Transcript Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s And unto God

IN THE BEGINNING
Genesis from the Creation
to Abraham
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Prov 1:7
• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge
• Ps 100:3
• Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who
has made us, and not we ourselves; we are
His people and the sheep of His pasture.
• “Common sense is not so common.”
Voltaire
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Ps. 14:1
• The fool has said in his heart, "There is
no God.”
• “No amount of evidence to the contrary
seems to shake man’s grand opinion of
himself.”
Reinhold Niebuhr
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Ps 119: 99-100
• I have more understanding than all
my teachers, for Your testimonies are
my meditation. I understand more
than the ancients, because I keep
Your precepts.
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Christians have the answers the world
needs—to all the most important questions:
– Who am I?
– Where am I going?
– Is there a God?
– Does He care about me?
– Can I trust Him?
– Does life have any meaning, purpose?
– Is there life after death?
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Consider yourselves spiritual scientific
researchers
• We have better answers to the scientific
mysteries of creation, the Big Bang, the
presence or absence of extra-human life and
intelligence
• We have no reason to be ashamed of our Faith
– It has been given to us by God and can stand
up to any intellectual, mystical, and spiritual
argument against it
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Phil 3:3
• For we are the true circumcision, who worship
God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put
no confidence in the flesh
• II Cor. 10:3-5
• For though we live in the world we are not
carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our
warfare are not worldly but have divine power to
destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and
every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• This study of Genesis will be a journey into an
increasing knowledge of and confidence in the
Lord God
• On the other side of the study you will
confidently say with David:
• Ps. 18:2-3
• The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my
deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will
trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my
stronghold. I will call upon the Lord, who is
worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my
enemies.
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Truly, those who know their God are the
most confident, humble, and peaceful
people on earth, as the prophet Isaiah
foretold:
• Is. 28:16
• “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a
tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the
foundation, firmly placed. He who believes
in Him will not be disturbed.”
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• The Book of Genesis:
– The name of the book in the Hebrew:
beresit: “In the beginning”
– In the Septuagint (the Greek): genesis,
“origin”
– Genesis was very likely written by
Moses around 1400-1500 BC
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Timeline:
– The creation of Adam 4000 + BC
– The Flood 2400 + BC
– The Tower of Babel 2300 BC
– The Call of Abraham 2100 BC
– Moses 1400-1500 BC
– David 1000 BC
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• Moses’ account of creation was
written at least 2500 years after Adam
and 8-900 years after the Flood
• The narrative was passed down to
Moses by word-of-mouth and
cuneiform or hieroglyphic record
– But: clarified and explained to Moses
by God in conversation
INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS
• The book of Genesis has five parts:
– Creation
– The Fall and Promise of Redemption
– The Descendants of Cain and Seth to the
Flood
– The Flood to the Tower of Babel
– The Call of Abram to the Death of
Joseph
THE UNIVERSE WAS
CREATED BY OUR GOD
• Gen. 1:1
• In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.
HOW BIG IS GOD’S
CREATION?
• The nearest star to our solar system is Alpha
Centauri
• Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light years away from the
earth
• A light year is 5.85 trillion miles
(5,850,000,000,000)
• Alpha Centauri is therefore 24 trillion miles
away (24,000,000,000,000)
HOW BIG IS GOD’S
CREATION?
• The fastest man-created space ship is Voyager 1
• Voyager travels at 38,000 miles per hour
– Or 10 miles per second
– Or 1/20,000 the speed of light
• It would take Voyager 74,000 years to reach
Alpha Centauri
HOW BIG IS GOD’S
CREATION?
• Our galaxy, the Milky Way:
– Has 200 billion stars
– Is 150,000 light years across
– Likely has 10,000 solar systems similar to
ours, capable of supporting life
HOW BIG IS GOD’S
CREATION?
• The nearest galaxy to ours is Andromeda
• The Andromeda galaxy is 2,000,000 light
years from the earth
– (11,600,000,000,000,000,000 miles)
HOW BIG IS GOD’S
CREATION?
• The Hubble light telescope has identifies 1500
galaxies near us
• Radio telescopes put the estimate of the number of
galaxies at 100 billion.
• If each galaxy averaged 200 billion stars, the number
of stars in the universe would be:
– 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (2.0 X 1022)
• The number of potentially inhabitable planets in the
universe is 10 billion
HOW BIG IS GOD?
• He is bigger than His creation
• He is not bound by time or space
• He is transcendent (different from and
greater than man; unapproachable)
• 1 Tim 6:16
. . .Who alone has immortality, dwelling
in unapproachable light, whom no man has
seen or can see. . .
HOW BIG IS GOD?
• Isa 40:15
Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket,
and are counted as the small dust on the scales
• Isa 66:1
This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my
throne, and the earth is my footstool.”
HOW PRESENT IS GOD?
• But He is also immanent
• Isa 57:15
For this is what the high and lofty One says--He
who lives forever, whose name is holy:"I live in
a high and holy place,but also with him who is
contrite and lowly in spirit.”
• John 14:20
“On that day you will realize that I am in my
Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
HOW PRESENT IS GOD?
• Ps 139:2-4, 7-8
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways. Before a
word is on my tongue you know it completely,
O LORD. . .
…Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where
can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into
heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in
hell, behold, You are there.
HOW ABLE IS GOD?
• 1 Cor 15:27-28
Now when all things are made subject to
Him, then the Son Himself will also be
subject to Him who put all things under
Him, that God may be all in all.
HOW ABLE IS GOD?
• Phil 2:10
…that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth,
and of those under the earth
• Acts 3:20-21
…that He may send Jesus Christ, who was
preached to you before, whom heaven must
receive until the times of restoration of all
things…
HOW ABLE IS GOD?
• Rev 7:9
After these things I looked, and behold, a
great multitude which no one could
number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and
tongues, standing before the throne and
before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes. . .
HOW WILLING IS GOD?
• 2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow in keeping his
promise, as some understand slowness.
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone
to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance.
WHERE WE FIT IN
• The “alls”: of Matt 28:19-20
• Go therefore go (you all)and make disciples of
all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that
I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age.
• Jesus and the angels planning salvation:
– There is no plan B
WHERE WE FIT IN
• What we think, say, and do in this life matters.
• Matt 12:36-37
“But I tell you that men will have to give
account on the day of judgment for every careless
word they have spoken. For by your words you
will be acquitted, and by your words you will
be condemned."
WHERE WE FIT IN
• “Christians are not perfect, just forgiven.”
A Christian bumper sticker
• Just forgiven?
• Col 1:27
To them God has chosen to make known among the
Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
• We are the agents of change.
• There is no plan B.
WHERE WE FIT IN
• “Then the prophecies of the old songs have
turned out to be true, after a fashion!” said
Bilbo.
“Of course!” said Gandalf. “And why should
not they prove true? Surely you don’t
disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a
hand in bringing them about yourself?”
J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• What does God have in store for us?
• 1 Cor 2:9
“. . . no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no
mind has conceived, what God has
prepared for those who love him."
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• We are destined to liberate the fallen creation
• Rom. 8:19, 21
For the anxious longing of the creation waits
eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. . .
that the creation itself also will be set free from its
slavery to corruption into the freedom of the
glory of the children of God.
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• 2 Tim 2:11-12
If we died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him.
• Rev 5:10
You have made them to be a kingdom and
priests to serve our God, and they will reign on
the earth.
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• What will we be reigning over?
• Luke 19:17
And he said to him, 'Well done, good
servant; because you were faithful in a
very little, have authority over ten cities.‘
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• What will we be doing in the next age?
• We will be “shining”
• Dan 12:3
Those who are wise will shine like the brightness
of the heavens, and those who lead many to
righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• Rev 21:22-23
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord
God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the
temple thereof. And the city hath no need of
the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it:
for the glory of God did lighten it, and the
lamp thereof (is) the Lamb.
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
When we’ve been there,
Ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ll no more days
To sing His praise
Then when we first begun
John Newton; Amazing Grace
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• Shining with the creative life of God, the glory of
God in us, shining in heaven. Like the sun shining,
nurturing
• Ruling, planning, creating with:
– Infinite resources
– Infinite time
– A group of cooperative, resourceful, intelligent
co-workers
• Where?
– What did we think the vastness of the universe was for?
• Alien civilizations?
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• The life here and now prepares us for eternal life
• The skills we develop here will benefit us in the
next life
• But, the real issue is how we have learned to
help and love others in the spirit, the grace of
Christ.
• The answer to every test in life is to act like
Jesus in the test
• We will likely share heaven with the Billy
Grahams, not the Adolf Hitlers
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• Matt 6:20-21
Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves
do not break in and steal. For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.
• Gal 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at
the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do
not give up.
GOD’S PLAN FOR US
• Heb 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a
great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance the
race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. . .