Who is God?
Notes
Transcript
NEED THE GOSPEL
Pray
Today we begin at the very beginning - a very good place to begin
IN the book of Genesis.
Genesis along with the nother 5 first books of the OT are credited to being written by Moses the great leadr of ISrael who freed them from slavery in Egypt in 15th centrury BC.
It was also to Moses that the first written laws of God were given, intially the 10 comamndments given on Mount sinai
Moses himself doesn’t entre the histric narrative until the next book, Exodus, so much of what he rights in Genesis would have been passed on to him by oral or other written sources, but as with all of Scripture, it is divinly inspired.
Of course if you’re not a believer, you may not accept that God was involved at all in it’s writing, but what I hope we will see as we work through this extraordinary book, is just how well it holds together with Historical fact, the realities of human behaviour and life, and how it gives us the unifying foundation blocks of the whole Christian religion that would roll out over centuries into 1 cohesive, undeniably consistant story that is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus.
Even Jesus confirms that these first 5 books of Moses, what the Jews call the Pentatuch are all about and point towards him.
If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?’
Genesis gives us then the foundations for what we believe, and a solid bedrock on which to stand, for it is on what Jesus stood.
Not only that, but despite the current climate that attempts to dismiss Christianinty and a creator God, we will find reassurance.
We will even find converstaions we can have with our non-Christian friends about why we believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins,
Why we believe in a creator God to whom we and all created things belong and must serve.
We will, as we have called this series, find Genesis to be a thoughrghy helopful,
Study of Humanity
Study of Humanity
itself.
It’s worth considering a few things as we come to this creation account in chapter 1.
Firstly, it’s not written to be a scientific explanation of creation.
It’s written to give us a theological framework for who God is, how creation came to be, why it’s important, and how it models or impacts what life is all about.
That doesn’t mean we dismiss the details as a fairy tale, but it does mean we are looking for principles about creation and God rather than speciifc scientific detail.
SO when we face questions from scinece trying to disporrove that God exists, we don’t need to worry as much as some do.
Equally there are endless debates about the scientific nature of creation from egnesis 1 amoungsth Christains and theologians which may at times be interesting, but are far to easy to distract from the core principles we can agree on.
Did creation begin with a big bang, 15trillion years ago, Genesis 1 give us enough detail to know either way.
There is no reason to catagorically accept of deny it.
Genesis 1 allows the specifics to be debated without the principles it’s communicating to be affected.
Unlike the rest of Genesis, this chapter reads more like a hymn of priase to the creator than a historical narrative.
For example, Once we get pas the creation narrative of chapter 1 we entre a very deliberate and clearly historically accurate narrative as each section is introduced by the words,
‘this is the account of’.
we get
Genesis 2:4 (NIV 2011)
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created,
Genesis 5:1 (NIV 2011)
This is the written account of Adam’s family line.
Genesis 6:9 (NIV 2011)
This is the account of Noah and his family.
And so on - right through Genesis.
But chapter 1 is not introduced liek this and instead sets our undrstanding of God and us straight before history beings.
We don’t have time to delve into all the arguements about views on the 6 days of creation.
TYhere are atleast 7 failry mainstream one!
My particular favourite, although I think very unlikely - is that each day was a literal 24hrs and the earth is very young - but that God put the fossil record into the bedrocks as entertainment for neive humans to keep guessing at their science.
But which view or interpretation of the 6 days of creation you take is not the point of this.
Take it at face value as 24hour days, take it as 6 periods of time (which the word day is sometimes interpreted),
Or take it as a theological picture of a creator God.
What’s important though is that we see the principles about what we’re being tought about God, creation and humanity.
So let us begin -
The Creator God
The Creator God
But v1 and 2 in my experience are generally ignored and we get straight into the days of creation.
But I think we’re missing something wonderful about God’s character.
v1 - most agree is a summary statement for what is to come. Like a title if you like.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And then what follows is a fuller explanation of that creation.
But the basis of life is set out here.
In the beginning ‘God’ created.
So the beginning of creation, or time itself perhaps, came about becasue there is a God who had no beginning.
Stuff, anything, everythgin exists only because a God already existed and chose to create.
This is actually where all scientific explanations that deny a spiritual realm fall down.
Whatever was there at the start still needed a start.
Whether a big bang of highly condensed matter or even anti-matter or not - even those things needed a source.
Where did the matter come from?
It should really take less faith to belive it ccame from an eternal god, than that it came from literally nothing.
But the bible doesn’t say God is what scinetists call the ‘God of the Gaps’.
The bible says - start with God, don’t fill in the blanks with God.
God - is the creator God.
We’re perhaps too familiar with this account, or the idea of God as creator to appreciate the implications of this.
But put yourself in the shoes of the enslaved Israelite nation, being asked by this random guy Moses to run away with him.
How will you defeat or overpower the super power Egypt?
They need to know - that their God is The only creator of all!
Even the Egyptians, and their mighty horses, even the elements of which they make their chariots and weaponry are all subservient to the Creator!
Nothing is outside his power or control.
Really take this truth to heart and we’re then not surprised when God parts the entire Red Sea for them to escape on dry land!
If you want a God who can change you,
forgive you,
control your desitny,
you need a creator god.
The only creator God.
All things must and will ultimately bow to his will,
All things are at his mercy,
and are subject to Him,
There are no other options, no other gods, no other life other than what God has given and created.
We begin to understand the wrath God’s rebellious people face in the wilderness as they travel to he promised land,
that while The creator is giving Moses the 10 commandments on the mountain,
the created people who he has shown favour to start building a gold calf to bow down and worship !
We begin to appreciate the wrath all humanity will face when we turn our backs on a creator God.
Sure you might deny he exists - but that is irrelevant if he does and He is the creator!
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
As creator, he is the only source and only control this world can know.
You don’t mess with this God,
You can’t hide,
you can’t fool,
you can’t live without his will,
Spend some time this week considering the power He has to be the source of all we know.
But what is fascinating about this description of creation is what it shows us about God’s character.
The Creator God is at His core a
The Redeeming God
The Redeeming God
By which I mean - he makes thing right and good.
Partially we know this just from the order and beauty of His creation.
Indeed His creation is at the end of each day declared ‘good’.
We also see his good creation in the beauty of description of the creation.
For example, The very order of creation gives us pairs linking days 1 to 3 and 4-6.
The commentator Wenham puts it susinctly.
The New Bible Commentary 1:1–2:3 Prologue: God Creates the World
On day one, God created ‘light’ and on day four, ‘lights’ (sun, moon and stars); on day two, he created the sky and sea and on day five, the dwellers in the sky and sea (birds and fish); on day three, he created the land and vegetation and on day six, the dwellers in the land (animals and mankind), giving them plants to eat; finally, on the seventh day (the Sabbath), he rested.
Isn’t that good, beautiful, satisfying.
God is ordered, mehtodical, careful, and it’s all good.
But it’s not only good becasue God says so, or becasue the order is beautiful - although that is entirely true and enough as he is the Creator,
It’s true becasue
He creates in such a way so as to demonstrat his goodness - his redeeming nature.
We see it when we read the very overlooked v2.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
We hear often about the Spirit of God hovering over the waters,
but have you ever thought about the earth being ‘formless, empty and dark’ And why is it covered in waters?
And how was it anything at all before day 1?
Again, we don’t get the scientific detail,
but we have enough to see that God is a redeeming God.
Creation began with God creating, and God created it seems before Day 1 a formless, empty, dark, watery something.
And it wasn’t ‘good’ in the way his nexts 6days of work are.
Perhaps v2 was still part of day 1, or perhaps it had existed for millions of years this way waiting on God’s perfect timing of his good creation.
Details don’t matter, but what is the point?
God redeems - he in his very creation will demonstrate his redeeming character.
He will make all things ‘good’.
And so he models his character in starting with something that needs redeeming.
Formlessness, emptyness, darkness, waters - all representing throughout history, that something is not right or good.
Some theologians even consider the gap between v2 and 3 as the time in which Satan fell from glory in heaven.
God in control,
God creator of all,
yes,
But God also will glorify himself through demonstrating his redeeming character.
Even in creation, before Adam fall into sin,
God prepares a model that will be echoed throughout history, and point forward to the very nature of God - humanity was not an afterthought, as if his back up plan was to send Jesus to save us.
He deisgns into the very creation model a demonstrtaion of Hos redeeming, goodness that will glorify Him alone.
So
Out of the darkness of v2, comes what?
And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
A redeeming God.
When he speaks, the darkness of v2 is gone.
And light is good.
OUt of the watery dephts of v2?
And God said, ‘Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.’ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault ‘sky’. And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. And God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry ground ‘land’, and the gathered waters he called ‘seas’. And God saw that it was good.
God speaks and the fears of the great deep waters of v2 are gone, land and sky are hear,
and it was good.
And the emptyness of v2
Then God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.’ And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.’ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
And God said, ‘Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
God speaks and the emptiness of v2 explodes in birds and sea creatures and plants and the land teaming with life.
God is a redeemer by nature.
The whole complicated scientic vs Bible debate is a huge distraction from what our world really needs.
Perhaps Day 1 was the big bang - it was a day of light before the sun and stars were created on day 4?
Perhaps it wasn’t,
It’s not the point of this passage to define science.
The poin tis to show us that
God is a
The Creator God
The Creator God
of all
And that he is
The Redeeming God
The Redeeming God
And so for us, we need not fear the darkness of life,
For By God’s Word - he redeems!
God allows chaos so he can bring order.
He allows darkness so he can bring light.
He allows, the fall of humanity coming in the next chapter,
He allows sin - not responsible for, but does allow it in his created order,
so that to His glory alone - he may redeem!
He is
A maker of Good,
A maker of light out of dark.
And so we are ready, from the first verse of the bible,
for the creator God to redeem through his Word.
No-wonder Jesus said Moses was writing about him.
It’s all pointing to a redeeming saviour who will free us from our darkness of sin and rebelion to give us light.
10 times we read in chapter 1 that ‘God Said’.
It was God’s word, spoken that brings about power to create and redeem.
And before that v2 speaks of the ‘Spirit of God’ hovering over the waters of darkness.
And so, God by His Spirit who is present in the darkest of places, prepares for the powerful spoken word of new creation.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
God in creation sets up a model upon which all of humanity will need to cling onto.
The Spirt in the darkness prepares for the effective creative Word of God that bring light.
This is the pattern for all God’s work.
He loves to Redeem.
Next time someone is talking about creation and science.
Tell them that as you look at the wonders of creation - you’re reminded that God is a redeemer!
He brought it all from darkness to light.
And through belief and repentance to the Lord Jesus he would love to redeem them too.
Pray