September 10
Created for Community
Genesis 1-3
God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness
The fundamentals of community:
1. God exists in community
The triune God exists in community
We are created in God’s image and God exists in community
2. Humans were uniquely created to exist in community with God
3. Human choices have broken the community with God
4. God has acted to restore the broken relationship.
Grace: unmerited favor
God required that animals continue to be slain as an offering to remind them that sin kills and the covering costs.
1 Peter 3:18
Community is God’s desire for you…community with Him!
Of all the questions people ask me to answer for them, the easiest, and the most important one is this one: Why am I here?” What is my purpose? What is the purpose of my life? Turn with me to Genesis 1. I tell my DBU students all the time: every major life question is answered in the 1st 3 chapters of the Bible. So-- What are the 1st 4 words of the Bible? In the beginning, God.
In the beginning, God. That pretty much sums up every aspect of existence. Before anything, anything existed, God did. Before the galaxies and stars and planets, God was. Before the mountains and oceans and rivers existed, God was. Before prehistoric animals roamed the earth, God was. Before human beings lived and procreated, God was.
It goes without saying that the nature and essence of God is beyond our complete understanding. He is transcendent. But the Bible does give us insight to some of the nature and essence of God. We see in Genesis 1 that He is eternal: In the beginning, God. Whenever the beginning was, He was. We also see in Genesis 1 that He is incredibly creative. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We also see that God is infinitely powerful, right? He created the heavens and the earth; that’s a merism. A merism is a figure of speech that expresses totality: I searched high and low for my flip flops; I looked far and wide for a Groupon to Taylor Swifts new concert. When the Bible says God created the heavens and the earth, it is declaring unequivocally that God created EVERYTHING!
As you read Genesis 1, you can see that it’s building up to a crescendo: Let there be light! The Hebrew just says “Light!” So God says, “Light!” and there was light. God says “Sky!”, and there was sky. Light! Sky! Oceans! Land! Vegetation! Sun! Moon! Sea Creatures! Earth Creatures!
All of this was a set up for His most important—AND His most revealing creation. This next creation was going to be different than any of His other creations. It would be made with something totally unique; something infused into it that revealed the very essence of what He was like.
On the last day of creation, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. (Build) Leave that up there. What do you notice? The personal pronouns. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.
Created in His image and His likeness. How so? How do we bear the image and likeness of the eternal God? Well 1st of all, we’re not eternal. Each of us had a beginning. Now once created, we will exist for eternity. Every human being will exist for eternity in the presence of God, or eternity without God; one existence is heavenly, the other is hellish.
Each of the attributes of God is in each of us, though in Adam and Eve, they were limited; and since the Fall in Genesis 3, these attributes have been warped and disfigured, right? His perfect and infinite attributes of love, justice, wisdom, truth, and even holiness are finitely resident in every human being; every human being bearing the fingerprints of God; even if that image has been marred by sin.
But there is one seminal attribute that makes us MOST like God: and that is community. Community is a broad term. Your neighborhood is a community. Arlington is a community. There are various communities from the scientific community to the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ community. The root word for community is common: so community: a reality caused by common values, activities, location, interests, goals, or other attributes
But this morning, I want us to look at the basic fundamentals of community:
1. God exists in community
Notice again in Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.”
These personal pronouns are unavoidable. Let US create humans in Our image and in Our likeness. Conclusion: The triune God exists in community. Don’t miss that: The triune God exists in community Father, Son, Holy Spirit exist in perfect community. The godhead would not be complete if all 3 did not exist simultaneously, infinitely, and perfectly in community.
No doubt, completely grasping and understanding the Trinity is impossible this side of heaven. Remember at the beginning we said that God is transcendent. That doesn’t mean we are left clueless. In Genesis 1 we see that the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters. Later in Genesis a pre-incarnate, pre-human appearance of Jesus occurs when He shows up at Abraham’s tent. We see the triune God all through Scripture.
“The Triune God is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God.” Matt Perman
I know we’re just scratching the surface of the nature and essence of God, but this is what I want you to get: We are created in God’s image and God exists in community.
2. Humans were uniquely created to exist in community with God
This is why God created you and me in His likeness. He didn’t create the stars and galaxies to be in community with Him. He didn’t create the oceans or the fish to be in community with Him. That would be Pantheism. God’s image is not in fish or dogs and certainly not cats. His image is in us, only us, only humans, so that we could have community with Him.
The one purpose you were created for was not to earn a living or procreate or consume or relax or watch Game of Thrones. The one purpose for which you and I were created was to be in community with God; to know Him, to love Him, and enjoy Him.
3. Human choices have broken the community with God
It’s been tragic to watch the events these past few weeks of people along the Texas coast. (a particularly heart-rending pic) The images are heart breaking.
The tragedy of pain and suffering is occurring in every nation on earth. In Syria, whole cities have been decimated and the government has systematically targeted with serum gas (pic of man carrying dead baby) causing a death too gruesome for me to describe here.
All of the pain and suffering is traced back to the greatest tragedy in all of history: when the first man and first woman decided they knew best and by doing that chose to play God and disobey God. And the result was that all of creation fell.
“Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Genesis 3:6-10
A few moments after this exchange, God decrees that all of creation now is subject to futility; that creation now is broken and corrupted—humans most of all. In just a few pages, Cain murders his brother Abel. Then Floods. Wars. Famine. Drought. And do it goes.
But let’s go back to the passage we just read. What did Adam and Eve do after they sinned and when God approached them? They hid. And we have been hiding from God ever since. There’s been a separation between God and His greatest creation ever since. This is why we experience loneliness. This is why we experience emptiness, superficiality, a longing to be known, to love and be loved. We sense a deep and abiding separation from God.
At the very core of who we are, there is a vacuum. Created in His image so that we can be in community with Him, we can’t experience the very purpose for which we were created. But that’s not the end of the story, right? There’s good news:
4. God has acted to restore the broken relationship.
This was a separation that couldn’t be repaired by human endeavor or ingenuity. God acted unilaterally to restore the relationship. That’s what grace is. Grace: unmerited favor. You see the 1st glimpse of this just a few moments after the great tragedy.
“The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.” Genesis 3:21
God created a covering. But the covering cost. What did it cost? The life of a the animal that God used to make the covering. The animal was slain to provide the covering.
So God required that animals continue to be slain as an offering to remind them that sin kills and the covering costs.
Eventually there was an ultimate sacrifice, God’s own Son. He becomes the covering for all who believe. “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18 That He might what? Bring you, restore you to community with God. That’s good news. That’s gospel.
You and I were created to exist in community with God. But every human being was born separated from God. And nothing is really right in a life until that community is restored. Community is God’s desire for you…community with Him!
You are better together—with God!
Invitation 123 hands
