God’s Greatest Dream
Today is the first Sunday of a new year, 2005 - and it is only the second day of the year. We have a new, fresh year ahead of us, and what we make of it will determine the character and qualities we possess at the end of the year. Many people fill their days at the turn of the year with resolutions - they resolve, they determine that things are going to change in their lives in the following year. They want the new year to be better; they want to turn over a new leaf, to make a new start. But at the end of the year, they come back to realize that what they had such great hopes and aspirations of accomplishing never came to fruition. Instead, they are left frustrated, discouraged, and depressed. Often they failed, not because of lacking good intentions, but they needed help with the follow-through. They needed someone to come alongside them and encourage them.
This year, you could make a lot of good intentions: to spend wisely, eat right, exercise more - but spiritually what goals will you make? This year as a congregation we are going to commit to learning more about the Old Testament. For some of you it is familiar reading, but for most of us, besides the Book of Genesis and the Book of Psalms and Proverbs, we are not greatly familiar with these 39 books.
Why study the Old Testament? After all, these are books that put many of us to sleep as we try to read them. What value is there in studying them? After all, it seems the New Testament is much more relevant.
*First, the Old Testament is inspired, given to us by God himself. It was not given just for the Jews, but is his revelation of Himself for all generations.
*Second, we know there is great practical value in reading through these books. 2 Timothy 3 tells us that “all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right.”
*Third, this was the Bible that Jesus read and studied and loved; this was the Bible of the 12 disciples, of the Apostle Paul. So much of what forms the New Testament relies directly on the teaching of the Old Testament.
So, this year we are going to read through the Old Testament together. We will call it the Old Testament Challenge, because it will be a challenge for each of us to read and study and listen to what God has to say to us through his word. We are going to hit highlights of the Old Testament as we go through, for we could spend the rest of our lives studying the OT in detail. But I would like to ask EACH one of you personally to join us for this adventure. I fully believe that each of us will be changed for the good as we study together.
In helping you to read along, there are a few copies of a reading guide on the table in the lobby that are available for $10 if you would like one. If they are all taken, there is a list there where you can sign up to order more. For next week, I would like to ask you to come having read the first 9 chapters of Genesis. And we’ll talk about those chapters next week.
But today, we start with Genesis chapters 1-2. The chapters that tell how it all started.
Philosophers for centuries, for millennia have been asking the key questions about man’s existence. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? They have searched and studied and argued for years about the answers to these questions. But it is very interesting that here in the Bible, in the first two chapters of Genesis, we find some of the most basic questions addressed to give us understanding and direction. Let’s look at them together.
1. Where did the UNIVERSE come from?
Let’s go back to when Moses wrote the book of Genesis, while Israel was wandering around in the wilderness after leaving Egypt in about 1200 B.C. I’d like you to imagine you are a person living in the Near East at that time. You have heard a number of guesses about how the world came to be, and in them you’ve been told that the universe is full of many gods, none of whom particularly care about you, gods who are petty and jealous and mean-spirited and always fighting. As far as you know the world is simply the result of chaos and accident, dust accidentally kicked up when the gods were fighting, with no particular meaning anywhere. Because the universe is controlled by these unpredictable creatures, you live in fear and are ruled by superstition. The ancient Mesopotamians had chaos and nothingness get together and give birth to gods who created the universe by accident. And today what gets taught in schools is that the universe started out as nothing and then there was something. It “just happened” and it is naïve for us to imagine there was purpose or plan behind it. Evolution is just a fancy new name for what has been taught and believed since the beginning of time. Satan has always presented his lies, and the names for them just change through the years.
So in many ways we’re in a cultural context surprisingly similar to ancient Israel. And it’s into this context that God inspires Moses to write one of the most controversial sentence ever written: “In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth.”
The first truth this verse conveys to us is that there was a definite beginning and a definite plan of creation. Evolution is not the truth - things did not just always exist and over billions of years evolve into matter. In fact, there are evolutionists, non-Christians, who have studied carefully and written books saying, “We don’t know what the answer is, we won’t believe in God, but we know evolution is not true.”
This verse teaches us that there is a creator - God - who is a person who chooses to create all that there is according to his plan. It is not chance, or fate, or whim, but the purpose and design of God that brings everything together. He simply spoke, and everything came to be. He creates “ex nihilo” - out of nothing - all that comes to be.
Remember in the old Star Trek episodes, Captain Kirk calls down to Scottie and says, “Scottie, I need more power.” Scottie replies, “I can’t Captain, I’m giving it all I’ve got already.” Well, God never runs out of power. There is no limit to his strength, to his greatness, to his creative power.
Satan always tries to imitate God. He is a deceiver who tries to be like God. But Satan is limited in power. Later in the book of Exodus when God sends Moses to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, God sends plagues, pestilence to cause Pharaoh to let the Jews free. The first one was what - the Nile river turns to blood. But what does Satan do - he imitates it - Exodus 7:22 tells us “But again the magicians of Egypt used their secret arts, and they, too, turned water into blood.” For the second plague, God brought frogs upon the land. What does Satan do? Exodus 8:7 - “But the magicians were able to do the same thing with their secret arts. They, too, caused frogs to come up on the land.” But for the third plague, God turns the dust into gnats. Here Satan strikes out - Exodus 8:18 - “Pharaoh’s magicians tried to do the same thing with their secret arts, but this time they failed.” Satan cannot produce life. He can imitate, he can deceive, but he cannot create.
Why does all this matter to you? Here’s why: It means you are not an accident. Nothing in the whole universe is an accident without meaning or purpose. You are not a random collection of atoms. You are the beautiful work of art of a Grand Artist who delights in what He is making out of you.
The universe is created according to the purpose and plan of God!
Here’s what that truth means for us - our response:
*We need to BELIEVE that God made everything.
Many of you will say “I already do,” but I’d like to challenge you think about how you speak about creation and life, and see if you think and talk in ways that betray that this world’s deception has affected you more than you thought. For example, do you tell people “Good luck”? That’s a blessing for someone who believes in no god but the god of chance, chaos, and randomness. It’s the hope that maybe the petty gods will be on your side today, even though they weren’t yesterday. It’s the hope of good fortune in a world that is not controlled by any one being, but by the chaos and conflict between numerous forces. That’s what luck is. Instead say “May God bless you.” Observe the way you talk, and it will betray certain beliefs that you don’t even know you hold. God made everything and is in charge of everything—truly. Let’s believe it with all our heart!
The next question that humans have asked from the beginning is sort of a strange one, but the way we answer it establishes the deepest foundations of how we think and live:
2. Is the PHYSICAL world good or bad?
Those is the Ancient world of the Near East had strange ideas, believing that matter and the physical world was evil. This idea has been espoused by various groups through the centuries - from pagan religions to Greek philosophy to buddhism and modern cults. There are even thouse today who look forward to the “science fiction” reality when scientists will be able to program their being to live forever without a body to hinder them.
But, the Bible teaches the physical world is not a hindrance, is not an illusion, is not bad. Instead, the physical world is VERY GOOD. God said “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Gen. 1:4 He made air, sea, land and sky and stars, and they were good. Gen 1:10, 18 God made plants and animals and they were good. Gen 1:12, 21, 25 And he made humans with flesh-and-blood bodies. And God saw that it was very good. Gen 1:31 The physical world with all its dirt and flesh, was not a mistake, was not some distorted version of what God intended to create. He intended from the beginning for you to be made of meat, to have a body that feels and acts and lives and reproduces.
There have been Christians who forgot this. They think that having a body is an awful thing, and won’t it be nice to go to heaven and just be a pure spirit and not have to have this evil material body anymore! But your flesh-and-blood body and God’s creation all around you is God’s chosen environment for your life with him. God made you to relate to Him and walk with him as a person with a body, living in and enjoying God’s gift of a beautiful world!” God made a beautiful world for you to live in, a body for you to be embodied in, and it is a GOOD gift that He has no intention of taking away.
So, what does that mean for us?
2. We need to ENJOY the pleasures of the physical creation, including our own bodies. You may or may not need to be told this, but: It’s OK to feel good. It’s OK to be good to your body, to eat good food, to rest and relax at appropriate times. Within the boundaries put in place by God to protect you, enjoy everything that can be enjoyed. Get away from everything once in a while and just sit near a stream or under a tree. Look at the stars at night and just be filled with the wonder they were meant to inspire in you. The physical world is GOOD.
There are always some who pervert this and take this to the extreme. We don’t live for pleasure as some do - that is called hedonism. The Romans used to love to eat so much they would eat till they were full, gorge themselves, then leave the table, regurgitate everything they had eaten, and then go back and eat some more. I’m not talking about going to excess. I’m not referring to indulging in sinful, sensual pleasure outside the boundaries that God has set up. But what I am saying is that it is GOOD for us to ENJOY God’s creation. Delight in the world he has made for us.
Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 5 - “Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him--for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work--this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.”
And that’s the message of Genesis 1. God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them, and they were good. Let’s move on to chapter 2; the primary question answered here is:
3. WHY do I exist? What am I here for?
Let’s go back to the ancient Near East. One ancient document from the time preceding the writing of Genesis expresses the common belief at that time about why humans existed. Here’s the god Marduk speaking: “I will create man who shall inhabit the earth, that the service of the gods may be established, and that their shrines may be built…They shall be oppressed and unto evil shall they go.” In a nutshell, humans were made to do the work the gods didn’t want to do for themselves—primarily to grow food and build shrines.
Now the modern world has its own myths about why we are here. Namely, that we are here for no reason at all. Since there is no Creator who created, then we are not meaningful works of art; we are nothing but the result of random cosmic accidents. We are nothing but lumps of matter that eat, reproduce, and die, and that’s it. But the Bible say,
You were created for LOVING and life-giving COMMUNITY with God and other people. This truth is taught all through the Bible, but here in Genesis 2 is the first place where it’s brought up. Listen to this:
Genesis 2.18, 24-25 - The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone…For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
What a picture this is! A human being all alone forever is not good. God made you to need friendship with God and friendship with other people. Deep down, I think all people know this. There is nothing we desire more than to love and be loved. When God speaks to us in the Bible, this is where he starts. He creates people to be with him, and to be with each other. From before and beyond all time, God has existed as a community of 3 persons—Father, Son, and Spirit—who are bound together in such a way that they are a single being. We see them in creation - Father, Son, and Spirit each playing a part. And there is a perfect oneness between them. Genesis tells us we are created in the “image” of God - and I believe part of this “image” is expressed through our creation as “relational” beings - we were created for community. In all of God’s creation He says over and over - It is good - but the first record of something NOT being good is the “aloneness” of man.
We are created for community - with God and with one another - and we’ll see this theme over and over as we go through the Old Testament together - but for today, what does this mean?
3. We need to RECEIVE the gift of acceptance and love that God offers in Jesus.
The trinity exists eternally in community with one another - but in creation God invites man to share that community. We will see next week the effects of sin in destroying that community - but God’s desire is for us to enjoy relationship with him. There is no limit to the love you can experience. The only question is ‘How deep do you want to go?’ Ask God in what ways you can seek to more fully live in love with God and with other people.
The title of the sermon is “God’s Greatest Dream,” and that’s what this is. It’s been his plan from the beginning, and that’s why it’s right here at the beginning of his book. As we’ll see next week, the plan got sidetracked by these new creatures, but as we see in the rest of the Bible and ultimately in the last pages of the Bible, God gets what he wants. God gets to invite you to be with him forever. And in the meantime, which is right now, you and I have a chance to decide if we want to be with him or not. We get to decide if we think God’s dream is a good dream or not. The gospel is that God is drawing all things back into relationship with him through Jesus Christ. He’s drawing everything and everyone up to his table; it is open to all who want to come on in. It’s great news!
Today, do you wish to be in relationship with God? Let’s pray together!
Today, let me ask you three questions:
1. Are you willing to believe what God says about the creation of the world? Do you acknowledge him as creator?
2. Will you enjoy the world God has made for your pleasure, without abusing it?
3. Do you desire relationship, community, fellowship with God? Do you want to get to know God better this year?
