Ep 122 | Cover to Cover 1 | Pastor Ryan Clark | Jan 4, 2026

Hello, this is Pastor Ryan Clark.

You are listening to a message from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

At this season of my life, one of my favorite things to do is to have the grandkids come over.

I see that they're here today and, and nothing makes me more happy than to spend time with my grandkids.

When Zion and Maddie come over, we do a lot of fun things.

We always end up doing a puzzle.

We always read a whole ton of books.

We even play a little bit of house, but one of the things that we almost always do is we always get out the Legos and start making a mighty tower.

Now, for those of us that have been playing Legos for many years, you understand that if you want to make a tower that's pretty tall, it needs to have a pretty good base, doesn't it? It needs to have a pretty big solid foundation.

Otherwise, what ends up happening is it just comes tumbling down, doesn't it? That's one of those things that my 2-year-old and my 1-year-old, they don't understand quite yet, but they will as they get a little older.

Foundations.

Foundations are important, aren't they? Here's our very important point of the day.

It's this: The first few chapters of the Bible are the Foundation on which many of our Christian beliefs are formed.

What we believe about the first few chapters of the Bible will deeply influence how we view the rest of the Bible and how we respond to the world around us.

These first few chapters that you've been reading in your Bible over these last few days are integral.

Are very, very important for setting the foundation for everything else that we're going to be reading.

In Psalm 11, it says, If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? God, of course, understands how important those foundations of the first few chapters of the Bible are, and that's why Satan attacks those chapters mightily in every generation.

He's trying to undermine those first few chapters of the Bible.

What we're going to be doing here today for the rest of this message, is we're going to be looking at foundational questions that are answered from the first five chapters of the Bible.

And I think we're going to see that there's a lot that God establishes as foundational principles, even in the first five chapters of the Bible.

So what are some of these foundational questions that people have? Number 1.

Is there a God? Where did everything come from? Well, there's a lot of ideas out there in the world, right? There's this idea of an impersonal random Big Bang that started, and everything over the next billions and billions of years proceeded from that random chance thing.

Well, what does the Bible say? The Bible simply says in the very first verse, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Is there a God? Absolutely there is.

Where did everything come from? Not from random chance.

It came from Him.

One almighty, all-powerful, all-loving God created everything that there is.

Foundational Question 2.

Is mankind special or are we no different than anything else in creation the plants, the animals? Well, once again, in our world, there's the idea that man really isn't that special.

We're no different than anything else.

We're no different than the trees, the bushes, the animals.

We're all on equal planes.

But what does the Bible say? Well, the Bible in Genesis 1 goes through how God creates everything that there is, and in almost everything that He creates, it's created this way: Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation," And God said, "Let the water team with living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky."

And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds."

How did God create everything that there is? Simply with His word.

That's how powerful our God is, that all he needs to do is say it, and simply by saying it, it comes to pass.

The sun, the moon, the stars, the rivers, the land, the animals, the birds, the fish, everything.

He just speaks it into existence and it comes about.

But when it comes to mankind, he decides to do things differently.

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness."

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God, he created them; male and female, he created them.

God uses a totally different word here.

Everything else he spoken to being just by saying it.

But when it comes to man, he gets his hands dirty.

God puts his hands down in the dirt, in the soil that he had created, and he forms it into a man.

And not just any man, he forms it into a man in his image.

No other thing that he created with the word of his mouth was created in the image of God.

Is man special? Absolutely, absolutely.

There's nothing like men and women.

Everything else is below us.

God created us to be special.

You are special.

In Matthew 6, Jesus said, Look at the birds of the air.

They don't sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Now listen to this last phrase.

Are you not much more valuable than they are? He's saying if God takes care of the little birds that he created with the word of his mouth, if he takes care of the flowers in the field that he created just by speaking them into existence, how much more is he going to take care of every one of your needs? You, who he got his hands dirty to form and to make you into his image.

How much more valuable are you than anything else? Foundational Question 3.

How much should you and I work? What is healthy? What's a healthy amount of work? How much time should we rest? Well, why is that an important question? Because in our world today, we've got people on both sides of the spectrum, right? We've got the workaholics, the ones that never come home, the ones that work seven days a week.

On the other hand, we got the couch potatoes.

We've got the ones that never go to work, never get up.

What does God say? In Genesis 2, it says, The Lord God took the man that he had formed in his image and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it.

What did God do? As soon as he made that first man? He put him to work.

He made people to work.

In Exodus 20, it says, Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

It, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it, you shall not do any work.

For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

We are made in the image of God.

What did God do? He created all that there is in six days and on the seventh day he rested and since we are made in the image of God, he made us to be the same way.

He says, I want you to work hard.

I made your bodies to be able to work hard, but I also know that you can't work seven days a week, 80 hours a week.

You've got to have some time to rest as well, because you're made in my image and I rested on the seventh day as well.

Foundational Question 4.

What is God's plan and purpose for things like gender, relationships, marriage? Why is this an important question? Well, it's certainly important in our world today, right? Because there are a lot of ways that the world is changing very quickly in these areas.

These, all of these things, all of these things like marriage and gender are being redefined in our world today.

But what does God's word say? And from Genesis 2, The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him."

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man.

The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."

That is why a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

What's God's will and purpose for things like gender and marriage and relationships.

It's one man and one woman dedicating themself to each other for the rest of their life.

You see the word that God uses in Genesis 2 for woman means an indispensable helper, somebody that's different than the man, somebody that has gifts and talents that are different than the man so that she can come alongside and be an integral help in his life.

God designed it that way.

We are very different on purpose.

When we recognize our differences are on purpose, that God has made us that way, what an amazing gift that is to have one another.

Foundational Question 5.

Has there always been sin, suffering, and death in the world? Well simply put in Genesis 1, God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

God looked down upon his creation after he had finished his creation and he said it's very good.

Another way of putting that is, it's perfect.

There's no sickness, there's no suffering, there's no war, there's no death.

Everything is perfect.

That's how God created it to be.

That's how God wanted it to stay.

Number 6.

So if suffering didn't always exist, where did it come from? Who is to blame? Well, the Bible addresses that as well from Genesis 2, And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in this garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die."

God says, all of this land is yours.

All of these fruit bearing trees, Adam and Eve, they're all yours to eat from.

There's just one tree that I don't want you to eat from.

It's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and if you eat from it, I want to warn you, you will certainly die.

All of the bad things that I don't want to come to this world will come about if you disobey and eat from this tree.

Genesis 3, The serpent said to the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?" You will not certainly die for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

In Genesis 3 were introduced to another character.

The serpent we know as Satan, and what is Satan always trying to do? He's always trying to get us to distrust God.

What he was saying to Eve, he says to all of us in some way or other, you can't trust him.

You can't trust God.

I know you've heard that he's good and everything that he says is for your good, but he's just trying to keep you from really enjoying your life.

If you were to do those things that he told you not to do, life is going to be so much better.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some of it and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it.

Adam and Eve, instead of trusting God that everything God says to do or not to do is for our own good, listen to the serpent, believe that God was holding back something from them.

And because of that, death and suffering and illness and all the other negatives of this life came flooding in to the world.

Where did death come from? People ask that question a lot.

The Bible addresses that.

It says that human beings, when we were first created were perfect, just like the rest of God's creation.

There was no death.

Death didn't come about until we chose to disobey God.

And now all of the negative things like death came flooding into this world.

Why is this important? Because there's a whole other view of things.

Maybe you've seen something like this Evolution.

Does evolution jive with Christianity? Some people would say that, right? Well, you can be a Christian and still believe in evolution.

Actually, you can't.

They are completely incompatible.

Why? Because evolution presupposes millions and millions of years of death, before human beings came on the scene.

As these animals slowly evolve over millions and millions of years, it presupposes death every stage along the way.

But the Bible says that when God first created man, there was no death.

You see, these two things are completely incompatible.

And by the way, once again, if you believe evolution, you are just a random accident.

And if you're just a random accident, what do you do when your life falls apart? You say, well, there's no use being here.

My random accident went wrong.

But if you recognize that you were created by a God who loves you, who God is, hands dirty, who made you just the way that you are, then you say, God help you love me, and now I need your help, and you find your hope in him.

Foundational Question 7.

How did sin affect relationships? Why does it seem like relationships are so difficult sometimes? The Bible addresses that too.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord called to the man, "Where are you?" Adam answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid from you."

And he said, "Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" The man said, "The woman you put here with me she gave me some of the fruit of the tree and I ate it."

Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

We see here broken relationships everywhere.

Remember this was Adam and Eve who walked in the cool of the day with God each day enjoying his company, and now as soon as they disobeyed God, what do they do? They run and hide from him.

Instead of enjoying God, they're now scared to death of him.

That vertical relationship has been damaged, but it's not just the vertical one that's been damaged.

Also, the horizontal relationship has been damaged.

This is the first time where the phrase pass the buck appears.

We have Adam.

Adam, what? What did you do? It's the woman you gave me.

She did it.

Eve, what did you do? It's the serpent.

Can't be my fault.

Passing the buck.

Oh, and by the way, in Adam's, it's the woman you gave me.

What's he really doing? I blame you.

You're the one that gave me the woman.

Broken relationships vertically.

Broken relationships horizontally.

Why are relationships so hard? The Bible addresses that.

It's because of sin.

And finally, eighth question that is answered in the first few chapters of the Bible, and the most important of all, what did God do to fix this mess? In Genesis 3, So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this cursed, are you above all livestock and all wild animals.

You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

In this verse, Genesis 3:15, there's actually a name for it amongst theologians.

Genesis 3:15

It's called the PROTOEVANGELIUM.

The first time the gospel is mentioned in the Bible.

And by the way, I told you that every week we're going to have a verse to highlight.

This is the verse to highlight this week.

And I will put enmity, God says, between you, Satan, and the woman between your offspring and someone that's going to come through her line.

That guy is going to crush your head and undo everything that you brought on this earth, and you're also going to hurt him as well.

Who is that? Who is the seed of the woman? Well, in what you were to read yesterday from Genesis 5, it is a list of the genealogy from Adam all the way down to Noah.

Well, could it be that all the way back in the fifth chapter of the Bible, God already gives us a hint of who the seed of the woman would be by looking at what each one of their names mean? Adam means "Man."

Adam's son, Seth.

His name means "Appointed."

His son, Enoch means "Mortal."

Kenan means "Sorrow."

Mahalnel means "The blessed God."

Jared means "Shall Come Down."

Enoch means "Teaching."

Methuselah means "His Death Shall Bring."

Lamech means "Despairing" and Noah, his name means "Comfort and Rest."

If you read those from top to bottom, it says, man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessed God shall come down teaching and his death shall bring the despairing comfort and rest.

How cool is that? So the blessed God shall come down teaching and his death shall bring the despairing comfort and rest.

Who is that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, who 2000 years ago, came down and through his perfect life and death on that cross, he crushed the serpent's head.

Yeah, but in the process, he too was hurt as he gave up his life on the cross.

Why did Jesus do that? To bring the despairing, because we live in this broken world, to give us comfort and to give us rest.

He came to undo the mess that we had created.

When Adam and Eve first sinned, they looked down and they realize that they were naked, not just naked, physically.

They recognized that the righteousness that had covered over them was gone.

And so what did they try to do? They tried to fix it themselves by taking some fig leaves and sewing them together, but it wasn't a very good covering.

What did God do? The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he fully cloth them.

How do you make garments of skin? Youv'e got to kill something.

The very first kill in the whole Bible was God shedding blood so that his people could be covered.

And what does that remind us of? Jesus.

He gave up his life.

He shed his blood so that you and I could be covered in the garments of righteousness.

Once again, Jesus came to undo our mess.

He came to bring us back to God so that we could come to him whenever we have problems; physical, emotional, mental, spiritual.

Whenever we need forgiveness, whenever we need healing of body and soul, we could come before him and he would start to undo the mess that sin brought about.

And because Jesus went to the cross, one day that mess is going to be fully gone from each and every one of our lives when Jesus Christ comes again.

What did God do to undo this mess? He sent Jesus.

And by the way, when you realize all that God did to accomplish all that instead of your fist at God and saying, it's your fault, what do we do? We get down on our hands and knees and we say, Lord, I'm sorry.

It was my fault.

I was part of this.

My sin has caused all this, and I thank you that you forgive me.

And while I'm down here on my knees, I'm going to worship you and tell you thank you for all that you've done.

See why those foundations are important.

The first few chapters of the Bible are not to be thrown out and discarded.

Instead, they set everything up that we're going to be reading over the next two years.

May God continue to bless us as we build upon those foundations.

Amen.

You've been listening to a sermon from St.

John's Lutheran Church in Buffalo, Minnesota.

If you would like more information about St.

John's and any of our ministries to our community and beyond, you can go to our website, www.

stjohnsbuffalo.

org.

Thank you and God bless you.