Origins: Genesis 1.1-2.2

One great question we all ponder is how did everything begin?  Most of us question this many times in our lives.  Even Star Wars asks this question.  This question appeals to the creative nature we have.  What gives meaning to everything in life?  Is Pluto really a planet or not?  We have great questions that hang over our lives.  Why?  It tells us who we are.  How do we live as a result of knowing the answer to these questions?

                                         

Romans 1 gives us the reasons people struggle.  We worship the creature instead of the Creator.  What’s the true origin?  We have a God of grace and power that gives meaning to everything.  Genesis tells us who we are.  Genesis gives us foundation.  It tells us who we have been and who we will be. 

God gives meaning to everything.  All questions come back to this core: it is God who gives meaning.

                        ¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ²The 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.

In the beginning means “the origin.”  Heaven and earth here encompasses all we know, the universe, even beyond our telescopes.  God created all of it.  That is the foundational statement for our lives.  It’s core grounding for us.  God is the One who formed everything.  Here’s one thing I want you to wrap your mind around: Genesis is not written as a science textbook.  I have a science background.  Genesis does speak to science but the primary purpose of Genesis 1 is to give us an entire understanding that’s far beyond science.  The God of wonder and power created all we know.  The purpose is to cause us to worship, not make scientific calculations.  If scientific background is coming into your mind today I want to ask you to pause and hear what the Scripture has to say.  God created everything and there was chaos; the earth was without form.  There was a lack of order.  We are given a hint at the end of verse 2:  the Spirit of God is hovering over the surface.  The Spirit of God brings order.

God created out of nothing.  There are other places in the Bible that say this.  We use the word create for many things.  Some of you are crafty and you make some really neat things.  There’s something different here when we say we take materials from Hobby Lobby and make something new.  When God creates He does it without existing materials.  God creates out of nothing.  In verse 2 the world is in its early stages.  It has no form, a void.  This word is the same word that is used to describe a desert.  There are no trails or footprints and there’s a feeling of being lost in the desert.  This chaos has a deeper description.  God is forming and bringing order.  To be lost is to be in the midst of chaos.  You know people who have a lot of chaos in their lives.  This is not from God.  God brings order to our lives.  God brings everything together in a way that makes sense.  Those of you who live in constant chaos are not walking with God. God created everything and brings order into our lives.

God speaks life into being.  There are seven days of creation.  I want you to see the big picture of the God who brings order into chaos.  God does this by speaking things into creation.  God speaks and things come into being.  Molecules respond to His voice and bring order into all we know.  This is the voice of God and the power of God.

            ³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 

 Let’s be honest here this morning.  How many of you have ever screwed in a light bulb or plugged in a lamp and said, “Let there be light!”  We feel proud of ourselves and our accomplishment, like we did something.  Think about what God did.  He speaks and it’s formed!  It’s the starting point of organizing everything that is.

 
                        ¹¹And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit…” And it was so. 

In the same way God speaks all the plants into existence.  Everything responds to the voice of God.  This is difficult for us to understand.  Even today the earth responds to the voice of God.  When we look at all the plants there’s so much we do not understand.  For example my dad and I were talking about meatless burgers.  We just don’t understand how they can taste like meat!  All are created by God’s power and light is formed and the plants grow.

                        ²⁴And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock…” And it was so. 

Here we have the formation of the animal kingdom.  They exist because God spoke them into existence in a way that we could live on this hospitable planet.  We can try to understand how it all works and in many parts of our society some say there is no God.  We can understand our planet because God designed it with order and precision.  We can study it day and night.  You knew our service this morning started at 8:30am so you planned accordingly.  Time was created for us.  God is doing something remarkable in you and I.  God created the planet, time and all there is so that you and I could live here.  God is bringing all this order to the world.

                        ²⁶Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God also speaks and human life is formed.  God is much more personal in the formation of mankind.  Humans are made in God’s image.  We bear the image of God.  We are unique in all of creation.  We are like God in many ways.  There are things that God does that He passed on to us.  God is love, so God has given us the capacity to love.  We do not love to the same degree that God does but we love.  We have knowledge because God knows everything.  Some of us think we are close to knowing everything, but we’re not there.  We have the ability to take in information, like God.  Some of you have trained your pets, but our pets cannot know things like we do.

God gives sufficiency to us.  Parents work hard to help their children be self-sufficient.  They want their children to be able to pick out their clothes, make themselves breakfast, and eventually get a job one day.  We share this trait with God but none of us is completely self-sufficient.  God does all of this, He created all that is needed.  We can live life.  There’s nothing boring about the wonder of God’s creation.  God amazes us and all of this is creating order from chaos.  For many of you none of this is new.  If God can do that, if God knows whether or not Pluto is a planet, what’s that mean for your life?  Does your life feel chaotic today?  God has given you a tremendous amount of gifts and abilities! 

                        ³¹And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

As God created he said that everything was good.  This includes you and I.  You are good even if you haven’t given your life to God.  You have the image of God in you.

God gives rest.

                        ²And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 

On the seventh day God gave another gift: rest.  Rest is good.  Most of us know this but we do not act like it and we don’t live like it.  If God, who is able to do all things worked and then rested what does this mean for us?  Why did God rest?  Was He tired?  God is setting a pattern for you and me.  Rest was created for us.  Work first, then rest.  You need rest.  God created the world with cycles and seasons.  Your body, mind and heart need rest.  We need to stop and reflect on the wonder and majesty of who God is.  Rest doesn’t necessarily mean inactivity.  I’m rested after just an hour at the beach.  It’s boring.  Resting is ceasing our normal activity.  This might mean planting a garden for some.  We are always to get ahead but on the seventh day when we cease from normal activity our rest says we trust in God.  When we keep working and do not rest we are saying we do not trust God.  I’m going to do that I can and do it well, but faith means trusting God with our rest. 

In Matthew 11 Jesus sees the people are tired and worn out.  He says, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  Maybe your body needs rest today?  God created this world for us.  God doesn’t need us to sustain this world.  We can find peace in God.   Do you know Him today?  Have you found peace? 

Sermon Notes are taken, transcribed and posted by Jeni Martin Johnson.