Sermon Tone Analysis

REMINDER OF BIBLE READING PLAN… NOW IN WEEK 2

OVER THE LAST WEEK, WILL HAVE READ OF THE CREATION, THE FALL, CAIN & ABEL, NOAH & THE FLOOD, AND BEGINNING THE STORY OF JOB

Highlight, Explain, Apply, Respond

From the reading last week.... IMPORTANT PASSAGE… IMAGO DEI… MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

DISCLAIMER - I’m going to make you think.

I’m gonna make your brain hurt a little bit this morning.

The doctrine of Humanity’s Creation in the IMAGE OF GOD… EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

In Western culture, we have seen a radical shift in the understanding of the origin of human beings.

There has been an advance of various theories of evolution.”

We frequently hear ourselves described as “COSMIC ACCIDENTS” who emerged out of the primordial soup, as it were, into our current evolutionary stage.

FISH —> PHILOSOPHER

From GOO to YOU via the ZOO

It has been said that human beings are "GROWN-UP GERMS”, sitting on one cog on one wheel of a vast cosmic machine that is simply “GEARED UP FOR ANNIHILATION”.

E - What does it mean to be made in the Image of God?

The fact that man is created in the image of God means that man is LIKE God and REPRESENTS God.

When God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...” it means that God plans to make a creature similar to himself.... SIMILAR.... NOT IDENTICAL....

In other words… REPRESENTATIVE of God… “Let us make man to be like us to represent us.”

Even though the Scriptures make clear....WIDE GAP between the nature of God and the nature of any creature, there is some way in which we are like God.

We certainly are not God;

We ARE NOT LITTLE GODS - HEAVILY PUSHED BY PROSPERITY GOSPEL PREACHERS ON TBN

we are creatures dependent upon God,

He has the power of being in Himself.

If God were completely, totally, and entirely different from us…no point of contact between the Creator and the creature;

no avenue of communication.

It is crucial to Christian understanding of God that there is some similarity between God and man...makes it possible for God to speak to us.

He speaks to us in human terms, what He says is meaningful because we share some similarities.

What are the qualities of Humanity that Reflect the Image of God?

There’s no EXACT list.

Of all the lists ...none could fully do man’s likeness to God justice.

In fact, as we read the rest of Scripture, we realize that a full understanding of man’s likeness to God would require a full understanding of who God is in his being and in his actions and a full understanding of who man is and what he does.

The more we know about God and man the more similarities we will recognize, and the more fully we will understand what Scripture means when it says that man is in the image of God.

So, what similarities DOES scripture show us?

Moral

We are creatures Morally accountable to God for our actions

We have an inner sense of Right and Wrong… Conscience

When we act according to God’s Standard…reflected in behavior that is holy and righteous

In Contrast, our unlikeness to God is reflected whenever we sin.

Spiritual

Not only physical bodies, but also immaterial Spirit…

Matt.

22:37 “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your SOUL and with all your mind.”

This means… Spiritual life that enables us to relate to God as persons… PRAY and WORSHIP

Cognitive

We have the ability to think logically… abstract reasoning… Something NO OTHER creature of God can do.

YOU’LL NEVER FIND A GROUP CHIMPANZEES SITTING AROUND DISCUSSING THE TRINITY.

BEAVERS STILL BUILD THE SAME DAMS AFTER THOUSANDS OF YEARS

BIRDS STILL BUILD THE SAME NESTS

BEES STILL BUILD THE SAME HIVES

But HUMANITY continues to develop greater skill and complexity in nearly everything we do… CURSE

Our use of complex, abstract language, sets us apart from every other creature...

Illus.

BIG RED SCREWDRIVER

Acute Awareness of future… THIS LIFE IS NOT THE END

Eccl.

3:11 “He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

Emotional

Complexity of Emotions…reflects likeness to God

Teaching Abby how to ride a bike…

I can simultaneously feel SAD that she fell down,

HAPPY that she made it a few feet,

PROUD that she wants to keep on trying,

THANKFUL that God has given me children to teach,

JOYFUL because I’ve been thinking about a worship song all afternoon,

and ANXIOUS because I gotta get inside to make dinner.

All because I’ve been created in the image and likeness of God

Physical

Is there any sense in which our human bodies are also a part of what it means to be made in the image of God?

Certainly we should not think that our physical bodies imply that God himself has a body, for “God is spirit” (John 4:24), and it is sin to think of him or to portray him in any way that would imply that he has a material or a physical body (see Ex. 20:4; Ps. 115:3–8; Rom.

1:23).

But even though our physical bodies should in no way be taken to imply that God has a physical body, are there still some ways in which our bodies reflect something of God’s own character and thereby constitute part of what it means to be created in the image of God?

Certainly this is true in some respects.

For example, our physical bodies give us the ability to see with our eyes.

This is a Godlike quality because God himself sees,

sees far more than we will ever see,

although he does not do it with physical eyes like we have.

Our ears give us the ability to hear,

and this is a Godlike ability, even though God does not have physical ears.

Our mouths give us the ability to speak,

reflecting the fact that God is a God who speaks.

Our senses of taste and touch and smell give us the ability to understand and enjoy God’s creation,

reflecting the fact that God himself understands and enjoys his creation,

though in a far greater sense than we do.

Our bodies therefore have been created by God as suitable instruments to represent in a physical way our human nature, which has been made to be like God’s own nature.

the God-given physical ability to bear and raise children who are like ourselves (see Gen. 5:3) is a reflection of God’s own ability to create human beings who are like himself.

A - What Difference Does It Make?

Dignity

The world we live in today...more value on sea turtle eggs than on the human embryo.

We give more dignity to whales than to humanity...reversal of the order of creation.

Ironically, at the same time we have seen a renewal of NAIVE, strange forms of humanism that celebrate its own warped version of the dignity of human beings.

Humanists protest worldwide on behalf of human rights.

This naive view of humanity of rests ultimately on a worldview borrowed from Christianity

It is Christianity that sees that the dignity of humanity is established by God’s act of creation.

“So God Created MAN” - HUMANITY, MANKIND - All Encompassing.

EVERY HUMAN BEING CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

“MALE AND FEMALE” - EQUAL IN DIGNITY AND COMPLIMENTARY IN ROLE

We must remember that even fallen, sinful man has the status of being in God’s image.

Every single human being, no matter how much the image of God is marred by sin, or illness, or weakness, or age, or any other disability, still has the status of being in God’s image and therefore must be treated with the dignity and respect that is due to God’s image-bearer.

This has profound implications for our conduct toward others.

It means that people of every culture deserve equal dignity and rights.

It means that elderly people, those seriously ill, those with mental disabilities, and children yet unborn, FROM THE WOMB TO THE TOMB, deserve full protection and honor as human beings.