Creation to Resurrection - CREATION

Creation to Resurrection
The Story of God
CREATION

Creation to Resurrection… The Story of God.

We will spend 10 weeks traveling through the Bible in a way that I personally have never done so before.

It will be a challenging series. It will be an educational series. For some of us it might even be the first time we are able to connect the theological dots from A-Z, from Adam – Jesus, from Creation to Resurrection.

Today we will begin the story, literally, at chapter 1, and like all good stories it starts off with a simple…

In the Beginning.

The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was [fn1] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 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. 12 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. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 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.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [fn2] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

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

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested [fn1] from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Adam and Eve
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens— 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth [fn2] and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth [fn3] and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams [fn4] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground— 7 the Lord God formed the man [fn5] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin [fn6] and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. [fn7] 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for Adam [fn8] no suitable helper was found. 21 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 [fn9] and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib [fn10] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman, [fn11] ’
for she was taken out of man.”

24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame


Now what we have just read is extremely important. It is the Foundational Chapter for the entire story of God.

Creation

The very notion is under attack in our world today in a way that I don’t believe this earth has ever seen.

Even in our land of freedom of thought and speech the very idea of this world being brought about through some sort of intelligent design by some sort of all powerful being is under attack in an alarming way.

But it is essential to the story of God.

God created.

There was no big bang.

There is no evolution of man through the mobilization of single cell bacteria.

This earth did not come about by random chance.

We are not a mistake.

We were created.

The Origin of Species is spelled out for us as plain as day by the very words of the one who created us.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

He created light.

He separated light from darkness.

God separated the sky from the earth.

God brought dry land out from under the seas.

God put plants on the land.

He put the stars in the sky and positioned the sun and moon exactly where the needed to be.

He put birds in the air and fish in the Sea.

God made the animals that roam the land…

And then God Made Man.

But that’s not all. God did more than that. God didn’t make man like the rest of creation. God did something different with us.

God created men and women in His Own Image.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [fn2] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

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

God didn’t do this with anything else He created.

Eagles, though majestic, are not image bearers.

We are. Every single man and woman who has ever walked this earth have been created in the image of God.

Is that amazing or what?

That’s why we all have some sort of “creation” mentality.

Artists, designers, singers, writers, builders, composers, woodworkers, landscapers, even engineers… are miniature little creators.

We are like that by design.

We are like that because we bear the image of the one who created everything.

And so now in this story we have our 2 main elements.

God & Man.

God … Creator

Man … Image Bearer of God.

Then, God did even more. Again, He did something different with mankind. Something He didn’t do with any other part of creation.

God established fellowship with us.

28 God blessed them (Man and Woman) and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God blessed them and said to them…

God did that.

God made a special Garden that He then put man into and handcrafted a woman who was to be a perfectly selected helper for him.

In Genesis 3 we are told that God walked in the Garden in the cool of the day.

God made man and woman in His own image and the God established fellowship with us.

Notice the story does not say that when God was finished man went and found God and asked Him what he should do.

The verbs are all on God.

God did the blessing.

God did the teaching.

God did the Establishing.

And so we have God and man. Creator and image bearer. In fellowship with one another.

Walking together. Talking together. A man and his wife. And God.

But that’s not all. There is one more detail I think is vitally important to look at in this opening chapter.

Not only did God create us in His own image.

And not only did God establish a fellowship with us.

But;

God intended for us to live with Him… Forever.

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Death was not a part of the original relationship between God and His image bearers.

Life was the intention.

Everlasting Life in fellowship with the One whose Image we bear.

That was the design.

The fellowship between us and God was designed to be an Unbroken Fellowship.

There would be no death.

There would be no end to the fellowship.

It would just simply be. For ever and ever.

So what happened? How come humans die?

Why is there suffering and death? How come it feels like sometimes man and God don’t even know each other at all anymore?

Well that’s next weeks chapter.

But this week we stop at creation.

And in light of what we have seen this week I want to take just a few moments and let us get to know God just a little better.

I would propose that through this story we get to know 3 Attributes of God.

First,

God is All Powerful

Nothing can be more powerful than its Creator.

There is no man or woman on this earth that ever has been or ever will be more powerful than God.

It just simply won’t happen.

There is no creature alive, big or small, that can take over the throne of Heaven.

Some of us don’t give Him enough credit. We think He sits in some cosmic corner wishing He had some sort of say in what was going on but that is just not the case.

He is a Powerful God.

In the story of Job we read on and on about how Job’s wife and his friends, and even Job himself have the audacity to question the power of God and when God finally replies in chapter 38 the questions He lays before Job are an overwhelming display of His power.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?”

“Who marked off its dimensions?”

“Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shone the dawn its place?”

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail?”

“Did you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?”

God did these things… and more… He is a Powerful God.

Secondly,

God is Relational

God didn’t just create the world and walk away.

God got involved with us.

He came to Adam and Eve, and he established fellowship with them because He is a relational God.

He desires fellowship with us.

Many of us have been told a lie and that lie is that God wants nothing to do with us. But a lie is exactly what that is.

God wants everything to do with us. It is why He created us.

The All Powerful God, Creator of heaven and earth, is a Relational God.

He seeks fellowship with us.

And finally,

God is Good.

Some of us have come here today with this notion of God that He sits in Heaven with a quiver full of lightning bolts just waiting to smite us for any and every reason.

We have this warped image of God that makes us so afraid of the terrible things He might do to us.

But that’s not the God we see in this story.

He created us in his image, established fellowship with us, and intended nothing but Good things for us.

Psalm 34 says,

8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

God is Good.

So there we have it.

Chapter 1.

An All Powerful, Relational, Good God… creates man in His own image, establishes a relationship with him, and intends for it to last forever.

Is that how we picture God?

Is that how we know Him?

Do we see Him as all powerful? Able to lead us as well as He is able to lead the universe?

Do we see God as relational? Do we open ourselves up to fellowship with Him?

And do we see God as Good. Do we willing place our trust in Him knowing that He wants what is best for us and always has?

Final Thot: How does the Story of Creation shape the way in which we see God?

Like I said earlier it is an essential piece of the Story of God.

And so is the way we see God through this piece of the Story. If we start of with the wrong view of God it affects the rest of the story.

So see Him now.

All Powerful, Relational, and Good.

SLEEP

The word alone seems foreign now that we have a newborn in the house. She sleeps. And she is beautiful when she does. But Cassie and I, we don’t sleep, at least not like we used to.

Before, there was nothing outside of us to take away sleep. Now, there is this child. And she requires a lot. Feedings, diapers, blowouts, changing clothes, cleaning, cuddling, and even a little admiring here and there, (for she really is cute) all leave little time left for sleep.

He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
(Psalms 121:3-4 ESV)

Aren’t you glad our Father in Heaven never sleeps? He never tires of caring for His people. Every hunger is satisfied, every need is met, every mess we make cleaned up, and when everything seems to be going against us, His loving arms are there to cuddle us.

What a Father! He is truly someone who can be called on at any time of the night, any time of the day, and it can just be a simple plea of “Help,” and He will be there.

Honor your Heavenly Father today, call on Him. Don’t call on your television, or your job, or even your own means to help you today. Call on God, he is awake, and waiting for you to lift your eyes toward Him.

OUR LIVING SAVIOUR

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
(Hebrews 7:23-25 ESV)

(Again Charles Spurgeon proves an inspiration to me. This time through his book “Discovering the Power of Christ’s Prayer Life.”)

How great it is to think that our Great High Priest will never be “prevented by death from continuing in office.” Have you considered what this means for you Christian?

So much time is spent on the fact that Jesus died for us that little time is left to dwell on the fact that He also Lives for us still to this day. I do not mean to underscore the importance of that “Great Exchange” that took place on the cross, or to even underscore the immeasurable power that was displayed by the Son in his resurrection. I do, however, wish to draw your attention to the awe inspiring fact that your saviour Lives for you today!

Have you stopped to realize what it means that Jesus Christ, who even the demons know is the Son of the Most High God (Matthew 8:29), spends eternity “living to make intercession for [you]” (Hebrews 7:25b), if you will only draw near to God.

Are you drawing near to God? Which way is your life going? It can only go one of two ways. Towards God, or away from Him? Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”

Which master have you chosen? Maybe you have convinced yourself at some point that you chose Jesus, but who did you choose today? The master of money? Again from Matthew 6:24, “You cannot serve God and money.”

How about the master of sleep? Or the master of beauty? Or self gain?

I think you get the point? Did you choose Jesus today? Will you choose Jesus tomorrow?

What about the fact that He “lives to make intercession for you?” He is literally spending His days at the throne of God, interceding with God Almighty…on your behalf? What are you spending your days doing for Him? How are you showing Jesus your gratitude? How are you showing Jesus that you are thankful? Thankful not only for the fact that He laid aside His deity to come to earth for you, lived a perfect life for you, Died for you, and now and for all eternity IS LIVING for you?
Thank Him today. Do not let another day go by that you don’t get on your knees, Read His Word, Thank Him for all He has done and continues to do for you, and then Pick Up Your Cross… and Follow Him.