Creation

Well, again, let me welcome you, especially those of you who are visiting.

We started a couple of weeks ago a series basically asking, exploring some of the ultimate questions of life,

questions that everybody wonders about regardless of what they believe,

questions to which our beliefs speak,

questions like where did all of this come from?

Who are we?

Why are we here?

What are we here for?

How do we make sense of our lives?

How do we make sense of our work, our culture, our society?

How do we understand things like gender or sexuality or marriage?

How do we make sense of all of this?

And the Bible says if we want to understand these things,

that the first thing we have to do is to go back to the beginning.

We have to go back to the book of Genesis,

and specifically the opening chapters of Genesis.

The first 11 chapters of Genesis really lay the foundation for everything else,

and particularly the first three chapters.

And so this week we're continuing our study in this book,

looking at the opening chapters,

and we're focusing on Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 through verse 25,

Genesis 1:1

and we're seeking to understand the world as a whole, creation as a whole.

This passage is very familiar to a lot of people,

primarily because of the debates that are inspired around it.

You hear about the creation story in Genesis 1,

and you immediately think of the debate,

or really the debate is a nice way to put it,

the battle that is perceived to exist between faith and science.

And you think of Ken Ham and the evolution debate,

and we think of this tension that exists.

As we said last week,

whenever we want to interpret the Bible,

not just this, but any place in the Bible,

we have to be able to understand the mindset of the people who wrote it,

and the people to whom it was written originally.

In other words, we have to be able to read ancient texts,

not through modern eyes, but through ancient eyes.

We have to read ancient texts through ancient eyes.

Genesis, along with all of the other ancient Near Eastern accounts of creation,

when it was written,

the prevailing questions and concerns in people's minds

had nothing to do with how things came to be.

This was not written as a scientific document.

It was not written to explain the processes of creation.

It was written to answer the far deeper and more fundamental question of why.

Why?

Not how was all of this made,

but for what was all of this made?

So it's not a science textbook.

It's poetry.

It's poetry.

And you can tell by the strophes,

the repetition,

the parallelism,

all of these structures here are poetic structures.

So it was written to explain the question of why.

And so with that lens,

putting that lens on,

we're going to look at verses 1 through 25,

which are meant to help us understand the world we live in

and the God who made it.

And specifically,

it's going to show us three things about this world.

That God conceived it in love.

That God created it by His word.

And that God called it good.

He conceived it in love.

He created it by His word.

And He called it good.

Let's pray for God's help.

Our Father in heaven,

we do,

as we've,

in our song and in our prayer,

acknowledge that we need Your word to lead us

to lighten our path,

to illuminate our way,

to give us life that we cannot find here,

that we can only find in You.

That Lord,

we pray these things would happen in us

as we open Your word together.

And we ask this in Your Son's name.

Amen.

So the first thing we see

in the opening verses of Genesis 1

is this,

that God conceived this world in love.

It was conceived in love.

If you begin reading,

it says in verse 1,

in the beginning,

God created the heavens and the earth.

So we have God.

There's God.

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 water.

So we have God,

and then we have the Spirit of God.

And the Spirit of God is hovering,

and this is a beautiful Hebrew word

that conveys the image of a mother bird

hovering over her young.

And so it's an incredibly wonderful,

beautiful image,

kind of a familial image of care

and parental love.

The Spirit of God is hovering

over the face of the waters.

Verse 3,

And God said,

Let there be light.

And there was light.

So we see,

unlike other creation myths

and stories and accounts,

God speaks creation into being.

So you have the Word of God,

and when you look at places like John chapter 1

John 1 · chapter mention

or Colossians chapter 1,

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

we see that Jesus is this Word,

as Colossians says,

through whom all things were made.

So here in the opening verses,

we have at the very beginning of the Bible,

really before anything

has been brought into being,

we have a creator,

this God who is in his very nature,

tri-personal.

Three persons.

One God, but three persons.

You have a Father, the God,

and then you have the Spirit of God,

and then you have the Word of God,

the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

And you have this tri-personal being

that shows us that before anything existed,

everything that is,

everything that is in this world,

including us,

was conceived of or thought up

in the context of a loving interpersonal relationship.

That's astounding.

It's amazing.

It's amazing when you think that that means

that love itself,

so the kind of love that exists between persons,

was never created.

Unlike virtually everything else,

love has always been,

has always been,

an eternal relationship of love.

You know, it's radically different

from the other ancient Near Eastern creation accounts.

Right?

A common example that you may be familiar with

is the Babylonian creation story,

Enuma Elish.

And if you know anything about the plot of that story,

this is the creation account.

Guess what happens?

There's a lot of drama that ensues,

but the real climax of the story

is Marduk kills his great, great, great grandmother,

Tiamat,

who happens to be a dragon.

And then he fillets her like a fish.

And then he takes half of her corpse

and makes the sky out of it.

Okay?

Mom, Dad, why is the sky so beautiful at night?

Well, it's Tiamat's rotting corpse.

That's really what you're looking at.

So, you look at that account,

you look at these other accounts,

there's violence,

there's divine power struggles,

there's conquest,

there's sometimes rape and sexual assault,

there's all kinds of things,

you know, divine copulation,

and God's playing tricks on each other,

and betraying each other,

and killing their parents.

And then you look at this story.

An eternal interpersonal relationship

of perfect love.

And that's the context

from which all of this sprang into being.

So what's the implication of this for us?

The implication is this.

The primary thing,

the primary thing,

in life,

the primary principle,

is interpersonal relationships.

Relationships of love.

Most of us, if we're honest,

most of us,

if we look at our own lives,

we know that relationships matter in theory.

And most of us have a few people

that we're close to,

friends and family that we're close to,

but most of us,

even though we know relationships matter,

they really tend to take a backseat

to other things.

I mean, in a place like D.C.,

people don't come here for relationships.

You come here for a job,

you come here for an internship,

you come here for school,

you come here to get credentialed in some way,

you come here to get a foot in the door

to a career that will probably lead you elsewhere.

I know very few people

that come here for relationship.

I know more and more of you

are staying because of relationships.

Because we're beginning to see

and to realize

that when we live a kind of life

where relationships are the things

we fit in around the margins,

you know, I have my job,

that's central,

I have my career,

I have my education,

those are central,

they get the best of me,

and then whatever leftover time

and energy I have,

I'm kind of fitting relationships

in when and where I can, right?

Relationships tend to be

the things we fit in.

This is true for me.

This is autobiographical, right?

But here's the thing.

If love,

if interpersonal love

is the only thing here

that has always been

because it was in God,

in God's very nature,

and if that is the world in which

or the context in which

all of this was conceived of

and a loving interpersonal relationship,

then that is the primary thing.

We talked a couple of weeks ago

about because God created

the heavens and the earth,

we know that there's a purpose,

there's a design,

there's a way

that it's meant to function.

And guess what?

At the very center of that way

is relationship.

It's relationship.

We're designed,

the world is made

to revolve around relationship,

relationship that exists

between us

and then between us and God.

It's central.

So if we want to live in a way

that reflects the kind of flow,

the fabric,

the grain,

the texture

of ultimate reality,

if we want to be

radically countercultural,

what would it look like

to fit our job

and our school

and our credentialing

around relationships?

What would it look like

to make decisions

about where we live

and where we move

or whether we move

based primarily on

the place where we're going

to have the richest

relationships

with one another

and with God?

And that was

the central priority.

Not convenience.

Not pleasure.

Not necessarily success

or career advancement.

Not free parking.

Not easily accessible

grocery stores.

Not safer streets.

But what if we made it

about relationship?

If that was the primary thing?

So this is the first thing

we see about creation.

God conceives this world

in love

and that tells us

that loving relationships

are the most important thing

there is.

And then as we move on

in the text,

we see the next thing.

God conceived this world

in love.

He created it by His word.

He created it by His word.

Verse 2 says

that the world

was without form

and void.

The Hebrew there

is tohu wabohu

or tohu vabohu.

In short,

this conveys

the idea of chaos.

It's not nothing.

There's something

but that something

is chaos.

It's undifferentiated matter.

It's useless,

functionless,

purposeless stuff.

And then what does God do?

God speaks.

God speaks.

Let there be light.

And then what does

His word do to the chaos?

His word brings

order to the chaos.

What does His word

do to the darkness?

It brings light

to the darkness.

So order to chaos,

light to darkness.

He takes this chaos

and He begins

to do what with it?

He begins to differentiate.

Chaotic matter,

He separates

and differentiates

and begins to assign roles

and functions to things.

And so in day one,

we see God separating

and establishing

the rhythm of day and night.

This will be day

and this will be night.

And night is not day

and day is not night.

They're separate.

What's God doing?

A rhythm of day and night.

This is the creation of time.

Time.

You wonder why there's

evening and then morning?

It's kind of weird.

Why would there not be

morning and then evening

on the first day?

There's evening and then morning.

It's because when God,

before God did this,

there was no day.

There was no morning.

And God does this act of creation

and the first thing to come

in this rhythm is evening.

And then morning.

He's establishing time.

Day two.

God separates the waters above

from the waters below.

In the ancient Near East,

people believed that

there was a storehouse

of water above the sky.

And that's where rain came from.

And the object

is not to correct the science.

As we said,

it's to answer

the deeper question of why.

It's theology.

So God,

it says God separates

the waters above

from the waters below

with an expanse.

And what will that expanse do?

It will regulate the rain

and the wind.

It will regulate

the clear sky

and the clouds.

What is God doing?

He's creating weather.

Day one, time.

Day two, weather.

Climate.

Day three,

God separates land

from water

and then sets up

the processes

by which that land

will produce plants,

which then produce seeds,

which then produce

more plants.

What's he doing?

Agriculture.

Agriculture.

Time.

Weather.

Agriculture.

And these are the pillars

of society.

And they're also

the three things

that to this day

with all of our great technology

we still can't control.

Days four, five, and six,

God populates

these various domains.

He populates

the day and the night

with the sun

and the moon

and the stars

to do what?

To help appoint

and measure

the seasons

and the years.

Time, right?

He fills the sky

with birds

and the sea

with fish

and the land

with animals

and then finally humans.

And what we see

with all this

is this,

is that God's word

is bringing order

to chaos

and that makes it possible

for life to flourish.

God's word

orders the chaos

and as a result

life can exist

and life can flourish.

So what is the implication

for us?

God's word

has power

and it can have

this same power

in our lives.

The same power.

If you notice

throughout Genesis chapter one

there's this poetic pattern

and normally

when there's a pattern

it means it's something

to be emphasized

and one of the patterns

in Genesis one

is this,

and God said

and it was so.

And God said

and it was so.

And God said

and it was so.

It recurs

every single day.

And if we go forward

into the New Testament

we see this isn't

the only place

that we see

this kind of language.

Where else do we see it?

When Jesus came

the first thing

that people noticed

about him

was what?

We heard it

in Luke chapter four.

The authority

of his word.

We've never heard

speaking like this.

He speaks with authority.

He says to the demon

come out

and the demon comes out.

He says to the storm

be still

and the storm stills.

He says to the man

come out of the tomb

and the man rises

and comes out

of his tomb.

He says take up

your mat and walk

and the man

takes up his mat

and walk.

It's the same authority.

It's the same word.

Here's the thing.

When we put our lives

under that word

in other words

when we put our lives

under the authority

when we allow that word

to speak to us

in that way

when we put our lives

under scripture

when we

submit ourselves

to this power

we are submitting ourselves

to the very same

creative power

that brought this world

into existence.

The same creative power.

Is Jesus the word

or is scripture the word?

Yes.

This is why

this is why

Jesus in John 14

says if anyone loves me

he will obey my

word.

Word.

They're one and the same.

What we're seeing here

is that just as God

created the world

he is recreating it

now

and he does that

through the word.

Jesus

and scripture.

The psalm we read earlier

Psalm 119

Psalms 119:25

verse 25

it's just kind of been

floating around

in my brain

in my heart

for the last several weeks

it's just really

stuck with me lately

verse 25 says

my soul clings

to the dust

give me life

according to your word.

It's a confession

and then a petition

my soul clings

to the dust

that's the confession

that's the truth about me

my soul clings

to the dust.

What does that mean?

Here's the cruel joke

played on human beings

through the fall.

The things that I most desire

are the things

that will destroy

and bring chaos

and darkness

into my life.

the things

that will bring me life

are the things

that I least desire.

Right?

Nobody who is married

is naturally

monogamously faithful

to their spouse.

That doesn't come

we're not naturally

that's not our

our 100% of the time desire.

We don't desire that

all of the time.

Every marriage

everybody who is in marriage

at some point

if you're married long enough

will have to deal

with some form of desire

for somebody

who's not your spouse.

Why?

My soul clings

to the dust.

Dust in the Bible

that's chaos

that's decay

that's death.

My soul clings

to that.

Right?

Generosity

doesn't come naturally.

What comes naturally?

What's my instinct

with my stuff?

It's to hoard it

and protect it

so that I can have

more than you.

My soul clings

to the dust.

Forgiveness

doesn't come naturally.

Forgiveness brings life

and healing

and restoration

but it's hard

it doesn't come naturally.

What do I want to do?

I want to hold a grudge

for 20 years.

I don't want to get

revenge on you.

You hurt me

I want to get you back.

That's what comes naturally.

Why?

My soul clings

to the dust.

People say

well you know

some people

like obviously

pastors must love

to read the Bible.

I hate to read the Bible.

No.

Nobody likes to read the Bible.

You want to know why?

Nobody likes to read the Bible.

Naturally.

Why?

Your soul clings

to the dust.

Your soul clings

If everybody

loved waking up

and reading the Bible

and understanding

and applying it

you wouldn't need me.

We wouldn't need

any of this.

The only way

the soul must

understand something

that we need to understand.

My soul clings

to the dust.

The only way

out of that

the only way

to recapture

my heart

and recapture

my affections

and recalibrate

my desires

is through the word.

I've got to come

under the creative

recreative power

of that word.

I've got to

let that recreate me

from the inside out

so that I will desire

the things of life

and not the dust

and chaos

of death.

Genesis 1

shows us

the power

of God's word

to order the world.

Won't you let it

order your life?

Won't you let it

order your priorities?

Won't you let it

order your values?

Your commitments?

Genesis 1

shows us

that God's word

makes it possible

for life

to flourish.

Let it

bring flourishing

life to you.

How?

You have to put

yourself under

its creative authority.

So God

conceived this world

in love.

He created this world

by his word.

Two things

that we see.

And then the third

thing we see

is this

that God

looked at all of this

and he called it good.

He called it good.

And I love this.

It says a little bit

later,

God saw everything

that he had made

and behold,

it was very good.

You've got to realize

the implications of this.

You know,

Eastern religions

tend to think

that the material

world is an illusion.

Right?

The whole purpose

of transcendental

meditation,

Buddhist meditation

and discipline

is to transcend

the illusion

of the material.

Right?

Those of you

who practice yoga

and love yoga,

the whole context

of the development

of yoga

is to help you

transcend the illusion

of the material world

to escape.

The Greeks

and the Romans

tend to think

that the material world

is real

but it's evil.

It's evil

and there's an idealizing

of the spiritual

and the hope

is to reject,

to reject

the evil material world

and to escape

to the spiritual.

That sounds a lot like

the way a lot

of Christians talk

but that's not

what the Bible says

about the material world.

A lot of Christians

think that way.

You know that song

I'll Fly Away?

That's not Christianity.

It's a great song

but it doesn't reflect

the truth

of what God's word says

about this world.

Christianity is the only

religion there is

as far as I know

that says this world,

this material world

right here

is good.

It's good.

Right?

Though it's fallen,

though it's broken,

though it's twisted,

under all of that

it was fundamentally good.

Implications.

What does this mean?

Christians should throw

the best parties.

Christians should throw

the best parties.

I'm not even kidding.

The doctrine of creation

makes it possible

for us to have

an extraordinarily

balanced relationship

with the material world.

The balance is this.

We can thoroughly enjoy it

without worshipping it.

We can enjoy it

without worshipping it.

On the one hand,

we know that this world,

this creation story

tells us,

this world was meant

to be enjoyed.

It was meant to be

relished.

It was meant

to be celebrated.

I mean,

it's no coincidence

that Jesus loves

a good party.

He was accused

of being a glutton

and a drunkard

because he always went

to these parties.

And I don't think

he was sitting

in their corner

with his,

you know,

kind of,

oh,

you go ahead.

I don't think

he was doing that.

I think he was

enjoying good food

and good drink

and good conversation

over the table.

He was enjoying himself.

The Son of Man

came eating and drinking,

right?

It's no coincidence

that he put

at the very center

of our relationship

with him

the symbol,

the sacrament

of the meal

that we share.

He could have

picked anything,

but he picked a meal.

Bread and wine

shared between friends.

It's no coincidence

that the image

that he uses

to tell us

what the new creation

will be like

is a great feast

the likes of which

we've never seen,

the likes of which

we can't even imagine.

Rich food

and landscapes

and sunsets

and symphonies

and the smell of rain

on hot pavement

and fall breezes

and all of that

is meant to be enjoyed,

it's meant to be celebrated,

it's meant to be relished.

So Christians

should be great

celebrators of creation.

We should love beauty,

we should love art,

we should love music,

we should love good food

and good drink,

we should love

all of these things.

We should love them

and celebrate them

more than anyone else.

You know this concept,

the joie de vivre,

Christians should exude

a joy of life.

On the other hand,

while this world

was made to be enjoyed,

it was not made

to be worshipped.

Unlike many other religions,

God is separate

from his creation.

The sky,

the stars,

the sun and the moon,

they're not gods,

they're things

that God made.

The animals are not divine,

the trees are not divine,

the ocean is not

a divine being.

That's what Tiamat was,

the god of the ocean.

God is none of these things,

God made all of these things,

God is thoroughly,

utterly,

completely separate

and holy,

which is what holy means,

from his creation.

And what that tells us

is that while we should

enjoy creation,

we should never worship creation.

We should never

make it our God.

Romans 1 says

that's what's wrong with us.

Romans 1 says

it's because we started

worshipping the created things

rather than the creator

that has twisted our hearts.

So to be made right

with God through Jesus

is to have our hearts

made right,

to worship the creator

and not any created thing.

We're designed to love

and worship God

above all else.

That's what we need

to flourish.

So you see this balance,

this balance that we're called to.

We're neither ascetics,

living in a cave somewhere,

rejecting everything.

We're not called to be ascetics.

We're not called to be hedonists.

We should enjoy,

enjoy the world

with the,

more than the hedonists

because we have the inner

detachment of the ascetics.

You see?

It's precisely because

we don't need it,

because it isn't

the ultimate thing

because God is

and because we know

if we have God

we have everything.

It's precisely because

we don't need it

that we are liberated

to enjoy it

more than people

who do need it.

All of this language

about,

you know,

the Bible says

don't be worldly

and people say

well not being worldly

means all these things,

you know,

all the things

that I can and can't do

and all that.

No.

What worldliness is,

what the warning there is,

is not telling us

to avoid pleasure

in this life.

Worldliness is thinking

that the pleasure

in this life

is the only thing

there is.

That's what worldliness is.

It's forgetting

that this is just

a shadow

of what will be

in a consummated kingdom.

It's just a foretaste.

It's just the tiniest glimmer.

See,

pleasure and joy

and desire,

those are things

that are meant

to point us

to God

and forgetting

that there's anything

out there

and thinking

that this is it.

That's worldliness.

There's a great

illustration of this

in,

I just re-read

the Space Trilogy,

C.S. Lewis'

Space Trilogy,

and the second book

is called Perlandra

and it's about,

and I won't spoil

the plot for you

if you haven't read it,

but it's about Ransom.

His name is Ransom,

Dr. Ransom,

and he travels

to a world

that has not yet

gone through the fall.

So you see a world

as it would be

before the fall

and you see things

like desire

and pleasure

operating there

as they would

without sin,

without the fall.

And one of my favorite parts

is when Ransom

has finally climbed up

onto the shore

and he's hungry

and he finds a gourd

and he takes this gourd

and he's not sure

if he can eat it

and he's kind of

feeling around

and his finger

pokes through

and kind of makes

this opening

and he sits there

staring at it

wondering if he should

sample it.

He's on a completely

alien world.

He's understandably

cautious

and he's looking at it

and it says this,

after a moment's hesitation,

he put the little aperture

to his lips.

He had meant to extract

the smallest

experimental sip

but the first taste

put his caution

all to flight.

It was, of course,

a taste

just as his thirst

and hunger

had been thirst

and hunger

but then it was

so different

from every other taste

that it seemed

mere pedantry

to call it a taste

at all.

It was like the discovery

of a totally new

genus of pleasures,

something unheard of

among men

out of all reckoning,

beyond all covenant.

For one draft

of this on earth,

wars would be fought

and nations betrayed.

And then it says,

as he let the empty

gourd fall from his hand

and was about to pluck

a second one,

it came into his head

that he was now

neither hungry

nor thirsty.

Perfectly satisfied.

And yet,

to repeat

a pleasure

so intense

and almost

so spiritual

seemed an obvious

thing to do.

His reason,

or what we commonly

take to be reason

on our own world,

was all in favor

of tasting this miracle

again.

But for whatever cause,

it appeared to him

better not to taste again.

Perhaps the experience

had been so complete

that repetition

would be a vulgarity,

like asking to hear

the same symphony

twice in a day.

And then here's the,

it concludes with this.

It says,

after this experience,

he wondered how often

in his life on earth

he had reiterated pleasures

not through desire

but in the teeth of desire.

In the teeth of desire.

See,

this is what's possible

when our relationship

with God

is righted.

And we love God,

we come through

his power

to love him

more than anything

he's made,

even a nearly

spiritual experience

of drinking

from a gourd.

We can experience

pleasure,

we can experience

desire

to their fullest

of what they were

meant to be

without being caught

in the teeth of desire.

See,

that's the paradox.

You have to be free

from it

to be able

to fully enjoy it.

But the more

you come to need it,

the less you can enjoy it

because you're

enslaved by it.

So when our hearts

are put right

and when we realize

that we're made

to love the creator

and not the created thing,

we can enjoy

all created things.

We can enjoy

all of them.

And we can enjoy

them through our desire

which was made

for these things

because

we're not caught

in the teeth of them.

We're not caught

in the teeth

of our own desire

because we recognize

that as Augustine said,

ultimately

our hearts

will be restless

until they find

their rest,

their peace,

their fulfillment

in the creator God.

Right?

So as we look

at these verses,

we see three amazing

things about this world.

Amazing things

about this world

that God conceived

this world in love,

that love was always there,

that before anything

was made,

these three persons

were in their love,

in their other glorifying,

self-sacrificing,

other oriented love

that they shared

with one another.

They dreamed up together.

They dreamed up

the idea of you

and me

and all of this.

God conceived

the world in love.

He created it

by His word,

His powerful word,

and then He called it good.

And as we'll see

in the coming weeks,

as we said,

the world is fallen

as we are fallen

and things are not

the way they're supposed to be.

But the good news

is this.

Here's the good news.

That the same love

that moved God

to create all of this,

that same love

has moved God

to rescue it

and to restore it.

That the same word

that created all of this

and brought it into being,

that same word

has now become flesh,

has come among us,

and has given of life

to rescue us.

And that because

of these things,

because of this love,

and because of the word

become flesh,

we know that just as God

once looked at all of this

and said,

this is very good,

pronounced His pleasure

in what He had made

in His workmanship.

So through Jesus Christ,

God looks at each one of us

and beholds His workmanship

and says,

this is very good.

This is very good.

Let's pray.

Our Father,

we do thank You

for Your Word

and thank You

for showing us

these deep realities

of ourselves

and the world

that we live in

and what they show us

about You.

We thank You

for the eternity

and the beauty

and the primacy

of love.

We pray that You

would bless

our relationships.

In particular,

we pray for those

without relationships,

who lack friends,

who are lonely

or don't have family.

We pray for all of those

that through Your power

and through this community

they would find a family,

they would find friends.

We pray that You,

as You say in Your Psalms,

that You are the God

who sets the lonely

in families.

We pray that that would happen

through this community.

Lord, we pray that Your Word

would have power

in this place,

that it would be

recreating us,

as we submit to it.

And Lord,

we pray finally

that we would have

such an awareness

of the goodness

of what You've made,

that we would be

a celebratory people.

Lord,

that there would be

a joy and a richness

to our life together.

And we pray that this

would not distract us

from You,

but that it would be

one of the ways

that we worship You.

And we pray this

in Your Son's holy name.

Amen.

Amen.