Grace, mercy and peace be to each of you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I invite you to pray with me. “0 Lord, speak in this place, in our minds, in our hearts, by the words of my mouth, and in the thoughts we form. Speak, 0 Lord, we, your servants, are listening. Amen.”
As I mentioned earlier, today we will look at the most basic question of life…
Why are we here?
What is the purpose of life? This question is foundational for virtually every religion and philosophy in world history. It’s a universal question.
I don’t even need to ask if you’ve had that question. We all have…we all do! And let’s not kid ourselves, it’s not easy to answer.
The pain of life makes any easy answers seem insufficient. Just take a typical news day … last Sunday’s shooting in the church in Texas … 2 people died and so many lives affected. Just before the LSU-Oklahoma football game last week, a small plane crashed flying to the game, and 5 people died, including a LSU coach’s daughter-in-law … so many lives impacted.
How would all those impacted by these tragedies answer this question today … What is the purpose of life? Why are we here?
Or, if you are in transition, perhaps a divorce, or moving away from home, or caring for aging parents. Both pain and life experiences force us to answer this question again and again. So, for this foundational question, let’s go back to the beginning -the very beginning…
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
What a seemingly simple statement. God made stuff … not only that but He made all stuff. End of story, right? Not hardly!
Perhaps you already know that Christianity is not the only religion that believes God created the world. However, the Christian world view is radically different than every other religion.
I do not intend this to be a criticism of anyone else … just an explanation of why our biblical worldview is so different, and why that matters so much to people like us.
So, let’s take a look at this simple phrase that has such profound ramifications…
“God Created”
God created the world. Today, many people would agree with that. However, this idea was really a rare idea when it was first recorded. You see, every other religion of the ancient near east assumed that MATTER was eternal, and the gods of course arose out of matter.
So, gods were part of creation, not the cause of it. Judaism shocked the world by this simple statement in Genesis 1:1. Suddenly, God is the creator, not just a manipulator of material.
Now as we think about why this matters … let’s start with this thought … whatever we create we CARE ABOUT.
Think about things you may have created … a painting, a new business, a garden, built a table or something else in your home, or you created a big multi-course dinner for a group?
To you, the creation may not look like much, but you love it. Why? Because it has YOUR fingerprints on it. We all know this … when your fingerprints are on it … your heart is in it.
We know this because we’re like God. He embedded His creative instinct in all of us. That’s why we love to make stuff, and we love the stuff we make. Our creations are extensions of ourselves.
I want you to realize something truly remarkable … God is nuts about you for no other reason than you have his fingerprints all over you. He can’t help himself – you are HIS – He created you.
Unlike other creation stories, our God is sold on us because we are an extension of Him. We were individually made in His image. We are completely unique in the world. So, our God cannot be distant or disinterested. This is distinctly a different world view, and it’s straight out of Judaism.
The Jewish God of creation was intimately CONNECTED to and INVESTED in his creation. Unlike other worldviews where the gods were capricious or cruel, the God of the Bible walked with Adam and Eve in the garden and wants to walk with you and I, as well. Now listen carefully to my next thought … while God is the Creator, he is ALSO our Father.
He takes responsibility for this world, and that’s a big deal. But it gets even better. The Jewish creation story paints God as a Father. What Christian teaching adds is far greater. You see, we don’t just believe that God is Father, but we also believe that He is the Son and Spirit.
Spirit Created
Verse 1 states that God created the world. Verse 2 says, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the chaotic waters.” The concept of the deep and the dark was a Jewish idea of chaos. The Spirit of God in Judaism was a lifeless force.
Jesus, however, introduced the spirit as a unique person of the Godhead. Thus, in verse two we encounter the second member of the Trinity. And what is he doing? He is hovering.
That Hebrew word indicates a kind of vibration or quaking. It is not unlike your grandmother 30 minutes before houseguests arrive. She is scurrying about, taking care of last-minute details, so that her home is in perfect order for the guests.
So, the first time we meet the Holy Spirit, he is bringing order out of chaos so that we can thrive in an environment created by God. That’s a pretty good job description for the role of the Holy Spirit. Where there is disorder, he brings order. Where there is chaos, he brings healing.
Right now, wherever there is disorder in your life, the Holy Spirit is attempting to bring you into a right relationship with God. Here is why that is important … WHATEVER is on your mind is also on God’s heart because of the Holy Spirit. He is an advocate for what matters most to you.
In the very next chapter of Genesis, we will see this same Spirit breathing life into a human being, and it is still true today.
Psalm 104:30 says, “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”
The Holy Spirit is more intricately connected to creation than either the Father or the Son. Hold onto that thought for a moment, and we will come back to it.
Jesus created
We encounter God the father in verse one. We encounter God the Spirit in verse two. In verse three, if we read between the lines, we will see the Son. “And God said, ‘let there be light,’ and there was light.”
We know God created the world by simply speaking it into existence. If we were to fast-forward to John 1:1, we would see that Jesus is the embodied Word of God … called the “logos.” When God spoke, Jesus acted. He carried out the command of God.
Paul said the same thing in our second lesson this morning from Colossians…
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created … through him and for him.” Colossians 1:15–17.
We might think of it this way …
God the father is the architect, who designed the plan.
God the son was the builder, who created our universe. And,
God the Spirit acted as the engineer to infuse this creation with life, beauty, and order.
Together, the Trinity created the world we inhabit, including us. Why does that matter?
Or, what difference does a Christian view of creation make, verses a Darwinian evolutionary view, or some other ancient mythology?
Since the Christian view of creation includes the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let’s ask a simple question … what would happen if we removed the Father from creation, or the Son from creation, or the Holy Spirit from creation?
Let’s begin with God the Father…
If we remove God the Father from the creation account, what we come up with is always some version of Darwinian evolution. This is not a criticism of science. We believe in science, because we believe God created an ordered world.
Rather, this is an observation that Darwinian evolution, as well as, every other ancient account of creation believes that matter is eternal … not God. And whatever has been here the longest tends to take priority in human thinking.
For those that believe that matter is eternal, matter is what matters most. So, we find ourselves prioritizing the environment over eternity, animals over humans, and the physical over the spiritual.
Wherever God the father is removed from creation, we find that humans treat animals like people and people begin to behave like animals.
For example, in our country there are significant fines for killing specific animals, such as bald eagles or baby seals. And yet a teenage girl has the right to a physician assisted abortion, with or without the consent of a legal guardian.
Though I am pro-life, my question goes beyond this single issue. Why is it that animals often have greater protection than people?
I also believe that a consequence of losing sight of God the Father is that we lose sight of divine dignity and love.
Now, we know that Christians tend to focus on and appreciate God the Father as creator. However, most Christians in my experience have ignored the Holy Spirit in creation. What happens if we lose sight of the Holy Spirit in creation?
The Holy Spirit is the person of the Godhead most intricately connected to creation – he gives breath to all the people and animals and brings order to all of creation. When we ignore the Holy Spirit in creation, we diminish and degrade the value of the physical world.
When you sense God in nature, in sunsets, in a thunderstorm, in a rainbow, in a blooming field, what you are sensing is the Holy Spirit. Those who say they connect with God in nature are actually affirming the Holy Spirit in creation because what you are sensing are the fingerprints of God.
But if you want to see the face of God, you will only find that in Jesus Christ. Protecting creation without knowing the creator is making a false god out of what we should be RULING …rather than WORSHIPPING.
So, that leads to the third and last question, what are the results of ignoring Jesus in creation?
Follow my train of thought … if Jesus created this world, then he cares about what he created. Therefore, salvation cannot be merely about going to heaven SOMEDAY, but it has to also be about bringing heaven to earth TODAY.
We cannot say that we care for someone’s soul without caring for their body. We cannot say that salvation is removing someone’s sin without transforming the structures of sin in our society.
It will never be enough, if Jesus is creator, to preach Him as the Savior that gets you to heaven by forgiving your sins. He is also the Lord who leads us to make a difference where we live, particularly for the most vulnerable among us.
If Jesus is the creator of creation, then he is also ruler over it, and it is our responsibility to ENACT His agenda.
So, what should we do with this information? What difference is it going to make to your life this week? Let me ask you to do two things.
First, as you think through the God of creation … the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit … ask yourself … which have you personally ignored the most?
Perhaps you would say, “I’ve really only thought about this world as a physical environment, and thus matter has mattered more than my spiritual life.”
Or, perhaps you would say that you’ve never really thought about the Holy Spirit’s ongoing role in sustaining and maintaining life all around us.
Or, maybe for you, this idea of holistic salvation of body, soul, and society is a new or even challenging concept.
Regardless of what is most new and difficult for you, let me ask you this … what is one thing you could do this week to focus on God the father, God the son, or God the spirit as your creator?
In addition, would you be willing sometime this week to do one thing that would make your life and the lives of those around you better?
What is one thing you could do that would improve our world in one simple way?
For example, I visit shut-ins every couple of weeks just to show them God’s love … you could also. On Tuesday of this week, I am going to spend several hours at the Giving Cupboard, and love some food insecure people by helping them get food for their families … you could also.
You could volunteer to teach our kids on Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings, shovel the snow off our walkways, mow and trim our lawn, perform small maintenance jobs on our buildings, help clean our buildings, teach a Bible Class, sing with the Praise Team … you could do any and all of those things.
I believe those activities improve the world in simple ways. So, what can you do this week? And the next? Big or small, it doesn’t matter.
What is one thing you could do to focus on God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit as your creator? In addition, what is one thing that you could do to make your life better; or, stated another way, what is one thing you could do that would improve the world around us in one simple way? I pray you will think hard about this question. Amen