Date: Aug. 24, 2025
Genesis 1:1-2:3
Key Verse: Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Today we are beginning a new sermon series called “Bible 101.” As this is the start of a new semester and as we are praying for students, we thought we would go back to basics for a few weeks. Our prayer for the IIT Bible Club is that students would know God, and make God known on campus, and that is also what we would like to do in this series of lessons. The first three weeks will cover an intro to Genesis, which is like an intro to God, and the following three weeks will cover the first parts of the gospel of John, which would be something of an intro to Jesus. Even as a seasoned Christian, sometimes it’s good to review and remind ourselves of the foundations of our faith. So today, what better place to start to get to know God by going to the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. I hope nobody had a difficult time finding Genesis ;). It is a book of beginnings, the word Genesis is actually a Greek word that means “beginning.” The author of the book is the great prophet Moses, written around 1400 BC, so roughly around 3,400 years ago, and it is the historical account of God’s work in the world, zooming in on a particular family through which God would some day send the Savior. Genesis is not a myth or an allegory, it was meant to be documented history, written by Moses, but inspired by God, and so we must view it as such. Moses was a real person, as was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – no one denies their existence and the bones of the patriarchs are in a tomb today, and as we approach this text the proper way to come to this is as we are reading world and universal history. The rewards will come as you see more proof and evidence coming out through archaeological finding and even just life experience. So let us begin:
Can we all please read the key verse, verse 1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The book of Genesis really comes out swinging, it is forceful and explosive. Let’s look at just the first four words. Can you say them: “In the beginning God.” In the beginning, God. The Bible doesn’t even apologize or try to defend this statement, but hits you instantly with the truth. In the beginning, God. It immediately assumes the existence of Deity. Who is at the head, the front, and the subject of the whole book? God. God is right there. God exists, and he existed before time, and he is responsible for the beginning of time as we know it. This tells us that God is eternal, and outside of time. Without God, there is no beginning; where did the universe come from? Where did our life and this reality come from? A lot of people don’t know the answer, but we see here the answer, plain and simple: in the beginning God.
As you read along in v.1, you see that God created the heavens and the earth. God exists, and He is the Creator. What you get in Gen 1 is a simple straightforward account of God creating the universe. At the time Moses wrote this, there were all types of myths of creation. Some said life came from ancient primitive material, some said from divine matter. Some mythologies were often quite complex and grotesque. Some other religions say we are in a dream, or manifested in a dream, and some don’t teach creation at all. Today, we have accounts of the Big Bang Theory, or life being seeded from aliens, or life coming from random chemical reactions. Out of all of these things, the Bible stands out as a straightforward testament of the truth, especially as you see how the Bible consistently is proven by life experiences and you begin to see a deep pattern of the truth within its pages and books, which only prove further that this text has truly come from the mind of God.
Look at v.2, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Here we see that God is a Spirit. God does not have a physical form or a physical body, at least not before the incarnation. He is invisible, we cannot see him with our eyes, but we see the effects of His work. He is not bound by our space and time. But He is a being. Just as we call ourselves human beings, we call angels angelic beings, God is a divine being and the only being that is called God. So as much as you are a human being, God is a divine being – but a Spirit, invisible, but present. Sometimes when we think of spirits, we think of the souls of our passed loved ones, or even ghosts – but the Spirit of God is unlike any other spirit. The Spirit of God is infinite in every way, so while God is a Spirit, he is more powerful, more wise, and more good than we could ever imagine.
His power is infinite. Look at v.3, “And God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’” This is the amazing power of God. By the simple command of his lips, matter came into being out of nothing. Before God, there was no universe, no space, no time, no matter: just the Spirit. For the first six days of creation, everything was made by the word of God. Now we can kind of visualize infinite power. When you go on vacation, you get a sense of the size of the world. It takes around 12 hours to drive from here to New York, or 2 hours by plane flying at 500 miles per hour. When you fly internationally, you see how much of the ocean you have to cover, and the ocean itself can reach a depth of almost 7 miles deep, and yet the earth’s crust is only 1% of the total volume of the planet. Now consider that 1.3 million earths can fit inside the sun, and the sun is only one of over 200 billion trillion stars in the universe – and every single atom is sustained by the power of God. You probably couldn’t even make up a superhero that has that kind of power.
His wisdom is infinite. Look at v.14-15, and 20 “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.’ And it was so.” V.20: “And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.’” You can see that there is an order, a progression of creation. God created the environment first, the seas, the land, the sky, and then the plants and animals. God is the ultimate architect and engineer. The peregrine falcon is widely recognized as the fastest animal on the planet, and can dive up to 200 mph. The design of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, a military aircraft, was modeled after the peregrine falcon. And if you look up into the sky, you’ll notice constellations that have stayed in their places for thousands of years. Though they are so far away, their positions remain constant, perhaps because God designed these lights to be so big so that they would be both bright and relatively slow. Our earth is positioned at exactly the perfect distance and angle from the sun as to not be too hot or too cold for life, it has a giant iron core that generates a magnetic field to protect from solar flares, and even the planet Jupiter, acts like a giant cosmic shield by pulling in comets and asteroids that could collide with our planet. An entire encyclopedia would just scratch the surface of God’s wisdom.
And last, just to keep this short, the infinite goodness of God. At the end of each day, after God created something, he “saw that it was good.” When would you say something was good? It’s when it’s done, it’s perfect, it works, it’s beautiful, that’s usually how we would describe good. God’s creation, his work, was just as he had wanted it, and it was good. This tells us something about God as well. It tells us that God is good, and in fact, God is the source of all that is good. Psalm 136:1 starts out with “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” Psalm 34:8 invites us, saying, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
So here’s another proof that God is good. Look at the person sitting next to you. Take in a breath of fresh air for good measure. How is God good? He gave us life, and he gave us one another, and he also gave us creation, and most of all, he gave us himself. Look at v.26-27, “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.’” In the first six and a half days, he was speaking to the earth, “Let the, Let there be,” but in the second half of this sixth day, God said, “Let us.” He was talking amongst the Trinity – creation went from a command to the earth, to a divine consultation. God set apart humanity, human beings to receive his image. He saved the best for last, his crowning achievement. No matter who you are, if you are a human being, you were created in the image of God, and were bestowed the dignity and honor to be made in God’s likeness.
This is a blessing upon blessings. You can see how far apart we were set from the animal kingdom. Where a dog can perhaps reach an intelligence of a two year old, we were given wisdom and power to rule the earth. We were given self-consciousness, a personality, and language. Life in nature is animated by the power of God, but we were given the very breath of God. We are like God in our dominion, and our personalities, but there’s more to the image of God. God does not have a form, or body, so we do not have his image physically – but God is a Spirit, and the real essence of his image is his holiness and his goodness. That is the heart of the image he has given us – holiness in being dedicated to him, and set apart – but also goodness, in participating in his divine relationship, having his complete love, peace and joy. But where is this now? We look at our life experience, and things are sometimes not good, sometimes most of our lives feel broken. This happened because of sin, and is just a foreshadowing of next week’s message. But this leads me to also say, that God’s infinite goodness will also be displayed while we were yet sinners.
Holiness is God’s greatest attribute. When Isaiah saw a vision of God, there were angels who covered their faces and feet, and flew around, calling out to one another, “Holy, holy holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” They did not say “love, love, love”, “grace, grace, grace,” or “mercy, mercy, mercy,” great attributes as these are, but they said, “Holy, holy holy.” To be holy means to be set apart, and in God’s case, he is set apart and above in perfection, purity, goodness, righteousness, wisdom and power. It means that there is no God like him, and that there is no other God, and He is to be honored, worshiped and glorified. We worship / idolize those who have great talents. I saw a video one time of a gymnast who did like 20 backflips in a row and then jumped up high and did some triple axel sticky finish, so there was one comment that asked, “Why didn’t you go to the Olympics,” and the original poster replied, “Olympic athletes are just built different,” meaning, they were far superior. In a much higher way, God is in a class of his own, and because of who he is and what he has done, is worthy to be worshiped.
Let’s look at v.31 to Ch 2. V 3 – “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating he had done.” With the pinnacle of creation, humanity, created, he said it was very good. So God rested: not because he was tired. God cannot get tired. God rested so that he could enjoy his creation. God rested to be at peace. God also rested, so that he could declare a Sabbath day holy, and give us an opportunity to join him and worship him on this special day. Human beings are the only creatures with a capacity to worship – and calling out a day in a week shows that God made it to worship him, to practice that holiness by recognizing His holiness. The Sabbath is a time of worship, rest, peace, and enjoyment. This is why we all come together, once a week – so that we can consider this day holy, and worship together.
Yet still, our rest is not perfect. There are times we don’t feel like coming to church. There are times we carry with us baggage for one reason or another we are not able to let go. But you have come, and I encourage you to keep on coming, because God did bless this day. Because there is a hope. God knows we are broken. God knows sin is weighing down our hearts. But this seventh day Sabbath rest also points to a bigger, better, eternal rest. A rest from sin, pain, death and disease. A rest of restored and unbroken peace, love and joy. We do not see it yet, but we can taste it. This true rest is an eternal rest, because our holiness and blessing has been restored in Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate blessing of the goodness of God: a redemption and a reconciliation because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This blessing comes only through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus invites you all, when he says in Matt 11:28-29, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Come to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, so that you can be hopeful that when he comes again, you will enter into that eternal, holy, Sabbath rest. When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be! At that time we will enjoy God, and his new creation, freely, unhindered and to the full!
The Bible is clear: “In the beginning, God.” Can we all say, “In the beginning, God.” We are called to faith, and to holiness, to repent of our sins, come out of the world, and believe in God. Believe in God, and who he is, our Creator. Heb 11 says, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” When you reject the truth, you reject true power, you reject true wisdom and you reject true goodness. But know this: when you believe he exists, he will reward you if you earnestly seek him. “In the beginning God” teaches us that God exists – so put God at the beginning of your life. Put God at the beginning of everything! Matt 6:33 says , “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In the morning, when you rise, seek God. Before you have a meal, thank God. When you need help, ask the Spirit of God. When you need rest, come to Jesus. “In the beginning God,” is not just a powerful truth (Amen) about his existence and Creation, but a way of life. Put God first, at the beginning in everything, everyday, in your life, and you will taste and see that He is good.
