1/9/2022 - In The Beginning - Genesis 1:1-19 - Pastor Jason Fritz

Last week we gave an overview of the book of Genesis and we said that it is much more than a narrative about creation. It is, as the title specifies, about beginnings. Most importantly, the beginning of God’s relationship with man. This Sunday we’re going to take a deeper dive into the opening lines. We’ll see the carefully crafted narrative starts with God’s introduction of himself. And what an amazing introduction it is. If you were in a room full of people and they asked you to introduce yourself, you would give your name and perhaps talk a bit about your family or what you do for a living. So consider how God introduces himself in the opening line of the Bible… In the beginning, (that is the beginning of time) God (the Hebrew word is Elohim and it appears 35 times in chapter one catching the reader’s eye again and again) created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1  In other words, it’s as if God says, “Let me introduce myself. Look around you. Do you see the beauty, order, design, complexity, power and purposefulness in nature and the universe? I did all of it.” This is helpful. Right from the start God wants to answer the most basic question any human can ask. Where did all this come from and where did I come from? The philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte stated the essential problem of philosophy: there is something, instead of nothing. Why? Everything else in our life flows from the answer to this question. God wants us to understand that the world did not create itself nor did it come about by chance.  Rather, God introduces himself as the creator in the fashion of someone who takes a lump of clay and begins to form it into something extraordinary.  If you believe God created the heavens and the earth and the universe then he can remake you as well. He can bring a Genesis into your life. One of his first creation acts was to bring light where there was darkness. He still performs this today. As we will see, Genesis is about God’s grace and mercy toward people who get themselves into all kinds of trouble. The solution is Jesus!