21/2/2015 - David Asscherick - Ablazing Grace: Creation

we continue our journey through the Old Testament and we can't even really call it a journey yet because we've only just begun last Sabbath was our introduction and so really this is our first presentation sermon in earnest in which we're going to be unpacking and looking at the actual text of the Old Testament and there's really no other place that you could probably responsibly begin but in Genesis chapter 1 with the issue of creation and we're gonna begin with a word of Prayer and you might be thinking today as the as the message proceeds wow this is a fairly informational II dense presentation well I wanted to let you know that you're only getting 10% of what I want to tell you all right so you're getting just the tithe today just the time so we're gonna have a prayer and then we're gonna get right into this it's gonna be great father in heaven we are so thankful this has already been an awesome service father we've learned about mica the chicken we have had opportunity to return offerings we've heard about our modern day Philip who's going to places afar to preach the gospel we've been encouraged by the upcoming program that Elisha and the team are conducting father we have already been ministered to we have sung we have prayed we have been drawn into your presence now as we turn our attention to Scripture we pray that you would be with us in a special way in a spiritual way father we have people that can't be here today I even had somebody send me an email this week say please don't start the series today but father today we're just beginning this journey we're excited and as we look at these formative chapters in Scripture these initial chapters Genesis chapter 1 Genesis chapter 2 you Father may we see these not as passages describing only antiquity the dusty old past but father may that ancient past come right down into our modern situation come and speak to us minister to us and may we sense and feel your love today through the great truth of creation we look forward to what you have in store for us today in Jesus name let all of God's people say Amen all right so we're going to be talking about creation today let's start by just quickly sort of bridging our last sermon series which was on the book of what we just finished studying the book of Acts let's bridge the book of Acts the early church the Apostolic Church with the kingscliff Church in 2015 all right notice these four passages all taken from the book of Acts the first is in Acts chapter 4 verse 24 it says they raised their voice to God how do they do it every one with one Accord right we see that over and over again in the book of Acts they were with one Accord they raised their voice to God with one Accord and they said watch this now the early church Lord you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them that is a virtual identical quotation of Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 to 11 the little section there in verse 11 in other words it's a quoting of the sabbath command when the early church praised god they used the language of exodus they used the language of creation in Acts chapter 14 verse 15 it says you should turn from these useless things remember this was Paul there in Lystra urging them not to try and offer sacrifices to he and Barnabas who were not gods at all though they said you should turn from these useless things to the Living God who made the heaven the earth the sea and all the things that are in them that's another almost identical quote lifted in the Greek from Exodus chapter 20 so we see the early church here the Apostolic Church took creation very seriously in our third quotation here from the book of Acts notice this acts 17 verse 24 this is Paul preaching to the Athenian philosophers he said God hoo-wah what's that next word who made the world and everything in it since he is the lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands and so today in 2015 we are standing very much in the same vein we are standing in the heritage of the Apostolic Church who understood that central to who God is and central to who the church is is this idea that God is the creator he's the creator of the earth and the heavens and the seas and all that is in them now I want to begin by sort of giving this quotation here and the book of Acts I want to give this very short quotation from one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church a woman by the name of Ellen White and I was reading this just this morning actually threw this into the presentation and it just struck me with how blessed and fortunate and privileged we are to know the text of Scripture not to be wallowing around and groping around in the darkness wondering what's really true are we you know in some giant alien test tube or are we you know the products of some micro evolutionary process look at this it says without the Bible we would be bewildered by false theories the mind would be subjected to the tyranny of superstition and falsehood but having in our possession and authentic history of the beginning of our world we need not hamper ourselves with human conjectures and unreliable theories I mean I tell you it we need to just every now and again remind ourselves at how blessed we are to know and to believe these words that are on the screen there the opening passage in all of Holy Writ in the beginning say it with me in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth right just there's there's a solidity there there's an anchor there there's a there's a sense of purpose there's a sense of direction there's a sense of meaning and it's all found in the opening sentence of Scripture I love what she says there that we don't have to be ruled by the tyranny of superstition and falsehood but we can have a sense hey we know why we're here and we know who is the one that made us to be here today we're gonna talk about creation and we're gonna go to Genesis chapter 1 because in Genesis chapter 1 of course we are introduced to God God who is the creator and we're gonna start there we're gonna notice several things several patterns several sort of cycles that take place in Genesis chapter one then we'll branch over into Genesis chapter 2 there is certainly continuity and consistency between the opening chapters of Genesis but there are also differences and in Genesis chapter 1 we have a very seek when shoal treatments we have a very thematic treatment it goes from the first day to the second day the second day to the third the third of the fourth it moves sequentially thematically chronologically through the creation account but when we get to Genesis chapter 2 it ceases to be so sequential not that it's not sequential but it's not it's not strictly sequential it becomes relational right so Genesis chapter 1 and 2 there have been some over the years that have tried to introduce a tension here there have even been some on the very liberal end of the scholarly spectrum that have suggested that there were two different writers here that there was a writer of Genesis 1 and there was a different writer of Genesis 2 but in fact if we will simply appreciate Genesis 1 for what it is and then Genesis 2 for what it is we'll see that here in Genesis 1 it's largely sequential it's very thematic and in Genesis chapter 2 it becomes very relational and we'll see that in just a bit Genesis chapter 1 is characterized by a number of repeated phrases and these free phrases come up again and again let's just read the opening little bit here of Genesis chapter 1 we've just finished quoting the first verse in the beginning God created the heavens in the earth verse 2 and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters then God said you'll notice that's our first phrase here that phrase occurs again and again in Genesis chapter 1 if you look at the first little phrase of verse 6 then God said the first phrase of verse 9 then God said verse 11 then God said verse 14 then God said verse 20 then God said verse 24 then God said this is a theme it's it's a it's a literary device that Moses keeps going back to again and again then God said and noticed that in the case of verse 3 it says then God said let there be what was the first thing that was created let there be light and immediately there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness God called the light day and the darkness he called night so the evening and the morning were the first day let's just read a little further on we'll encounter some of the other phrases verse 6 here's our first phrase again then God said let there be a firmament or a space in the midst waters let it divide the waters from the waters thus God made the firmament that's an unusual word firmament you could just insert the word sky or the word heavens some translations actually say that thus God made the sky and divided the waters which were under the sky from the waters which were above the sky here's another phrase and it was so notice that's number two here and it was so there's this sense of immediacy there's there's no sense in Genesis chapter one that there's any kind of a delay that there's some lack of punctuality know when God says it and it was so and God said and it was so and God said and it was so there's an immediacy there and there is a frequency there's no delay there's no sense in which there is a pause or a truncation between the two God says it and then it happens God said let there be light and there was light okay now notice our third phrase here it's a phrase that's going to come up here in verse 10 I'll jump down to verse eight first it says and God called the sky heaven and the evening in the morning were the second day then God said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear here's our phrase again and it was so and God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the water he called seas and here's our fourth and final phrase and God saw that it was what God saw that it was good so notice the four phrases here on the screen they are number 1 then God said number 2 and it was so there's the immediacy number 3 and God saw that it was good that phrase comes up again and again at the end of day number 2 God saw that it was good day number 3 gods all that it was good day number 4 God saw that it was good when it comes to the climax we'll see this in just a bit here at the end of day 6 God saw everything that he had made and it was does anybody know it was very good and then the fourth phrase here is this the evening in the morning were the first day the evening in the morning were the second day literally in the Hebrew it says evening morning day 1 evening morning day to evening morning day 3 so this is what we mean when we say that Genesis chapter 1 is quite sequential right it's poetic yes but it's also sequential and Moses comes back to these phrases again and again to introduce us introduce us to a picture of God that is simultaneously creative and communicative now I just want to say a word about that what do we mean when we say that God is introduced to us as communicative well with the resources of omnipotence at his disposal God could have had he so desired just thought the world with all of its idiosyncrasies with all of its details with all of its nuances the complete created earth he could have just thought it into existence in a moment in a second in a fraction of a second and yet scripture reveals to us that what God showed Moses was that scripture took place in an orderly fashion in a sequential fashion that God with great intentionality and we're gonna see this intentionality here in just a little bit because it's an intentionality that is infused with relationality it it has to do with the fact that that God is creating spaces not just for spaces sake but God is creating spaces for relationship so he's he's creating very intentionally he's creating very sequentially the very first act that we are introduced to God as performing and all in all of Scripture if I ask you what's the first thing that God does in all of Scripture you might be tempted to say he creates and you'd be mostly right we just read that in Genesis chapter 1 in the beginning God created but what if I ask you this question how does God create he speaks he speaks the first action that we are introduced to the god of scripture as performing is speaking this tells us something gigantic about the person that is God God longs to communicate but listen to the next part of that why does anyone communicate why do you communicate to what end do you speak or for what purpose do you speak to be understood you speak to be understood you speak for companionship you speak from mutuality you speak we could even say for relationship right so we are introduced here in Genesis chapter 1 to a God who is not only creative a God who actually creates by means of his voice he is communicative now a fascinating thing happens we read Genesis chapter 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth when we fast forward all the way to the New Testament book of John John like we talked about Matthew last Sabbath John actually takes this very language this very idea this is clearly intentionally purposefully taken right out of of the language of Genesis and G John adopts and adapts that language of Genesis for his own ends and purposes and he does it in a remarkable way in John chapter 1 we read these words what are the first three words first of all John chapter 1 John's beginning his gospel how does he start in the beginning and notice this as we have in Genesis in the beginning God write first for words of scripture in the beginning God look at what John does here in the beginning was what are the next two words the word in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was in the beginning with God and notice right where he goes the same place that Moses went all things were what's the next word made through him and without him was nothing made that was made some translations actually render this passage like this in the beginning was the voice well that sounds like Genesis 1 Genesis 1 says in the beginning God created well how did God create and God said let there be light and so in in a very similar way John is just recapitulating what Moses said in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth how so by speaking let there be light and there was light in the beginning God or excuse me in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God in the Word was God all things were made by him and nothing was made of anything that was made was was not made except for by him it's fascinating in the Spanish in the Spanish language in the Spanish translation the word for word here in the beginning was the word is actually the word verbo available in the beginning was the verb in the beginning was the action in the beginning was God now Jesus as the New Testament unanimously declares is God not only is he God according to John 1 and other passages like Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1 he is the instrument through which God created God created through the word he created through the verb he created through the law goes and so back there in Genesis chapter 1 don't imagine when you see Genesis chapter 1 sort of an unfolding in cinematic vision before you don't imagine you seated next to God on a balcony somewhere overlooking from out here as if earth were down there and you were seeing it no scholars are virtually unanimously agreed that Genesis was written from the perspective of someone who was on the earth not over here on a balcony somewhere looking down but actually on the earth looking up as the various events of creation unfolded before him no doubt what God did for Moses it showed him in cinematic vision exactly what took place in creation he took him back and he showed him in almost an IMAX theatre if you've ever been in one of those IMAX theater so you sort of sit down and some of them even lean the chair back in this Dome of a screen sort of goes all the way around he would even have this kind of the feel that it goes behind you and if you get one of those really fancy ones the chairs will shake and even some have missed that comes down and you at certain times and I mean Moses had the immersive IMAX experience of creation and he records it not as an external observer from afar he records it as being there now as we continue some really interesting things unfold here I want to start by just sort of giving a parenthetical statement here about the nature of the days I mentioned just a moment ago that the the Hebrew is is evening morning day one evening morning day two in our English translation it's rendered as what's called an ordinal which is first second third fourth as opposed to a numeral which is one two three four it's rendered as an ordinal and there's this fascinating little formula in the Hebrew that's very similar to the formula in the English let me just explain that in the English language the word day can mean a variety of different things variety of different lengths of time for example if I say that I went to the Motor Vehicles department and I was in line all day you would not understand that to mean a literal 24-hour period you would understand that to mean a long period of time long relative to the event that I'm describing if I say oh we had a bunch of guests come over to our house and there were so many dishes when it was done it felt like I spent all day washing the dishes again you don't understand that in a literal 24 hours since the Hebrews the same way the word day Hebrew yami-yugi knurl sense but here's the here's the interesting formula as with the English so - with the Hebrew when the word day or the Hebrew Yama is modified by either a numeral one two three four or an ordinal first second third fourth it always it what where did I say every one it always means a literal 24-hour period for example if I say to you I'm going to go away to Lord Howe Island with my wife for seven days you would not understand that to mean seven indefinite not well defined periods of time you would understand that to mean seven 24-hour periods because the moment that I modify day by a number it automatically means 24-hour period so - in the English so - in the Hebrew it's the same so with that in mind notice what I'm just gonna give you two little parenthetical statements here what two very well-known Hebrew scholars have remarked about this and you might be thinking well why pray tell spend even a moment on this isn't it obvious that these are six literal days that were contained within a chronological stream of history the answer is yes it's obvious perhaps to you and it's obvious to me but there are some who would love for scripture to be a little more elastic a little more liquid a little more fluid so that if necessary they could insert much longer periods of time perhaps hundreds of years or even thousands or some would love to be able to insert millions or multiplied millions of years into the scriptural account does the language allow for that let's see what the scholars said in the handbook of seventh-day evanesce theology William Shay writes this it has been suggested that these were not literal 24-hour days but long ages through which the earth and the elements involved in it evolved to their later state notice this the language of the date formula excludes this possibility there were ways to communicate that in the Hebrew but this is not one of them there can be no doubt that the writer was speaking of the 24-hour period of light and dark which make up one whole day now you might be inclined to say oh come on give me a break that's from the seventh day of Ernest handbook of theology and you seventh-day adventists by virtue of your very name clearly take this whole seventh-day thing very seriously and so you're quoting one of your own scholars in one of your own books to this effect now let me quote for you a very interesting quotation this is from a guy named James Barr James Barr has since passed away but he is an extremely well-known scholar at one time he was the head of the theology department at Oxford University's taught at a number of various theological institutions her head taught over his life and he was a scholars scholar okay and he was asked on one occasion hey what about these days of Genesis 1 what what about this literal flood in Genesis 6 7 & 8 what about that now this is a key point to understand James Barr himself was a fairly liberal scholar and did not believe in a literal 6 days of creation neither did he believe in a worldwide flood ok he didn't believe that but here's the point watch the integrity and the honesty with which he deals with the grammar of the text he believed that Moses was saying what what Moses was trying to say 6 24-hour period plus the Sabbath seven 24-hour periods he just thought Moses was wrong but notice the grammar the grammar going outside of our church outside of those that would be sympathetic to our perspective James Barr says probably so far as I know there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer or writers of Genesis one to eleven intended to convey to their readers that ideas that number one creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of the 24 hours that we now experience he says everybody believes that that they were trying to communicate that be number two the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story the descendants of Adam 3 or C Noah's Flood was understood to be a worldwide flood was understood to be worldwide and distinguished all human and animal life except for those in the ark or to put it negatively listen carefully the apologetic arguments which suppose suppose that the days of creation to be as long eras of time the figures of years not to be chronological and the flood to be merely a local Mesopotamian flood are not taken seriously by any such professors as far as I know now here's what he's saying it's so fascinating he says every in every reputable world-class institution you have your professor of Old Testament your professor of Hebrew whatever your Old Testament theologians he says everybody believes that what the writers of Genesis or writer in our case we believed there was just one Moses what they thought they were communicating was a literal 24-hour period that took place successively and that these were the literal descendants of a literal man and woman named Adam and Eve and that the flood was literally global and that all human life was destroyed he says everybody believes that not that they believe it's true but that there's no question that this was what the writers were trying to communicate now I don't know when you come from but but for me I'm just gonna believe what Moses wrote now I have a variety of reasons for that and I'm not going to go to here but for our purposes we want to be very clear that scripture presents creation very in a very formulaic way day number one day number two day number three and we're gonna talk about those days then God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good so the evening in the morning were the sixth day now in this in this transition in Genesis chapter one the sequential transition we see movement from chaos to order and from incompleteness to completeness okay now let's watch this Genesis chapter 2 which is disconnected for us in our modern Bibles we go from Genesis chapter 1 verse 31 to Genesis chapter 2 verses 1 to 3 but that disconnection you know is not something that was introduced by Moses Moses didn't write chapter 1 then start chapter 2 then start chapter 3 the chapter is a ssin and the divisions of the chapter ization and versification of scripture was added many thousands of years after moses would have originally written this so really Genesis chapter 2 is intimately connected to what we've just read in Genesis chapter 1 and this is what it says thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were what's that word right there finished we'll come back to that and on the seventh day God what does that work right there ended his work which he had what's that word done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work here we are again which he had done past tense then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which he had created and made in the past tense there's no question that what's happening here is that Moses is introducing closure he's introducing what everyone closure completion finality that that there was a day number one and there was a day number two and there was a day number three but now things have drawn to a close the work is finished God has created God has made it is done we talked about this last Sabbath we'll come back to that in a second now this is a key point especially for those of us that love to go home on Sabbath and take long naps because we've been burning the candle at both ends on the first six days of the week and so we say hey I'm just obeying the commandment any of us have said this I'm just obeying the commandment the commandment says the Sabbath is a day to what rest and I by taking my nap this afternoon and operating in obedience to the commands well you're being a little elastic there and let me tell you why not that you couldn't take a nap occasionally if you wanted to but God's Sabbath is not a day to be slept away and I'm gonna talk about why that is it's very interesting to rest here does not mean to tire from fatigue but to cease the word rest in this case doesn't mean to take a nap it doesn't mean to slumber it's not talking about a state of sleep the word rest means to cease from God ceased well what did he cease he ceased working he ceased making he ceased creating and when it comes Sabbath for us we don't take a nap though some of us do that's not what you're called to do there's no injunction to take a nap the injunction is to cease to stop to slow down and to rest in God's finished work of creation and redemption now in Genesis chapter 1 there are patterns in addition to the repeated phrases that we've talked about and it was so and God said and it was good there's also this really fascinating pattern that's been well documented that the days of creation are intimately tied together but not in a knot in an easily obvious way at least not the first time you read them through you don't immediately see this but in fact when you read the Genesis account through and you compare day 1 to day 4 and day 2 to day 5 and day 3 to day 6 you find that in reality there is an intimate connectivity between that God is showing Moses here something that's not only sequential chronologically one-two-three four-five-six but there's an internal organization so for example in day 1 God created light in day 4 God creates the greater light in the lesser light in day number 2 god separates the waters the sky he takes the he makes a sky the waters that were above in the waters that were below and in day 5 God takes that sky and those waters and he fills them with birds and flying things and fish and sea creatures in day number three God gathers the land into a place and so now there's land and in day six God fills the land with the land creatures and the crowning act of his creation man so here's another great point when you pick up the Bible you can have confidence that this is in fact what it claims to be God's Word for a variety of reasons one of which is there is such a beautiful and internal symmetry and beauty and and significance to these words it seems highly unlikely that they would have just been cobbled together or thrown together by someone who is trying to create a creation myth in fact in just a bit here I'm going to show you how the Genesis account differs radically from other ancient near-eastern creation myths now we mentioned last Sabbath that Matthew opens his genealogy with three 14s remember that there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David and fourteen generations from david to the exile and fourteen generations from the Exile des Messiaen we said hey what's the significance of three 14s well the significance of three 14s is that it's six seven seven seven seven seven seven seven strongly suggesting that the seven seven is bringing something to closure something to completion something to rest and we looked at last Sabbath that Jesus had a a self understanding of that basic reality when he stood up in Luke chapter 4 and quoted from Isaiah and said I am come to set at liberty the captives jesus knew that in some significant sense he was not only initiating the jubilee he was himself the embodiment of jubilee now with that in mind this sort of closure on the seventh checked this out any painter begins with a blank canvas I had the privilege Oh a couple weeks ago of being in the home of a painter right Joan brims me she's beautiful painter beautiful woman beautiful thank you and she just had volumes albums of beautiful paintings that she had created and her houses is festooned with all of these beautiful paintings but every one of those painting starts like that it starts with a blank canvas and it's the it's the job of the artist it's the job of the painter to create something to to fill that otherwise vacant space this is exactly what takes place in Genesis 1 let me show you this in Genesis we see God creating a series of successive canvases just as I introduced a moment ago that there was correspondence between day 1 & 4 2 & 5 3 & 6 that correspondence looks like this God first creates the canvas the canvas doesn't pre exist he creates the canvas because he creates everything right the term that's used for this by the theologians and others is ex nihilo in the Latin it means out of nothing so before God creates the bird before God creates the hippo before God creates the man before God creates the Sun or the moon before God creates the stuff he first makes the canvas into which those things will go these are the canvases here we're introduced to them we've mentioned them already God creates the canvas of the air by separating the waters above the sky from the waters below the sky God then creates the canvas of the water by gathering all of the waters underneath the sky into a single place he then creates the canvas of the land by by separating the waters under the sky from the land under the sky and now in the opening days of creation we don't yet have things in the canvases but we have canvases you can just imagine a great master painter we were just in Queenstown recently my family and and the pinellas were there and we had a lovely time and we spent a day in Queenstown and there was a painter there whose name escapes me right now he has a great big gallery apparently a well-known painter judging by the cost of his paintings must have been reasonably well known hundred thousand dollars for a painting and the cool thing was is that he was actually in his studio there in Queenstown painting Lukie were just there recently did you go into this guy's shop Luke where you are did you go into that guy's shop it was right by the empanada place no okay right across in the bathrooms so here's the thing there's all these canvases up there is very interesting because there would be a cost and then just next to the cost it would say work in progress work in progress work in progress and we were like oh these things aren't done because they looked very done but sure enough here comes the painter in right this Butte and everything is lit just perfect the lady that's sort of superintending it she has this great little remote control where she can dim the lights and raise the lights turn out the light she can have all these and she's sort of talking to us about the paintings and I'm thinking sister don't waste your breath because I'll have $100,000 to spend on this painting even though it's beautiful but she was giving us the pitch and shortly after she gave us the pitch the painter comes in the painter the painter and he looked very ordinary actually and he had his little cart with all of his brushes and paraphernalia there and Landon if you know my oldest son Landon you know he's not afraid of anybody everybody that he's ever met it's just a friend that he's yet to be introduced to you know Landon boom straight up to the painter starts asking him all these questions well I had a few questions that I wanted to ask but lacking the social bravery that my son has I asked my son to ask him some of those questions one of the things I wanted to know is do you ever get this far because there were quite big paintings right there were big paintings about as wide as the banner here and you know maybe a meter and a half high big beautiful paintings and believe me they were the kind of paintings that if I had a hundred thousand dollars of discretionary income I might buy one but but one of the questions I wanted to know is how far along can you get in the process and wreck the painting like can you get 95% done and ruin it and so Landon asked that question and he said no that doesn't happen because he paints everything in layers and then this was the most interesting thing he told my son that he doesn't paint a painting to completion he paints twelve paintings a year and he gets all of his canvases all lined up all twelve lined up and then he does the first bit of everyone every painting he said consists of somewhere between 30 and 60 layers right and so he puts the first layer on all 12 paintings then he puts the second layer on all 12 paintings then he puts the third layer and this is why there's never a catastrophic mistake because you can always when you're in those formative stages make little changes to the layers any layers and then he layers and then he layers and then he layers but he always starts with a blank canvas and then he takes his vision his skill his creativity and he through his hands his dexterous hands he projects what's in his mind under the thing I think that's really where the difficulty of being an artist comes to I can see beautiful things in my mind as most of you can but my hands won't do what my mind sees see the great painters and the great sculptors they don't have that inhibition there's no disconnect between this and this they just want God doesn't just start by making a bird well where would he put it where would God put Myka if he had made Myka I guess he'd put her in a little hutch right or what if God what would God where would God put bouff head all right I know that's funny to children's stories in a row both on birds maybe the next will be on birds as well I mean if God makes a great blue whale where does he stick it ah see Genesis 1 describes God not just starting by making things he starts by making canvases he makes the canvas of the air he makes the canvas of the water he makes the canvas of the land and you say but wait a minute David there's a fourth canvas there and here's the remarkable thing we're gonna come back to this at the very close God makes another kind of canvas not a geographical canvas not a canvas extended in space made of water or air or land God extends a canvas in time and that is the canvas of Sabbath God fills each of those canvases with the air he fills the with the greater light in the lesser light and the birds the water he puts the great sea creatures into in the land he puts all of the land creatures including it especially mankind he creates he fills he creates he fills he creates he fills and then when the rest when the work of of when the work of the painter is finished he creates a different kind of canvas not a canvas in space not a canvas in geography he creates a canvas in time and then he fills it we're gonna see with what he fills it in just a moment we'll come back to that in just a second so as we've mentioned God does not rest from fatigue but to create a social and spiritual place that social and spiritual place is called the Sabbath at this point we transition to Genesis to look at verse 7 of Genesis 2 probably no single verse incorporates the difference between Genesis 1 and 2 then Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 says and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul in Genesis 1 it says if God is over here and he is speaking things into existence he's on the balcony of the universe and he says let there be light there is light let there be a space sure there is a space let there be and God is speaking let there be dry land the dry land is coming together so Genesis 1 incidentally the word that is used for God in Genesis 1 is exclusively the Hebrew word Elohim which is just sort of the generic term for God but as soon as we get to Genesis 2 Elohim gives way to Yahweh the personal name of God and where Elohim in Genesis 1 is over here speaking things into existence as if from afar in Genesis 2 not the macroscopic picture but the microscopic picture in Genesis 2 Yahweh not merely Elohim as as God but Yahweh as a person Yahweh is depicted as forming man literally sculpting crafting forming man of the dust of the earth y'all is on his knees Yahweh has dirt in his fingernails dirt that he himself had created Yahweh has rolled up his sleeves Yahweh has got dirt on his arms and Yahweh has formed Adam and as if that isn't sufficiently intimate as if that isn't sufficiently proximate then it says and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life there are only three people on planet earth into whose nostrils I am comfortable breathing my wife and my two boys I'll get right up in there and their nostrils if I have to when my boys were little one of my favorite things to do know a little torturous I admit was to take my whole mouth and place it over the nose of my sons and just to go and they go I don't know you can't take them away now because they're grown but in some weird sort of ways my children were little science experiments and they've turned out mostly all right you should know that Violetta protested frequently she was a good wife and a great mother but I'll get right up in my wife's nostrils yeah I'll get right up close right won't you not my wife but your wife your husband somebody once said the reason that we close our eyes when we kiss is that no one looks good from that close right God here is depicted as being very close he has formed he has created he is fashioned and now he he it would not be an exaggeration to say he kisses Adam and if you can just imagine God leaning in to take the lifeless cheeks of the sculpture of Adam into his hand if you can just imagine God leaning in and then placing his mouth right near the nostrils of the inanimate Adam and saying and as Adam Springs amazingly instantly to life let me ask you a question what would be the very first thing that Adam would see as he springs to life the face of God there is very good reason that when we come to the book of Revelation the last chapter in the last book of the Bible there's this verse that says that the redeemed will see God face to face what was lost will be regained and so God would have taken Adam that's now alive and looking at this beautiful face and he would have probably leaned back and said this is for you my son you see Genesis 1 God is speaking from afar but in Genesis 2 God is proximate goddess intimate God as close as breathing into the nostrils of his son God creates a family in his image because God is a family God as a divine family makes a family in his image and it's right here that we encounter something that is hugely important about the nature of God but most of us don't dwell in the realms where we're dreaming and thinking and and sort of ruminating on the nature of God there are some we have some budding theologians in our midst but all of us or most of all of us dwell in the land of family that place where mothers and fathers meets and brothers and sisters come and and where grandchildren come we all live in that place and yet that place that family place is a window into that other place that divine place where God dwells the divine family Father Son and spirit and it's in this remarkable creation of something in his own image let us make mankind in our image that we encounter something that is hugely significant and not well understood about the relationship between Adam and Eve in Richard Davidson's great book the flame of Yahweh he writes the fundamental equality of man and woman is unhesitatingly proclaimed in the first chapters of the Bible there is no higher there is equality in chapter 2 the narrator underscores watch this I didn't know this until this study in chapter 2 the narrator underscores their equality of importance by employing precisely the same number of words in Hebrew for the description of the creation of man is for the creation of woman did you know that same number of words that's going to become hugely significant when you read the next slide this affirmation of the full equality and mutuality of man and woman in Genesis chapter 2 account of creation is even more important when seen in contrast with other ane that scholarly speak for ancient near-eastern the other people that dwelt around the Jews how did they tell the story of creation ah he says you think it's amazing that Jenna that Moses spent the exact same number of words on Eve as the words on Adam II says you think that's interesting watch this when you contrast that with other ancient near-eastern creation accounts they contain no separate narration of the creation of woman and here the Bible stands apart in fact the Bible's creation story stands apart from other ancient near-eastern creation myths on a number of accounts one of which is God is not in conflict with another God and creation is birthed out of this conflict between the gods no there is one God and He is willingly voluntarily creatively communicatively making something but here's this this is remarkable Moses spends just as much time describing the creation of Eve in Genesis 2 as he does the creation of man suggesting not suggesting demonstrating that there is a fundamental equality that the woman is not below neither is the man above the woman is not above neither is the man below last slide here to this effect by a special lengthy separate account of the creation of woman in Genesis 2 the Bible with its high valuation valuation of women on an equal par with men is what is that word right there unique and ancient Near Eastern literature what a remarkable thing now I'm gonna skip 2 slides here and I'm gonna go to this one I was gonna talk to you about sex but you don't want to hear about that alright check this out right here the word used in Genesis 1:27 when God says let us make man in our image is the word selim let us make man in our cell em this was well known in Hebrew and it's related languages what was a sell em to the Hebrews well a celeb was used primarily for the images of the gods that were placed in temples in other words idols celeb what an interesting thing watch this these were thought to represent the appearance and the function of the gods but the Bible is unique in its use of this word in the ancient world gods were made in the images of human beings whereas in the Bible humans were made in the image of God you see you wonder why is God so against idolatry in the Old Testament again and again gods stay away from idols stay away from idolatry God on one account said to Moses Moses you remind those people they never saw anything on top of the mountain they can't make a likeness of me and of course they tried to make a golden calf why was God so insistent and against idolatry for this simple reason God says I have already imaged myself on earth but I didn't image myself in wood and stone and metal i imaged myself in flesh and blood i imaged myself in man and woman and when you bow down to a stone when you bow down to a piece of wood when you bow down to a popstar when you bow down to any of the modern or ancient idols you are insulting me God says but even more so you were insulting yourself all right I gotta land this plane I could go all day I got a close talking about the Sabbath I would be remiss that's the seventh-day evidence I didn't talk about the Sabbath but I want to show you the Sabbath in a different way I want to talk about the Sabbath here I want to give you a quotation this is actually not the right quotation here this is from a book called the Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel okay Jewish philosopher theologian and author this is what he says technical civilization modern civilization is man's conquest of space this is deep so let the sinking what are we conquering we're conquering space and when we ran out of space to conquer here we went in conquered outer space he says that's Martin that's modern civilization conquering space it is a triumph frequently achieved how do we conquer space how do we clear a forest and plant an orchard how do we clear the the blackberries and plant a garden how how do we do that well we use a time to do it it is a triumph frequently achieved by sacrificing an essential ingredient of existence that is to say time in technical civilization we expend time to gain space to enhance our power in the world of space that's our main objective yet to have more does not mean to be more to gain control of the world of space is certainly one of our tasks God gave Adam and Eve the garden and he said you have dominion over it but the danger begins when in gaining power in the realm of space we forfeit all aspirations in the realm of time this is not an ancient problem this is a very modern problem there is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be not to own but to give not to control but to share not to subdue but to be in accord life goes wrong read this life goes wrong when the control of space the acquisition of things becomes our sole concern see modern man is consumed with space and modern man is consumed with the things that fill that space I went to sleep last night on God's holy Sabbath thinking about what's on the screen there oh I can't live without this camera the four that I already have are not good enough oh I could spend an hour telling you about this particular camera camera the sony a7s look at how the S is in blue look at how it matches the blue here do you see that ah I just I'm lusting even as I preach I'm coveting even now someone in my house wants another thing I'm not the only one that wants a thing my wife is busy lusting hers is a little less mechanical she cannot stop thinking talking and working toward her garden I want one of these and my wife this last week spent $100 on worm carcasses she want things and I got a son he will not stop talking about this thing his touch football is scarcely out of his touch it's always he's got he's on it's at the table it's in his bed it's in a conversation it's at worship I'm like stop touching the touch ball yeah but he's running around the house diving here and diving there the whole life is a touch game and I think he's winning and then I have another son whose life revolves around the almighty Lego now what is your sony a7s what is your Lego what is that thing that thing that you've just got to have I want to close with these quotes and then I'll let you go you've been very generous today we must not forget that it is not a thing that lends significance to a moment it is the moment that lends significance to things the Sabbath is entirely independent of the month and it is unrelated to the moon it's date is not determined by any events in nature such as the New Moon but by an act of creation thus the essence of the Sabbath is completely detached from the world of space the meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space see some of us tell our children not to do certain things on the Sabbath and we have no idea why we're telling them not to do that except that our parents told us not to do that and many of us can't come up with good reasons and so we think there is no good reason but in fact there are really good reasons to think of the Sabbath differently just this last week I was talking to John brings me and he said this great thing he was talking about how we we have six days to surf but this day is different we have six days to think about things and barrels and cutbacks and and and and round houses we have six days to think about those things but then there's another day ah the meaning of the Sabbath is to celebrate time rather than space six days a week we live under the tyranny of the things of space but on the Sabbath we become attuned to the holiness of time what a brilliant stroke of genius God here creating not a mountain holy not a place holy not a river holy like the Ganges God because what if the river is holy what if the mountain is holy what happens if you get locked up away from the river you can't get to the mountain you can't get to the holy thing but God and His creativity and in his genius he brings the holy thing to you if you're breathing the holy thing comes to you every week now it's coming to us but are we coming to it look at this it is a day on which we are called upon to share well in what we are called to share upon is eternal in time to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation to turn from the world of creation to the creation of the world friends the beauty of the Sabbath is the same as the beauty of creation Sabbath points us to creation creation points us to God and God points us to relationship God wraps his arms of love around Adam and Eve he breathes into their nostrils he forms them he crafts them he longs to be with them and in the very same way God longs to be with you look at this I'll skip one last quotation of mercy on you look at this in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth yes we say but what about this and he was thinking of he created a social spiritual space not a space in geography not a space extended but a space in time and God invites you into that space and time to put away the tyranny of materialism to put away the tyranny of things to put away the tyranny of want and covetousness and needing more to put away the tyranny of the culture of the times in which we live and to just rest in the fact that God is father and you are his daughter you are his son that is the story of creation father in heaven we recognize you today as creator father of the Sabbath is keeping us but are we keeping the Sabbath that's a question that every one of us has to face on our own we have to think about on our own father we can't avoid the Sabbath it comes to us every week whether we like it or not it lands on our door every Friday evening there it is staring us right in the face and God saying hey what about what about today what happens today is this our day and sometimes father it is but other times we're carried away with the tyranny of the moment the tyranny of the material and the tyranny of culture father we want to be revolutionaries we want to live at cross-purposes with a culture gone mad over sensuality and materialism father we want to be your sons and your daughters living in this but not of this world father teach us what that means there's a lot of different homes here there's a lot of different families here in every family every home every person has to face this question on his or her own but father my prayer is the pastor of this church both for the long-term members the new members and the visitors father my prayer is that when that reminder of creation here comes when that reminder of creation lands on our doorstep next Friday night that we will not think of it as a duty or as an obligation or is something that prevents us from doing what we really wanted but that we will see it as that canvas as that space that you have created and that we will hear that still small voice saying my son my daughter come apart and rest awhile I created you I formed you I fashioned you I saved you I love you rest with me and in me in Jesus name let all of God's people say Amen

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Keywords: Kingscliff SDA Church

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Length: 58min 10sec (3490 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 21 2015