The Need for Light Then... and Now!

Title: The Need for Light Then… and Now
Text: Genesis 1:1-5
Thesis: God said it and says it still, “Let there be light!”

The message the dark and chaotic world needs to hear and see is that God has sent light to show us the way out of darkness into light.

Introduction

Most thought it ironic that Australian Steve Irwin, who was famous for his daring exploits in handling dangerous creatures like crocodiles and snakes, would die from a freakish accident in which a stingray stung him in the heart.
Famous last words are often thought to be ironic as in the case of Union Civil War General, John Sedgwick, who while looking across a field at a row of Confederate snipers said, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.”

Famous last words may be recalled as reckless assertions but they may also be recalled as someone’s dying words. In her eulogy of Steve Jobs, his sister, Mona Simpson wrote of the hours before he slipped into unconsciousness and then she wrote, “Before embarking, he looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then his partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. His last words were: ‘OH WOW. OH WOW.’” (Steve Jobs’s last words: ‘Oh wow. Oh wow.’, Harley Tsukayama, The Washington Post with Bloomberg Business, October 3,2011)

The famous German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who authored the greatest long poem of modern German literature, Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s last words were, “Mehr Licht!”

Interestingly Goethe’s last words were God’s first words.

Transition: The first words God spoke in Scripture are famous first words…

I. The Light of Creation

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:1-5

The first word God spoke into his creation was light. We could paraphrase the bible and say, God said, “mehr licht!”

In the beginning the implications are that whatever was existed as primodorial chaos. The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface.

The first scene is what we might imagine as post apocalyptic. Everything has been reduced to chaotic ruin. Destruction is everywhere. There is not light. It is murky. Vapors are rising as from a murky swamp. There is a deathly silence about the place. It is lifeless. Barren. Dark.

Illustration: I have a good dentist and dental insurance that allows for two cleanings, x-rays and examinations. I needed a crown last year so I went in on the appointed day. The assistant asked me if I would like a movie or something to watch while the dentist worked. The monitor was mounted high and I would be wearing a headset so as to be totally distracted while the dentist did his work.
So with Office reruns on the monitor and headset in place I leaned back to watch… and then the dentist came in, pulled a stool up beside my chair, reached up and pulled a giant light down from an extended arm, directed it into my mouth and went to work. In addition to the big light he had a smaller laser-like light on his glassed. Apparently good lighting is requisite for the creating of a new crown.

I would never say that not even God can work in the dark but the first thing he created