WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.879 Genesis 1 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:06.160 This is the word of the Lord. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:07.120 Please be seated. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:13.359 Have you guys heard that one before? 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:16.960 Good morning. 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:18.800 Welcome to can you see me? 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:22.399 Because Christmas Eve, I was completely invisible. 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:25.199 Welcome to Redemption Church Denver. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:26.480 My name is James Rathman. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:27.440 I'm the pastor here. 00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:30.879 This is our first Sunday here in Berkeley. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:32.560 We are meeting in the morning. 00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:37.439 So the sorrows may last for the night, joy comes in the morning. 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:41.679 And we uh uh yeah, we're just so thrilled to be here. 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:42.640 This is incredible. 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:46.240 This is the realization of so much effort and so much work. 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:53.200 Um so first people that we want to thank are the folks who signed up for the makers and breakers team. 00:00:53.359 --> 00:01:05.439 They came here for just about uh, well, the second half of yesterday and it set up and we ran through our systems and got things taped out so that we can come and have church and it can feel easy and you can just show up. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:10.640 So let's just like give them a hand for that's right. 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:13.519 We can pay pay them an applause. 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:14.959 Uh it's just been a wonderful thing. 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.920 This is there's been so much effort that's gone into this move. 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:30.480 Uh like everything you see up here, uh uh Zach didn't know the name of three months ago, and then learned the name of it, and then bought it and bought the right things, and it's just really amazing. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.439 It's been so cool to see how this has all come together. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:37.200 It's been one of those uh joyful things where it's like, wow, things can happen. 00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:44.560 You can get momentum behind something, and and the the spirit can attend it, and all of a sudden the work of your hands can be established. 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:47.519 We gathered all the volunteers together this morning. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:56.159 So everybody who's with your kids or who helped set up or who welcomed you when you came in, or who's working uh uh slides and sound and lights. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:08.639 Uh and uh we gathered together in the gym and we prayed all together, and we prayed over uh Psalm 90, verse 17, uh, which is a prayer that says, Lord, establish the work of our hands. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:14.000 Uh and we are standing in that prayer answered right now. 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:16.719 Uh that the Lord has established the work of our hands. 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:20.159 It's just a wonderful, amazing, joyful thing to be a part of. 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:27.759 So thanks so much for coming out uh and joining us for this first Sunday at Redemption Church Denver uh here in the Berkeley neighborhood. 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.800 That place that we said we were going, we went. 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:32.560 And here we are. 00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:38.000 So uh there are two ways to get involved at Redemption Church Denver. 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:40.560 We gather large and we gather small. 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:46.000 So we gather large on Sunday mornings and we gather small in each other's homes throughout the week. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:47.680 We call those redemption groups. 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:53.120 Uh our new season of redemption groups will be starting the week of January 19th. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:57.599 If you're a redemption group leader, we've got a Friday meeting on the 17th. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:06.080 Uh, but if you would like to be a part of one of our redemption groups, you can do that by downloading our app and signing up there, or by going to our website and clicking connect. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:11.280 It's a great way to form community uh at Redemption Church. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:17.759 Uh today we are beginning in the beginning. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:22.000 So let's pray, and then we'll get into our text for today. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:28.000 Father, your goodness is overwhelming. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:31.280 Your care for us is just uh unthinkable. 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:44.159 I pray that this morning, as we look at this uh the beginning of the beginnings, the foundation, the the first sentence in your word to us. 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:54.240 Lord, would you give us bearings in our hearts that allow us to find where we are in our stories because of where you are. 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:57.439 So, Father, we pray that you would do that for us this morning. 00:03:57.680 --> 00:03:58.960 Lift us up in Jesus' name. 00:03:59.280 --> 00:03:59.919 Amen. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:09.840 So we've got a bit of a plan for the upcoming sermon series for the next couple of years. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:17.839 What we're going to be doing is uh each spring, which we'll just call this like our spring semester, we're gonna be going through Genesis. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:22.480 So this year, we're gonna go through the first 11 chapters of Genesis. 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:27.439 That brings us up through Babel, uh, Mumford and Son's sophomore record. 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:43.759 And uh once we make it through Babel, then we're going to uh uh switch over and uh we're gonna do a couple of topical series, and then over the summer, we're gonna study the book of James, which is basically like the wisdom literature, it's like the proverbs of the New Testament. 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:50.160 And then uh after in the into the fall, then we're going to do the first four chapters of Mark. 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:59.920 And we're gonna be alternating that spring in Genesis and fall in Mark for about the next three years, is the way it looks like it's gonna uh map out. 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:05.600 So uh we're gonna be doing a gospel in the fall, and then Genesis we're gonna be in for a while. 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:09.360 And this is our first sermon in it, so it's really exciting to get started. 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:42.800 Uh, part of my thinking behind that was Genesis is so foundational for obviously, uh, for our uh for our worldview, for our ability to engage with our day-to-day lives in a way that's uh informed by scripture in the most fundamental aspects of our lives, from who we are as people to uh what it means to engage in a marriage, to what it means to engage in our work, uh, to what it means to live in the world as a finite creature who's bound in time. 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:46.720 And how does a creature like that relate to an eternal being? 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:57.519 You know, all of these things that we uh that become just the the background, the kind of the ground that we walk on, rather, uh for our day-to-day lives are found in Genesis. 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:04.560 And so for us to even understand the culture that we're a part of now, we have to be able to see this through the lens of Genesis. 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:17.759 And so we begin here uh with uh I wanted to name it Genesis without Phil Collins, but I just I just named it Genesis instead for for the sermon series. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:18.959 It'll be simpler. 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:22.000 Uh because what if Phil Collins shows up? 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:36.240 Uh so this is it so Genesis is the first book of the of the Bible, and it it's the first book of the Pentateuch, which are the first five books of Scripture. 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:48.319 Now, those first five books lay out the uh the establishment of uh the story of God bringing out his people, Israel, into uh to make them his chosen people. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:53.199 And it's through this chosen people that Christ comes to be the salvation of the world. 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:58.480 And so this is the foundation of the story, and then Genesis is the foundation of that foundation. 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:02.639 This part uh that we're in here, this is like the prehistory. 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:14.480 You know, this is uh before we have the promise with Abraham, before we see the covenant family start to develop, we need to go back even further to see what does it mean to exist? 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:21.759 What does it mean to be a creature who happens to find themselves in a world such as this? 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:26.720 And so here we are in Genesis, the very beginning. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:28.000 Genesis 1-1. 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:32.879 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:37.040 Uh, there's a branch of philosophy called metaphysics. 00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:47.519 And what that is, is it's like when you're talking about ethics, those are the people that show up and say, well, but why do we even have such a thing as ethics? 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:51.360 And the ethicists go, can you just leave so we can try and help people? 00:07:52.000 --> 00:08:06.959 And the uh and so metaphysics deals with the the grounding of why we think we could say anything, why we think we could make an ethical claim, why we think we could uh determine something is true or false. 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:09.839 Now we're in the domain of metaphysics. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:14.399 Why do we think something like the scientific method is true or could be trusted? 00:08:14.560 --> 00:08:16.639 Now we've entered the domain of metaphysics. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:24.480 And uh the common term for things like us in metaphysics is we are middle-sized objects. 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:30.399 So a middle-sized object is like an ant or a car or a person. 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:37.279 Uh we we are the types of things that uh physics seems to interact with in normal ways. 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:40.000 Uh we move at kind of medium speeds. 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:42.320 We're these middle-sized objects. 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:46.639 And have have any of you ever seen that video, the factors of ten video? 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:49.360 Cool, I'll explain it to you. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:50.399 I'm gonna ruin the ending. 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:57.039 So there's this there's this video, it's called the factors of ten, and it's these uh a picture of a couple that are lying in a park. 00:08:57.200 --> 00:08:59.840 And then it starts to zoom out by a factor of ten. 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:25.039 And when it zooms out, then you see the whole park, and then it zooms out again and you see the whole city, and then it zooms out again and you see the state, and then you see the uh nation, and then the uh all of North America and the hemisphere, then you zoom out again, and it's the planet, and then the solar system, and then the galaxy, and then multiple galaxies. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:30.639 And so all of those things, those big things out there, those are those are the large objects. 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:32.559 Then it starts to zoom back in. 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:57.519 And it zooms back in, and then it gets to the couple in the park, then it keeps zooming, it just goes in on her eye, and then it keeps going further, and there's like, you know, eye parts, rods and cones, and uh then it goes into cell, the cellular level, and then the mitochondria, which is the we all know to say that. 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:06.720 That's something that we all know to say, but the it's one of those sentences where we all know the words, and it's like mitochondria, that's the power plant in the cell. 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:08.240 It's like what does that mean? 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:10.080 I don't know what it means. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:12.720 It's where the it's where the power is made. 00:10:12.799 --> 00:10:15.600 I just like that we all know to say that. 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:18.240 It's all signaled, no signified. 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:26.480 Um and so uh uh we find ourselves uh not like the smallest thing. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:34.399 We're not the foundation, we're not the atom, we're not the largest thing, we're not the cosmic existence in itself. 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:37.360 Instead, we're these middle-sized objects. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:44.320 And so for a middle-sized object, it's very hard for us to gain definition because we aren't the starting point. 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:46.720 We're somewhere in the middle. 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:56.080 For us to know where we are, we need to have our context given to us by the bigger things and by the smaller things. 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:58.399 We aren't the measure. 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:01.440 And this is true temporally as well. 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:18.080 It's not just true in terms of size, because when you consider time, you know, you were, I've said this before, but you you were just born and you're thrown into existence, and you're placed in the hands of two 20-something, 30-something year old amateurs, completely unvetted. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:25.840 And there, as it turns out, that this story of humanity has been going on for thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of years. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:33.519 Um, and the people that are supposed to uh bring you up to speed have like 30 years of experience in this story. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.519 And so we find ourselves really untethered. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:45.039 It becomes very hard, the types of creatures that we are, to discover, okay, what is meaning then? 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:51.360 How do I tie or connect my story to something ultimate or to something real? 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:00.960 And so we find ourselves, it's typical of middle-sized objects like us, to find ourselves just plagued by this feeling of meaninglessness. 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:19.919 This feeling of listlessness, like we're like we're a sea that has become completely, excuse me, like we're a ship that has become completely unmoored, and we're lost at sea, and we spin around in a circle, and there's no land, and we can't fathom the depth that's beneath us, and we can't find any uh grounding in the sky that's above us, and we're just completely lost. 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:22.080 And here we are stuck in the middle. 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:24.399 So what type of creature are we? 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:29.519 What brings this life any sense of meaning? 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:38.080 Now, the the existential crisis is typically reserved for the wealthy and for the privileged. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:49.360 But it it this type of uh lack of meaning, this affects anyone at any socioeconomic level, at any stage uh of income or stage of life. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:13:05.759 This is uh a constant in our lives, this sort of existential angst that says, I can't figure out if my life has any meaning, if it's arcing towards anything, if it's worth being here in the midst of all this pain. 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:27.759 The past, I think a good example of this listlessness, uh, that I think is is reaching almost a climax in our culture right now, as secularism, which says that when you look back in time, we can't find any source of meaning that makes our lives matter in any way. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:31.840 And when we look forward into the future, there's no grand story that they're arcing towards. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:42.080 Uh, that sort of worldview has become so foundational and so taken for granted for who we are that I think it's starting to bear itself out in the numbers. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:43.600 So here's a strange thing. 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:51.440 For the past three years in a row in the United States, uh our life expectancy has gone down. 00:13:52.399 --> 00:13:53.679 Isn't that bizarre? 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:58.799 We've gotten so good at things in the past three years. 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:04.159 I don't even, there wasn't even like there were we just got Disney Plus. 00:14:06.159 --> 00:14:06.720 You know? 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:19.840 And and it the reason is because of what uh there's uh Nobel Prize-winning economist uh Angus Deaton, you've all heard of him, uh he calls these things uh, he calls this uptick. 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:25.039 Uh he shows that these are due to deaths of despair, is the term that he coined. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:26.639 Deaths of despair. 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:31.200 So those are caused by alcohol, drug addiction, and suicide. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:34.879 He links those all under deaths of despair. 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:45.600 And despair is what happens to a person when you look uh into your past and you see there's there's nothing of meaning to describe me being here now. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:50.480 And you look to your future, you say, and I'm headed towards nothing. 00:14:51.279 --> 00:15:01.679 And as middle objects, if the past is meaningless and the future is meaningless, then the present is meaningless. 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:03.600 And it's unbearable. 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:07.840 Now the strange thing, this brings us to the strange thing. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:12.159 The strange thing isn't that it's unbearable. 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:16.240 Excuse me, the strange I totally blew it. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:19.440 The strange thing isn't the meaninglessness. 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:27.600 If it's true that the world is meaningless, then the strange thing is that it hurts to find out. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:38.799 The strange thing is that discovering that meaningless, being a meaningless creature in a meaningless world, somehow when we find that out, it still hurts. 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:51.519 And so we might wonder to ourselves, what is it that we'll need to discover in order to bring some real meaning into this life? 00:15:52.639 --> 00:16:07.360 Why would uh why must we bear this intolerable expectation of having a meaningful life if the world is actually meaningless? 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:11.600 Now there's a logical conclusion. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:14.799 Um and the logical conclusion is nihilism. 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:20.320 Uh the logical conclusion is look, we look to the past and it's meaningless, and we look to the future and it's meaningless. 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:22.000 That seems to cause me a lot of suffering. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:22.559 But you know what? 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:26.480 You know what takes the edge off if I say, yeah, it's meaningless. 00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:31.519 So I'm gonna quit striving to bring sort of some sort of meaning out of it. 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:34.159 That just seems to hurt and leave me feel defeated. 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:38.080 Instead, uh I'll just take the logical conclusion, which is a sort of nihilism. 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:42.399 Everything is meaningless, sirah, sirah, eat, drink, and be merry. 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:44.159 For tomorrow we die. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:52.240 Now, that is logically tenable, but it's situationally situationally it's just not tenable. 00:16:52.399 --> 00:16:55.759 It's not something that can actually last or that you'll actually be able to uphold. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:56.879 Consider this. 00:16:57.120 --> 00:17:01.919 We uh my wife and I have been watching this Netflix series, Unbelievable. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:04.880 Nice, got a couple snaps. 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:10.319 Okay, well, it's a it's uh um uh it takes place here in Colorado. 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:26.480 Um and uh it's about a uh a girl who's who's raped, and how she's she's neglected and her story isn't believed by the police that initially investigate her, and it's it's so brutally frustrating. 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:41.039 And then uh these two uh cops go go and they uh they they develop they start to piece together the story and they figure out who it is, and anyway, the the ending, as it turns out, is pretty satisfying. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:43.440 I don't want to give it away. 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:47.680 But it was a satisfying ending. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:52.240 So now let's watch this series, Unbelievable, as a nihilist. 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:55.759 The ending doesn't get to be satisfying. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:18:05.440 Because the just in and by the way, the beginning, the the victim who is then called a liar, that doesn't get to be frustrating. 00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:24.240 All of those normal impulses towards love and protection and care for other people, all of those uh desires for uh truth and justice and for something to be really grounded, for us to see that work its way out into our lives in real ways. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:31.920 The nihilistic position, the logically tenable, situationally, even emotionally, it doesn't hold. 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:38.000 It seems to be in complete opposition to the rest of our humanity. 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:45.599 So here we are, these middle-sized objects. 00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:57.119 And in order for us to get our context, in order for us to discover the meaning that's in our lives, this isn't something that we can do by just conjuring it up from within. 00:18:57.440 --> 00:18:59.440 It's not the type of creatures we are. 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:02.960 We need to find our context. 00:19:03.680 --> 00:19:07.440 It's our context that will give us our meaning. 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:14.400 And the way that we discover our context is we have to discover our beginning. 00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:19.200 What is the beginning of the story that we're in? 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:29.119 So, Genesis, in its description of creation, it becomes this counter-narrative of hope for our culture. 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:41.200 Our culture says you look back to the past and there's an explosion of energy that uh somehow randomly, by chance and for no reason, uh, brings itself together into an existence such as your own. 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:45.440 And now that existence is just thrust upon you, and our advice is deal with it. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:54.799 And so, what that what secularism continues to provide is not a greater narrative, uh, but just tools and tactics for how to deal with it. 00:19:55.200 --> 00:19:56.640 And good luck. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:58.400 Keep trying them out. 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:05.759 You know, keep keep trying out more tools and tactics to try and bring this sort of sense of meaning into your life. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:09.039 But Genesis offers something totally different. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:14.799 It offers no tools, no tactics, nothing of that nature. 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.400 It gives you the story that you're in. 00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:25.440 It gives you your context so that you realize my life is not some meaningless blip. 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:28.880 My life is part of this grand narrative. 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:38.160 And I have a sense of understanding, not just tools and strategies and tactics, but I have a sense of meaning because of the story that I find myself in. 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:51.359 So let's go ahead and uh we're going to get into, just with this one verse, this very first verse, we're going to get into the story that we find ourselves in. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:20:56.640 And this story, of course, begins with God. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:00.160 So, Genesis 1.1. 00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:04.960 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:12.160 This is uh uh this verse captures what theologians have called creatio ex nihilo. 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:16.160 And if I've taught you anything, it's that if it's Latin, it's true. 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:19.119 You can hold that one. 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:21.039 So, Creatio ex nihilo. 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:24.000 So that means creation from nothing. 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:26.480 God created the heavens and the earth. 00:21:26.559 --> 00:21:34.960 This is a picture of God created all that is, and he didn't use anything to bring it into existence. 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:43.359 There was no uh earlier framework, there was no time that he moved in as a medium, there was no matter that he moved and shaped in different ways. 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:46.880 He created all of it from nothing. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:48.559 From nothing. 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:52.640 That's what creation ex nihilo means. 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:59.759 And so this doctrine, there are at least three implications, and there's way more. 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:13.920 But there are at least three implications of this that we need to be able to grasp in order to start to wrap our heads around this insane principle that all that exists was created from nothing. 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:15.920 It just came from God alone. 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:18.880 So these three, uh these three implications. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:27.519 And and uh if you're looking for a book on this, the uh book From Nothing by Ian McFarland, really good. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:32.880 None of you are looking for a book, I can tell by your faces. 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:41.839 Principle one, creation is grounded in nothing but God. 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:47.359 Creation is grounded in nothing but God. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:55.440 Within creation, we see the existence of nothing apart from God. 00:22:56.880 --> 00:22:58.160 Clarify that one a bit. 00:22:58.319 --> 00:22:59.359 Because the language is weird. 00:22:59.519 --> 00:23:02.799 Nothing apart from God could mean that everything is God, right? 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:05.839 There's nothing apart from God in creation, all of creation is God. 00:23:05.920 --> 00:23:07.920 That's not what we're that's not what this is saying. 00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:15.440 This is saying is that there's nothing in creation that is not there because God is upholding it. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:17.599 Do you see the distinction? 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:18.720 Okay. 00:23:19.359 --> 00:23:24.799 And then principle three, in creation, nothing limits God. 00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:30.640 Okay, so there's nothing but God, nothing apart from God, and nothing limits God. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:31.759 Let's start with this first one. 00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:33.279 Nothing but God. 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:44.079 So uh because uh uh because everything uh uh because all that is was created from nothing, and God just spoke it into existence. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:24:06.640 He brought it into existence by his own being, we can see that God is a is not a creature like we are, who is a part of his creation, but he is a wholly other being who brings his creation into existence and then stands apart from his creation. 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:12.720 So the word that we use for this is God radically transcends creation. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:16.240 He is not like us. 00:24:17.519 --> 00:24:25.519 His ways are not like our ways, his thoughts are not like our thoughts. 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:42.319 And this happens at just a grammatical level because God creates the world and he creates us as creatures in it, and he gives us creaturely language in that, and then he gives us the Bible in this creaturely language, which is the way that we can understand. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:49.920 But even these words and these phrases and sentences that we use, they are never encapsulating who God is. 00:24:51.039 --> 00:25:06.079 We are given pointers, true ones, real ones, but never are we are we uh uh wrestling God down into our creation as though he were another creature like us. 00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:10.000 He radically transcends who we are. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:19.519 And so this just this creation ex nielo principle, it it immediately frustrates those normal, common views that we have of God. 00:25:19.759 --> 00:25:30.400 Contrary to popular paintings, he's not an old man in the sky who's creating replicas like himself to stand alongside himself in creation. 00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:34.319 The way that he exists is not like the way that we exist. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:37.359 He is other than us, beyond us. 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:40.400 He transcends us in every way. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:43.279 We exist, he is existence. 00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:49.839 His ways are not our ways. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:55.759 So we see that creation is grounded in nothing but God, and this points towards God's transcendence. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:01.920 Next, we see that in creation we see the existence of nothing apart from God. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:06.720 So it is not as though God created the world and then just stepped back. 00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:17.200 You see the contradiction that I'm creating, and then just stepped back and uh uh the world just continued to exist of its own accord. 00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:29.920 No, something created from nothing and finding its only origin in God alone means that God is the one who continues to uphold all of creation. 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:37.279 Our existence right now is being upheld just by the will of God. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:41.599 There is nothing apart from God in the world. 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:52.960 So if you see anything, any object, any event, any blood pressure, any temperature, any anything that's in creation, it is here because of God. 00:26:54.480 --> 00:26:57.359 Nothing exists apart from Him. 00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:01.440 And then nothing limits God. 00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:15.119 So that means that God is not bound by anything in creation, and God is not dependent upon anything in creation. 00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:21.359 So we'll often we'll often hear this narrative of why did God create? 00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:23.359 Why did God make anything in the world? 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:25.359 Why does the world exist such as it is? 00:27:25.440 --> 00:27:39.279 And and you'll you'll hear like there's a common apologetic that's out there which just says God uh created because God was lonely and he wanted uh people to love and and worship him. 00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:42.880 It's completely, that's not true. 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:46.160 If you hear that, you can say, that's not true. 00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:50.240 The you can try out that phrase. 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:58.880 And the the uh because what that implies is that there's some dependence that God has on his creatures. 00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:05.839 God existed an eternity past, completely self-sufficient, completely happy and joyful in himself. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:12.880 There's no dependence that he has on any of his creatures, on any of the situations that take place within creation. 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:15.039 He has no dependence upon them. 00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:18.640 And he is not bound by any of them. 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:23.440 So God uh is neither dependent nor is he bound by anything in creation. 00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:37.200 And so this is where you get those playful games of uh like uh, you know, the the question uh about the rock has can God create a rock so big that even he can't move it? 00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:41.039 No, no, yes, we'll take a survey. 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:42.960 We'll bring democracy to this. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:54.160 So here's the here's what that question uh what what that is a question of, uh that's not a question about the nature of God. 00:28:55.119 --> 00:28:57.359 That's a question about grammar. 00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:08.319 In which case we need to go back to point one, which is he's not like us. 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:15.039 He doesn't relate to this world through these little games that we play. 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:20.400 He's a totally other type of thing. 00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:24.000 There's nothing in creation that limits him. 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:42.000 So we see his radical transcendence, we see his closeness, and that he upholds everything, and we see his unlimited power in this fact that he created the world from nothing. 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:44.799 This is the beginning of our story. 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:52.640 The beginning of what it means to discover our place in the story is to see that all of existence comes from this God. 00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:57.119 To look at creation is to come face to face with God. 00:29:57.440 --> 00:30:05.920 And if you've been tracking with me, uh I right now I I you should feel a little, I don't know if this is that great a news. 00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:12.799 So we've got the uh we've got a God who's so other than us, how could we ever understand him? 00:30:12.960 --> 00:30:16.160 And he brings us into creation just to dominate us. 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:24.640 And then he's also totally imminent, so he's upholding everything in creation, so there's no escape from his gaze. 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:35.680 And then he's unlimited in power, which isn't really helping me understand the suffering and pain that I'm experiencing in my life or that I'm going through in the world. 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:38.400 Oh, those are three great questions. 00:30:38.559 --> 00:30:40.079 In fact, I wrote them down. 00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:53.440 So the first question: doesn't a self-sufficient God who radically transcends us establish a relationship of domination and exclusion toward his creatures? 00:30:54.480 --> 00:31:02.960 Second, if he upholds all things, isn't our real relationship between him just some sort of fiction? 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:09.440 Because, you know, he's the one upholding my life, and then I'm supposed to just have a nice life towards him in return? 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:12.319 Doesn't seem like a genuine relationship. 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:20.400 And third and finally, if God is totally unlimited, what do we do with the enormity of creaturely suffering in the world? 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:24.480 So ex nihilo is incredible. 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:31.519 And then when we're pushed into it in this way, it's like these seem like some real issues that are brought up. 00:31:31.599 --> 00:31:36.480 If I'm understanding my context, this is a terrifying type of context. 00:31:37.359 --> 00:31:42.799 But Genesis 1.1 is not all that the Bible says about creation from nothing. 00:31:44.960 --> 00:31:51.279 John in his gospel begins at the very same point uh that Genesis 1.1 begins. 00:31:51.359 --> 00:31:53.200 And in fact, he begins a bit earlier. 00:31:53.440 --> 00:32:03.680 And he uh starts his gospel uh just before creation happens, and he goes and gives us this picture of who God is even before creation. 00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:07.680 He says this in the beginning was the word. 00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:13.839 And the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:18.640 He was in the beginning with God. 00:32:19.759 --> 00:32:28.000 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 00:32:28.559 --> 00:32:32.400 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 00:32:32.559 --> 00:32:38.000 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:52.640 So John goes back to the beginning, and he says, This God who stood in the beginning before all creation was not some floating orb of oneness, but but he is the holy trinity. 00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:54.960 He is three in one. 00:32:55.119 --> 00:33:04.880 And the second person of that trinity who was there in the beginning, the very word of God, was both with God and is God. 00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:15.839 And so that means that this second person of the Trinity, this word, who John would say the word who became flesh and dwelt among us is Jesus. 00:33:16.799 --> 00:33:27.759 In order for us to understand creation, in order for us to get the story that we're in, we have to understand Jesus. 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:32.480 There's no way of understanding our context without it. 00:33:32.799 --> 00:34:11.280 And so as we view this creation now through the lens of the God who also became flesh and dwelt among us, this God who also is in himself Christ, then through that lens we see that this nothing but God, which points towards this radical transcendence, does not point towards a God who by his transcendence dominates and excludes us creatures, but points towards a God who in himself is relationship. 00:34:11.760 --> 00:34:19.599 It points towards this God who is constantly relating productively to himself. 00:34:20.079 --> 00:34:26.960 The grammar that scripture gives us regarding the Trinity is that the Father begets the Son. 00:34:27.280 --> 00:34:34.639 And the Father and the Son, both, from the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit proceeds. 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:39.199 There's begetting and procession within the Trinity. 00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:42.639 The Trinity itself is productive. 00:34:43.119 --> 00:35:06.559 And so it because the very nature of God is to produce and to love in himself the production of what he makes, we can see that when he produces extrinsically out into creation so that we experience it as his creatures, we no less become benefactors of that love. 00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:16.159 You see that this type of God is the one who loves the world into existence. 00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:24.400 This is what we see when we look through the lens of Christ, that God's love expands extrinsically. 00:35:25.519 --> 00:35:30.639 When we look through the lens of Christ, that there is nothing in creation apart from God. 00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:40.400 This does not mean that God is some tyrant who's upholding us like a puppet master to do whatever it is that his bidding would have us do. 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:42.079 That is not the case. 00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:48.880 His presence towards us is not like the eye of Sauron, which we need to hide from and try and escape. 00:35:49.039 --> 00:35:58.400 It is not like the panopticon of a prison where we're constantly being watched and gazed upon, looking for us to be to mess up in some way. 00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:06.400 But the presence of God is manifest already in his presence to himself in the Trinity. 00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:12.639 And the Father loves the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:24.719 And when we see that God, then his constant and unending presence towards us is not a threat anymore, but it is the right hand that upholds us. 00:36:26.159 --> 00:36:33.360 It is the guidance that we need in his constant presence towards us in creation. 00:36:33.519 --> 00:36:46.159 And then when we see that there is nothing that limits God, this is not some deconstruction of God because suffering exists in the world. 00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:48.320 Not through the lens of Christ. 00:36:48.960 --> 00:37:08.559 Through the lens of Christ, we see that the highest manifestation of nothing limiting God in creation is that even when God becomes a part of creation, he is not limited. 00:37:09.840 --> 00:37:24.079 Even when God is born of a woman, taking on all of the possible limits of creation that exist in a creature like us and in humanity like us, he is still God. 00:37:26.639 --> 00:37:34.400 Through the lens of Christ, that's how we see the heights of God's power demonstrated. 00:37:35.280 --> 00:37:37.360 Nothing in creation limits him. 00:37:37.760 --> 00:37:42.159 So even when he takes on creation, he is unlimited. 00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:45.599 So what does that have to say about suffering in the world? 00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:56.960 When we see that in the beginning was the word, that it is not just that God created all things, but that this God created all things. 00:37:57.920 --> 00:38:33.280 He is the one who took on the evil and suffering that exists in the world, the sinful nature of ourselves that prevents us from coming to him, that prevents us from experiencing his presence as joyful and good, that prevents us from seeing his power as our hope of liberty, all of that sin that corrupts us, this very same God took on as a creature just like us, so that we might be freed up to experience his creation as the labor of love that it actually is. 00:38:35.679 --> 00:38:45.760 As Christians, when we come to this text, we are not just seeing some generic view of what it would be like if God created the world. 00:38:45.920 --> 00:39:10.960 What we are seeing is the story of this God, the one true God, the blessed Trinity, the one who became a man so that he would die on the cross, so that we might be saved by him, the one who by faith alone we can enter into his presence and the eternal joy of the glory that he inhabited even before creation began. 00:39:11.280 --> 00:39:16.320 This God, the one we see in Jesus, he created. 00:39:19.119 --> 00:39:20.800 That's what this means. 00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:26.800 So it's here that we find our bearings. 00:39:28.960 --> 00:39:31.280 I don't look back and see nothing. 00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:33.679 Meaninglessness. 00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:43.119 I look back and see the God who in himself is love, who created a world, and we'll see the world becomes corrupted by sin. 00:39:44.320 --> 00:39:46.960 And you know, that explains a lot. 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:53.440 In this corruption of sin, he doesn't leave it to decay. 00:39:54.480 --> 00:40:03.519 But because nothing in creation limits him, he enters it himself so that he might bring about its redemption. 00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:09.920 Middle creatures, look back to your beginning. 00:40:11.679 --> 00:40:15.920 You are here now as a labor of love by your creator. 00:40:18.239 --> 00:40:20.320 Nothing happens apart from him. 00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:26.320 He entered into our finitude to bring us to him. 00:40:28.639 --> 00:40:30.719 This is what we can celebrate. 00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:37.440 This is where we start to discover our bearings, the truth of the story that we're in. 00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:43.199 Bringing ourselves in that in line with that story is to see reality as it is. 00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:48.880 And maybe this meaningless world then is not meaningless at all. 00:40:51.199 --> 00:40:54.000 But a labor of love from our God. 00:40:55.679 --> 00:40:56.000 Okay. 00:40:56.719 --> 00:40:58.639 There's probably not any questions. 00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:05.039 Uh did did God create himself? 00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:07.280 So we're back to the grammar question. 00:41:07.519 --> 00:41:09.440 Uh yeah, so that's a great question. 00:41:09.599 --> 00:41:10.559 Did God create himself? 00:41:10.800 --> 00:41:14.400 Uh can he create a rock so big that even he can't do it? 00:41:14.639 --> 00:41:16.960 Is God allowed to sin if he's all powerful? 00:41:17.119 --> 00:41:18.079 Can't he sin? 00:41:18.559 --> 00:41:21.599 Um could God choose to not be God? 00:41:22.320 --> 00:41:25.199 Uh I literally this was literally my major. 00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:28.880 I majored in lightning rounds. 00:41:29.119 --> 00:41:39.199 The uh okay, so uh but the it's an important, it's it's actually an important question, and and here's here's why. 00:41:45.920 --> 00:41:52.079 This is part of why we want to go through Genesis to add as a group, this is the worldview formation stuff. 00:41:52.719 --> 00:42:01.599 So when you're engaging with a question like this, if you engage at the level of the question, it already doesn't make sense. 00:42:02.239 --> 00:42:06.960 Because we're no longer talking about this radically transcendent God. 00:42:08.480 --> 00:42:20.079 One for whom he he gives us language on loan and he gives us his word so that we know we can say true things about him, but we can't say complete things about him. 00:42:21.280 --> 00:42:44.639 And so when we come in contact with uh these these limits, these logical breakdowns in our understanding of God, we have to realize that we're not coming into contact with God's limits or with God's logical breakdowns. 00:42:45.119 --> 00:42:47.760 We're coming into contact with our own. 00:42:48.159 --> 00:43:03.360 And it makes sense that a finite creature trying to imagine an infinite creature will discover all sorts of their own limits on the way to understanding this infinite being. 00:43:04.079 --> 00:43:51.039 And so let these questions and contradictions be signposts on the road towards understanding a God of radical transcendence, and then be completely shocked and completely amazed that it is this God of radical transcendence that becomes a person like you, who you could pass on the street and not recognize, and then went to a cross and carried his own cross and got tired on the way there, so that they had to call someone else from the crowd to carry it for him, and then was nailed to it to offer something like you, a creature from the dirt, eternal life. 00:43:52.559 --> 00:43:54.800 Sounds like a God of love to me. 00:43:55.360 --> 00:43:57.119 It's that God who created. 00:43:58.320 --> 00:43:59.599 Great question. 00:44:02.159 --> 00:44:04.639 We're gonna take communion for the first time here. 00:44:04.800 --> 00:44:09.519 And when we do, we remember that this word became flesh and he dwelt among us. 00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:16.079 That flesh was broken, and his blood was poured out so that we might dwell with God eternally. 00:44:17.119 --> 00:44:21.840 These are our bearings, middle creatures, who will live forever. 00:44:22.079 --> 00:44:26.639 We find our bearings in the God who created us. 00:44:26.800 --> 00:44:29.519 Let's remember that he gave his life so that we might be with him. 00:44:30.559 --> 00:44:32.239 Father, we praise you. 00:44:32.480 --> 00:44:33.280 We thank you. 00:44:33.440 --> 00:44:38.239