WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.279 Our text is Genesis 1, I believe it's 2 through 5. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:08.320 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:11.679 And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.480 And God said, Let there be light. 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:15.839 And there was light. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:18.800 And God saw the light was good. 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:21.359 And God separated the light from the darkness. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.359 God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:27.679 And there was evening and there was morning. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:28.960 The first day. 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:31.039 Please be seated. 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:32.799 This is the world of the Lord. 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:38.000 Good morning. 00:00:38.719 --> 00:00:40.799 Welcome to Redemption Church Denver. 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.759 We meet in the Berkeley neighborhood in the mornings at 9:30 in the morning. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:46.640 I just like saying that. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:48.079 It's very exciting to me. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.039 Thanks to everyone who helped set up this morning. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:52.159 It was so cool to see. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:58.000 I think we moved considerably quicker than we expected to, which was great. 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:08.000 Last week after church, do you all know Sebastian? 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:10.159 Smash and stand up and you can turn around and wave everybody. 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:12.480 All right, give Smash a hand. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:14.560 Great standing and waving. 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:25.840 Sebastian went out to lunch just off Tennyson at a little place called the Cozy Cottage and met a guy there named Michael and got his card. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:29.599 He's the he runs that restaurant, the Cozy Cottage. 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:40.319 And we uh uh got to meet him later this week at that recommendation, and he was he sat down and he was like, I could tell that he was probably the right guy to meet because he was wearing a Jesus freak t-shirt. 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:43.760 Uh I forgot mine today. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:51.439 Um and uh he was like, you guys realize that you're going to be the only Protestant church in this neighborhood, right? 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:55.680 And uh to which I was like, okay, then our data was correct. 00:01:56.400 --> 00:02:01.280 Uh uh, he's like, we we're just so excited that there's a church coming in here. 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:07.359 He's and he he literally said it was with me, uh Kyle and Kyle, one of our elders who've spoken here before. 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:19.120 Um we were we were both getting lunch and met him there, and uh he goes, I'll I'll make you guys a key today, and you can just use this if you have any meetings or anything that you need in the neighborhood. 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:21.680 I'll just make you a key and you can come in and use this. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:27.280 So uh this is a time of uh that's just really cool. 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:28.560 It's really cool. 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:29.280 Yeah. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:32.479 Yeah, let's applaud that happening. 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:36.879 Um this is how we're going to move into the neighborhood. 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:42.319 Uh the so I I want you to consider use your lunch today. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:49.280 Uh, one of the great things about meeting here is Tennyson Street is just like jammed with great places to eat. 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:50.560 Uh use them. 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:52.400 Tell people where you came from. 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:58.560 Tell them that, hey, there's a there's a church in town now, and they meet at the school, and we're a part of it. 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:00.879 And check it out, we're great tippers. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:06.719 Uh, and that's uh a way to just sort of build this presence in the community. 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:10.159 We want to be moving through the relationships that God shows us. 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:19.199 One of the things we were praying for is that God would show us just these people of peace uh that uh would kind of bring us into this community. 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:21.840 And that was just a cool story of one example of that. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.639 So uh that's what I want to commission you to do today. 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:26.000 Use your lunch. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:35.439 Use your lunch as an outreach, a demonstration of what does it look like when at noon on Sundays now, this area seems to be flooded with just a different type of joy. 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:39.360 Uh I think that could be really cool for uh Tennyson. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:44.240 So um this is uh Redemption Church Denver. 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:49.919 Here we gather and we gather in each other's homes throughout the week. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.560 And the way that you do that is you join a redemption group. 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:57.599 So to join a redemption group, you can just go into your app, tap groups, and then tap join a group. 00:03:57.919 --> 00:04:04.319 This is the first week that redemption groups are starting, and there's no preparation required. 00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:07.680 Uh the most helpful thing you can do is just listen to the sermon. 00:04:07.759 --> 00:04:10.000 So if you're here, you're ahead of the curve. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:23.360 And uh uh then we'll discuss the sermon and read over the scripture and process that together as a group in each other's homes throughout the week, share our lives and see how this text apply to us in a more personal way. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:33.279 Uh, you guys have the Holy Spirit, and you, just like me, you can sit down with Scripture and uh the Holy Spirit will allow you to interpret it accurately. 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:41.120 It is accessible to you, and when we do that as a community, we are built up in unity around the word. 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:45.199 Our unity as a church comes from the word. 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:49.360 And so when we gather around together, uh that unity develops. 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:56.879 Um, and our love for one another develops, and by this they will know that we are Jesus' disciples by our love for one another. 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:59.680 So consider that part of your outreach as well. 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:12.240 Uh, this is uh our first, uh excuse me, we're we're jumping into the text now, and uh we only read the first day, but today, buckle up, we're covering the six days of creation. 00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:15.519 Uh so we're gonna be moving through all six days. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:20.000 Um, so with that, let's uh go ahead and pray and then get into our text. 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:28.240 Father, we pray that your spirit would move in our hearts and that it would continue to move before us into this neighborhood. 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:37.519 Lord, uh we pray that we would begin to see just a pattern of um outreach and of joy at the presence of your church. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:47.199 We thank you for your holy Catholic Church, your big church that you are working into the world, and we praise you that we get to be a small part of it. 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:56.079 Lord, I pray that you would apply this text to our hearts and that your uh uh uh name and your vision for creation would be glorified this morning. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.079 In Jesus' name, amen. 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:04.720 So, Genesis, uh the six days of creation. 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:26.639 This is uh an incredibly controversial part of scripture, and I think that the reason why is because it uh over the past century it became this kind of touch point that pitted uh our religion, Christianity, against uh uh against a scient, uh, a purely secular scientific sort of worldview. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:31.360 And this became kind of the the touchstone passage where that happened. 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:48.800 Uh and so when you're listening through this today, uh I was considering all week, like, man, there's so much to be said about the way this text impacts our view of science, our view of culture, our view of how scripture is supposed to relate to the greater world. 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:55.680 And those questions can be the foremost questions that are in our head when we're moving through this text. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:07:02.160 And it can be easy for us to filter Genesis 1 completely through that lens. 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:08.079 And so today I wanted to make a conscious effort to just preach the text. 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:19.600 I'm uh you may be unsatisfied with regards to the controversies that spring to your mind when you consider the first six days of creation. 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:39.120 But I want you, I want us to stand back and say, okay, if those questions that our culture presents weren't the first questions in our head, and if we were to take a more general reading of this, what do we think the point is that God is getting across in these six days of creation? 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:44.240 So, first of all, let's examine it a bit in its cultural context. 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:58.000 So, Genesis, uh these six days of creation are really unique, especially when compared to other ancient Near Eastern or ancient Mesopotamian creation myths. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:03.360 That's when this text starts to really stand out, when it's compared to its contemporary documents. 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:07.759 So those are uh uh Gilgamesh, which you may have heard of. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:12.800 It's like one of the oldest texts that we have of anything that is written down. 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:16.399 And it's mostly relevant because it also has a flood story. 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:27.360 And then the one that's uh more closely related to creation itself rather than the flood is a text called the Enuma Elish, or as I call it, the Billy Eilish. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:42.399 And it is uh uh it was discovered in the 1850s in Nineveh, which is in northern Iraq, and it dates back to 1100 BC, and it presents this uh creation myth. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:53.919 Now, what's interesting about it is it doesn't present creation as an intentional act of design by a creator. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:09:08.320 Instead, it presents creation more as a happenstance series of events that describes, okay, so this is just the way that the world happened to develop because of the way these certain gods interacted. 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:15.759 So one of the uh premier scholars on the Enuma Elish is a man named Thorkild Jacobson. 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:18.879 Uh, that's a cool name. 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:23.519 Uh and uh Thorkild Jacobson uh he says this. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:26.639 He says, um, this is of the Enuma Elish. 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:34.000 He says, world origins, it holds, it the Enuma Elish, world origins, it holds, are essentially accidental. 00:09:34.559 --> 00:09:40.960 Gods were born out of a mingling of the primeval waters and they engendered other gods. 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:47.120 So this is mostly what the story is when we compare Genesis to these other creation myths. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:10:03.759 The other creation myths are not interested in the not as interested in the word as cosmogeny, which is the Genesis, the origin of creation, as much as they are interested in theogeny, which is the origin of their particular gods. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.720 Now, sometimes their theogeny corresponds to a certain part of creation. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:20.320 For example, Marduk, who is the god in the Enuma Elish, kills a rival god and uses that rival god's body as the sky. 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:24.720 So because of this battle, that's where the sky comes from. 00:10:24.879 --> 00:10:26.960 But it's a story of happenstance. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:33.519 The sky happens to be there because of this particular murder between these gods. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:36.639 Uh I don't know if it was murder, that other guy had it coming. 00:10:36.879 --> 00:10:54.879 Um and the uh uh so Genesis stands uh in stark contrast to these stories uh uh uh that that are existing in the contemporary world that Genesis is being written in. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:11:13.600 Because in Genesis, we don't see the world as, look, it happens to be this way because of these certain interactions between other gods, but rather we see the world not as it happens to be, but as it is meant to be. 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:27.279 In the creation story of Genesis, God is not a part of creation that's duking it out and moving an eternal matter around that that God happens to also be a part of. 00:11:27.519 --> 00:11:40.399 But instead, God stands back from creation, and then he intentionally creates the world by design, by his good intention, to exactly how it is meant to be. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:45.279 So when we look at the world, we don't see the world just as it is. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:59.120 A famous philosopher named David Hume used to say there is no ought from is, which means that you can't look at the way things are and then say that's the way things ought to be. 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:04.320 But in creation, precisely the opposite argument is being made. 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:08.480 Now, this change is due to sin, but sin hasn't come into the world yet. 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:14.159 So where we are in the story, there is most certainly an ought from the is. 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:19.120 The is is not just happenstance, but it is the way things are meant to be. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:26.960 Now, part of our going through Genesis is helping us to gain an understanding of where we are in the story of redemption as it's unfolding. 00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:35.759 And when we understand where we are in the big story of the world and how we connect to that, then we understand what the meaning and purpose, even of our own lives, is. 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:51.919 And so uh in this, we see that in the intentional creation that we see laid out in these six days, we see that uh uh we're in the beginning of a redemption story. 00:12:52.960 --> 00:12:57.519 And it's a redemption story because creation is good. 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:00.480 It is made to be good. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:24.879 Then when we look at it and when we experience it, and we try to work and it and it doesn't work, and we try to bring things together and they just fall apart, and we look at the world, and instead of seeing something that's uh just generative, like we see in these first six days, we see a world that's full of decay and loss and it is on the brink of destruction and tends towards things uncoiling. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:29.679 Uh, we might say, okay, this world is meaningless. 00:13:30.159 --> 00:13:36.559 But when we look at that and we get this sense, it's wrong that things die and decay. 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:43.279 It's wrong that that there's this entropy that rules the world so that everything seems to fall apart. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:46.080 It's wrong that the center doesn't hold. 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:57.519 When we see that wrongness, what's happening is in our hearts, there's we're getting in touch with this truth of the world, that there's a way things are supposed to be. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:05.519 What we're admitting when we see the wrongness that's in the world is that there's a way things ought to be. 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:16.960 And so we have this deep nostalgia in our hearts to get back to a world as it was meant to be, one of flourishing and of joy. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:22.000 And that's the world we see created in Genesis 1. 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:27.519 So what we'll see is three phases of creation, and I'm gonna have to blitz. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:40.639 Uh so we'll see the uh, first of all, we'll see the potential of creation, and then we're going to see the forming of creation, and then we're going to see the filling. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:45.200 So, potential, forming, and filling. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:47.279 First, potential. 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:50.320 I'm gonna read Genesis uh one, one through two. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:54.080 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:14:54.240 --> 00:15:03.519 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:13.279 So Genesis 1.1, we covered last week that ex nihilo, God created from nothing, created the heavens and the earth from no origin but God alone. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:26.080 And then uh right now we see God hovering over this uh over this sort of formlessness and emptiness, that there's this darkness, formlessness, and emptiness. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:28.960 The earth is without form and it is void. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:35.039 So it's formless, it has no shape, and that lack of shape is also empty. 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:39.840 Uh there's no life or diversity or kinds in that form. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:49.759 And in this, we see God, we see the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:16:08.080 Now, it's worth noting here that what we see this is often described as like uh comparable to other creation myths because God is going to battle against chaos, which is the formlessness and the void that God hovers over. 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:11.279 But that's really not the picture that we have here. 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:28.080 This word for what the Spirit is doing, this hovering, is used in one other place in scripture, and it's used in Deuteronomy when God describes Himself as hovering like a mother eagle would hover over her young to protect them and then to grow them up. 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:32.559 That's the picture of what the hovering is here. 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:40.639 God is not going to battle against chaos, God is hovering over this unformed clay. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:50.080 And this clay is not his enemy, this is the medium that he moves through to bring form and to fill that form. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:58.320 That's the picture of creation that we have is of a designer hovering over this potential. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:04.880 And then God, by the spirit, will bring that potential to actuality in the world. 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:11.200 Now, this is the first thing that we see the spirit doing, and this is what the spirit always does. 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:22.319 The spirit is always moving through this medium of potential to bring the goodness, the intended goodness of creation out of it and to bring it into reality. 00:17:22.640 --> 00:17:28.880 So when the spirit moves to regenerate our own hearts, it's doing that very same thing. 00:17:29.119 --> 00:17:35.359 It moves in this sort of potential space of our hearts to bring to fruition the intention of God. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:38.640 We see this pattern of the spirit established here. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:55.039 So, what will then become the shape of the creation narrative is the first three days we'll see God form, uh bring form to this formlessness, and the second three days we'll see God fill that form. 00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:00.720 So let's go ahead and jump into the first day of creation as we begin forming. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:02.880 Genesis 1, 3 through 5. 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:11.359 And God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:15.759 God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:19.599 And there was evening and there was morning the first day. 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.079 So, first of all, we have to begin with God said. 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:31.599 This uh covers a multitude of errors in our understanding of where the world came from. 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:42.960 And it also guards us against trying to know too much about that process, because what we see happen is God says, Let there be light, and there was light. 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:48.880 This is what it means for God's call, for God's word to be effective. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.920 This is baseline a picture of that. 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:56.960 That when God says it, that establishes it in reality. 00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:02.559 The word of God is always effective to its ends. 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:08.160 And then the first thing that God creates is light. 00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:15.119 Now notice there's no sun, there's no moon, there's no stars, we aren't there yet. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:17.759 We won't be there for another three days. 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:24.799 But God creates light initially and he separates them and he separates it from the darkness. 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:29.119 Now, light throughout scripture starts to gain this meaning. 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:37.119 There's this meaningfulness in the object of creation that starts to transpire throughout all of Scripture. 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:44.400 So that light itself will later be, Jesus will describe himself later as the light of the world. 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:48.160 So it exposes the truth. 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:53.119 And it brings life to the world. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:20:00.400 Jesus is saying that light that is made in the beginning, that's a picture of me. 00:20:01.599 --> 00:20:13.200 What's being the way that the world is being created is in this uh uh the though the phrase is it's it's being created theomorphically. 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:24.880 And that means that God is creating the world uh to display himself, to display his glory. 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:28.400 And that's what we see in the way that God creates the world. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:32.720 The intention of creation is to display the glory of God. 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:39.839 The next thing God does on this day is he he sees and then he separates and then he names. 00:20:40.559 --> 00:20:45.359 So first he sees the light and he says the light is good. 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:59.119 This is both an observation by God because he sees it and then says it, but it's also a declaration that when God calls something good, then it is good. 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:03.119 That is what it means for something to be good. 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:16.319 So this means that the world, this refrain will follow us for the rest of the days, and it means that the world is not created neutral, which I think is our default way of considering creation. 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:20.559 The world is not it's not just like a neutral player in the game. 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:22.880 Creation is created good. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:27.359 And so the hurt is that this goodness is lost. 00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:29.519 Next, God separates. 00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:33.759 So that shows that God separates the light from the darkness. 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:35.839 There's they are not commingling. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:42.960 So that means that in God's good creation, part of the goodness is demonstrated in the distinctiveness. 00:21:43.279 --> 00:21:59.759 This is very different from uh like uh many Eastern religions, where we see that the unity of God is demonstrated in all things dissolving together, losing their own identity, and dissolving together into a sort of eternal sea that we dwell in. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.000 This is the opposite of that. 00:22:02.319 --> 00:22:07.119 God demonstrates his glory in the distinctiveness that he brings. 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:12.880 Somehow, in this unity of creation, it is full of diversity. 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:15.759 And that will just continue throughout the process. 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:24.079 So God sees that it's good, he separates to create distinctiveness, and then he names the light in the darkness. 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:29.680 And the light he calls day, and the darkness he calls night. 00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:37.359 So this assignment is not just, excuse me, this naming is an assignment. 00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:44.400 He's giving these creatures, light and day, a role to play by naming them. 00:22:44.880 --> 00:22:47.519 And so he names the light day. 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:53.680 And so this thing that is day, we now live with and deal with. 00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:57.279 And this darkness is not just darkness, it's it's night. 00:22:57.440 --> 00:22:59.279 There's a rhythm to it. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:03.920 So we see God see, separate, and name. 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:06.160 This is the first day. 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:12.240 The word of God establishes a realm of goodness. 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:15.519 He orders it with distinction. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:19.759 And then he assigns roles in that realm. 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:22.559 This is what we see from the first day. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:24.559 Such intentionality. 00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:29.440 Now in the second day, it says this, Genesis 1, 6 through 8. 00:23:29.759 --> 00:23:38.240 And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate waters from the waters. 00:23:38.400 --> 00:23:45.759 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:47.200 And it was so. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:50.559 And God called the expanse heaven. 00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:55.039 And there was evening and there was morning the second day. 00:23:56.079 --> 00:23:59.759 Now we're only on day two, and if you listen closely, you're probably like, what? 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:02.079 What happened on day two? 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:05.599 Expanses and separating the waters below from the waters above. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:11.680 So this word expanse is that's a really gentle translation. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:14.559 It's probably better translated as something like firmament. 00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:32.079 And uh that's because the root verb uh that forms this word firmament is a word for to pound, like you would pound out a mirror, or you would pound out some metal to flatten it and uh uh you know make it shiny. 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:50.240 And so what this this pounding out of the sky as like this sheet of of metal, this this like uh this this surface that forms the sky uh is the is the dis that's the description of what's happening here. 00:24:50.319 --> 00:24:52.720 That's the mental picture of what's happening. 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:57.759 And it what's formed are these two interacting depths. 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:10.480 We have the the sea, which is the water beneath, separated and like a mirror reflected also in blue, is the depth of the sky above. 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:16.000 So this brings us to a point about how to read our creation story. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:22.640 Creation is created, as I said, theomorphically, which is to demonstrate God's character. 00:25:22.960 --> 00:25:29.200 But that doesn't mean that creation is like a one-to-one analog for who God is. 00:25:29.599 --> 00:25:32.880 You know, God doesn't like have trees, for example. 00:25:32.960 --> 00:25:34.960 And so God put trees in creation. 00:25:35.119 --> 00:25:41.279 It's more like the way, it's not like the way a husband relates to, or excuse me, a father relates to a son. 00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:46.960 It's more like the way a builder relates to the house that they built. 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:49.920 That's the analogy of how God creates. 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:57.200 And so in the creation of the house, we see something of the builder, but this is not a one-to-one analog of the builder. 00:25:57.440 --> 00:26:05.920 And then the way that creation is described to us is described to us from the perspective of a human living on the earth. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:13.279 Because this story is a story that's meant to be understood just by people. 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:23.039 People across all cultures, across all worldviews, are meant to be able to relate to this creation narrative and walk out and say, Yeah, I get the sky. 00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:26.880 That when I when I just look at the sky, that's kind of what it's like. 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:33.200 It's like this blue sea that develops in the heavens, and then that's separated from the water beneath. 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:36.880 And water comes from the sky, and there's also water beneath the ground. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:47.279 And so that's the approach that we want to take, this kind of prima facie, wow, let there be light, type of reading of scriptures, this face value. 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:49.599 What does this appear like to a human? 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:51.680 That's what's being described here. 00:26:53.119 --> 00:27:05.119 So the interesting thing is that God creates this sky, this expanse, this firmament, and then he names it heaven. 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:09.359 Now, this is not the heaven of the first verse. 00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:12.319 Genesis 1, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:20.160 And then we kind of don't hear about the creation of that heaven, the dwelling place of God where he lives, where his throne room is. 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:26.160 But God creates this expanse in our world, our dimension. 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:30.960 And he names that expanse heaven. 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:54.720 This is where we start to see how God builds into our creation these pictures that he uses to explain himself as this eternal being, this unfathomable, unfathomable, totally transcendent God, he creates his world in order to demonstrate himself clearly to people like us. 00:27:55.519 --> 00:28:03.680 And so we'll see that this thing that is named heaven, and Paul will later talk that he's called up to the third heaven. 00:28:03.920 --> 00:28:17.039 And that became the language of how to describe existence because uh the first heaven is like the sky beneath the atmosphere, and the second heaven is space, and then the third heaven, that's where God dwells. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:23.839 Well, you see the way that these symbols are built into creation. 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:30.400 So consider the way that the throne room of God is described in Revelation 4. 00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:38.720 So in Revelation chapter 4, the the throne room of God is described as before the throne of God, there's this giant sea of glass. 00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:43.599 So it's like it's like an ocean, but it's different from an ocean because it's translucent. 00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:45.599 It's like you can see straight through it. 00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:47.039 It's like the sky. 00:28:47.279 --> 00:29:00.960 And then uh shooting forth uh from around the throne of God, there's uh lightning crashing, and there's rolls of thunder happening, these things that you look up and see in the sky. 00:29:01.119 --> 00:29:09.039 And then uh from the throne of God is shooting forth a rainbow, something that you see in the sky. 00:29:09.839 --> 00:29:16.880 See, our heaven is built off of the blueprint of God's heaven. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:31.680 Because God in his creation is accommodating to our small frame, giving us ways of understanding these completely transcendent things like the throne of God. 00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:34.400 Because God built creation in this way. 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:44.400 When we look up, and we when we just walk up and look at the sky, we can say, you know, this is a picture of something far more glorious than even this. 00:29:44.799 --> 00:29:56.160 And the symbols that he built into this creation, they are pointing towards something far greater than even this glorious sky that I'm seeing now with my own eyes. 00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:02.720 This is the way that creation is designed, to be a pointer towards who God is. 00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:06.160 Creation is always, this is what the Psalms will say. 00:30:06.319 --> 00:30:10.480 Creation is shouting, it's proclaiming the glory of God. 00:30:11.119 --> 00:30:12.559 That's always happening. 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:16.240 In the creation account, we're being given the eyes to see it. 00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:18.720 Now the third day. 00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:29.200 So on the third day in verses 9 through 10, uh, what's described is the waters are the waters recede and the dry land appears. 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:43.440 And so in the third day, there's not this sort of speaking something new into existence as much as there is just this separating and this further division for the creation to take place, this bringing of more distinctiveness and more detail into creation. 00:30:44.079 --> 00:30:53.119 And uh then on the third day, the story starts to pivot from this creating form into filling that form. 00:30:53.359 --> 00:30:56.000 And it happens in the second part of the third day. 00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:59.519 And in the next three days, we'll really, really draw this out. 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:01.759 Uh so we'll we'll read the second part. 00:31:01.839 --> 00:31:14.960 In Genesis 1, 11 through 13, it says, And God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth. 00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:16.400 And it was so. 00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:33.279 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kind, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, and God saw that it was good, and there was evening and there was morning the third day. 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:47.759 So if you look at the language, it's it's uh you start to see God beginning to commission his creation it into his creation. 00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:52.480 It's the earth, God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation. 00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:57.519 The words literally would just read like, let the earth vegetate vegetation. 00:31:58.160 --> 00:32:11.920 It's as though this potential that God had hovered over and then brought life about through his spirit, God built that potential, that life sort of uh uh energy. 00:32:12.079 --> 00:32:14.160 Uh it's probably a horrible metaphor. 00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:16.319 Uh, because what is energy? 00:32:16.559 --> 00:32:18.240 It comes from the mitochondria. 00:32:18.799 --> 00:32:20.720 It's called an inside joke. 00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:23.039 You can listen to last week. 00:32:23.839 --> 00:32:36.559 And there's this, uh, and then God just moves through the creation that he already has, and now the earth is sharing in his creative process of bringing forth this vegetation. 00:32:36.720 --> 00:32:48.799 Now it is no less God doing it, it is God completely in control of this creation still, and yet he's using these secondary means of his creation to bring these things about. 00:32:49.039 --> 00:32:56.640 The earth begins to create these kinds of plants so that there's this diversity of the types of plants that we see. 00:32:56.720 --> 00:32:58.960 I mean, how many types of plants that are there? 00:32:59.200 --> 00:32:59.759 Twelve? 00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:02.000 Many more than that. 00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:03.759 That was a joke. 00:33:08.240 --> 00:33:16.319 Um He sees this diversity in his creation, and he says, this is good. 00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:17.599 This is good. 00:33:17.839 --> 00:33:19.680 Now, the fourth day. 00:33:20.880 --> 00:33:23.519 In the fourth day, we have these forms created. 00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:29.119 We have light and darkness, we have the sea and sky, and we have dry land and the sea. 00:33:29.279 --> 00:33:35.519 And in these different forms, these different environments, God starts to fill them with life and flourishing. 00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:56.079 And on the fourth day, uh it says this, Genesis 1, 14 through 16, and God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. 00:33:56.240 --> 00:33:57.519 And it was so. 00:33:58.079 --> 00:34:06.799 And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. 00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:12.800 So, the first day what we saw was this uh this forming. 00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:19.039 Um, in fact, uh, Serge, we can go ahead and skip to the next slide, and we'll go ahead and show start to show this graph. 00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:27.119 So the first three days we see this form develop, light and dark, sea and sky, and then day three, the fertile earth. 00:34:27.280 --> 00:34:51.599 Then on day four, corresponding to day one, where the light and dark was created, now we're given these, we're filling this void of light and dark with uh creatures, the moon and the stars and uh the sun to rule over this domain, so that this form is now getting fullness by the light and the dark. 00:34:51.840 --> 00:35:09.760 And what we see with this starting to fill, uh, God does these amazing things with light and dark, as he he commissions the sun and the moon to do the job of separating day and night. 00:35:09.920 --> 00:35:31.119 This thing that God first did in the beginning, which was separate light from darkness and then name them day and night, this separating is now being commissioned, delegated to the sun and the moon and the stars, so that they would, it's the it's the very language, rule over the day and the night. 00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:42.639 And scripture will pick up on this understanding of, okay, so these these creatures like the sun and the stars, they're doing exactly what God commissioned them to do. 00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:49.920 In Psalm 90, it will pick up on this thought, and we could just picture the psalmist, which we actually sang some of Psalm 90 today. 00:35:50.159 --> 00:35:54.159 I'm sorry, we sang some of Psalm 90, I'm talking about Psalm 19. 00:35:54.880 --> 00:35:57.679 Uh classic mix-up. 00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:17.679 Uh Psalm in Psalm 19, uh, the psalmist says that the the sun runs its course like a like a bridegroom uh is like walking out of the house to go get married, like you know, full-on Connor McGregor strat. 00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:22.719 And uh it runs its course with joy. 00:36:23.519 --> 00:36:30.079 The sun runs its course through the sky with joy. 00:36:30.719 --> 00:36:33.360 It was commissioned, it was delegated by God. 00:36:33.519 --> 00:36:36.239 Your job is to separate day from the night. 00:36:36.320 --> 00:36:41.679 You have a realm, you rule over this and now move through it with joy. 00:36:41.840 --> 00:36:47.119 You see what the sun is doing with every sunrise and every sunset? 00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:51.199 It's condemning us. 00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:56.800 Because we're creatures just like that. 00:36:58.159 --> 00:37:01.760 Meant to perfectly fulfill our responsibility. 00:37:02.159 --> 00:37:08.960 And God placed in the universe this other creature that's meant to point us towards himself. 00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:20.239 It's meant to show us, I made this son and I made you too to run your course with joy, and I gave you this realm to live in it, just exactly how I called you to live in it. 00:37:20.400 --> 00:37:37.840 And so in Romans 1, when Paul says that the that just by looking at the creation, we we see enough to know the divine power of God, that this was created by a creator who needs to, who deserves to be known with our lives. 00:37:38.480 --> 00:37:44.320 We see that here in the creation of the sun and the moon and the stars. 00:37:45.760 --> 00:37:48.079 Next is the fifth day. 00:37:49.840 --> 00:38:06.079 The fifth day, uh we continue this filling of these forms in Genesis 1, 20 through 21, and God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. 00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:19.920 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarm according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind, and God saw that it was good. 00:38:20.079 --> 00:38:28.480 So we can begin, we can go ahead and skip again, we can begin to see this same sort of filling of this form. 00:38:28.639 --> 00:38:31.440 Uh, Serge, we can go ahead and skip to the next one. 00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:40.719 Uh sorry, I miss I I drew wrong where the graph was, but uh this form is beginning to be filled again. 00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:46.239 Uh on the second day, God created the sky and the sea. 00:38:46.400 --> 00:38:52.480 And then here on the fifth day, correspondingly, God fills them with fish and with birds. 00:38:52.639 --> 00:38:57.519 This formless and void is becoming fullness and flourishing. 00:38:58.559 --> 00:39:06.559 And then God commissions in the same way this continuation of the development right here, Genesis 1, 22 through 23. 00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:16.079 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. 00:39:16.320 --> 00:39:20.079 And there was evening and there was morning the fifth day. 00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:29.280 Now something, throughout this whole filling process, we see that things that only God had done, God is now commissioning to his creatures. 00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:34.239 We'd only seen God create, we'd only seen God make this life happen. 00:39:34.320 --> 00:39:42.639 And then he blesses the birds and the fish and the seas, and in blessing them, he says, now share in this creative process. 00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:57.920 Demonstrate my glory by doing this very same thing that I have done, which is create more of you, fill more life, cover the earth more with more and more diversity, more life throughout these realms. 00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:05.840 Throughout, so that the sky will be full of birds, so that the waters will be full of fish in the sea. 00:40:07.199 --> 00:40:11.039 Now we'll continue on and we'll see our graph again. 00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:25.440 So we see the creatures of the water and the air fill the void of the, the, excuse me, fill the form of what was created on the second day. 00:40:25.679 --> 00:40:28.000 And now the sixth day. 00:40:28.719 --> 00:40:35.119 Now we're cutting the sixth day in half, and uh next week, on the sixth day, humans are created. 00:40:35.280 --> 00:40:39.199 And so we're gonna spend a whole week just looking at the creation of humanity. 00:40:39.360 --> 00:40:43.840 Because I figure I preached to mostly humans, you'd probably be most interested in that. 00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:57.599 But here the first half of the sixth day in Genesis 1, 24 through 25, and God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. 00:40:57.760 --> 00:40:58.719 And it was so. 00:40:58.960 --> 00:41:09.519 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind, and God saw that it was good. 00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:22.480 Now later after the creation of man, God will step back and bless these creatures of the earth and give them the same command which we share in, which is be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. 00:41:25.599 --> 00:41:31.440 You see the pattern of creation, the good intent. 00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:42.320 And you can see by the very nature of the way the creation narrative unfolds, is it's not meant to be done after the sixth day. 00:41:43.360 --> 00:41:56.480 It's meant to continue on, to continue in development, to continue in this flourishing, so that more forms would be created, that those forms might be filled more completely. 00:41:56.960 --> 00:42:09.760 And we'll get more into this more next week, but what when we see the world as it ought to be, what we're shown is a world that's very different from the way we typically conceptualize it. 00:42:10.239 --> 00:42:14.159 We can typically conceptualize the world as like a petri dish. 00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:25.280 And then there's living creatures on top, uh there's living creatures that are in this petri dish, and they're using up all of the resources. 00:42:26.079 --> 00:42:32.559 And sooner or later, all of the resources are going to be emptied from this petri dish and it's just going to die and decay. 00:42:33.199 --> 00:42:38.400 But that's the very opposite picture of creation that we see in Genesis. 00:42:38.960 --> 00:42:43.679 What we see is a world that's made good with goodness in it. 00:42:44.159 --> 00:42:51.360 And God's creatures are commissioned to go out and draw that goodness out of creation. 00:42:52.480 --> 00:42:59.679 It's made for us to share in from the very beginning the creative process that God has started. 00:43:00.639 --> 00:43:08.000 What we'll see happen is that this creative process will be completely stunted by sin. 00:43:09.360 --> 00:43:13.119 This good movement of creation will be halted. 00:43:14.000 --> 00:43:22.800 And a goodness will lead to a decay and a death as the stewards of the world, humans, lose their place. 00:43:24.880 --> 00:43:49.360 So as we move out into the world, I want you to consider the areas of longing, those areas of brokenness, where you see this isn't the way that the world should be. 00:43:50.480 --> 00:43:58.000 And then consider that because of this creation story, you can know that that longing is true. 00:43:58.880 --> 00:44:10.800 That deep nostalgia for a world that should be able to just be unleashing this diverse, glorious, creative energy. 00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:23.519 That longing, because of Christ, that longing for a past can turn into a hope for a future. 00:44:24.400 --> 00:44:26.719 That's the redemption story that we're in. 00:44:28.079 --> 00:44:29.840 So the world is created. 00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:33.039 It was meant to be a certain way. 00:44:34.960 --> 00:44:38.639 By Christ, we can be brought back in line with that creative intent. 00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:40.800 Alright. 00:44:41.440 --> 00:44:43.440 Let's see if there's any questions. 00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:45.440 Really? 00:44:46.880 --> 00:44:50.000 Alright, if you have any questions afterwards, we can talk. 00:44:50.320 --> 00:44:51.519 We can talk. 00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:55.440 Yeah, I'll be here. 00:44:55.840 --> 00:44:57.840 Alright, now we'll take communion. 00:44:58.480 --> 00:45:09.599 Uh, when we take communion, we remember that uh because of this incredible loss, uh this good thing that was lost, it had to come back by an unthinkable cost. 00:45:10.320 --> 00:45:19.840 That the creator himself would enter into his creation to pay a just punishment for the sin by which we corrupted the world. 00:45:20.079 --> 00:45:33.679 By paying for that sin, he's able to enact a redemption of this good creation so that the good thing that was broken would not be thrown away, but would be set right to be good again. 00:45:33.840 --> 00:45:35.599 That's what we have to look forward to. 00:45:35.920 --> 00:45:41.119 The amazing thing about our creation story is that it is both a longing and a hope. 00:45:41.760 --> 00:45:51.840 So uh remember that it was the broken body of Christ and has poured out blood by which this longing of our creation story can become a hope. 00:45:52.079 --> 00:45:53.280 Let's pray. 00:45:54.079 --> 00:46:07.440