There are eight major planets and three minor planets in our solar system, ranging from Mercury, who is the closest at a mere 57 million miles away from the sun to Neptune, the farthest away, at 2.8 billion miles from the sun. We only have one sun and earth only has one moon but there are quite a few other moons in outer space, plus an unknown number of comets and asteroids all over the place, not to mention the stars.
Each one is completely different and each one rotates differently and orbits differently. Some are hot and some are cold. Some orbit clockwise and some counterclockwise. Some move fast and some move slow. Some have rings around them and some spin on their sides. And there are at least 2500 other solar systems that astronomers have found with many more probable. That’s what the guys at NASA tell us. (I thought about becoming a NASA scientist but I decided to do this instead.) :)
But each one of those planets, moons, stars and comets is set precisely in place. If one of those planets was to vary just a little bit and orbit just a little too much this way or that way or if the earth got just a degree closer to or farther away from the sun, life on this planet would die. If there was just a hair more or less oxygen or if one of those other planets hit another planet, it could cause all life on this planet to die. If the gravitational pull versus the spin of the earth were changed just a little bit, all life would die. It is a great and intricate balance and if things got off just a little bit, it would be unimaginable. That is our known universe and its creation was amazing.
But that’s what happens when two protons accidentally collide, right? Oh, now, don’t ask how the protons got created. That’s not what we are talking about. We are talking about the Big Bang Theory or how the universe was created. That’s pretty amazing, right? It’s amazing that from utter chaos came exact and precise orbits and gravity and friction and all the elements needed to create and sustain life. Man, that’s pretty hard to believe, isn’t it? In fact, I think it’s impossible to believe that two elements collided and then billions of years later, here we are today. And people say it takes a lot of faith to believe in God! I don’t believe I have the faith to believe the Big Bang.
Maybe you have a more plausible explanation for it. Maybe there is somebody here today that is a scientist or an astronomer that can give us a better story than two pieces of galactic dust collided and *poof* all creation was made. Anybody? What is your theory? How about the “theory” that God, who was and is and is to come spoke the universe into existence? Now, I understand that’s hard to comprehend because where did God come from? How do we know? Can the source of that information be trusted? Well let’s talk about that today.
We just got through with a long sermon series on the end times, concluding with several sermons on Heaven and I am pretty sure most of us want to be there and we want the people we love to be there. We talked not too long ago about the different ways to tell other people the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, and now here we are as a church with no greater desire than for others to have the peace and joy that we have in this life but also the assurance of Heaven in the next life.
We know that we are all sinners. Romans 3:23 tells us that. We know that what we deserve for that sin is eternal death in Hell. Romans 6:23 tells us that. That’s bad news. But the Good News is that, as it says in John 3:16, God loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us and all we have to do is believe and we will go to Heaven. That’s the Gospel. It’s simple but not always easy and it’s sometimes not easy to tell people because *gasp* they have questions.
We talked last week about how people should have questions and we went over a few of them but when you start to share your faith, sometimes people ask questions that you might not know or have even thought about before. So we are going to spend a few weeks talking about some of those questions and answering them the best that we can. It’s a series of sermons on “apologetics” which is, contrary to what some think, not apologizing for what you believe but simply knowing what it is that you believe and why you believe it.
Let’s start with where the Bible starts. Last week we read the last chapter of the last book of the Bible. This week let’s go all the way to the front of the Bible and read the very first verse. Genesis 1:1 is short and concise but it is a small piece of dynamite. It is controversial. It is simple and yet mysterious. It answers a lot of questions and raises a lot more. There have been many whole books written on just these few words and we will, of course, not do it justice today but for our study of apologetics, it is a great place to start.
Genesis 1:1 simply says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Now, as usual, I did some research. I googled it. I googled “Genesis 1:1 jokes” and I only found one but I’ll spare you. It wasn’t funny. In fact, it was the oldest joke in the book. Bada Bing! Oh! I’m sorry. Randy, that was for you.
What I actually did find in my study of Genesis were some real problems. Yes, the book is controversial but that is not the problem. The problem is that it doesn’t answer all my questions. As a typical American in 2020, I want to know who, what, where, when and why about all the details and the main question that Genesis answers, especially in this first sentence in only “Who?” And the “Who” is God.
The word translated “God” here is “Elohim” and the basic meaning behind the name Elohim is one of strength or power of effect. Elohim is the infinite, all-powerful God who shows by His works that He is the creator, sustainer, and supreme judge of the world. “Bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure—you, the righteous [Elohim] who probes minds and hearts” (Psalm 7:9). (gotquestions.org)
Interestingly, the word Elohim is grammatically plural rather than singular. You might say it means “gods” but it actually is just emphasizing the power and magnificence that is Holy God. Some people might read the Trinity into that and they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong but Moses, the author of Genesis, would have had no idea of the Trinity. That was revealed later.
See what I mean about not getting your questions answered? We are literally four words in and came to a controversy. So, without going any further into that, let’s ask the questions that a non-believer might ask of you if you were trying to witness to them. If you were trying to share the Gospel with a friend and told them that scripture says that God loved them, what questions might they ask?
I sometimes hear, “The Bible was written by a bunch of different people over a bunch of years. How can you believe it’s true? How can you believe it when Moses wrote Genesis 1:1? He wasn’t even there!” That’s a good question. Well, how do you know that anything is true? The best way is to verify with your own eyes, right?
If you see a painting, it’s pretty easy to assume there is or was a painter. If you see a house, you know there had to have been a house builder. If you go to a museum and see a beautiful sculpture, how do you think it came into existence? Do you have any reason to believe that sculpture was an accident? Does it make any sense to believe that there was a hammer and chisel just laying around for a long time and over the years people kept accidentally bumping into it and after a while a beautiful sculpture just appeared out of a chunk of rock?
Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” When you see creation, there has to be a creator, especially when the creation is so complex, so intricate and so incredible, like the universe in which we live or the bodies that we inhabit.
In Genesis 1:1 it says that God “created.” The Hebrew word for “created” is ba-ra and it is only used of God. Only God can ba-ra. We can make things or fix things and we say we create things but what we mean is we take several different items that exist and make something else. We can’t create or ba-ra anything out of nothing. Only God can do that. So, when you see a tree or a flower or a sunset over Lake Bridgeport, you know it was created by God.
Years ago, I went to Yellowstone National Park and for part of the trip I camped in a big meadow next to an elderly man. We got to talking and he told me he had been a professor at MIT and he was a cellular biologist. Now, normally a cellular biologist and I wouldn’t have much in common. This guy was crazy smart and I’m…well…I’m nice. Anyway, we talked for hours because we both had a great appreciation for nature.
We were sitting there admiring the mountains and the wildlife and I reached down and picked a tiny little flower from the grass. This meadow was covered in all kinds of beautiful little flowers. The man got all excited when I showed an interest in it because he knew all about them. He knew the difference between a stamen and a carpel and was anxious to show me. (I had to look those up for this illustration.)
But then I threw him a curve ball. I said something about how creative God was to make so many different kinds of flowers. He looked at me and got real serious. He said, “All my life I have only believed things that I can see or prove or replicate under a microscope. God I can’t prove. BUT, I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything and not everything can be proven.” To me, that is a truly smart man.
Scripture says that we come to God through faith (Eph. 3:12) and that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). It boils down to faith but it is not a blind faith. We can see creation and by all accounts it sure appears to be orderly. The appearance of design in the universe is undeniable. If an atheist is going to be intellectually honest, they have to believe that the universe, this earth, and even our bodies are accidents and are an undesigned design. That doesn’t make any sense.
Have you ever seen an undesigned house? Have you ever seen an undesigned painting? I guess there is random, modern art but it is classified as such and you never see random paintings that look like anything. Have you ever seen an undesigned sculpture? You call that a rock, not a sculpture. The presence of design means there is a designer and that designer can only be Elohim, God.
A little four-year-old girl went to her mother and said, “Mommy, where did I come from?” Her mother was a little concerned about what to say. She wasn’t ready to give a birds-and-bees talk yet and so she carefully explained a few things in a way that hopefully would satisfy her curiosity for a while. After the mom’s difficult monologue, the little girl shrugged and turned on her heels and said, “Huh, Jimmy said he comes from Indiana.”
We all have the desire to understand how we got here and how the universe was created and exactly who, what, where and when but I think, if you take the Bible as a whole, what God really wants us to understand is the “why.” Why did God create the universe? Why did God create mankind?
There are probably a hundred different answers but I’ll give two. First, God created the universe and all of mankind because He is creative. And what better way to manifest your creativity than with creation? His creativity is unlimited so why stop with just earth? Why not create a whole solar system? Why not two solar systems or 2000? He created each star and planet and asteroid differently. He created each person to be different. Each different person has different fingerprints. And yet every person is created in His image to be creative and to love like He does, which leads me to the second reason God created the universe.
He created the universe and He created you because He is love! He is love. 1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” And because God is love, what better way to manifest that love than to create you? But He not only showed you love by creating you, He also provided a way for you to be with Him forever. He loves you and wants that for you. He doesn’t need you. He wasn’t lonely and decided to create some friends. He is love and His character is best shown in His love for us even though we don’t deserve it.
Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I don’t understand everything there is to know about creation, although I can tell you that true science will never go against what scripture teaches but that’s more discussion for tonight. Don’t miss that. But I don’t have to understand everything.
I can see with my eyes that there is creation and so there must be a Creator and that Creator loves me and wants to spend time with me and have a relationship with me and that goes for you too. I believe Genesis 1:1 because of my eyes and because of my faith and both are gifts from God. If you open your eyes, you too will see His creation. Believe in Him. Follow Him. Let Him change your life. All you have to do is believe.
Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes and remember the time in our lives when our eyes were opened and our faith was made new. Remember the day that you asked Jesus to come into your life and be Lord of your life and to forgive you and cleanse you.
If you can’t remember that day, I would love to talk with you and pray with you right now as the music plays.
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