Have you ever heard the saying: missing the forest for the trees? It’s used to describe someone who gets stuck in the details and cannot see the big picture. We are beginning a new series today which we will be in for several weeks to look at the big picture of the bible. It’s important to see the trees and gain what insight we can. But we also have to keep in mind the big picture… 

So what is the big picture of the bible? Have you ever wondered that as you are making your way through the book of Numbers or 2 Kings? Or have you ever wondered if there is a thread that ties everything together instead of hundreds (even thousands) of interesting but disjointed stories and teachings. The bible is one book that is made up of 66 books, written over 1500 years by at least 40 authors from various backgrounds and educational levels. There are many different genres: historical, songs, poetry, prophetic books, letters, and apocalyptic writings. And they are to be read with the big picture in mind because they all have the same divine Author with the same purpose and plan.

Well, in one sense, the big point centers around Jesus Christ. Russell Brand who recently converted to Christ said the other day, “To me, the OT is like a darkened room that Christ has illuminated.” And the NT confirms this. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, that when Jews read Moses (the Law) a veil remained over their faces because the veil is removed when someone turns to Christ.” But it is important to give appropriate attention to some of the important signposts that point us to the big picture. 

I have found it helpful to see the bible as having four major plot movements: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Creation and restoration takes us to the very beginning and end of the story. And the fall and its effects along with God’s plan of redemption begin in Genesis 3 and take us through most of the rest of the book with promises of final restoration throughout. These four major plot movements summarize God’s plan to redeem his people and restore creation. Our hope is that this study will help you read the bible in a more holistic way. We are not going to go through each book of the bible, but trace these themes and hopefully see the big picture.  

Today we are going to look at a well known part of the bible. The very beginning. So let’s read Genesis 1.

Here’s an overview of where we are going today.  1) God is the powerful Creator (unmatched power). 2) God created everything by his word. 3) God created everything good. 4) this confronts us with a big problem… things look pretty bad right now. 5) God’s word of new creation. 

God Is the Mighty Creator

The opening words. Four words that have enormous meaning. You have heard and/or read these words hundreds of times. In the beginning God. Right here, we need to pause and consider a fundamental truth. The Creator/creature distinction. There is only one truly autonomous Person. And it is God. Everyone and everything else is a creature and dependent upon God. AW Tozer said long ago, 

For in the universe, there are really only two things, God and not God. That which is God and that which is not God. And all that is not God was made by God. And God was made by none. 

You and I are not God. That may sound like such a basic thing to confess, but it needs to be confessed. “God is God and I am not…” (SCC). The serpent tempted Eve that if she ate of the fruit of the tree, she could become like God. Not in the sense that she would conform more and more to God’s character, but that she would be exalted like God. And this has been a central deception for humanity ever since. 

In the beginning there was God and there was nothing else and He created the heavens and the earth. The word God here is the name Elohim, which means strong Creator. Our strong and mighty Creator made everything. And when we consider what He used to create, we are left in wonder at His power. When I built a woodshed for my mother last Spring, I first found a simple design plan. Then I picked up the lumber and the siding I needed and brought my saw and drill and screws. But what materials and tools did God pick up and begin to create with? Where did he get his design plans?

When God created the heavens and the earth, He created it out of nothing. The latin phrase ex nihilo. He brought everything into existence out of nothing… That’s power! But it gets more impressive! The instrument by which God made everything was His powerful and creative word. 

God’s Powerful Word

When you think of power, what comes to mind? You might think of the power of the Pacific Ocean. Or the power of some gigantic machine that can bend and twist metal. Or a mighty military. Or weapons - a tank or a weapon of mass destruction. Or you may think of a person or organization or company or government that wields great power. Or you may go to the devil and demonic power and all that they are capable of. And of course all of these are great examples of power. But you need to hear this. Nothing compares with the power of God’s word. Every powerful weapon, person, government, and evil power is no match for the power contained in the word of God. 

God simply said, “Let there be…” and it happened. In fact, over and over in Genesis 1, God says, “Let there be” or simply “Let” and what he spoke came into being. Again, that is power! God created everything out of nothing by speaking. Stand back and be stunned. We see glimpses of this in the gospels with the LORD Jesus (true God and man - veiled in flesh), when a great tempest rose on the Sea of Galilee, He simply spoke to it, “Be still” and the sea obeyed its Creator. Your God is truly incomparably awesome! David, in Psalm 33:6-9 echos Genesis 1 and calls for a certain response: 

6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

What did David say our response ought to be? Let all the earth fear Him. Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him. Fear. Awe. Two responses often missing among modern Americans… sadly often missing among Christians. Maybe we have lost sight of the glory of our God in creation. And not only did God create everything in the beginning by his word, but the bible says He also sustains all things at all times. Hebrews 1:3 says of Jesus Christ (God):

He upholds the universe by the word of His power. 

Without the ongoing, sustaining word of Christ, we would cease to exist. You know what this means don’t you? We owe our existence, our very breath, moment by moment to God and His powerful sustaining word. We should stand in awe of Him. 

I think we often don’t make an important connection that we should - between God's powerful word in creation and this book (the bible) we hold in our hands. We should. Consider the power you hold in your hands when you pick up your bible! You might say, “Yes, but God spoke audibly in Genesis 1-2 and this is ink on a page”. But it’s the same God who speaks… what the bible says, God says. And this book (bible) has been the source of power that has transformed countless lives and families, formed churches, destroyed strongholds, and shaken nations for thousands of years! The problem is not in the way the word is mediated; the problem is always our lack of faith. Take up and read asking the Spirit for a heart that believes and God will do His creative, life giving work in your life! 

[So God is a strong Creator who created everything out of nothing by His mighty word.]

God Created Everything Good

Here’s our next stop. God created everything good. He didn’t make any mistakes. Day one, light and darkness - it was good. Day two, the expanse and the separation of the waters above and below - it was good. Day three, the earth and seas and vegetation and trees - it was good. Day four, the heavenly lights: sun, moon, stars - it was good. Day five, flying creatures and sea creatures filling the skies and waters - it was good. Day six, land creatures, livestock, and the crown of creation man as male and female - it was very good. 

It was all good. And it was good because there was intention, purpose. It would scarcely be a good creation if an almighty, good Creator made things and then left it to the creatures to figure out what they are here for. The heavenly hosts in the skies are for lights (the sun to rule the day and the lesser light the moon for night). They are for seasons and days and years. The sun is not mainly in the sky so you can get a good tan… and the moon is not primarily for your telescope pictures - although those are pretty amazing and stir up worship in God’s people. Everything God made was with purpose… He made you with purpose. 

God also called his creation good because of the order in it. Order is a good thing. We all know what it is like to be in a disorderly situation. Sometimes you may feel like your home is in disarray and disorder. Our world is in quite a lot of disorder right now. But it was not created to be. 

We see days with morning and evening. Days, seasons, and years. Think about that. Time itself is a creature and it helps us order our lives. Creatures were made to produce after its own kind - that’s order. When human beings try to mix different kinds of creatures, it usually ends in disaster. Man made in God’s image, male and female… made for each other. This is God’s order. 

And finally, God’s creation was made good because it was teeming with life. God made and gave life to his creatures, but then we hear to the birds of the air and all living creatures the creative word of God: “be fruitful and multiply… fill the waters, fill the sky, fill the earth”. There was no death. Death was not a thing. God’s creation was good and full of life. 

[God created everything out of nothing… created everything good, full of life, orderly, with intention… by his mighty word. This confronts us with a problem.] 

A World With Evil, Corruption, Decay, Death

Something has gone terribly wrong. We see so much evil, disorder, nihilism, injustice, corruption, decay, and death. That’s the world we live in. And it has infected all of us. The world was not created to be like this. But something terrible happened. Reid will cover this more fully in a couple weeks, but I want to just take a brief stop here. What happened? Adam, the head of the human race as the first man, disobeyed God and through his sin has plunged all of creation, including every person since, into the curse of sin. We are all born in Adam. Romans 5 says that sin came into the world through one man (Adam) and death through sin, and death has spread to all because all have sinned. 

This is our condition. God didn’t create it this way, but it is our condition because of sin. And so what do we see now? We see and live in a world with wars, the murder of preborn children in abortion, the disorderly desires of homosexuality and the trans-madness. We live in a world full of injustice and lying and adultery and stealing and drug addiction and abandoned children and sickness and death. We live in a world in which things that God hates are elevated as good and things God loves are called evil. 

So has God written off the world? Is the world kind of like God’s Vietnam… a lost cause. Some… even good Christians view the world this way; for them salvation is primarily an escape from this world. I would like to suggest that is more of a gnostic view than a Christian one. One of the tenets of gnosticism is a huge emphasis on the spiritual while viewing the physical, material world as evil. 

The Word of New Creation

But what does God, our good and powerful Creator say? What did He do? There is an unmistakable link between how Genesis begins and how the gospel of John begins. Remember how Genesis 1:1 begins: “In the beginning God the heavens and the earth… and God said ‘let there be light’“. John 1 begins, 

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were created through him… In Him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. 

Just as God’s powerful word was manifest in Genesis creating the heavens and the earth, God has manifested His powerful, creative Word in the coming of the Son in the flesh. Verse 14 of John 1 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus Christ, the eternal Son… fully God, became man and entered his creation, into space and time in flesh and blood… and He came with a word. In fact, He came as the Word - He embodied the message that He brought. 

I think God proved that He is not done with the world by stepping down and entering into it. He entered a sin-sick full of death and lived perfectly under God’s law, died an atoning, sacrificial death, and rose again. Christ came as the message and proclaimed a message - a powerful and creative word. No less powerful than His word in the beginning. But it was a word of new creation. 

This is God’s rescue mission. A mission in which Christ came as the Word with a word to redeem and repair all that was lost and broken in his good creation and make things new… beginning with image bearers. What does the bible say about those who are in Christ? 

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

If you are in Christ, this new creation word along with the reality of it has come to you. That’s what has happened. The new birth is a work of new creation. The God who commanded for light to shine in the beginning commanded the light to shine in your dead, disordered, darkened, evil heart and it did. Your heart came alive. It probably happened in some way connected to the word - you were listening to sharing the gospel with you or you were reading your bible or recalling what you had at one time heard. It happened through the powerful, creative word of God… the same God who spoke in the beginning and created good, gave order, gave purpose and gave life, spoke into your heart to give life and order. 

And here’s the thing… you live in this world. So God’s work in the world is not done. Jesus said, “As the Father sent me, even so I send you…” You have been sent into this world, as a new person - with new life, given new power through the Spirit of God and the limitless grace of God to live for his glory, living out its implications in all of life. And when you do that, what happens? God works to repair what is broken… little by little… You might be thinking, “Okay, so what? What am I to do with this?” 

And so are you a new creation in Christ? Then I want to leave you with your marching orders as a new person in Christ:

First: As a new person in Christ with new LIFE, ABIDE in the word. This word (pick up bible to continue to transform your life) is powerful!

Second: As a new person in Christ with new LIFE, live out God's purpose for you. Christ died for you and rose again in order that you might live for Him and not yourself.

Third: As a new person in Christ, with new LIFE, ORDER your life according to God's design in every area of life - your home, marriage and family, work (the way you work, money), recreation, etc. 

Fourth: As a new person in Christ with new LIFE, speak the word of new creation. The world doesn’t need more merely nice people… it needs people redeemed by Christ to speak the word that can bring life to the dead and call into being that which does not exist… the word that God in his kindness may use to speak "LET THERE BE LIGHT" into a darkened, disordered world and bring about new creation.