, I've held that loosely, I should say very

loosely, shift 01 day. I can be literal 24 hours

another day. Oh wow, things look old.

I don't, I don't. But earlier this year I began

shifting back to a a literal 24 hour period.

But the point here is that God created the the person who holds

to the day age position. Believes that God created.

We're not talking Darwinian evolution because no time in all

the world can make that happen. And you'll see that here from

the text as we continue through our study.

So whatever your view, it's important to remember that

famous quote in Essentials Unity, the essentials of the

Gospel in non Essentials liberty.

So this is one of those non essential points.

But in all things charity, the age of the earth and how it came

to be is a secondary issue. What matters most is your

perspective on the Creator. While the lights and darkness

are literal, there's also a metaphorical meaning to be

understood. Here we see that the dark is in

some sense bad, right? The text kind of indicates that

the light was called good, but the darkness presents certain

challenges which the reader must overcome.

Throughout Scripture will routinely see a conflict between

the kingdoms of light and dark. Darkness is dangerous opposition

and hostility and the light stands in contrast to the

darkness and and we have a king who sovereignly stand against

the darkness of Satan's working in the world.

So that's the first day. Verses 6 through 8 reveal to us

the second day. God said let there be an expanse

in the midst of the waters. Let it separate the waters from

the waters. God made the expanse and

separated the waters under the expanse from the waters that

were above the expanse. And it was so.

And God called the expanse heaven.

There was evening and there was morning the second day.

Here we see God creating the sky on day 2.

So God's creating the sky. But we spend a lot of time here

talking about waters. So there are waters above the

earth and waters below God create an expanse or or a vault

or some texts say firmament to separate the waters above from

the waters below. You know how water exists in

three different forms. It's liquid, solid and gas or or

vapor. When water is in its liquid

version, we naturally just call that water.

When we say water, we are referring to the liquid version

of H2O. When it's in solid form, it's

ice, and when it's in vapor form, we call it humid.

Stay with me here. All right, Well, the waters

needed to be separated. By the way, I can do without

this summer. This humidity needs to go away.

I'm so sensitive to the humidity.

My California roots are like deep.

Well, the waters needed to be separated to create the

framework for this new earth. The waters below are the seas

and such. Though I think for the

Israelites reading this or hearing it, they would have

naturally looked at the the waters as probably being all

around them everywhere, even under the earth.

Nonetheless, somehow God separated the waters from above

from the waters below. And the theory that's proposed

is called the canopy theory. And these are all just theories

because we don't know how God actually works, right?

The the idea is that God created some sort of canopy that that

held back the waters above until the flood.

Now water can be dangerous in both its absence and in its

abundance. When we don't have enough water,

we end up with drought conditions which can lead to

famine. And when there's an

overabundance of water, the threat of flooding becomes

imminent. Nights and the waters of chaos

are fundamental images of non creation in Egypt and in Babylon

and ancient Israel. These ideas aren't being

borrowed from other cultures or or their their other

cosmologies. This is their very own

perspective on the world. Water is significant here, and

it serves as a hyperlink. As you continue to read

throughout Scripture, you'll repeatedly see moments where the

water is a threat to God's people, but God shows himself

sovereign over the waters. There's of course the Exodus,

there's providing water from a rock, Jonah being thrown into

the sea, Jesus walking on water, Jesus calming storms and catch

what Revelation 21 says. Revelation 21 verse 1, John

Revelation 21:1

writes. Then I saw a new heaven and a

new earth for the 1st heaven and the first earth had passed away

and the sea was no more. So the water, the sea is going

to be removed in heaven. It sure seems that in the

heaven, the new heaven, the new earth, surfers will have to pick

out a new hobby. I'm not sure what they'll do.

Maybe they can surf on the river, I don't know.

So God is in control of the waters, and it's important to

note that the separating of the waters serves a purpose as it

prepares the new creation for for life that will be coming on

day 6. Without waters being confined to

the right places, life will struggle to exist.

Yahweh separated the waters above from the waters beneath.

Now we come to the third day of creation.

God created land. God created land on the third

day God said let the waters under the heavens be gathered

into one place and let the dry land appear.

And it was so God called the dry land earth and the waters that

were gathered together He called seas.

And God saw that it was good of the waters under the heavens

were were apparently spread out. Perhaps this was rivers or

marshes or something like that, but God called for the waters to

be drawn together into one location.

Also, that the dry land could appear.

Now, as with the day and night, God chooses to assign names to

the dry land and waters. He calls them earth and seas.

Now, if you're really paying attention, you may have noticed

that God didn't declare the second day good.

The work of the second day wasn't quite yet complete.

The waters were separated, but the specific task at hand wasn't

quite done. God needed to createspace for

the waters and provide a place for vegetation.

Once the final separation of waters was achieved, then God

called it good. So what's the significance of

the land? Well, it's a place of safety.

The struggle against the sea and its potential monsters that

Psalm 74 refers to are are no longer of consequence with the

creation of the land. In Genesis 1, God assures his

people that they they should not fear the sea because the sea

wouldn't exist apart from Him as its creator.

He is the sea's master. If God created the sea, He can

protect us from the dangers of the sea.

If God created the land and He can provide for us.

As we talk about God's creating the heavens and and now dry land

of the earth, it's fitting for us to consider how they might

have processed the world It's normal for us to think in in our

21st century ways of looking at the world.

We naturally think of a globe because in the 4th century

Aristotle discerned that only a round sphere could could create

a circular shadow when looking at a lunar eclipse.

It's quite astute, but I hate to break it to you.

The people of Moses day were most likely flat earthers.

When they viewed the sky the the heavens, they thought of it as a

as a Dome like structure and and the earth being flat and like I

mentioned waters perhaps being under the earth.

Even God created the dry land on that third day, but it's not

done yet. Genesis 1 verses 11 through 13.

Genesis 1:11–13

God said let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding

seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit, and which is their seed,

each according to its kind on the earth.

And it was so the earth brought forth vegetation, plants

yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing

fruit and which is their seed, each according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was

morning, the third day. Since God had created dry land,

everything was now sufficient for life.

So in verse 11, God commanded the earth to sprout vegetation.

And then what happens? Well, in verse 12, the earth

does what God says it. It sprouts vegetation, plants

with seeds and trees that and trees that bear fruits.

Everything reproduced according to its own kind.

Now here's a basic arguments in Scripture that kind produces

kind. Got that this is important.

Kind produces kind. One kind does not turn into

another kind. A cat doesn't become a dog or a

dog doesn't become a cat. An ape cannot become a human.

Each kind produces after its own kind.

Again, God's power over creation is shown as he simply speaks

plant life into existence, calling it to reproduce itself.

So here we've seen the first few days of creation.

Day one, God created the lights and called it day.

In the darkness He called nights.

Day 2 God created the sky when he separated the waters above

from the waters below. And then on day three, God

created land when he gathered the waters into one place.

Now here, this is the framework for creation.

That is what we see on the 1st 3 days of creation.

This is the framework for creation.

The foundation has been laid. Essentially, Yahweh built the

structure and now it's time to decorate it.

To fill in all the details. The artist starts with a canvas.

The home builder first frames the home frames out the walls

and the roof and everything before rocking it and and

covering it and everything that they need to do.

So next week we'll see how each day of creation, days 4 through

6 correspond to days one through three.

I know some of this can sound remedial, like a good Sunday

school story, but it's important to see what God made on each

day. Lastly, we see God's sovereignty

over all creation, God's sovereignty over all creation.

I briefly touched on this earlier, but when Genesis

asserts that God created it all, it's showing God to be

sovereign, to be in control of everything.

The Babylonians no doubt would have had reservations about

their gods as the world came into existence through a battle

between the opposing gods, Marduk and and Tiamat.

The Genesis account of creation stands apart from the creation

mythologies of those other false religions in that Genesis

demonstrates who Yahweh is, and he is starkly different from all

the other gods that's the ancient Israelites and their

neighbors had known about. Imagine you're a 14th century BC

near or Middle Easterner. You have much different concerns

than we can really fathom. Darkness, water scarcity, good

land to grow food. Genesis informs the reader that

God is sovereign over it all. Will I be safe in the dark?

God created the lights. Will I have enough water?

He provided water as well as protection from the dangers that

water can pose. Will I have enough food to

provide for my family? Genesis answer is yes, yes and

yes. God is providing for his people.

He has given them light to protect them from the things or

the people that lurk in the night.

He has provided protection from the scary waters and He has

provided the land that grows with vegetation and fruits for

His people to enjoy. This.

This is who the Israelites and our God is.

Therefore we can trust him. The myths of the ancient world,

like the Enuma Elish, help us appreciate the radical nature of

of the Genesis account. They show us a world filled with

capricious, sexually charged gods motivated by power

struggles, and against this backdrop, the opening chapters

of Genesis stand as a powerful declaration of God's singular

holy character. In the first three days, we see

not a king who claims power through violence, but rather a

divine artist who creates and brings it all into being through

the spoken word. From the separation of light

from darkness to the division of the waters and the emergence of

dry land, each act is deliberate, purposeful, and

peaceful. There's no jealousy or

insecurity driving our creator. He's a God of peace and his

character is imprinted on the very order and fullness he

brings into being. This is the God we worship.

Not a God to be appeased through magic or or feared in battle,

but a good God whose nature is to create and bring forth life.

So as we go from this place this morning, let us carry the image

of this good and powerful Creator and reflect his

peaceful, ordering, life giving character in our own lives.

Let's pray God, we come to you this morning and we thank you

for the opportunity to look into your word, to begin at the

beginning of creation and to consider how you have worked,

How awesome it is to consider that you created it all, that

you are in control of it all. So we can only respond in

worship and proclaim how great you are.

So God, this morning as we close our time, may we may reflect on

truly your greatness. So we thank you for this time.

Jesus name we pray, Amen.