Our Great and Powerful God

James H. Cosentino II

The Gospel in Genesis • Sermon • Submitted a month ago • Presented a month ago

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Introduction

Read Genesis 1:1-2

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Background

Moses is the human author

Written to the Israelites coming out of Egypt

Writing to help reorient them to Who God is

The main focus of this account is

Not about the scientific explanation of how it happened or how long ago

Not that it doesn’t have anything to say about how God created

When is even more vague than the how

Not creation itself

It is not primarily about creation

We often read the Bible with a creation-centric or self-centric view

But we cannot know what it says about ourselves until we understand what it says about God

Who God Is

Moses, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wants to help the Israelites know who God is so they might love Him and draw near to Him.

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 (ESV)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

I think we get loving God with our emotions and even with our bodies. But what about our minds? Do we love God with our minds by seeking to know Him more than we do?

Knowledge is not enough to save, but salvation is going to lead to a desire to know God as He truly is. If God is real, and He is, then we must know Him as He is, not as we want Him to be.

And this is where Moses is starting off with Israel. He wants them to know God as He truly is because it is in knowing God as He truly isthat we are changed from the inside out.

A.W. Tozer - “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

― A.W. Tozer

This is because what we know about God changes the way we live and worship. If we do not know God as He truly is, we cannot worship God rightly. And if we cannot truly worship God rightly, then we cannot have a true relationship with Him and live in obedience to Him.

God is One

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

There are no other gods

We have to remember, where are the Israelites coming from and where are they going?

They came out of a very pagan land with multiple gods who have just been overthrown by Yahweh. These multiple gods have been proven false.

The Israelites are now going into a land with multiple gods and they will be tempted to follow in the worship of these fake gods.

So what is the first two commandments that God gives to His people?

Exodus 20:3–6 (ESV)

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Why does God command that there should be no other gods before Him and that they should not bow down to other idols? Yes He is jealous for the worship and faithfulness of His people.

But it is because there are no other gods but Him. He is the One and only God and He alone is worthy of our worship.

We might be tempted to think, of course we know this. We are not like those ancient primitive peoples who worshiped those false gods.

But do not be so sure that we are not so much alike those of the past.

We may not give names to our gods like the Egyptians or the Canaanites did, but that does not mean we do not have our plurality of gods like they did.

We are constantly tempted to worship the gods of money, power, success, education, sex, entertainment, Hollywood, sports, self-reliance, food, religion, and the list could go on.

We are not only tempted, but we often give our worship to these false gods who only exist because they are by-products of good gifts of the One True Creator who gave them to us.

But there is only One God who deserves our worship and devotion and we must constantly fight against the temptation and desire to worship any other god.

God is One and yet Three Persons

While God is One, it is important to note that even here in this first chapter of Genesis we see hints of the Trinity.

We have One God who exists in Three Persons and even by verse two we see that after God creates the Heavens and the Earth, the Spirit of God hovers over the face of the earth.

We are going to see more hints of this Trinity as we go further into Genesis and as we interpret what we see by what we are given in the New Testament.

Such as John 1:1-3

John 1:1–3 (ESV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

As we go back to read this very first verse in the Bible, we see that while God is one, He is not alone. The Word was there in the beginning with God, He was with God and He is God and all things were made through Him.

This Word is the Son of God. As we get into next week, we are going to see that God creates by speaking creation into existence. “Let there be light,” “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters,” “Let the earth sprout vegetation.”

So John is helping us to see that we have God the Father who initiates creation, God the Son who accomplishes creation, and God the Holy Spirit who applies or secures the creation. Three persons, each unique in their roles, but unified in their substance, essence and will.

This is a heady and difficult doctrine, but one that is essential to our faith. If we do not get this doctrine of the Trinity the rest of our doctrine begins to fall apart.

God is Transcendent

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

As we continue to look at this verse, we see something else about God. He was there at the beginning, which means He was there before the beginning of time.

The other pagan myths have the gods come into the middle of the story. There is typically an origin story for the pagan gods where they come into being from the creation itself. They were not at the beginning of creation, their beginning came from creation.

God, however, was there before the beginning of time itself.

God is the Unmoved Mover, the Uncreated Creator.

Because of this, God is transcendent, meaning that He is “existing apart from and not subject to the limitations of the material universe.”

God is Eternal

First, what we see from this is that God is eternal.

This is hard for our minds to wrap itself around because we are temporal creatures, meaning we are confined to the space and time God has created us in.

However, God always is. He has no beginning and has no end. He was there before the foundation of the earth, and He will be there long after everything passes away.

While this might be hard to comprehend, this should be a comfort to us as we have a God who will never change and who will never leave.

He is able to see the end from the beginning. When He calls us to follow Him, we can trust Him because He knows what tomorrow brings. And even when our circumstances changes, God will still be the same tomorrow that He was today, and that He was yesterday.

This was a great comfort for Joshua as God chose him to lead the Israelites after the death of Moses.

The death of this great leader could have caused fear and uncertainty for both Joshua and the Israelites.

But because of the eternal nature of God, He was able to say to Joshua,

Joshua 1:5 (ESV)

Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.

Just as I was… so I will be, I will never leave you or forsake you.

And then God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous.

In the same way, Jesus tells His disciples, and He tells us, He will always be with us. The only way this can be is because God is eternal and unaffected by time.

Because of God’s eternal transcendence and being unaffected by time, He is worthy of our trust, because we know that He already knows how the story is going to end.

We have no hope apart from the eternal nature of our God.

God is Self-Sufficient

But not only is God transcendent above time, He is also transcendent above space, over creation.

He is completely independent of what He has created. He existed for eternity past without creation.

While you and I are dependent upon food, shelter, nourishment, and even relationships, God has no such need.

Sometimes we might think that God created us because He was lonely. But if that were the case, He would be in need of us and dependent upon us. This would not be good news for us as we would have to bear the burden of meeting God’s needs.

No, God existed long before He brought creation into being because He was already perfectly satisfied in Himself, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The three in one relationship meant God was never lonely and that He needed nothing.

So He does not need us. The Gospel of Genesis is that God chose to create us, not because He needed us, but because He wanted to give Himself to us and to invite us into the joy of knowing Him. We serve God, not by giving Him anything, but by living in the joy He created us to have in Him and in Him alone!

God is Creator of Everything

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

So what did God create?

The heavens and the earth. When you see the word “heavens” in the plural, it is not talking about the spiritual place where God and His ministering spirits, the angels reside.

The heavens are the skies, outer-space, everything within the universe such as stars, planets, and galaxies. So God created the heavens and the earth.

God Owns Everything

This means He created everything in existence.

Again, as John mentions,

John 1:3 (ESV)

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Everything. Period. Everything we see and everything we cannot see. He created the stars and the galaxies that we have discovered as well as those human eyes will never behold.

He created every smallest particle we cannot behold even with the most powerful microscope.

And because He created it all, as Creator, He owns every bit of it.

You and I are living as guests in His house He has built.

You and I, with all of our possessions, homes, cars, clothes, phones, tvs, trinkets, everything, it is all on loan to us, but ultimately it all belongs to God.

So we are called to hold these things loosely knowing they belong to God.

We also acknowledge the Gospel in that there is nothing we can give to God that He doesn’t already own.

If you think you can buy your way into a right relationship with Him, think again.

Anything you give to Him is like a child asking for money from a parent to buy her mother a present. While the sentiment is there, the child hasn’t actually given the parent anything as it was the parent’s money to begin with.

God is Sovereign Over Everything

Because God owns everything, He rules over everything.

We are called to properly steward what God has given to us.

Our lives

First, we need to understand that because God created us, our very lives are not our own. They belong to God.

If I could honestly say that I exist because I brought myself into existence, then I could say, I’m going to follow my heart and do what makes me happy.

But I cannot say that because God created me and as such, my very life belongs to Him.

This is what makes our sin and rebellion so terrible. I have taken what belongs to God alone and have tried to make it mine.

But not only did He create me, He saved me and bought me. He went a step further to redeem me, even after I rebelled against Him and worshiped other gods rather than Him.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (ESV)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Therefore, my trust and obedience belongs to Him alone.

Our possessions

Knowing that all we have really belongs to God, should change how we use what God has given to us.

Our money is not our own, no matter how hard we have worked for it, because even our ability to work has been given to us by God.

So everything we have is to be used for the glory and honor of God. This does not mean that God does not let us use His good gifts for our pleasure and enjoyment. But we are called to use what He has given to us in ways that will further His Kingdom and Will on earth.

This is why our tithes and offerings are so important. We give back to God, not because He needs it, but because we are submitting ourselves to the fact that we belong to Him.

And when we hold back for ourselves what belongs to Him, we are essentially seeking to steal from Him.

Malachi 3:8–10 (ESV)

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Our tithes and offerings are our way to worship and recognize that God owns all I have. By holding back I refuse to trust God to provide for my needs and I am trying to be my own god in taking care of myself.

God is the Powerful Creator

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Finally, what we see about God is how He created. What I mean here is not necessarily the exact process and what that looked like, although next week we are going to see that He spoke creation into being.

But what we mean here is that this “creating” is more than what we typically mean when we say someone is creative.

God Is Powerful Enough to Create

When we think of someone creating something, we are talking about someone who takes raw ingredients to make something new.

It might be the way a chef creates a new dish, an artist creates a beautiful painting, or a musician creates a song. We create by taking things that are already there and fashioning those things into something new and beautiful. And God has graciously given us this ability.

But when we talk about God being Creator, we are not talking about Him in the same way.

God Created by making all things out of nothing! He is able to call things out of the emptiness and to make something come into being.

We call this, creation ex nihilo, creation out of nothing.

This might seem quite incredible and difficult to believe.

But if we believe that creation has a beginning, then at some point, everything in this universe would have had to come from nothing.

And either it would have come from nothing on its own, or there is a God who, by His power, called it into being.

And I think it takes far less faith to believe in an all-powerful God to call things into existence than to believe that by chance things will just come into being on their own.

And it is important that the Bible begins here. Because if this God we are being led to believe in has the power to create everything out of nothing, if He is the One who sets creation into place and establishes all the laws of nature we have observed and discovered, then every other miracle in the Bible becomes easy to believe, including the greatest miracle that we celebrated last week, which is the miracle of the resurrection.

If God is able to create life from nothing, then how difficult is it for Him to raise the Son of God, who committed no sin, back to life? How difficult can it be for God to accomplish any other miracle we might see or read about in the Bible.

This verse gives us the foundation we need to understand about the God we are going to get to see and learn about through the rest of Scripture!

God is Powerful Enough to Save

Of course, there is one miracle that is greater than the power of creation. But because of creation, we can believe that God has this power too, the power to save.

As we will see in a few weeks, all humanity, including you and I, have rebelled against God, bringing darkness and death into God’s good creation.

But what we are seeing here in creation gives us hope that God is powerful enough, not just to create, but to make a new creation out of the old.

Because of what Christ has done for us, through His death on the cross, and through His resurrection, God has made us new.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

As God called light out of darkness…

2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Here’s the thing, if we reduce creation to a purely naturalistic process where we write God out of the equation, we have no hope that there is One who is powerful enough to save and redeem us.

But we do have one who is powerful enough to not just create, but also to save and our hope is in this All-powerful Creator!

Conclusion

The story of this Creator is the story of our all-powerful Savior! It is the story of the only One whom we owe our allegiance to, who alone deserves our worship, who alone owns and rules over everything, and who alone has the power to save us.

We are called to remember and continue to grow in the knowledge and the love for this God who transcends our created universe knowing that He alone is trustworthy and is able to care for and provide for all of our needs, physical, spiritual, and emotional.

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