Genesis 1:1-4 - ”Order Out Of Chaos” - Who Are We Series

the Old Testament reading is Genesis 1:

1-4 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 and 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 the New Testament reading acts

17: 22-

28 so Paul standing in the midst of the

areopagus said men of Athens I perceive

that in every way you are very religious

for as I passed along and observe the

objects of your worship I found also an

altar with this inscription to the

unknown

God what therefore you worship as

unknown this I Proclaim to you the God

who made the world and everything in it

being Lord of Heaven and Earth does not

live in temples made by man nor is he

served by human hands as though he

needed anything since he himself gives

to all mankind life and breath and

everything and he made from one man

every nation of mankind to live on all

the face of the Earth having determined

allotted periods and the boundaries of

their dwelling place that they should

seek God and perhaps feel their way

toward him and find him yet he is

actually not far from each one of us for

for in him we live and move and have our

being as even some of your own poets

have

said for we are indeed his

offspring this is the word of the Lord

thanks be to

God all right we're starting our Series

this is it we've been doing how the New

Testament looks at the creation story

and uh the last few weeks and now oh am

I getting

feedback a little bit maybe I move up a

little

does that

help okay that sounds good right okay

perfect so I thought how do I start this

because there's so much misunderstanding

on the creation story there's a ton I've

been around the church for 20 oh 35

years maybe 33 years I've been there my

whole life but actually taking it

serious for 33 years and this seems to

be one of the issues that gets people

the most riled up how do we do this and

you got people who say it doesn't make

sense scientifically that creation story

and you get other people who say other

things and there's this great debate and

you can read books about whether Jesus

or Darwin those kind of

things so it's always nerve-wracking

when you're hitting into something that

is a danger

zone but God Hates a

Coward and so I'm going to take us on

and I'm going to tell you the good news

first this is an incredible text and

number one you don't have to hate

science to love these texts

because they're very different things

making very different

proclamations now some of this is

because we the church have not taken

serious what our scriptures are and what

that means is we haven't actually taken

SE sense what our scriptures are

actually trying to say because we don't

take Serious the genre what it's written

in we tend by our nature to think

immediately because we're raised in this

Enlightenment world that if it's a story

about how things come together it must

be about the material and how the

material came together

right but that's not what this is

about this is a narrative that came in

the ancient world called creation

narratives and it had different rules

and the last thing they cared about was

the material construction and how it

came together they didn't care about

that at all What They Carried about was

the function

why not the how why is this they already

assumed God made the stuff that was an

interesting to them but why is it there

and that's what this book is about so we

can no longer we can no more take the

Christian story and disprove science

then they can vice versa because they're

writing two different things one again

is writing on the material of the world

and the other one is the why

let me give you an example a very very

one of my favorite Far Side who

remembers of Far Side

cartoons okay so so if you don't please

put up with this here can you see

that CU you got the horses and the and

the soldiers and you got Humpty Dumpty

on the ground broken up and it says okay

okay you guys says the

horses you guys have had your chance the

horses want another shot at

it do you get it all the king's horses

and all King men tried to put Humpty

together again now if you read that you

think it's funny because what he's doing

is he's playing a game on genre no one

reads the genre of fairy tale as a

literal reading it's trying to tell us

something different right and so when we

hear that all the horses and all the

king's men couldn't put Humpty together

again we don't think that the horses had

a shot with their little who just really

trying we understand there's something

more going on and as we know Humpty

dumpty's basically about Richard III his

failure in war and nothing was able to

save him that's how they wrote those

things I mean those things are by the

way crazy creepy fairy Trails you ever

read the history of those things ring

around the rosies about the black plague

And We All Fall Down it's

you see because what he's done here is

he's taken two genres and he mixed them

together and he says is and he makes it

funny by saying can you imagine if this

really was a literal story well just

like that when we take our two genres it

gets as silly as

this it actually doesn't make sense and

they have been arguing this forever and

our good friend John celvin does anybody

remember hearing his name thank you

somebody in the back I know you all know

it because you're bunch of Dutch

reformed people here come on I mean he's

like Papa John like come on this little

hand going up I

know he even said when he was pushed on

this because they were starting to

understand the the um astronomy and

stuff at that time and how the Sun might

not be and they were all getting worried

about this that this might not work with

the creation story he said you guys need

to learn how to read the creation story

right it's not about the way the

material world came together that's

that's John

Calvin so then how do we we read it I'm

going to argue to you my friends that

they wrote beautifully in light of

creation stories and what they do is

they tell a

story the whole Genesis account tells a

story that is as much against the false

gods around them as it was teaching the

Israelites who they were meant to be who

God is in a way that a literal

materialist way could never they were

telling them about how to

function not the formula

and I'm going to argue if you will stick

with this that by the time we get to the

11th chapter in Genesis you are going to

see that this God of Jesus Christ and

his gospel is found right throughout

it this is the same

God so how to read it well I'm going to

give you one metaphor before we go my

wife and I recently moved and all the

loved ones come up to us and say Emy

tell us about your home

now you all know that it would be really

weird if I said Well it has seven sheet

rocks and they're made out of a certain

substance and that we have some sort of

Plumbing that's plastic and then we have

like a metal around our sinks

and most of you would go what are you

doing well that's what we do with this

text sometimes you want to know what is

it functionally for us you want to know

how many bedrooms you want to know how

it speaks to us why we chose it what

does it mean to live there you want to

know the meaning that's what the Genesis

account is telling us all right so let's

start right from the beginning and I'm

going to promise you because I know for

myself I have had some bubbles have you

ever had a a re religious thing you've

been heard for years and then all of a

sudden somebody pops it you're going to

have a few pops going on here because

you when you actually read what the text

says it says something quite different

now the first thing I'm going to pop on

you is that when God first created

everything it was

perfect it doesn't actually say that it

doesn't say that at all in fact if you

listen to the actual text it's far from

perfect it says in the beginning or the

beginning of a time of creating he's not

saying there wasn't something before but

this is the time of God creating so he

isn't even saying there isn't stuff and

we can see there's stuff God created the

heavens and the Earth fair enough but

now for what he's creating

function but what was there the Earth

was without form and

void this means there was nothing there

it was chaotic it was

disordered okay the Earth is there but

there's nothing good on it that's what

he's saying at the very beginning when

God starts creation it's not nice and

fluffy it's not Narnia

it's chaos there's nothing working

nothing has function it's just being

just so you guys can see where why I say

that with this void when you go to

Jeremiah when he's speaking against the

judeans he says for my poop people are

foolish they have known me not they are

stupid children they do not understand

they are wise in doing evil but how to

do good they do not know I looked at the

earth now remember this is when people

are living on it and behold it was

without form or

void do you see that obviously there are

people that live

there so what does form and void mean it

means anything that had value or purpose

is not there do you understand when he's

talking to Israel when they are acting

chaotic he describes it the same way as

he's describing the original creation

the Earth itself has no

meaning that's how it starts but it goes

a little bit back worse from there and

darkness was over the face of the deep

you must understand two things here

Darkness represented in all of their

ancient creation narratives Darkness

represented against the good against the

light and there were gods of Darkness

the other T mths tell us and here you

see that there's something not good even

there isn't there and the Deep the sea

was the place of

chaos right through to Jesus day the sea

is seen as a great place of chaos so the

beginning of this story is nothing's

functioning and actually it's chaotic

and dark do you see

that so that's how we

start but then the good news starts

coming God starts his creating and the

spirit of God or the mighty Breath of

God was hovering over the face of the

waters and I like this they're under his

control this chaos all of this is under

control because in the other Christian

stories they're not under control but

God is not sitting there like going oh

this is a real problem they're not a

problem at all he's got control of it

he's taking care of this chaos he's

above

it and God said the incredible thing

we've got Darkness right he said let

there be light and in begins the process

of the good

there's no good you notice here with

darkness and void but for the first time

he says light and what does light mean

biblically it means more than a

luminescent

bulb it means

order let there be a

revelation peace a removal of chaos

that's what that means why will Jesus be

called the light of the

world light is not literally meant to be

ill luminescent in fact right now we

don't even have a sun and a moon to make

light he's saying something

more that God has come in and he sees

the chaos and he brings the light and

there was light and God saw that the

light was

good you see that he is the one who sees

the chaos and he's the one that creates

that which keeps it at Bay and brings

life brings the good

that's how God starts his creation we

shouldn't then be surprised that God is

constantly dealing with darkness by

bringing in

light you see the same God in the

creation stories is the same one working

in our world right

now he doesn't he's not intimidated by

chaos and void and deep seas and

destruction he's not at all in fact this

is how he works he brings

good out of Darkness right from the

beginning and God separated the light

from the darkness and here he begins his

process of creating a a

dichotomy of the good and the C ordered

and the chaos and the the good is never

going to be overwhelmed by the dark

remember John's

gospel remember how it starts in the

beginning what does he say about Jesus

the light had come in the world and the

what could know overcome

it you see it's right out of this isn't

it so this God has come in to this world

that was not

perfect and he begins the process of

doing the good the bringing the order

bringing the life that's the point of

these first chapters he is good and

right now we recognize immediately who

this God is this is not a God that's

intimidated by the darkness he's not in

a fight with the darkness like the

pagans

he's a God who sovereignly just says

enough and starts to

create he's a different

God and that's immediately known in the

ancient world see this was written to

those people who lived in the ancient

near East for

us but don't ever forget it was written

to them and they're living in a world

where they had Stories being told all

the time about how things came together

and it was destroying their

lives you see when Jes or Moses or

whoever else finally penned this thing

they were living in a world of all kinds

of stories and the Pagan life was

horrible because they believed the

darkness in the sea was in constant

fight with the bigger Gods the light

gods and you never knew who was going to

win Ian proven in his book said the

contrast here between the creation story

and the Pagan story is very great within

the ancient neare Eastern texts like the

Mesopotamian enu Elish which tells of a

great battle between God Marduk and the

dragon sea goddess Tiamat prior to the

emergence of our present reality these

two things there's the good God the the

Yahweh type God and then you've got this

equally powerful Evil dark God and

they're in constant Battle of whether

creation will even happen and there's

constant battles then for evil and good

within paganism and these Gods it

depends who's winning and you never knew

who might win in the end there was

always hanging over you and if you know

what paganism was like in the ancient

world you were never at peace because it

depended which God was

winning do you see it always you didn't

know if the God that was going to win

the war wants to wipe you out or would

it be a good or a more altruistic God

but these good and altruistic Gods like

Marduk they didn't have the

power to bring

order and so when that story is being

told to their

neighbors Yahweh tells this story a

story that's so different yep there's

Darkness yep there's chaos and guess

what I'm in

charge and that's it there's no fight

there's no battle you can trust me I'm

putting things together you don't have

to freak out well what a witness to

those Neighbors which they were called

to witness to of a different God to

worship a God where you can trust do you

see

that it took these pagans if they would

listen the opportunity that maybe these

aren't two Gods fighting and who knows

where I'll end up to come under a god

who's always in charge and putting

things together very different ways of

looking at

it so it's written to them but it's for

us

right so what about our creation

stories we have creation stories all the

time and they're running rampant in our

world one comes from our good friend

Charles

Darwin now this is not a theology

against Darwin or his science because

this text doesn't argue against it

they're two different genres but he read

the Bible through his genre of material

possession and he claimed the Old

Testament off offers a manifestly false

history of the earth that's what he said

that's a creation

story so then what he said and people

like him have said afterwards is there's

no meaning because it doesn't line up

materialistically with the creation

story where it should never have but

what that did create and it has created

is absolute chaos in people's

lives because you've just told them

there is no meaning or purpose of being

human there's no God but whatever's out

there and it's chance and luck and we're

just Celestial dust floating through the

world and if you want to know why this

world is so messed up it's because we

have a whole generation of

people who believe this and if you

believe there's no purpose then just

live for yourself and do whatever you

want and whatever Identity or sexual

proclivity or whatever else you have

just do it cuz there's no meaning do you

see

it this goes against that and says I'm

sorry Charles you read us wrong there is

meaning and God is not out there and

just you accidentally came to be I

brought light meaning and purpose and

there is purpose and we're going to get

to that point by the end of for John of

just how

amazing being human is it's amazing in

our

purpose this gospel creation story

should be told again and again and again

correctly in this world because this

world is falling apart because it's

believing as stupid a creation story as

the one about tiamet and

Marduk and people have no

peace they have no peace because they

don't have a god who's in control

now I'm I knew I had reformed people

coming and so I thought well why don't I

do

that reformed people like this they love

sovereignty why because it's in the

Bible but this is the point of the

Genesis story right from the beginning

as though there's chaos and everything

he's in

charge there's no it's really actually

kind of boring he's just there's there's

void and there's darkness and there's

sea and he goes ah light

done you see the that that's the thing

I'm trying to say is all through

scripture God's not going oh no I can't

believe that

happened oh no if that other God gets

ahead of I might

lose the God who created the heavens and

the Earth he has purpose he has form and

he is in charge and that's what the

Genesis account wants to begin with that

our God is the only God

and there is no

fight I wish Christians would believe it

I was in a a church one time where uh

and you guys have been here and I'm not

making a comment but all of a sudden

everybody was having Satan cast out of

themselves did you ever been there I was

visiting a church and people were like

and it was a battle and it was crazy and

everybody was doing different things and

it couldn't help but hit me and go well

where's the sovereignty of God in this

Satan had a lot of

power I want to let you guys to know

something whatever Satan is he ain't

God's

equal he

isn't God in one minute in one second

can destroy it whatever moment you see

with the Satan figure he's always being

used by God for God's

purpose it's interesting he's never kind

of an independent fell

Steve lson said Lawson said some

Christians live in such fear that they

act as if they believe in the

sovereignty of SE Satan rather than the

sovereignty of God what I'm trying to

tell you right now is these first three

chapters tell you have your Hope and

Faith in the sovereignty of

God he wins he made it that Darkness

doesn't overcome it I know you're going

to have bad days and I'm not de denying

evil but I'm telling you what that evil

is short term and it's on God's leash

God

wins okay I don't know what you've been

through this week but God wins and he's

in control and he will set things to

rights and there's the other side that

I've seen recently I can't help but say

it I don't want to bring up names but

we're in a political world isn't it

crazy right now and everybody's hating

each other because this person's the

leader that they like or this person's

the leader that they like and they're

splitting churches and they're hating

one another I know here in Mountain View

I got some people who love orange hair

man and I got some people who hate

him I don't say his

name and people are losing their mind

out there the next election could

destroy the world I've heard

that and Christians are believing it I'm

going to tell you what human beings

don't have control of destroying

creation God has that

right and we need to start trusting in

God through this process and quit

worrying about even the most obnoxious

person that might feel like a

threat because God brings the light into

the darkness he call comes the void he

causes the Seas to to be under

control you think when Jesus walked and

he had Caesar around do you think he was

like oh I don't know what if Caesar does

this oh I'm so

scared what about

Herod Jesus knew God's in control I can

trust him he walked along and he knew it

might kill him but he also knew that

this God is the god of the Resurrection

so I want to quote my good friend RC

Sproul God Rest his soul many Christians

salute the sovereignty of of God but

believe in the sovereignty of

man our call is to believe in this text

that this is the god who just going to

set things right and we need to trust

him because it's not always going to

look that way but I promise you in the

end all things work together for good

right this

God is the god that brings order out of

chaos I want to say that again this is

the god that brings order out of chaos

now some of you say to yourself well my

life's chaotic or my church is chaotic

or my something's

chaotic yep we live in the night

yet but our God is not a God that went

oh I didn't have control of that he's

the god that looks at it and says now

I'm going to bring order out of it if

you let me

that is who he is he brings order out of

chaos and when you don't have God you

have

chaos without God there's no structure

no order whoa

sorry that freaked me

out with no one at the wheel we hit the

Rocks it's

chaos the Reason God wants us to go

share Jesus by the way isn't because we

can get another one notch on our belt

that they go to heaven when they die he

wants to do it so that we can introduce

them to the one that will bring order to

their

lives that can they can start walking in

God's image do you know that because

people right now out in that world who

are so unhappy my friends they're living

in chaos CU they don't have God

and our culture has been believing a

lie and here's the LIE we in and of

ourselves are important God isn't and

because of that we don't know how to

order our lives because the god of order

is not

there Sproul again without God mad has

no reference point to Define himself

20th century philosophy manifests the

chaos of man seeking to understand

himself as a creature with dignity while

having no reference point for that

dignity you know what the Genesis

account gives us a reference point for

our

dignity I hope some of you will listen

because when I get to when the creation

of humanity you're going to be blown

away the dignity God gave to humanity

it'll blow you it's blown my mind

studying it it's incredible

but we need the god of order and that's

who he

is and then what happens if we do

believe in the god of Order Our Lives

can then start to be order and then I'm

going to argue we can start being truly

human you know I remember Jordan

Peterson wrote a book my son got into it

so I had to read it just to make sure it

wasn't crazy it's called 12 steps

anybody see that 12 12 steps to a happy

life for something I don't remember but

he starts off with make your bed and the

whole book is about order and it's not a

Christian book but I saw my son go from

that and he slowly his life changed

because he started making his bed he

started putting things together he

started ordering his life he started and

I'll tell you what within one year we

were baptizing him

here because the god of order ultimately

is in Jesus

Christ the God who brings order he wants

order out of the chaos and he use

somebody like Jordan Peterson to reach

out but let us not let Jordan run the

show because God's been saying I am the

god of order and when you Embrace Jesus

you begin to do the incredible things

day in and day out and every time you

bring order to your life you

worship every time you bring order to a

family to a church you're worshiping

you're doing what you were created to do

you're acting like the God who makes

order Timothy Keller We are continuing

God's work of

forming uh I can't read what filling and

subduing whenever we bring order out of

the chaos whenever we draw out creative

potential whenever we elaborate and

unfold creation beyond where it is when

we found it we are following God's

pattern of creative cultural development

when we bring

order that's our

call the church when it's really going

well is out there everywhere bringing

order not hiding away from the world

afraid it might take him

over Jesus

Christ is the

word he is the light that takes over the

darkness so we can't end with just

saying God is a god of order we got to

finish the whole

story see we have something those

original writers didn't have we have the

rest of the story how God has decided to

bring order out of

disorder and how did that happen well

the god of creation came down and did

what Humanity wouldn't he became fully

human and the whole stories are highly

wrapped up in this God who brings order

think of Jesus on the boat the storm's

coming you remember that and he just

tells the storms to go

down think of that in light of the

mighty Spirit overlooking the deep in

the creation

story think of Jesus being called the

light listen to this text when Jesus

spoke again to the people he said I am

the light of the world whoever followed

me will never walk in darkness but will

have the light of light

he is the one that brings order and

life he is it he's the one that fulfills

what God does in the creation story he's

the one that controls thing and no one

can overcome

him and in him you get to be part of

living in this

God and he continues to do things over

and over I can't go through them all but

all the way through his gospels Jesus

shows that he's the creation God that

he's healing that he's bringing things

back together that chaos is destroyed

because we let it

in but then he ends doesn't he with one

final

Act where he finally lets

Darkness seemingly

win where he finally lets chaos have its

final say and that's the

cross right and it looks like the good

and the light have finally been defeated

and then in Jesus Christ 3 Days

Later New

Creation the

resurrection and what does he do he

walks up and he says to us he calls us

New

Creations and he has defeated the chaos

he's defeated it all and in Jesus Christ

now we have the hope of the god of the

original creation finishing what he

started by setting things to right

that chaos will no longer win and now by

faith we get to live like that's true if

we choose

to the end of Revelation so often

misunderstood it's kind of like the end

story of the Genesis account it's the

other

side and it's telling us where God

eventually gets

to then I saw a new Heaven and a new

Earth remember he created a heaven and

the Earth at the beginning but this is

new this is renewed because of his

creation he is now destroyed chaos so

there has to be a new one doesn't mean

physically new it means it's not the

same for the first Heaven and the first

Earth had passed

away that creation that was

broken and the sea was no more what did

I tell you the SE

was

chaos Jesus just Feats that there will

be in eternity no more

chaos no more

darkness and I saw the holy city the New

Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven from

God prepared as a bride Adorn for her

husband and I heard a loud voice from

the throne saying Behold The Dwelling

Place of God is with

man remember the creation

story and he was walking in the cool of

the day with

man he set that to

right he will dwell with them and they

will be his people and God himself will

be with them their

God he will wipe away every tear from

their eyes and Death Shall be no more

neither shall there be mourning nor

crying nor pain anymore for the former

things have passed away and he who

Seated on the throne said behold I am

making all things new also he said write

these down for these words are

trustworthy and

true the god at the

beginning destroyed chaos and

darkness and we human beings by chapter

3 let it all back

in and this God in his own way came

amongst us and defeated darkness and

Chaos by taking it on himself and

offering us forgiveness

and doing that he destroyed it and when

he rose from the dead death had been

defeated chaos no longer

wins and now here we

are we are Sons and Daughters of the god

of

creation we are Sons and Daughters of

Jesus Christ the Creator

God and he's saying to us right now look

like me

you can bring order into chaos you can

bring life into death because I have

already defeated it and I'm going to

breathe upon you the question for us is

Will We believe

that Christianity is the best news

you'll ever hear no other religion can

deal with chaos and evil and darkness

like

this he's

one your job is just to try and set

things to rights

but if we go for it and we do it on that

day and I don't know what this is going

to be look like but on that day when he

returns we will hear those words well

done my good and faithful

servant because you followed me The God

Who destroys chaos and brings

light let's pray

Heavenly Father we thank you that you

are so gracious to

us that you are the

god that has no

opposition you are the god that brings

order out of

chaos life out of

disorder Lord Jesus make us a people

that follow

you the Creator God help us to walk in

you so we can be in the light bringing

order and goodness in this world and

help us to have the faith that truly you

are one day going to end this

chaos help us to live in the

now in excitement as we bring order in

our lives and our neighbors lives and in

our creation around us through love and

forgiveness and

hope and make make us a people that when

people walk by they say they've been

with

Jesus in Christ's name amen