God's Word

Creation and Fall  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  21:33
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Exploring the first recorded words of God. What can it mean for us?

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Intro

We’re journeying through the Creation narrative in Genesis, and some people have wondered if there is a way for them to get copies of the sermon, or to re-hear the sermon, and I’m happy to say that as long as our technology holds up, the answer to that is yes.
One you can be part of our Faithlife group - it’s an open group, so anyone can join.
We will be working at getting them posted to our Facebook page as well. So if you’d like to invite your friends, or share our messages with your friends, we encourage you to do that.
So, let’s dive in

Prayer

Prayer
This is where we’ve been:
Genesis 1:1–2 ESV
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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.
Genesis 1:1–3 ESV
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 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. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Gerhard Von Rad wrote of Genesis chapter 1:
Whoever expounds Genesis chapter 1, must understand one thing: this chapter is Priestly doctrine — indeed, it contains the essence of Priestly knowledge in a most concentrated form. It was not “written” once upon a time; but, rather, it is doctrine that has been carefully enriched over centuries by very slow growth. Nothin is here by chance; everything must be considered carefully, deliberately, and precisely.
And we’ve been doing exactly that very slowly plodding through the first two verses of the Creation narrative in the past two weeks.
Our focus this morning is going to be on what happens next. It is worth noting that at this time we’re not really sure what we have, we have an “earth” according to our passage but it’s without form and empty. Does that mean it’s not a globe? We don’t know.
My view would be that the creation is here, but it is still empty - there is no life there - it remains void in the darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
What we are immediately understanding is:

God is separate from the Creation

God is never the creation but always the Creator.

The spirit of God was hovering over the waters. In my mind’s eye I see a sort of Tolkien expanse of dark, deep, oily waters - that darkness would be overcome…but I’m getting ahead of our reading. Let’s read together:
Genesis 1:3–5 ESV
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God 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.
It is impossible for us to imagine a world absolutely devoid of light. According to the biblical account there was no light before God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

What we must understand, therefore, is that the word does not have ‘effects’; instead, God’s word is already the work.[9] What in us breaks hopelessly asunder—the word of command and what takes place—is for God indissolubly one

Genesis 1:3 ESV
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Genesis 1:3
Genesis 1:3 ESV
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

What we must understand, therefore, is that the word does not have ‘effects’; instead, God’s word is already the work.[9] What in us breaks hopelessly asunder—the word of command and what takes place—is for God indissolubly one.

What we must understand, therefore, is that the word does not have ‘effects’; instead, God’s word is already the work.

“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.”
The water that covered the earth is pictured almost as a calm picturesque lake at dawn,
but there is no dawn, for there is no light
no rising sun,
no day,
no tides,
no moon or waves,
THEN GOD SPEAKS!!!
The creator, speaks!
Think about this for a moment - our God is not silent.
God speaks and His Word creates. God’s word is not a symbol, or a meaning, or an idea. In God the thought, the name and the work are in their created reality one.
Sounds trinitarian, doesn’t it? Let’s take a look at the New Testament and the Gospel of John:
John 1:1–5 ESV
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1–3 ESV
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:1-
John 1:1-
The Word - was with God, and the Word was God. HE was in the beginning with God.
All this is referring to Jesus
If we continue reading this passage through verse 5.
John 1:4–5 ESV
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Word - Jesus - in the beginning and God Spoke - God’s Word and God are one.
So as we’re reading the creation account, we get to this point where God speaks, and the world that is without form and void, and darkness was over it begins to really take shape. Things begin to become defined.

The deep that was made subject worshiped God in a subject, torpid state that was unfree, a state in which nothing stood over against anything else. In the light, however, form becomes aware of existing over against something else and so becomes aware of its own existence; and it gives all thanks for this to the Creator

Genesis 1:3–5 ESV
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God 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.
It is in the creation of the light that God is able to separate the light from the darkness. It is in the creation of light that the darkness can now define itself and indeed that light can define itself.
In that moment when light enters the picture, Creation itself now becomes dynamic - the light and the darkness oppose one another. They are so different God gives them separate names to define them, Day, and Night.
Think about it - how do we define darkness but as the absence of light. It is when the two are contrasted that we identify them. And then we get to this sort of weird statement in vs. 5
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
In that moment when light enters the picture, Creation itself now becomes dynamic - the light and the darkness oppose one another. They are so different God gives them separate names to define them, Day, and Night.
For centuries people have asked, “Does the Bible depict a strict 6 day, Six 24-hour day, creation?” Here we are shown that the Bible does not ask us to believe that. At this point in the Creation narrative we do not have a sun, nor a moon, nor stars, there is no season, there are no tides, there is nothing to mark hours, days, weeks months, or years.
There are many very scholarly people who have concluded that the earth is a mere 6400 years old. They do this by tracing back the generations in the Bible.
We must always remember the Bible’s purpose - it is not to point us to humankind, but to point us to God. Though there are great life lessons to be learned in the Bible, the absolute key to it all is it is God’s Word to us to lead us in our relationship with our Creator.
So, we have Day, and Night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day - but there literally is no chronology yet, as there is nothing to mark the days, the seasons, nor the years. They haven’t been created yet.
However, I want to be clear that at this point there is also nothing that says that the first day wasn’t a 24 hour period as we know it. The point of the passage is not so much to tell us the history of the earth as it is to point to the one that created it all. We will talk about that more later in this series.
In regards to light and darkness, again we read in John:
In regards to light and darkness, again we read in John:
John 8:12 ESV
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The first day, the first thing God does when God speaks is to send light into the world - and what does it do? It defines everything. It defines the darkness, it defines the creation, it defines the day and night.
I submit to you that Jesus, as the light of the world does the very same thing. “Whoever follows Jesus will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Where are you walking in darkness? Where do you need the light of Jesus to shine into your life?
Let’s pray and ask God to shine that light in our lives.
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